#7 R' Osher Nikolayever (and his 2 Niggunim)

00:00 This episode is sponsored by Aharon ben David Aryeh, whose yartzeit was 20 Adar. The Hasid Ragoshu Grossman was a shechita to 'Cause your reading of L'chacham Chafina every day gave me the encouragement and the tikva, and that gave me the koach to get out of this, uh, sickness. Another time Reb Mendel related, once Reb Asher Nikolaever was sitting and learning with a lot of chayas. The hemseh samach vav of the Rebbe Rashab, in the middle of his learning, entered the room the Hasidisha brothers, Reb Binyomin and Reb Eliyahu Maltz. And they were very excited about a moifes, a miracle that he'd just heard about the Rebbe Rashab. And they told Reb Asher to stop his learning. They told Reb Ash- Reb Asher about the miracle they just heard about the Rebbe Rashab. So Reb Asher told them, "Get out of here, you and your moifesim. We could already think that if not for the Rebbe's moifesim, he wouldn't be a Rebbe." Reb Fale Kahn, Reb Yehoia Kahn's father once related that once Reb Asher traveled in a wagon together with the Rebbe Rashab, and later Reb Asher related that the Yidden who came to greet the Rebbe Rashab gave him a lot of honor. They disconnected the horses from the straps, and they carried the wagon of the Rebbe Rashab on their shoulders. I was able to see on the Rebbe Rashab's face tremendous tzar. Reb Asher concluded by saying, "Halavai, that I should be zecher to such a shivren lev on Erev Yom Kippur

07:21 like the shivren lev the Rebbe Rashab had when they were carrying him on the wagon." There's a famous nigun from Reb Asher Nikolaever. The Toldiner Rebbe relates that, "This nigun I heard for the first time in 5630 in a family wedding. I was traveling then by the shlichus of my father, Binyomin Hatalal. And based on my father's instructions, I also traveled to Berditchev, which this is where this family wedding took place." That wedding, Reb Asher Nikolaever was also there, and he had a chush haniguna. And when he heard in the first parts of the nigun from the klezmer, he right away captured the whole entire nigun. And later on when he came to Lubavitch, he sang the nigun in front of my father. My father really liked the nigun, especially those tnuos of ga'aguim, of rotzo yenshov that are in this nigun. And my father said then, "With this nigun, you're able to daven good. You're able to wash well the kli with hot tears, and this helps for psichas halev." Chassidim say that this nigun is called the Rendelech nigun, the nigun of the coins. 'Cause Reb Asher wanted to hear the klezmer playing this nigun again to get more details, so he gave them a, a tip, a few more coins that he should play it again. At another opportunity, the Toldiner Rebbe said that actually Reb Aaron Haritonov, on a different gires the Toldiner Rebbe said it was Reb Moshe Haritonov, actually fixed up the nigun. The way Reb Asher brought the

08:45 nigun to Lubavitch wasn't the way we sing it today. Reb Aaron Haritonov added different parts to it. And the Rebbe Rashab heard it and he said, "In dem nigun shpigelt zikh op di farleyrnkayt fun a Chosid mitsad meysov un zayn hofen oyfn Rebbe." A loose translation, in this nigun reflects the Chosid being lost because of his actions and his, uh, hofen and his, uh, hope for the Rebbe. Later on, when Reb Asher came back home and he told Reb Aaron Haritonov what the Rebbe Rashab said about the nigun that he made, that he fixed up, so Reb Aaron Haritonov said with emotion, "The Rebbe zet vifl pnimius halev der nigun hot mir gekost." The Rebbe saw how much pnimius halev this nigun costed me. About Reb Asher's chush in nigun, we could see from another story that Reb Yehoia Kahn once related. Once Reb Asher Nikolaever came to Lubavitch and, uh, he saw a Chosid that he didn't recognize by face in the zal, sitting and davening and singing. He didn't know who it was, but then he said, "This must be the famous Chosid, Reb Berel Masayev." So they asked him, "How do you know that this is Reb Berel Masayev?" Because he actually got it right, this was Reb Berel Masayev. So he said, "I heard Biurei Michusid in his name, and when he was, uh, singing now by davening, I was able to tell that the ma'alach hanefesh, the tnuas hanefesh of the, of the way he was singing are the same

10:17 tnuas hanefesh and the ma'alach hanefesh of the Biurei Michusid that I heard in his name." We will play Reb Asher Nikolaever's nigun the way it is sung in Nechayach. There's another nigun miyuchas to Reb Oshme Nikolaiver. It's Nigun kuf mem alef in Sefer HaNigunim. We'll play this nigun sung by HaRav HaChasid, Reb Eli Lipsker alav hashalom. Nigun kuf mem alef, Nigun Reb Oshme Nikolaiver.