Is there a niggun that pushed you to develop in ways you’d never imagined?

The songs of our youth are etched in our souls, no matter how many decades have passed or how we’ve moved on. Like a buried seed waiting for water, is there a niggun that pushed you to develop in ways you’d never imagined?

RABBI YEHIEL MARK KALISH

“Achas Sho’alti”

“That song became everything to me. It helped me stay close to Hashem and deeply connected to His Torah”

MY parents sent me to yeshivah as a child, largely because they believed it would be a safer environment for me. My older sister attended public school, but my parents — one living in Philadelphia and the other in Cincinnati — felt strongly that if I went to public school, I would ultimately not marry a Jewish woman.

Yeshivah was the beginning of the journey to who I am today. Baruch Hashem, I was blessed with a strong and melodious voice, and a young dorm counselor, Gerry Schaffel — now Rabbi Gershon Schaffel — insisted that I lead the zemiros every Shabbos. Those Shabbos zemiros and the Oneg Shabbos that followed were transformative for me. In particular, the original Pirchei slow niggun of “Achas Sho’alti” became everything to me. It helped me stay close to Hashem and deeply connected to His Torah. For nearly thirty years I’ve had the zechus to serve as the baal Mussaf on the Yamim Noraim at Shaarei Tzedek Mishkan Yair in Chicago, and to this day, I use that “Achas Sho’alti” niggun for “Adir Adireinu” on both the Yamim Noraim and Yom Tov.

Rabbi Kalish is CEO of Hatzalah, longtime Agudath Israel askan, and a former Illinois congressman.

RABBI NACHMAN SELTZER

“What’cha Gonna Write on Your Tombstone?”

It was a reminder to me that every person’s time on earth is limited and finite

When I was in yeshivah, guys in my dorm room had a tape (this is back in the days of cassette tapes) that was called Madre Goat and was one of the only heavy metal albums produced by a Jewish band that I have ever come across. I couldn’t listen to the album for long stretches of time, since heavy metal is not my thing at all. But there was one song on the tape whose message still resonates with me even today. It was called “What’cha Gonna Write on Your Tombstone?” and it was a reminder to me that every person’s time on earth is limited and finite, and since that is the case, we have to make sure to use our time well. I still share this story with my students today, reminding them that the days pass very quickly and that we need to make sure to use our lives to the fullest, so that when we reach 120, there are plenty of positive things to write on that tombstone.

Nachman Seltzer is a prolific author, public speaker, and former choir director, who has written 53 books to date.

RABBI ARMO KUESSOUS

“I Search and I Wander”

There I was, just a kid, watching my brave friend pour his heart into that song. It left an indelible mark on me

When I was about nine years old back in the 1970s, I began my camping career at Camp Agudah in Toronto. Every Shabbos, the zemiros were not only joyful, but deeply emotional. A young child away from home is naturally prone to homesickness — and with that homesickness come moments of quiet introspection. That first summer, I became friends with a boy from Cleveland named Reuvain Rhodes. Each Shabbos, Reuvain would stand up in front of the camp and sing the song “I Search and I Wander” from JEP II. The lyrics spoke of searching, of wandering, of a soul trying to find meaning. Hearing it, week after week, stirred something inside of me.

There I was, just a kid, watching my brave friend pour his heart into that song. It left an indelible mark on me. Perhaps even then, at such a young age, I too was searching for something deeper, something more. It was an early lesson in the quiet power of camp: how moments, friendships, and music can shape a person long before they themselves realize it.

That memory of this soulful song has stayed with me all these years, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to share it with your readers. Reuvain, wherever you are, I’m sure you can still hit those notes. And thank you, Camp Agudah, for setting the tone for a meaningful camping journey — 17 years in Camp Agudah and 36 years in Camp Romimu, and b’ezras Hashem, still counting.

Rabbi Kuessos is principal of Yeshivat Shaare Torah in Brooklyn and head counselor of Camp Romimu.

RABBI YOSEF CHAIM GOLDING

“Ana Avda”

I noticed Rav Zeidel singing with intense kavanah. I had never seen someone singing as if he were davening on Yom Kippur

IT would make sense for me to list several of the JEP feature songs (Reach Out, Return My Children, Ani Ma’amin, Someday....) which were, and still are, extremely meaningful. But my earliest recollection of a song that had a tremendous impact on me was not so much the song itself, but who I saw singing it.

I was a young teenager in Camp Kol-Ree-Nah, serving as a junior counselor, where we had the zechus of having Rav Zeidel Epstein, mashgiach ruchani of Torah Ohr in Yerushalayim, as one of the camp’s senior rabbis.

Camp KRN’s custom was to teach a new niggun every Shabbos morning before Mussaf. That week, Rabbi Shloime Klein, our head counselor, taught “Ana Avada d’Kudesha B’rich Hu,” composed by Chazzan Moshe Leib Erblich, and as the children joined in, I noticed Rav Zeidel singing with intense kavanah. I had never seen someone singing as if he were davening on Yom Kippur. If an atom bomb had fallen, I don’t think he would have noticed.

And that’s when I first realized that Jewish niggunim are more than just mere songs — they are tefillos to Hashem. And that’s why I always stress that if a song doesn’t elevate the singer, or the listener, just skip it.

Rabbi Golding is COO of Agudath Israel of America, Executive Director of Rofeh Cholim Cancer Society (RCCS), published author, and (many decades ago) a founder of JEP.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1097)