0681 - R' Yoel Kahn 31 - How R' Yoel Became the One to Start Nigunim by Farbrengen

00:01 Everyone knows that by the Farbrengens, when the Rebbe wanted a nigun to be sung, he would turn to Reb Yael and say it to Reb Yael, and Reb Yael would start the nigun. I just wanna say, at what point did it start? Originally, it used to be the Reb Shmuel Zalmanov. When the Rebbe would want to say the Ma'amar, and to sing the nigun before the Ma'amar, the Rebbe would wink, so to speak, with his head to Reb Shmuel Zalmanov. Reb Shmuel Zalmanov sat by the tables in the middle of the shul, and the Rebbe would look at him and shake his head, and he would know that this is the time to sing the nigun for the Ma'amar. When the Rebbe wanted they should sing the Alter Rebbe's nigun, the Rebbe would turn to Reb Shmuel Zalmanov and pick up his fingers to show him how many times they should repeat the last fal, the last part, last stanza. And by say- showing with his fingers one, m- many times as one, sometimes two. I remember even one time it was 10. It was, uh, uh, 5763 when it was shnas hakon, hundred and fifty years from the Petuchas Tzaddik, Alter Rebbe. But it was all done to Reb Shmuel Zalmanov. Or if the Rebbe wanted any other nigun to be sung, he would turn to Shmuel Zalmanov and say. Then, in the middle of the chof, Reb Shmuel Zalmanov moved to Yerushalayim. After he moved to Yerushalayim, that's when the Rebbe started do--

01:18 turning to Reb Yael. Uh, the Re-- I remember how it was the first time. I guess the Rebbe just looked at him and mentioned to him, I don't know how it's-- which one was the first time that it was, whether it was a nigun before the Ma'amar or the Alter Rebbe's nigun or any other nigun. But the Rebbe started turning to Reb Yael, and he would do the same thing to Reb Yael. He would look at Reb Yael, and if it was a Ma'amar, then he would shake his head for the Ma'amar, and he knew it was a nigun before the Ma'amar. If it was the Alter Rebbe's nigun, he showed with his fingers. And if it was any other nigun, the Rebbe would say to him the any other nigun. So much so that even the nigun of Sheyibadnu Besamych, where the Rebbe would ask Reb Moshe Telushinsky, who was the chazzan, to sing, if for some reason he wasn't there, the Rebbe would tell Reb Yael. Because he was like, became the official person that the Rebbe would tell to sing. And it's interesting, even though he was a chozer, has nothing to do with nigunim, nevertheless, he was the one that the Rebbe told to sing the nigunim. And as I mentioned in the previous voice note, that the Rebbe by the new nigun will also ask him to repeat it, and that Reb Zalman-- the Rebbe once said that Reb Zalman Duchman zokt az yael ken chazer a nigun. But now

02:26 we're not talking about chozering a nigun, about repeating a nigun, a new nigun, but just the one to be told what to sing, it was Reb Yael for all the years.