0372 - R' Bentzion Shenker Nigun at Farbrengen

00:00 To the farbrengen of the second day of Shavuot, 57lamed daled, the famous chazan, Reb Benzion Shenker came. Reb Benzion Shenker was a famous chazan in New York. He was the chazan that sang on the records of the Moishe Chassidim, and he lived in Crown Heights, and he came to this farbrengen. The reason he came to the farbrengen was because his father was in an accident, and he needed a bracha. And he lived on the same block, I think, with Rabbi Weinberg, and Rabbi Weinberg convinced him to come to the Rebbe, to the farbrengen, ask for a bracha. So I remember he came to the farbrengen, and he also had prepared a nigun that he made, that he composed for one of the pesukim in the Rebbe's kipital of that year. That year, the Rebbe's kipital was kipital ayin gimel, so he prepared and made a nigun on the last pasuk, which is, "Va'ani kivras Elokim li tov." And he came to the farbrengen, and I believe that the Rebbe was told before that he's gonna come, I'm not sure. And he sang the nigun, made a solo of the nigun the way he made it, and the Rebbe was listening very carefully. And then the Rebbe made with his hands, and everybody sang along with him. This is a new nigun on this pasuk, even though there were, there was other nigun on this kipital, but he made this nigun, and they sang it. And the Rebbe made with his hands a little bit that

01:20 people should sing along, and people sang along. And when he asked the Rebbe for a bracha, the Rebbe answered him, "L'chaim u'livracha." But I remember looking at it, it was strange that the Rebbe didn't really give him a complete strong bracha. But l'peel mamish, what happened later, I think his father had passed away not long after that. But this nigun that he's saying, even though b'shas ma'ase, at the time when it was sung by the farbrengen, the Rebbe made that people should sing along. And we thought maybe this is gonna become another nigun for this kipital, and the Rebbe will ask to sing it sometimes throughout the year. But l'peel, never again did the Rebbe ask to sing this nigun. Which seems like maybe it wasn't his kabbalah 100% by the Rebbe or some other reason. But l'peel, this nigun never became a nigun of Lubavitch on this pasuk of this kipital. Now, some were saying, which anybody could say whatever they want, but some were saying because the way the nigun was, the kvetch, the main stress was on the word li. "Va'ani kivras Elokim li tov." And we learn in Chassidus that even though there is a madrega, and it's a very high madrega for a person to feel that to be close to Hashem is good for him, but that's not really the highest madrega. The highest madrega is when you don't care about yourself, and kivras Elokim tov, it's good to be close to Hashem. Not because it's good for me,

02:36 because the moment you think of good for me, automatically you care about yourself more than about caring about being close to the Aibishter. You just feel it is good for you. And the way he made the nigun, the kvetch was on li. So some people said maybe that's the reason the Rebbe didn't really accept it 100% that it should become one ha'ma'aneh good, but who knows the reason. But this is what happened. It was an interesting thing that he sang a solo by the Rebbe with this nigun that he made on this pasuk, and everyone sang along. But then that's it. It never was sung again.