Yifrach Beyomov

In honor of Yud Alef Nissan 5733, Rabbi Shlomo Cunin matched these words to an old Viznitzer niggun.

Reb Aron Dov Halperin of Kfar Chabad, who was in “Kevutza” at the time, relates the following:

“When the niggun “Yifrach Beyomov” was sung at the Yud Alef Nissan farbrengen, the Rebbe did not encourage it at all, not even with a nod of the head. It was as if the Rebbe was totally ignoring it. The crowd sung with great fervor and passion, but the Rebbe did not give any encouragement to it. This repeated itself at the coming farbrengens and Moshiach’s Seudah.

Reb Yoel (who started the niggunim by the Rebbe’s farbrengens in those years) would start “Yifrach Beyomov” after the first sicha at each farbrengen, but the Rebbe seemed to pay no attention to the niggun.

This occurrence was quite perturbing, and when it continued Shabbos after Shabbos, Reb Yoel decided to stop singing the niggun at the Shabbos Farbrengens. (There were those who thought that perhaps the Rebbe was not encouraging the niggun because the words “Yifrach Beyomov” referred to the Rebbe and the posuk ended with the words “Veoyvov afar yelacheichu”.)

At the end of that farbrengen, after the Rebbe had already opened the siddur for the brocha acharona, the Rebbe turned to Reb Yoel and said “[we] forgot to sing the niggun of the kapitel today”. Naturally, we began to sing “Yifrach Beyomov”, and, for the first time, the Rebbe encouraged the niggun with great strength. This continued for the rest of the year.

That motzoei Shabbos, as the Rebbe entered the small zal to daven Maariv, Chassidim were singing the niggun with immense energy and feeling. Especially after seeing such “out of the norm” encouragement from the Rebbe, the packed zal reverberated with jubilant Chassidim singing with passion. As the Rebbe entered, he pointed to the Aron Kodesh and said “Es Shokelt Zich Der Aron Kodesh”. The singing then stopped.

The following year, Chassidim found it difficult to part with the tune of the previous year, so instead of composing a new one, the words from the pesukim “Mi Li” and “Kolo She’airi” were added to the wordless stanza in honor of Yud Alef Nissan 5734.