For certain venerated roshei yeshivah, music was known as integral to their avodah

Sometimes it’s the niggun that has the capacity to penetrate the heart and mind in its own unique way, even for a gadol.  Telshe Rosh Yeshivah RAV MORDECHAI GIFTER (1915-2001) was once spending Shabbos in Lakewood, and right before he was to deliver one of his famed Shalosh Seudos derashos, Reb Abish Brodt, the renowned baal tefillah, sang “Yedid Nefesh” and Rav Gifter was visibly moved.  When the Rosh Yeshivah stood up to speak, he said emotionally, “Ihr hot mich demant fun de shiros un sichbochois vus mir hot gezingen in Telshe — you reminded me of the zemiros we would sing in Telshe.” In fact, it was when Reb Abish was learning in Ponevezh as a bochur that he was impacted by the legacy of Telshe. Rabbi Moshe Portman, the baal tefillah on Yamim Noraim, had brought his nusach with him from Lithuania.

When Rav Gifter aged, he was no longer able to learn and deliver his shiurim. Conscious that he couldn’t forge his previous intellectual connection to the Torah he loved, the Rosh Yeshivah became heartbroken. At that time, his son in Lakewood once attended a Simchas Bais Hashoeiva where Reb Abish sang “Torah, Torah,” an original composition with lyrics of longing for closeness to Torah, which was going to be recorded as the title track on their upcoming Regesh Volume 8. Realizing that the song could offer comfort to his father, Rav Gifter’s son asked for a recording. Although it wasn’t yet released, Reb Abish provided a “bootlegged” tape, which the Rosh Yeshivah would listen to again and again, tears rolling down his face. The niggun reached deep inside, expressing the relationship he felt had become elusive, but that he desired more than anything else in the world.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 860)