Folktales of the Jews, Volume 2: Tales from Eastern Europe

10. The Power of a Melody (IFA 5793)

10 The Power of a Melody H E A R D B Y Z A L M A N B A H A R AV F R O M D O V - B E R L R A B I N O V I T C H At his receptions to bid farewell to the Sabbath Queen on Saturday night after the Sabbath, Rebbe Shneur Zalman of Lyady, the founder of H. abad, would relate Torah novellae and Hasidic insights to the Hasidim who were sitting around the table. Once, while he was speaking, the rebbe spied an old Jew who was not one of his close circle of Hasidim. This Jew was sitting at the corner of the table, his brow furrowed, his eyes focused on the rebbe. His face revealed the pain of a man who does not understand what he is hearing, despite his great efforts. After Havdalah,* the rebbe** called the stranger over to him. “I saw in your face, Reb Jew, that you did not understand what I was saying when bidding farewell to the Sabbath Queen.” The Jew acknowledged as much. “Holy Rebbe,” he said, “when I was a small child, my parents sent me to the religious school of the best teacher in town so I could learn Torah. And indeed my soul thirsted for Torah, and I made great progress in my studies. But it was my bad luck that my parents died of an infectious disease and my relatives apprenticed me to a wagon driver. When I married, I followed the same profession. I drove a horse and wagon until I reached old age. Now I have free time, and my children (may they live) support me. So I have joined your community of Hasidim to hear words of Torah from your holy mouth. But what can I do if I cannot fathom their depth? Please guide me, sainted and revered Rebbe, in the ways of your Torah, so that I may understand them. What did the rebbe do? He began singing a nigun.§ 70 * The ceremony that marks the end of the Sabbath. **A Hasidic rabbi.§ Nigun in Hebrew is melody. 10 / The Power of a Melody  71  Ai didee dai diggy diggy dai Ai ai didee dai dai dai diggy dai . . . The old wagon driver’s face lit up when he heard the melody, and he sang it back along with the rebbe. Ai didee dai diggy diggy dai Ai ai didee dai dai dai diggy dai . . . And as he sang, the wagon driver found that he understood the secret meaning of Torah that the rebbe had spoken. From that Sabbath on, Rebbe Shneur Zalman of Lyady would introduce his discourse at the farewell feast with that melody, which is still known today as the “rebbe’s nigun.” Ai didee dai diggy diggy dai Ai ai didee dai dai dai diggy dai . . . Why? So that everyone present could understand the teachings of Hasidism. COMMENTARY FOR TALE 10 (IFA 5793) Zalman Baharav heard this story from his father, Dov-Berl Rabinovitch, in the shtetl of Klinkovich in Belarus, and he wrote it down from memory in 1963. Cultural, Historical, and Literary Background The narrator-recorder of the tale was not a Hasid. Although he grew up in a traditional home in Belarus, his father was not a follower of any Hasidic rabbi either. He immigrated to Israel as a secular Jew, fired up by Zionistic-socialistic ideals, but he still remembered the regional Hasidic narratives told about Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady. The narrator could relate the story, which circulated in his district in an abbreviated form, but recalled the melody only partially. Rabbi Shneur Zalman (1745–1813) was born in Liozna, in the Vitebsk district of Belarus. He was a leading Hasidic rabbi in Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine and was a disciple of the Great Maggid, Rabbi Dov Baer of Mezhirech (d. 1772). Rabbi Shneur Zalman founded a distinct trend in Hasidism known as H. abad, an acronym for “H.okhmah Binah Da‘at” (wisdom, insight, knowledge). He added the aspect of study to the ecstatic religious practices of Hasidism and formulated the concept of “intermediary” ethical and religious conduct (beinoni), a degree of piety that is attainable by everyone and takes into consideration the ethical choices a person makes as he or she is caught in the struggle between positive and negative values. In his systematic...