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Play, download and edit the free video Debut of A Niggun from a Rebbi to a Talmid on Nachum Segal Morning Radio, August 23rd 2021.

Written by: Rav Ari Waxman and Chaim Feigenbaum tz”l
Vocals: Ari Yablok and Rav Ari Waxman
Guitars: Ari Yablok
Piano: Ari Yablok
Drums: Ari Yablok
Bass: Ari Yablok
Hammond B3 Organ: Ari Yablok
Percussion: Ari Yablok

The story of this niggun begins almost exactly 19 years ago.

It was the first Thursday night of my first year in Yeshivat Shaalvim. My friends and I were enjoying some down time after an intense week, when suddenly Rav Ari Waxman, our menahel, shows up to our dormitory - our first of many beyond-beis-medrash experiences with our Rebbi.

After talking with us for a while, Rav Waxman begins singing a niggun - something he wrote himself - but never had the chance to finish. My friends and I loved it. It was catchy. Soulful. Deep. But after that night we all forgot about it.

All of us except for Chaim.

My good friend Chaim Feigenbaum, remembered that niggun. He held onto it much longer than any of us, even Rax Waxman, ever knew. It doesn’t seem surprising now. Chaim lived and breathed music. As a teenager, he would carry a tape recorder around so he could capture moments of musical inspiration as they struck. We had been writing and playing music together for years, and eventually formed the band some of you might know named Omek Hadavar, with brothers R’ Dovid’l and R’ Moshe Tazvi Weinberg, and Yakir Schechter - from Teaneck, NJ.

Years passed. One random Sunday, Chaim asks me to help record some of his original songs for a demo album. Around 4 songs in, he sings me a niggun - the one Rav Waxman sang for us years earlier on that Thursday night! He remembered it all this time and wrote the missing verse to it by himself.

I asked him “What’s the niggun called?” He said “I call this ‘A niggun from a rebbi to a talmid’.

Chaim never got a chance to share this niggun, and many other of his songs with the world. He was diagnosed with cancer several years later and after a courageous battle, sadly passed away at 27 years old.

Which left me, the only one with the recording of this niggun, to bring it to life.

Each time I visited yeshiva in the years after Chaim’s passing, I played the talmidim this niggun. It slowly came to life. I told myself as soon as I get the chance, I’d record it and share it with the world.

This past summer was that chance.

To me the niggun represents the unbreakable connection between rebbi and talmid. The undying bond between friends. And the unparalleled power music has to bridge worlds, unite hearts, and elevate souls. May it bring an Aliyah to Chaim’s soul and to ours as well.

Introducing A Niggun from a Rebbi to a Talmid.

- Ari Yablok

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