F or the Rebbe Chaim Banet’s “Machnisei Rachamim” was double power

The emotional plea of “Machnisei Rachamim” is taken from one of the concluding sections of the Selichos and Reb Chaim Banet a chassid of Seret-Vizhnitz says that his niggun to these words has gone further than he ever dreamed.

“When I composed “Machnisei Rachamim ” we sang it with the choir for the Rebbe ztz”l and he gestured to me ‘zing es nochamul — sing it again.’ The day after that Motzaei Shabbos of Selichos the Rebbe called me over to explain to me that there are tunes that are powerful without words like the Chabad ‘Daled Bavos’ niggun and the Karlin ‘Kah Echsof ’ and there are also words that are so powerful that they need no tune. Here he said both the words and the niggun were special.

“Back then it was a brand-new composition ” Banet continues. “I myself didn’t know it was something special. Now years later when so many people are continuously inspired by that niggun to tefillah and connection especially during the Yamim Noraim I finally understand the koach that the Rebbe understood immediately.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 678)