What song do you sing to warm up on a long, cold Friday night?

Leil Shabbos always beckons us to leave the week behind and bask in the glow of the candles and the aromas of tradition. And now, as the nights get longer, that special time is even more connectable through stirring niggunim that accompany us from the fish to the post-seudah nosh.

What song do you sing to warm up on a long, cold Friday night?

Singer BENNY FRIEDMAN

My zeide’s Bobover “Kol Mekadeish.” My zeide, Yaakov Moshe Hakohein Friedman a”h, was a Bobover chassid and remained so, even as he worked in the administration of the Lubavitcher yeshivos and became close to the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Avraham Fried, my uncle, recorded the Zeide’s slow, inspiring, “Kol Mekadeish” about 13 years ago with a choir made up of our family members on an a cappella album called My Father’s Zemiros.

Singer/composer EITAN KATZ

I love to sing the slow Breslov tune for “Me’ein Olam Haba” (“Me’ein Olam Haba-a-a, me’ein Olam Haba-a-a…). You can definitely feel the warmth and connection to a higher frequency. I don’t remember exactly when I heard this tune, but I do remember the feeling I had: I felt that I’d never understood what it means that Shabbos is “me’ein Olam Haba” until I heard the words sung to this niggun.

Singer/composer BARUCH LEVINE

We sing the Bobover tune for “Kah Ribbon.” It’s perfect for these long winter Friday nights, as it’s a niggun you can’t sing quickly. My early associations with this tune include the many beautiful Shabbos seudos my family shared with our uncle, Rabbi Aaron Levine a”h, and his family. When he’d sing it, both his face and his soft voice seemed to emanate such serenity, passion, and yearning. That comes back to me until today.

Singer/entrepreneur DOVID GABAY

Recently, I find myself singing Naftali Kempeh’s “Emes Malkeinu” with my children. It’s a niggun that’s so full of warmth. You can connect to it easily, and the high part can really take you up with it, driving home the point that there is no one but Hashem — efes zulaso.

Yedidim choir director YANKY ORLANSKY

There’s nothing like the traditional Karliner tune for “Kah Echsof.”

Singer/producer/arranger DUDI KALISH

The vintage Belz tune for “Mah Yedidus” is a perennial favorite. We also like to sing the “Kah Echsof” composed by veteran Belz composer Reb Yosef Tzvi Brier (father of well-known mechanech Rabbi Pinchas Brier, the composer of “Yodati” and “Hishbati Eschem”) and the fast-paced “Shomrei, shomrei, shomrei, mitzvoseha, shomrei mitzvoseha yinchalu, leyom shekulo Shabbos, Shabbos, Shabbos” written by my cousin Reb Shloime Kalisch and sung by MBD on his 2011 Kissufim album.

Yiddish balladeer MICHOEL SCHNITZLER

I often have guests around the table on Shabbos, and instead of starting zemiros myself and having my guests join me, I prefer to ask them to choose a song to sing — and I join in with whatever niggun they choose.

Simchah singer YISROEL WERDYGER

I think I was first introduced to the Karliner “Kah Echsof” when I was a young child, and my uncle Mordche [MBD – ed.] made a wedding where the Kah Echsof melody was played at the chuppah. It made a tremendous impression. Since then, although I’ve heard it and sung it hundreds, maybe thousands of times, it hasn’t lost its power. Although I often sing it at chuppahs, the emotion is as fresh as ever when I sing it on Friday nights.

Singer/kumzitzer DOVY MEISELS

I don’t miss a week of singing the special “Kah Ribbon” niggun sung at the Shomrei Emunim and Toldos Aharon tishen (with the refrain of “…ant Hu malkah, ant Hu malkah, ant Hu malkah melech malchaya…”). My grandfather, the holy Shomrei Emunim Rebbe Rav Ahrele Roth ztz”l, brought the melody from the court of the rebbes of Bluzhev where it originated, and when you sing it, you feel like you’re giving a deep interpretation to the holy words.

Singer/baal tefillah/communal askan RIVIE SCHWEBEL

My own father was American-born, although no one would have believed it, because he was raised so much in the atmosphere of Galician chassidus. He was a famed baal tefillah, and I sing the zemiros as he did, aiming very much for the real deal. The “Kol Mekadeish” tune feels like it was passed down for hundreds of years, and I sing “Mah Yedidus,” “Kah Ribbon,” and “LaKeil Asher Shavas” with heartfelt, serious niggunim that warm your heart.

Songwriter/vocalist HERSHY ROTTENBERG

My favorite section of the Friday night zemiros are those recited before Kiddush, beginning with “Shalom Aleichem” and going on to “Ribbon Kol Ha’olamim” and “Azamer Bishvachin.” I sing these in the same nusach as my father did, the nusach sung in Belz at the Rebbe’s tish, although we do have some parts which we’ve developed slightly into our own version. At the words “Melech abir, melech baruch, melech gadol...” and at the climax of “Azamer” just before Kiddush, the family joins in, and we veer off the nusach into a family riff.

Veteran composer CHAIM BANET

In our Seret-Vizhnitz chassidic community in Haifa, the main singing happens around the Rebbe’s tish. The community gathers around the Rebbe after everyone has completed their seudah at home, and we share hours of divrei Torah and uplifting songs in honor of Shabbos. Some of the songs are traditional Vizhnitz Shabbos songs, and some are my own compositions, such as “Shabbos Kodesh” or “Ohavei Hashem.” Every Shabbos tish has its own flavor, according to the time and season. For a month before the Yamim Noraim period, we sing Rosh Hashanah niggunim, and as soon as Kislev arrives, it’s Chanukah songs. Parshas Bo is a taanis dibbur (abstinence from any non-Torah-related speech) for the entire community, and on that week we sing “Mi ha’ish hechafeitz chaim...netzor leshoncha mera...”

Singer ELI MARCUS

Nothing warms me like an authentic, hartzige, Chabad niggun!

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 935)