This past Rosh Hashanah, the song carried them once again

The niggun was composed at a challenging time. The Pittsburgher Rebbe’s four-year-old daughter had been diagnosed with a serious illness and the situation was grim. Before Rosh Hashanah, he blessed her, and then left the hospital to lead his kehillah. That Rosh Hashanah was forever seared onto the hearts of the chassidim, the Rebbe trying to rise above worry and fear and lift them along with him. He composed a niggun, which they sang again and again. Ve’yeda kol po’ul ki Atah pe’alto. They sang of Hashem’s Oneness, and then on Yom Kippur, at the close of the shivah for the Rebbe’s beloved child, they sang it again.

This past Rosh Hashanah, the song carried them once again. Succos marks the first yahrtzeit of the Rebbe, Rav Mordechai Yissaschar Ber Leifer ztz”l, and on their first Yamim Noraim without him, his niggun — and its message — continued to give the chassidim strength.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 878)