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ast year before Pesach, badchan and singer Sruli Adler, son of Chazzan Chaim Adler of the Jerusalem Beit Knesset Hagadol, released a new single called “Lechtig,” written by Pinky Weber. Based on the last line of the Seder night piyut “Vayehi Bachatzi Halailah,” the song is a plea for Hashem to light up the darkness of this night of galus — “Ta’ir ke’ohr yom cheshchas lailah — light up the darkness like day,“ and it includes the Yiddish lyrics “Ven vet shoin zahn lechtig?” The song was also the title track on a CD distributed with last year’s Pesach Hamodia.

Right after Yom Tov, Reb Pinky received a call asking him to be menachem avel the father of Yisroel Levin, who was tragically killed together with his kallah on Chol Hamoed. “I didn’t know the family at all, so I didn’t know why they wanted to see me, but I went along to Flatbush,” the composer recalls. “It turned out that Rabbi Levin had wanted to meet me because he had received the terrible phone call about his son while he was listening to “Vayehi Bachatzi Halailah.” Somehow, the refrain of the song “Ven vet shoin zahn lechtig — when will it be light already?” kept replaying in his mind and gave him chizuk and hope for light during this dark time. You just never know who a song will reach and what it can do for the listener.”

 (Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 756)