By COLlive reporter
There’s the Chassidic tune and then there’s the Israeli version of the Chassidic tune.
A musical production named “Tzama’h” has taken classic Chabad melodies, each with deep meaning and history behind it, and rearranged them to suit the modern Israeli’s ear.
The newest album in the series, Tzama’h 4, was recently released and will be sung on stage in the Rosh Hashana of Chassidus on 19 Kislev in 6 large performances in Jerusalem.
Headlining the shows are Israeli musicians Ariel Zilber, Yonatan Razel, Yishai Ribo, Naor Karmi and joining from New York is singer Avraham Fried who has a loyal following in Israel.
Karmi, together with Akiva Turgeman, arranged the songs on the new album. One of them is the nigun “Al Haselah hoch,” adapted to the words of the prayer for rain — Tefilas Geshem, relating how Moshe struck the stone and there came forth water.
The listener immediately begins to keep time with the joyful rhythms of this song, Chabad.org notes. This melody is usually sung during the hakofos of Shemini Atzeret and Simchas Torah.
The nigun, which is listed as nigun 162 in Sefer Hanigunim, was sung by the Rebbe while it rained during a farbrengen in the Sukkah of 770 Eastern Parkway on Chol Hamoed Sukkos 5717.
The Rebbe sang the nigun at the conclusion of the farbrengen, adding a line to the end of the tune, “and stopping the rain hoch hoch.”
Listen to Fried’s Israeli version of the nigun:
VIDEO: The original nigun sung by the Rebbe
it’s not modern or israeli or middle eastern style. It’s his style
you are wrong im very proud of avraham fried is very special he took it into a modern song and not goyish thats very good
Very wrong to change a niggun
but still is more modern and funner for the modern people to enjoy then the original
The music sounds a little middle eastern at times but not like modern Israeli songs.
Someone who isn’t frum yet told me on Yom Kippur that she wished davening should have more modern tunes to attract people like her son who wasn’t in shul.
Israeli sorry
I AGREE!!!!!!! exacly what i was thinking
Quality!
really not sure what to make of it but am sure it’ll lend itself to great audience sing-along.
Avraham fried is one of the only jewish singers who knows how to jazz up a song without it sounding goyish
…sorry
It’s a very catchy way of singing the niggun but avraham fried is trying to hard to be something he’s not…!