ניגון לר' זלמן זלאטאפאלסקי

00:06 The Chassid, the Shlome Schneur Zalman Zlotopolsky from Kremenchug, was from the big Chassidim of the Rebbe Maharash and the Rebbe Rashab. The Frierdiker Rebbe once described him like this: The Chassid, Reb Zalman Zlotopolsky, besides for the fact that he was a big baal mochin and a broad Chassidishe heart, he was a mosun u'mesudor beYoseir. He was very, very organized, and he was mekusher with a devotion to the Rebbe Maharash. Everything that he did was b'mesitus and with, uh, his vanunus sichlis. Everything that he did was done with the organized approach of a Chabad haskala. He had a specific unique seder in his trips to Lubavitch to be by the Rebbe, how much time to be there exactly and when exactly to return home. Reb Zalman was from the Bechir Hamaskilim Chassidis and Ba'alei Ahavah, says the Frierdiker Rebbe. That by them, the trip to Lubavitch, hearing Chassidus and going into Yechidus was a sole experience that took the highest of places in their life. And in a letter that the Rebbe Frierdiker Rebbe once wrote to Reb Zalman's son, Reb Hilles Zlotopolsky, the Frierdiker Rebbe describes his father as, "Your father, the Chassid, was so soaked in inyon Chassidus that I remember that when he would come to Lubavitch, even on a weekday, the Rebbe Maharash and my father, the Rebbe Rashab, would say a special Ma'amar Chassidus for him." And in a different letter, the Frierdiker Rebbe describes his, uh, davening, how he would sit for a long time wrapped with tallis and tefillin,

01:40 b'misbonen Chassidus. And then the Frierdiker Rebbe writes, "When he will get-- When he would reach that point of recognition of Mi She'omar VeHayah HaOlam, he would scream out with a silent scream from the depth of his heart, and his davening was similar to the davening of the Chassid and the Maskil from Kremenchug, Reb Chaim Ber Wilenski." About Reb Zalman's nigun, Frierdiker Rebbe related, "In the winter of tav-resh-ayin-gimmel, when me and my father were in Menton in France, I once took a walk with my father next to the ocean, and we're walking in a place with gorgeous scenery. It was between the ocean and the forest. So my father showed me over there a bench over there in the s- in the forest, and he told me that years ago, in the winter of tav-resh-mem-hei, which was three years after his petechas of the Rebbe Maharash, he saw the Chassid, the Reb Zalman Zlotopolsky, sitting on that bench, deep in thought." And what was he thinking? Reb Zalman was thinking on maimar Chassidus that he heard from the Rebbe Maharash, and he was singing his nigun with a tremendous dveikus for a few hours straight. Frierdiker Rebbe continues that, "Reb Zalman came then to Menton with a fur coat. He's came from Russia, which was very cold, so even though in Menton was, it was hot all year round, he came with his fur coat. And he came very early in the morning, and he wasn't shayech that he should enter to see my father right

03:08 away. So therefore, he went, he went into the garden of the house where my father was staying, and he sat on a bench, and he started to sing with dveikus. At about six, seven in the morning, my father, the Rebbe Rashab, heard the voice of singing, and he recognized that it's Reb Zalman's voice. So my father went out to the garden, and he saw Reb Zalman sitting by the bench, deep in thought, and he's, uh, singing from the depth of his heart. So the Rebbe Rashab didn't wanna interrupt him from his dveikus, and he left him like that. And the Rebbe Rashab looked at his face, and he saw that his eyes were closed and tears are coming down his cheeks, and he's all flam fire in this, uh, in this nigun." So the Rebbe Rashab said to the Frierdiker Rebbe, "When looking at him and Reb Zalman, his look reflects the life of ga'aguyim, of yearning of a Chassid that lost his Rebbe beguf a few years ago. However, in a tziyyur ruchni, spiritually, it's as if he's standing in front of him." Later on, my father, the Rebbe Rashab, asked Reb Zalman which maimar was he thinking while he was singing this nigun. So Reb Zalman was not a soft-hearted person by nature, and bechalal, said the Frierdiker Rebbe, the Chassidim of Kremenchug were ver-- were far from being soft-hearted, and especially Reb Zalman. However, when my father asked him this shailah, which maimar he was thinking, he choked in tears to an

04:38 extent that he couldn't speak. Only later when he came down, he told my father exactly which maimar of the Rebbe Maharash he was thinking. And now we'll play this nigun song by, uh, Rebbeino Yaakovovitch, Yechi Efrayim, Kriyat Gat.