ר' איסר דער חזן און ר' יחיאל דער חזן (והכהנים)

00:07 Ilu nishmas Harav Ben Tzion and Rav Aryeh Zev. His yahrtzeit was Hayh, Tishrei. May his neshama have an aliyah and may he have much nachas from all of his descendants. Reb Itche Zarchi was known in Lubavitch as Itche der Chazan. He was born in Lubavitch to his father, Reb Eliyahu, and he was a person, a yireh shamayim and a lamdan. The Rebbe Maharash said about him that Itche has a eizen kop. He has an iron head. He was able to learn for eight hours straight without a stop. In the beginning of the night, he would go to sleep. At two o'clock in the morning, he would get up and learn all the way until the morning. The Tzemach Tzedek once called him a lamdan, and he explained that it's the way the Alter Rebbe explained what a lamdan is. Just like when you call someone a ganav. A ganav is not someone who knows how to steal. A ganav is someone who actually steals bepalleel mamash. So too, a lamdan is someone who actually learns, not just someone who knows how to learn. About the tefillah of Reb Itche the Chazan. So Rebbetzin Rivke, the Rebbe Maharash's wife, related that once on Yom Kippur, while saying the Avodah on Yom Kippur, a lightning stroke one of the houses in Lubavitch and it went on fire. The flames were going wild and the Beis Midrash became full of smoke. And because of the smoke and the flames, the mispallelim thought that the fire surrounded the Beis

01:34 Midrash. So everybody were scared and almost all the mispallelim ran out. And because of the running, one woman fell in the ezras nashim and broke her leg, unfortunately. The Rebbe Maharash, however, sat by his place without any change, and around him a small amount of mispallelim that when they saw that the Rebbe stayed, so they stayed also. Reb Itche's hislahavus during the Avodah was so big that he didn't even hear or see anything that happened. He didn't notice anything, and he just kept saying the Avodah without stopping. Reb Itche the Chazan had a special nusach for the tefillos on Yamim Noraim, especially in the Avodah of Yom Kippur. Usually, when the chazanim start the Avodah on Yom Kippur, they start by announcing out loud the first two words, "Atah chonein lanu." But Reb Itche, instead of announcing the first two words together, Atah chonein lanu, he would just announce the first word, "Atah," and then quietly say the rest. And later years, the Tzemach Tzedek pointed out that that's the way it should be. When they reached V'hakadanim, so then all the mispallelim would say it quietly and do the kriya on the floor. And afterwards, Reb Itche would start to sing V'hakadanim. He had a special t'nua, a special nigun that he would sing V'hakadanim, that it's mekubal that that's how they sang in the Beis Hamikdash. When he would sing the Kadanim, there was not a single person in the Beis Midrash who would not cry. The Rebbe Maharash would daven the whole

03:04 Seder Avodah in a special room, which was right next to the big shul. And the door between the Rebbe Maharash's room and the shul was open and covered with a curtain. And during this tefillah, the Rebbe Maharash would cry and tears would come down from his eyes. And right in the beginning of V'hakadanim, the Rebbe Maharash would leave his room and go into the big Beis Midrash, sit down on his chair and help the chazan with the nigun. Sometimes he would even conduct with his hands based on the t'nuos of the nigun, and sometimes he would sing along. And during that time, you were able to hear from the holy mouth of the Rebbe V'hakadanim saying each word separately, except for the words m'fey rosh yotze. That the words m'fey rosh yotze, sometimes the Rebbe Maharash would say them together, m'fey rosh yotze. And sometimes the Rebbe Maharash would split them up. M'fey rosh, then pause, and then yotze m'piku im godo. In Lubavitch, there was a very strong man. He was a very cold person, and his name was Bere Avremkes. He would not daven in the Rebbe Maharash's shul. Once, uh, this Bere Avremkes said, "I'm not gonna cry if I hear Reb Itche's Kadanim." It happened once that he happened to be in the Beis Midrash of the Rebbe Maharash during the Avodah on Yom Kippur. And when Reb Itche the Chazan came to V'hakadanim, so this, uh, Bere Avremkes was standing next to the sink. And when he heard Itche the

