"I am not my father, but I’m also not embarrassed to cry and release genuine emotion in davening, even in public"

He’s the son of venerated chazzan Chaim Adler, Chazzan Emeritus of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, yet YISRAEL (SRULIK) ADLER has made a name for himself in his own right. He released his own popular album Oiros in 2015, is a sought-after badchan and serves as a heart-stirring baal tefillah. He is based in Jerusalem.

A SONG THAT GETS ME INTO THE ELUL MOOD

As a badchan for many a mitzvah tantz, I’m often standing before a chassan and kallah on their wedding day, which is like Yom Kippur, and have to be able to enter that serious zone. But what really gets me ready for Yamim Noraim is the sound of the children playing around with shofaros downstairs in the courtyards, which you hear from Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul here in Yerushalayim.

WHEN THE TZIBBUR SHOULD JOIN IN THE DAVENING

I always want people to join in, and I believe that people want to be drawn into the prayers. I think that most people sing along at such points as “Veye’esayu,” “Chamol,” “Unesaneh Tokef,” and the final Kaddish at the conclusion of davening. The Gerrer Rebbe related that Rav Yaakov Aryeh of Radzimin once took his baal tefillah along to visit his own rebbe. “This is my baal tefillah,” Reb Yaakov Aryeh said. But the baal tefillah said, “I am not the baal tefillah — the Rebbe himself is the baal tefillah. I am just the shreier [the one who yells it aloud].” The point is that I don’t view myself as a baal tefillah who “davens for” the tzibbur.  I’m just the shreier.

HOW I GOT MY FIRST YAMIM NORAIM BRETEL [DAVENING POSITION]

I was planning to spend Yom Tov with the Rebbe in Yerushalayim — I’m a Gerrer chassid — when someone called me in to daven at a minyan for a patient who could not get to shul. The next year, a family from Canada visiting Yerushalayim invited me to daven at their private minyan.

WHEN I START PREPARING FOR ROSH HASHANAH DAVENING

You can see me opening the Machzor any time during the year if I hear or think of something new. One addition over the past few years has been the Ribnitzer Rebbe’s niggun [“Oy Rebbe” on MBD’s Yiddish Collection —Ed.], which I’ve started to sing sometimes before Kaddish.

THE FIRST TIME I SANG ALONGSIDE MY FATHER ON YAMIM NORAIM

I was eight or nine years old when my father first took me along with him. He was serving as chazzan in Young Israel of Forest Hills, and he gave me a solo in the Selichos. When the time came, though, I was too shy to open my mouth. I stood next to him the entire time, but I didn’t sing at Selichos, nor did I sing on Rosh Hashanah. Eventually, when it came to Maariv on Yom Kippur for the piyut “Yaaleh,” he was singing the Modzhitz niggun, and I managed to overcome my shyness and sing.

CHAZZANIM WHO HAVE MOST INFLUENCED ME

I try to use my father’s nusach for Malchuyos, Zichronos and Shofaros in Mussaf of Rosh Hashanah. But I’m also very attached to the great Yossele Rosenblatt. My father is a devotee of the chazzanus of Leibele Glantz, and Leibele was not a Yossele-style chazzan — Yossele sang more tunes, while Leibele stuck to pure nusach. But personally, I’m always moved by Yossele’s shticklach, especially pieces like “Elokai Ad Shelo Notzarti” and “Teka B’shofar.” I’m also very drawn to him because of his insistence on remaining a chassidishe Yid in all circumstances.

As a bochur, I davened in Gur, and that nusach is also in my bones.  I still use that opening of chazaras hashatz, and I use Yankel Talmud’s tune for “Veye’esoyu.”

THE MOST EMOTIONAL PART OF THE DAVENING

I heard a vort of the Tolna Rebbe on the words “Kadosh Atah v’norah shemechah, v’ein Eloka mibaladecha.” He explains that what we are saying is “You are Holy and Your Name is Awesome, You, Hashem, are so mighty and powerful and infinite and endlessly great, yet ‘there is no G-d besides You” — we have no other address, no one else to ask our big or even small requests, no one else who can help us at all. We are completely dependent on You. That always gets me.

THE PLAYLIST I’D TAKE ON A LONG ROAD TRIP 

Ideally, it would have one great piece of classical music, one of my father’s songs, one well-crafted grammen, a little MBD, and some of the old songs sung by the child soloist Zanvil Werzberger [Niggunei Werzberger]. I grew up on the Werzberger albums Me’ein Olam Haba and Vehaarev Na.

WHAT I SING WITH THE FAMILY AT THE YOM TOV TABLE

We like to sing the Vizhnitz “Mah Ashiv,” and Reb Moshe Goldman’s Yiddish “Ribbono Shel Olam.” Truthfully, we don’t sing that much around the table nowadays. We have daughters, and baruch Hashem two are married. My sons-in-law are not really singers, but I don’t mind — I’m not looking for chazzanim, but for more important attributes.

HOW I’M LIKE MY FATHER

I’m very far from my father — anyone who knows him knows that he is the quintessential “chazzan” persona, while I’m a baal tefillah, singer, and badchan. But he has definitely bequeathed me a significant part of his deep reservoirs of emotion. I remember him crying many times during davening. As a child, I would accompany him, and during the haftarah, when he went out to put on his kittel and gartel and make his final preparations before approaching the amud for Mussaf, his face was shining, and he would shed tears. It was the culmination of his Elul.

I am not my father, but I’m also not embarrassed to cry and release genuine emotion in davening, even in public.

WHAT’S GOING TO BE NEW THIS YEAR

There are new requests, and also new levels of gratitude. It has been a very hard year, but every one of us has his own thanks to offer privately for the chesed he has been shown even in the depths of sorrow. We have new concepts in our minds, which we will bring with us to crown Hashem with the ultimate Kingship.

MY FAVORITE KEDUSHAH NIGGUN DURING THE YEAR

I think the Carlebach “Mimkomcha” is beautiful, but everyone enjoys something fresh and majestic. I’m currently working on a special new “Mimkomcha” to be released on my next album iy”H.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 875)