It all started when Back in September of 1967 Shmuel (Shmelkie) Brazil from Boston and I (Yossi Toiv) from the Bronx had the hashgachah to end up as roommates in a basement in Far Rockaway when Rav Shlomo Freifeld zt”l opened his yeshivah Sh’or Yoshuv. Shmelkie played guitar and was always composing niggunim. Over the next few years he had written such classics as “Bilvavi ” “Shmelkie’s Niggun ” “Eileh Varechev ” and “Shir Hamaalos ” while I had written a few English and Yiddish songs (“Oh The World ” and “Aleh Yidden”)
Ready for our own At that time The Rabbi’s Sons and Simchatone had released best-selling record albums. Shmelkie’s songs were really catching on and were starting to be played at weddings and everyone began telling us to put out a record of our own.
I remember when the leader of a top orchestra at that time came to our yeshivah one day and offered Shmelkie $400 for the rights to “Shmelkie’s Niggun.” He refused but that’s when we realized we had to cut our own album.
Seeing the Light
I came up with the name Ohr Chodosh while davening one Shabbos and then we got the two best voices in the yeshivah Yussie Lieber and Nachum Deutsch to join us. We had no money so Shmelkie and I each borrowed $1 000 from our parents — eventually paid back — and enlisted Josh Goldberg who led a popular orchestra to arrange and produce. The album was released in 1971 became a smash hit and led to calls for concerts. Reb Shlomo discouraged Shmelkie from performing though so Yussie Nachum and I hit the road.
Our first performance was at the Pioneer Country Club. Over the years we were on stage at Carnegie Hall Town-Hall Felt Forum/Madison Square Garden Queens College Brooklyn College and in Toronto at one show MBD even opened for us!
Those great compositions
One afternoon Shmelkie came running breathlessly into our room humming a song. He grabbed his guitar and started singing as he tried to figure out the chords. A few minutes later he sang me his new niggun — it had no words and no name but I was blown away.
He introduced it to the yeshivah and everybody loved it. Whenever Reb Shlomo wanted to hear it he would tell us to sing “Shmelkie’s Niggun” — and the name just stuck. By the way we heard that it was banned from being played in a certain yeshivah summer camp because they felt it was an “Afrikanisheh niggun” — they felt the rhythm was too much and made people “vild.”
One night an older beis medrash bochur came into our basement apartment while Shmelkie was playing guitar. He pulled out a small folded piece of paper with some hand-written Hebrew words on it and handed it to Shmelkie. He said “Why don’t you try writing a tune to these words? I heard them from the Rosh Yeshivah (Rav Yitzchak Hutner ztz”l).”
By the end of the night Shmelkie had composed “Bilvavi”— a song for the ages.
Old Days New Ways
Rav Shmuel Brazil became a maggid shiur in Sh’or Yashuv and is now the beloved rosh yeshivah of Ziv Hatorah in Givat Ze’ev outside Jerusalem. In 1983 together with Abish Brodt he produced the first Regesh album (they’re now up to Volume 11) and over the years he’s composed hundreds of songs.
Rabbi Yussie Lieber is a popular rebbi at Hebrew Academy of Long Beach. He still strums a mean guitar.
Nachum Deutsch is a successful business executive and much sought-after chazzan in Monsey.
And me? Well I still write funny songs make people smile and along with my lifelong country-compadre Heshy Walfish am working on some exciting new projects. Stay tuned!
(Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 688)
