The songs we sing become our prayers, often expressing our longing louder than any words alone

As Klal Yisrael lives through this time of intense mourning for the Beis Hamikdash while yearning for the return to the Yerushalayim of Geulah, we turn off the music and listen, instead, to the music playing inside our hearts. The songs we sing become our prayers, often expressing our longing louder than any words alone.

What Is Your Favorite Yerushalayim Niggun?   

YITZY BERRY

Composer and arranger

The first song that comes to mind is Abie Rotenberg’s “V’liYerushalayim Ircha” from Dveykus 3 — the melody is full of emotion and yearning for the rebuilding of Yerushalayim. As a child, I remember my father would make a kumzitz for his talmidim and friends every Motzaei Shabbos Nachamu in our home. They would sing this song with the lights out, and in that darkness, you could really feel the song’s power in the air.

MOSHE TISCHLER

Singer

Recently, my favorite has been “Ani Maamin” by Tai.

While the Three Weeks is a time when we mourn and reflect on the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, I like to be forward-focused, working on what we can do to help it get rebuilt. Until that happens, like Tai says, “I will keep holding tight…”

SHLOMO COHEN

Vocalist

The song that first awakened a feeling of longing for Yerushalayim within me is Mordechai Ben David’s vintage “Racheim Bechasdecha.” I remember listening to it in our dining room in Argentina, when I was a kid of around nine years old.

MOSHY KRAUS

Producer

On Yiddish Nachas 2, there is a song called “Vehayah Hanishar.” The innocence of the kids’ pure voices singing about Yerushalayim moves me every time.

SRULY MEYER

Music producer and designer

As a Chabad chassid, I’ve always tried to find the positive angle in everything, and that applies to everything I do in Jewish music as well. Maybe we’re just allergic to sadness, but when it comes to songs about mourning the Beis Hamikdash, this might throw you for a loop. I was once sitting at a composing session with a singer when the composer began to sing a melody for the words “Im eshkocheich Yerushalayim.” The singer commented that he liked the melody but felt it was a bit slow, and he asked the composer if he would consider speeding it up and maybe even turning it into a rock rhythm, an anthem. The composer, who was from a more litvish background, almost threw us out of his house. How could you take a song that’s meant to express and evoke mourning and sadness over the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and make it a rock song?

My own absolute favorite Yerushalayim song is MBD’s “Yerushalayim” [“Yerushalayim, at yerushateinu…”] on the Tomid B’Simcha album. I love the original Hebrew version, but I also really enjoy the English version, on the same album. The song expresses our commitment to our will to return. It’s a promise: “Yerushalayim, we will never leave you / Now and forever / Heart and soul we need you...” It’s a song that was written almost 40 years ago, but today we feel it even more, every day, with everything happening in the Middle East, and everything those living in Eretz Yisrael are living with. It’s a commitment, and a promise. It’s a story of our people, and yes, it’s a fast song, on an album whose name means, “Always in simchah.”

True, we must mourn the Beis Hamikdash, but we must also put ourselves into a positive mindset, actively working to bring Mashiach and end the galus. I personally don’t need a slow song to accomplish this. In fact, I prefer something with spirit and happiness, because while we mourn the destruction of Hashem’s holy House, we also know it’s not forever, and we are coming back. That is cause for simchah, and to sing and to dance.

So yes, I can envision an “Im Eshkocheich” that has a fast, happy beat, and I hope soon we can sing about our return, singing and dancing in the Beis Hamikdash. I hope it’s a dance song (I hope Mona composes it), and I look forward to MBD singing it at the seudas leviyasan!

DUDI KALISH

Arranger, producer, and conductor

One that I love is Shlomo Carlebach’s “Uvnei Yerushalayim.” It manages to express real longing for Yerushalayim, combined with hope. There is a little bit of joy in the tempo of the song, and I admire the way Carlebach fused the sadness and yearning with faith and trust.

SHLOMO SUFRIN (a.k.a. Shlomo Simcha)

Chazzan and singer

There are so many, but one of my favorite Yerushalayim songs is “Yerushalayim Harim Saviv Lah” from Aish Volume 2, composed by Abie Rotenberg. I remember the story behind it so clearly. Twenty-four years ago, in August 2001, Klal Yisrael endured a very dark day, when a terrorist murdered 16 innocent people in the Sbarro pizzeria. I walked into shul in Toronto in the middle of that day, to find one Yid standing at the bimah with tears rolling down his cheeks. It wasn’t time for a minyan, and the rest of the place was empty, but he stood there crying out the words, “Yerushalayim harim saviv lah, v’Hashem saviv le’amo me’atah ve’ad olam — Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains just as Hashem surrounds His people from now and forever.” When he noticed I was there, this Yid turned to me and said, “No matter what they try to do to us, Hashem will always be there to redeem us.”

At a composing session that afternoon with Abie, I described the scene I had just witnessed in shul. He was so inspired that he walked over to the piano and composed this beautiful song which expresses Hashem’s enduring and unconditional love for His children. The song somehow comforts me, especially during the Three Weeks. It gives me hope.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1072)