Album: Shloime Gertner — Mincha
Composer: Shimshi Neiman
Year: 2014
M ore than anything else “Neshoma” is the song of a search. “Neshoma vi bist di Neshoma ich vart azoi lang of dir… Neshoma kim tzi mir — Neshoma where are you? I’m waiting so long for you…” The Almighty searches for His lost children. A Yid searches within himself for that holy pintele [spark]. Fathers search for lost children and lost children wait desperately for the call that shows that someone is searching for them and waiting with open arms.
We blunder and stray; the search is long sometimes difficult or even painful yet its very existence is in itself a source of comfort — the continued pursuit guarantees that the eventual revelation will follow. Shimshi Neiman’s song somehow conveys this: His music is haunting yet comforting and the added prayer of “Hashiveinu” — that Hashem Himself bring us back to our spiritual source adds a deeper dimension.
The composer Shimshon Neiman is a young Vizhnitzer chassid in Stamford Hill London. He is also a good friend of singer Shloime Gertner. “Shimshi came over one night with another friend and they played this new composition on the guitar. We sat there strumming and singing and together we completed the lyrics in Yiddish ” Gertner recalls. “I loved the song. Its message is just so widely applicable. We thought it could either wait for my next album — or we could move on with it to an arranger and release it as a single.”
Arranger Naftali Schnitzler had an arrangement ready within a few days “and it was so good that we decided to bring it out immediately. Why wait?”
Soon after its release “Neshoma” has become one of the season’s most requested songs. “I believe the appeal is that it’s coming from a very pure place of raw emotion and a desire for closeness to the Source ” Shloime Gertner says. Following the single’s success he incorporated it into his recently released Mincha album too.
Composer Shimshon Neiman spends his days learning in kollel gives a shiur in yeshivah and moonlights playing guitar at simchahs and other gatherings. His music is appreciated for its tasteful hartzig quality. “Neshoma” was Neiman’s maiden composition for the public but he has already sold another niggun to Shloime Gertner. That one is waiting patiently for his next album though. “It’s a beautiful slow Shabbos song with words from a Gemara on Shabbos ” Gertner says. “It also has the regesh influence typical of Vizhnitzer chassidus.” He has a few additional songs in the works as well soon to be released by singers Motty Steinmetz and Ahrele Samet.
Since its realease “Neshoma” has been sung and released by dozens of bands and musical groups and there has even been a request for English lyrics from a special-needs educator who wants to teach his pupils to be aware and in touch with their neshamos. While Neiman and Gertner are working on an English variation they say their experience has been that even non-Yiddish speakers can be inspired by a Yiddish song. “One man came over to me at a Yeshivas Mir dinner and told me he had to use a dictionary to look up ‘farblonjet ’ but he still enjoyed the song ” Gertner says.
One father told the composer that he plays “Neshoma” as he prepares the candles for Shabbos. Each candle represents a different child’s soul and the song has become a loving ode to this symbolic act of lighting a lecht and thus touching a child’s neshamah with the holy lights.
Hopefully there will be plenty more music and inspiration from this fresh chassidish composer.
