Zarekoyu

This is a Niggun that Chassidim would sing in Russia, it describes a Russian villager known as a “Tchumachuk” that is rowing a small boat along the river and the boat begins to sink. The desperate villager calls out to his father to rescue him, however his father responds that cannot help him. He then calls out to his mother and she says that she too cannot help him. Finally he calls to his wife who assures him he will not drown and will be saved. This is a metaphor for a Baal Teshuva who feels that he is so far and drowning in the depths of evil. And calls out to Hashem to help him.

The ