11. Pan-Hasidic Rejoicing Niggun

^{Community singing, Tish on the 15th of Shevat, "Tif'eret Yisra'el" Yeshiva, Jerusalem, 30 January, 1991.}

This niggun, of unknown origin, was brought to the Boyan court in the 1960s (or at the latest, in the late 1970s) by Ze'ev ("Velvele") Fishman (1910-1996), who was a Boyan ba'al-tefillah. Fishman apparently heard the niggun in the 1920s, with the words of Psalm 126 ("Shir ha-ma'alot be-shuv ha-shem"), when studying in the "Sefat emet" Yeshivah of the Gur Hasidim in Jerusalem. He first sang it at Boyan in the Additional Service of the Day of Atonement, to the words of the piyyut "Hayom te'ammezenu." His successor as ba'al-tefillah, Akiva Brilant (b. 1942), has continued the custom, and consequently the Boyan Hasidim consider it to be the tune exclusively of "Hayom te'ammezenu." They frequently sing it at the Tish of the 15th of Shevat on the Rebbe's instructions, in the context of their practice of singing melodies associated with the "Rosh ha-Shanah" festival on the 15th of Shevat, the "New Year of Trees."

This niggun provides an example of the struggle between tendency of the younger Hasidim, leading the congregation in song, to accelerate the tempo, while the Rebbe tries to establish a steady tempo. From the start, the Rebbe follows the beat by rapping on the table, and the congregation claps while singing from beginning to end. Within each of the four sections of the niggun, the Rebbe makes no attempt to slow down the singers, and they indeed increase the tempo. At the beginning of each section, however, the Rebbe returns to the first tempo, sometimes even beginning at an exaggeratedly slow tempo, probably in an attempt to avert an overly fast acceleration.

The niggun is also known to other Hasidic groups. Avraham Burd (1925-1996), of a family of Karlin Hasidim, who was a ba'al-tefillah in the synagogue of the Batei Rand neighborhood in Jerusalem, used to sing it at festive meals before Grace after Meals, to the words of Psalm 126 ("Shir ha-ma'alot be-shuv ha-shem"). However, Zeidel Eisler, a son-in-law of Moshe Porush, a regular worshiper at that synagogue, used to sing it to the words of "Adon 'olam" when he was leading the Sabbath Morning Service