The Man Who Sang For Us

by Rabbi Eli Friedman – Chabad of Calabasas

The mind and the heart are often on separate wavelengths. The mind heads in one direction, ignoring the inclinations of the heart, and the heart lurches in the opposite direction, ignoring the reasoning of the mind. The challenge of choosing wisely between them is the story of life.

But every once in a while, they align in a perfect harmony and it’s a real pleasure and joy.
The belief in Moshiach is a good example of this. We believe in the coming of Moshiach. We have always believed it and we will never stop believing it. The belief is deeply rooted in our souls, and reverberates clearly in our minds, which get clear signals from the soul.

Our hearts are not so lucky. The soul-mind train doesn’t always make a stop in the heart, and the emotions are left out. The result is that we get it, we believe it, but we don’t feel it.

A mature person is unworried about feelings that lag behind (or race ahead) of what the mind embraces. And so, even as it might feel like the world is headed nowhere in particular, we maintain our belief and conviction that Moshiach is coming, and imminently. Moshiach remains a reality, just not always a palpable one.

For me, in the summer of 1991, heart and mind aligned on the topic of Moshiach, and it was largely because I met my great-uncle, Rabbi Yisroel Gordon, of blessed memory.

We called him Feter Yisroel (Yiddish for Uncle Yisroel). He was my grandfather’s brother and he just passed away this week. (He is pictured here with my grandfather. He is the one with the glasses.)

In the summer of 1991, my parents sent me to Feter Yisroel’s Yeshiva summer program, for boys entering eighth grade, in Morristown, New Jersey.

Feter Yisroel was effusive in welcoming everyone coming off the buses. His character featured the most classic of all Chassidic qualities – warmth! He shook our hands warmly and made everyone feel welcome. Especially we lucky kids who were his great-nephews were made to feel like a million bucks.

We all got settled in and assembled in the big Shul for welcoming ceremonies. After several welcome speeches and several people laying down the law for us lawless 13-year-olds, Feter Yisroel rose and approached the podium. He was only about 60 years old then, but to me he had all the hallmarks of a senior Chasid – a stately bearing, a white beard, a grandfatherly smile, a penchant for gentle teasing, and of course – warmth!

He welcomed everyone and then told us he was going to teach us a song. And he began to sing a song I had never heard before.

Amazingly, 120 little teenagers were mesmerized by his singing. At first we didn’t know what he was singing about, but he got us just with his singing. His singing seemed like crying on tune. It was a beautiful, haunting melody and he seemed to sing it with all his heart (and he had a lot of heart).

Eventually, we learned the song and its story. The Previous Rebbe had published (rumor has it that he wrote it himself) a poem during the war, a plea to Heaven, begging for Heaven’s help to withstand the birth pangs of Moshiach’s coming and to survive until his arrival. An orphaned Yeshiva student among the refugees in Shanghai had written a melody for it and the result was this song Feter Yisroel was singing.
Here is a very loose translation of the song:

Keep us alive O G-d until the time
when our helper and support will be revealed
Ariel (Moshiach) will rise like a lion
to bring us your redemption
he will bring our captives home
he who descends from Peretz
he is king and he is anointed
mighty and a man of spirit
he will come and quickly rise
his victory will quickly be revealed
give us strength O G-d until his arrival
the day when the redeemer will show his strength
we should merit and be spared the birth pangs of Moshiach
the oppressors will fall to their doom
and we will survive as a People
we were twice redeemed
the third time will be for good

The song became the anthem of the summer. Its strongest line – “he is king and he is anointed, mighty (here Feter Yisroel would shake his fist at the world) and a man of spirit” – were on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Kids sang it and even hummed it absentmindedly as they went about their day.

The song connected us deeply to this refined senior Chasid. His deep feelings, obviously drawn from having lived through the war at the Previous Rebbe’s side, made their way into our young hearts. The words were so personal and so painful, and the melody was so beautiful and moving that even we could appreciate it.

And incredibly, though the song addressed the difficult times preceding the coming of Moshiach, it made it very real and very tangible. Feter Yisroel’s feelings poured forth as he sang it; his Neshama sang with him; he trembled with emotion at the song’s peaks; and 120 kids were entranced by it. (You can hear the song using the link below.)

That summer changed us in many ways and for many reasons. The fragrance of Moshiach was in the air. The Rebbe was talking about it non-stop. Israel had survived Saddam’s scuds with biblical miracles. The hated Soviet Union was dissolving finally and peacefully. It was a time of wonders and miracles. Even the color war breakout involved a prank played on us by the staff where they had us convinced that Moshiach had come.

But that was all big stuff, global things. Feter Yisroel singing the song of redemption, though, was personal and I had never seen anything like it.

One can talk and sing about Moshiach all day and night, but there is something special about hearing it from someone (eminently relatable) who really believes it’s happening and whose singing gives you a sense of how badly he wants and needs it to happen.

Feter Yisroel elevated generations of boys and helped them up to live a bit above the world’s fray. With his visage, his smile, his stories, his friendliness and his warmth, he infused holiness into young minds.
And with his unforgettable song, he helped thousands of kids, myself included, experience that glorious moment when Moshiach is something you don’t just understand but something you feel so strongly, you could reach out and touch it with your hand.

May his Neshama be blessed, may his family be consoled, and may he enjoy his reunion with his beloved Rebbes. May we merit to the day when “Ariel will rise like a lion”, Moshiach will come, and Feter Yisroel will be back again, and this time for good.