04:34 Chazan singing V'hakadanim, Bere Avremkes started to shake and to cry so much that he, he actually had to hold on to the sink that he shouldn't fall. And the Rebbe Rashab said about this that this, uh, big emotion that took over Bere Avremkes wasn't so much because of Reb Itche's nigunah as much as it was because of the kavanos of my father, the Rebbe Maharash. And the Rebbe Rashab explained, "It is similar to that which is known that when you say zecher av tov cho by Ashrei, if you say it with the proper kavanos, then all the people who stand around you remember everything that happened to them from the beginning of their life." And the Rebbe Rashab related once many chashuve guests came for yechidus to the Rebbe Maharash. One of them was a big gvir that actually hired for himself his own personal melamed to sit and learn with him bechavrusah. The room of the yechidus was right next to the Beis Midrash, where all the guests were sitting and learning and davening. In the middle of yechidus, my father stopped and he said to daven Mincha. And when they started to say Ashrei, suddenly a big tumult broke out in the Beis Midrash. All the people in the Beis Midrash who were davening, and especially that gvir, awoke with tremendous nisoyonus because they remembered about all the not good things that they did throughout their whole entire lives, and they cried bitterly. And this was because my father, the Rebbe Maharash, was

06:01 then in the nearby room saying zecher av tov cho with those kavanos. So the same thing, ended off the Rebbe Rashab, was during the Avodah. When Reb Itzel was singing, the of the didn't come so much because of the, of the singing of Reb Itzel, it was more because of the of my father, the Rebber Maharash. But still, you also needed the singing of Reb Itzel. This was Reb Itzel. Later on in Lubavitch there was another chazzan, Reb Yechiel the chazzan. Reb Yechiel Halperin, also known as Reb Yechiel the Meshuluch. He was the chazzan by the Rebbe Rashab, and he was a meshuluch, he was a shadar. He went around to collect money for . He was actually not raised as a frum Yid, even though he's a descendant of a Hasid of the Alter Rebbe. And before he did teshuvah, before he became frum, he worked in a theater in Kharkov because he had a very good voice. And the Rebbe Rav of the Rav of Yekatrinoslav, which was a shadar, he went around to collect money, met him, and he was mekarev him to Chassidus. And he became one of the yoshvim, one of the sitsers. He sat and learned in Lubavitch. During the year of aveilus of the Rebbe Maharash, his three sons would make their own minyanim, and they would also read in the Torah. They would be the baal korim. But the Rebbe Rashab was afraid to lain because you have to be midayak very much. You have to be

07:20 very exact in every letter, in every word. And therefore, he asked Reb Yechiel to test him on the kriya before each kriyas Hatorah. Reb Yechiel is the one who brought the nigun U'laineinu to Lubavitch, and he's the one who attached to the nigun the words U'laineinu, and he sang it before the Rebbe Rashab and the Tzemach Rebbe. Tzemach Rebbe related that Reb Yechiel the chazzan used to walk around on Sukkos and sing in the sukkos in different Chassidim's homes in Lubavitch the tune of Ve'hakohanim, but with words that he made up about Chassidim saying l'chaim. And it goes as follows: Ve'hakohanim. Ve'om. Ya na na, ya na na, ya na na, ya na na, ya na na, ya na na, ya. Ya na na, ya na na, ya na na, ya na na, ya na na, ya na na, ya. Oy medim. Ba'azaroh. Keshe hayu. Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Shomim es Hashem. Ya na na, ya ya ya, ya ya ya, ya ya ya, ya ya ya, ya ya ya, ay, ay, ay, ay. Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Hanilbos. Vehanorot. Metziy rosh. Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Yotzei mipi Hay Gadol. Ya na na, ya na na,

10:47 ya na na, ya na na, ya na na, ya. Na na na. Ay. Ay, ay, ay, na nay, na nay, na nay, na nay, nay. Bekdusha. Uvetahara. Hayu korim. Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Umitaravim. Ya na na, ya na na, ya na na, ya na na, ya na na, na na nay, a na na na, oy ro. Ay. Ay, na nay, na nay, na nay, na nay, na nay, na nay. Venafalim. Al paneiem.