#4 R' Noteh Paharer

00:04 The nigun, the from Reb Nota Pahari. In Sefer HaNigunim nigun shin alef is the second version, and the first version nigun kuf lamed daled in the first volume. When the Rebbe Rashab opened Tomchei Tmimim, it was very hard to get accepted. There were two tests everybody needed to take. There was a regular test of, uh, learning, and then there was a secret test. There was a committee of people, their day job was to spy on the bachur, follow him around in the dining room, on the street, see the way he talks, the way he walks, the way he benches, and, uh, come ovon that the main decision was based on the secret test, based on the bachur's behavior. And most bochurim who came to Lubavitch to get accepted in the first years were actually sent home. They were not accepted. One year a bachur came to Lubavitch from, uh, Lubavitch from the city of Pahari. His name was Nota, Nota Pahari. He took the test. They follow him around. They had a meeting, and they decided not to accept him. Now, this Nota had a tremendous chush in nigunah. Had a chush in nigunah, and he had a kisharon in nigunah. Chush means a ability to sense, to feel, to , to . And a kisharon means, kisharon means to perform, to sing. When he sang, he captured the listener's heart. People's heart melted when they heard him sing. So when Nota heard that he's not accepted, he was very broken. So he went into

01:47 the zal where the bochurim were learning. It was then during Seder Nigleh. And he went into the cheder sheini where the oivdim were sitting and davening. He went into the cheder sheini. He put... He closed his eyes, and he started to sing a nigun. The nigun that he sang expressed his broken feelings from the fact that he's not able to join Tomchei Tmimim. He had so much yearning to be part of this holy yeshiva. He's singing, and he completely tuned out of everything that's happening. Now, the bochurim in the zal couldn't really hear what's happening in the cheder sheini, but one chavrusa that sat right next to the entrance, they were able to hear. So when they heard this heartfelt, straight-from-the-heart singing of this bachur which they didn't recognize, they stopped learning, and they went into the cheder sheini to see what's happening. Who is this, uh, groyse oived who's, um, standing in the middle of davening or something? So they walk in, they see this, uh, young bachur, they didn't know his name, sitting and, uh, singing. And he completely didn't realize that people are watching him. Anyways, the next chavrusa in zal, even though they couldn't hear what's happening in the room, but they saw that this chavrusa got up to see what's going on there, so they figured something special is happening, so they also went to see what's happening. And they went, and they went in, and they watched. They heard the singing. Their heart melted. Make a long story short,

03:08 within a few minutes a very, very big group from the zal, maybe even most of the zal, packed into the cheder sheini, standing and listening to Nota singing. Nota did not notice the whole entire time. The, the mazal was that the mashgiach, Reb Yankel Boruch Karasik, the mashgiach in Nigleh in Lubavitch, wasn't in zal at that time for some reason. But eventually he walked into zal, and he sees that the zal is empty, and everybody's trying to pack into the cheder sheini. So he goes into the cheder sheini, and he squeezes through to see what's going on, and he sees that this bachur that they just had a meeting, and they decided not to accept him, is si- he's sitting and singing, and he doesn't notice that the holy Yeshiva is watching him. He was so impressed that he called another meeting with the anhala, and he told them what he saw, and they decided to accept him. And Nota Pahari was accepted to yeshiva. So Nota was accepted to yeshiva, and he introduced what we know today in every Lubavitch yeshiva, Seder HaNigunim. Until then, most bochurim didn't know too many nigan- nigunim. Each bachur knew just a nigun that, nigunim that he heard a little bit in yeshiva and whatever he heard from his father's house. So, uh, many nigunim were not known, and even the nigunim that were known weren't necessarily sung properly. Nota, which knew a lot of nigunim, and he had a big chush and kisharon in nigunah, so he

04:28 made a choir. He gathered all the bochurim that were musical and during the week he taught them nigunim. And then Friday night, every Friday night the Rebbe Rashab will say a ma'amar. They would set up the zal with the tables in the shape of a ches, and then in the middle of the ches by the opening of the ches, one small table for the Rebbe Rashab. The whole olam would be around on the outside of the ches. Inside the ches right in front of the Rebbe Rashab's table, the fidige Rebbe stood during the ma'amar. And, um, the seder used to be, until Nota Pahari came, that the Rebbe Rashab would walk in, everybody stood up, and the Rebbe Rashab would say a ma'amar. From, uh, when Not- when, when Nota came, uh, during the week he would train the choir into different nigunim. And then Friday night, a while before the Rebbe Rashab would walk in for the ma'amar, everybody gathered, and, uh, they sung nigunim. He was... He set up his choir somewhere, and they sang nigunim, and the Rebbe Rashab was very happy with this. He praised him and thanked him for it. Taf reish samech gimel, Yud Tes Kislev, the bochurim decided to celebrate it on a whole new level. So what they did was the night, leil Yud Tes Kislev, they set up on top of the gate of the entrance to the chatzir of Tomchei Tmimim, they set up 613 candles, and they connected all the candles in a way

05:50 that when one of them is lit, automatically within seconds the rest are lit. And then the whole yeshiva set up standing nicely on the two sides of the entrance. And when the Rebbe Rashab walked in for the mahariv of leil Yud Tes Kislev, they lit the candles. The whole yeshiva stood there greeting the Rebbe Rashab. And while Noteh Pahara is sitting on top of the gate and singing his famous nigun, the nigun that he sung when he wasn't accepted to yeshiva in the Cheder Sheini, that became his famous nigun. And he had, uh, his helpers, Reb Shaul Ber Zislin and Reb Shmuel Katzman, standing on the floor on the sides of the gate helping him out. It was a tremendous scene. Many years later, it was Simchas Torah 56' was the last farbrengen that the Frierdiker Rebbe was having with the Hasidim before he departed Russia. And it was a very emotional farbrengen, come move on, 'cause it's the last farbrengen with the Frierdiker Rebbe. And there was some older Hasidim there, some younger Hasidim there. Noteh Pahara was there. Sometime during the farbrengen, the Frierdiker Rebbe turned to Noteh and he said, "Noteh, sing the Samach Gimel dike." What he meant was, "Sing that nigun that you sang Yutras Kislev 56' on top of the gate." So Noteh started to sing, and half of the people by the farbrengen were crying, and half of the people by the farbrengen were in tremendous pleasure. You're able to see on their faces that they're having a

07:23 lot of tayneh. Why? What's the pshat? Because the half that were crying are younger Hasidim, younger Hasidim who knew that this is their last farbrengen with the Frierdiker Rebbe before he leaves Russia, so it's a ve- very emotional time. And this Alter Rebbe chasid over here is singing a very heartfelt nigun, so got them even more emotional and they started to cry. The half of the Hasidim that y- you're able to see pleasure on their faces, that's because those are Hasidim that they were at Temimim in Tomchei Temimim 56', and they remember that Yutras Kislev. And, uh, when the Frierdiker Rebbe told Noteh to sing the Samach Gimel dike, it took them back in their memory all the way back to that Yutras Kislev 56'. And we'll play this nigun the way our Rebbe chasid, Reb Shmuel Betzalel Alper из Australia sings it.