Back in 1973, a young man named Mordechai Werdyger slipped on to the Jewish music scene with a little-known album called Original Chassidic Melodies. While that early album never took off, listeners sat up when they heard Mordechai Ben David’s next album, Hineni, the following year. The magic of his new-old musical style and the sheer power of his voice soon won a place right at the heart of the frum soundtrack.

For over four decades, we’ve sung and danced, swayed and prayed, to hundreds of iconic MBD songs, the ones he wrote himself and those collaborations he made famous. And now we’ve asked our readers:

Which one of Mordechai Ben David’s songs has touched your life?

Y.K.L., London, UK | “Samcheim” (The Double Album, 1990)

I always knew MBD’s “Samcheim” — who didn’t? When I grew up, it was a wedding song. But when I attended Gateshead Yeshivah, the highlight of every mesibah was “Samcheim,” which the bochurim sang as Rav Ezriel Rosenbaum entered. We sang and he danced to those three words for fifteen minutes straight. It was our rebbi’s favorite song, and watching him live that supplication was a vision of dveikus that’s stayed with me. Whenever I hear it, it takes me back there.

MBD'S TAKE

“Hashem gave me this song right after the shivah of Rebbe Moshe Mordechai of Lelov ztz”l. It was inspired by his fiery hishtapchus hanefesh during his holy Friday night tishen, when he would repeat these three words over and over, to the point when sometimes he’d literally pass out from the intense yearning for Geulah and binyan Beis Hamikdash.”

 (Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 738)