Nigun Hu Elokenu - Part I

00:00 The hemsach to the earlier installment, Bene Geyret, the nigun of Kiano Amecha, now continuing, and we'll discuss the nigun Hu Elikeinu. This nigun was also taught by the Rebbe on the very same morning, Simchas Teida, Tov Shin Chavdalek, late 1963. As an introduction to the nigun, the Rebbe said that since he does not know what's going to be taking place the next year, Simchas Teida, Bene Geyret, the distribution of Maskil L'Chayim and Bene Geyret, a new nigun, so therefore the Rebbe says, I will teach the nigun now. And Bene Geyret and Maskil, we'll see in the future. Before the Rebbe began teaching the nigun, the Rebbe said that dos darf men hob machazen, ich bin ich kon chazen. For this we need a chazen, and I'm not a chazen. And the Rebbe asked for a siddur to see it from inside, and he began teaching the nigun Hu Elikeinu. The nigun is from the nusach of Keser that is recited in Musaf of Shabbos and Yontif. After the Rebbe taught the nigun, the Rebbe said that the nigun is a march which was sung by the chazen Rabbi Yechiel Halperin, referred to as Yechiel the chazen, in the presence of the Rebbe Rashab in Lubavitch and in Rostov. And it seems like that it was also sung in the presence of the previous Rebbe on Rosh Hashanah in the nusach of Keser. The Rebbe also added that Rabbi Yechiel was a modner mensch, a strange person. And in the nigun Hu Elikeinu, he stopped at

01:59 a certain point in the nigun. And the Rebbe continues, why he stopped, I don't know, but that is how he sang the nigun. The Rebbe sang the nigun a few times, and the Rebbe encouraged the Elam to pick up on the nigun. Interesting to point out that before the Rebbe taught the second nigun, people were not aware that the Rebbe was going to be teaching a second nigun. So a big segment of the audience already went home, not figuring to stay for an additional nigun. Around 5.55 a.m., the Rebbe returned to his room, and he then went home. 10 o'clock, the Rebbe came in for Tefillas Shaharis. During Musaf, when it came to Keser, Hasidim heard how the Rebbe started to, in a loud voice, scream Hu Elikeinu, and the Elam sang the nigun then. The Rebbe, after davening, went up to the Sudas Yomtev, which was in the apartment of the previous Rebbe, by the Rebbetsin Muhammadina. And around 4.50, the Rebbe came to Mincha, and he then again instructed they should sing the new nigun, Hu Elikeinu. At the end of the day, the Rebbe came into the Fabregen, and the Rebbe asked to sing the two nigunim, and they sang the nigun Hu Elikeinu without the words. And the Rebbe then said that the ikar is not the nigun, not the tune, but the words. So they should fit in the words and the tune as one, which this expresses in a very realistic way our bitochen, our trust in the redemption.

04:18 And therefore, the words Sheinis Bekarev and Hen Gaalti Eschem Acharis Kevreishes are all fit in with the tune. After that, the Rebbe said to Rav Shmuel Zalmanov that since he is a chazen, so he should put the tune into the words. Rav Zalmanov tried many times, but he was not matzliach, and the Rebbe laughed, and the Rebbe himself began singing the nigun again. And Rav Zalmanov began singing the nigun after the Rebbe in a low volume manner. The Rebbe then told him if Rav Yechiel HaChazen, who is the mechaber of the nigun, would hear that they're beginning to sing the nigun quietly, he would scream gevalt. Towards the end of the nigun, Rav Mesha Telashefsky and Yabadul Chaim Tevim, Rav Yael Kahn, tried to sing the nigun themselves, and after many tries, Rav Mesha Telashefsky was successful in singing the nigun appropriately.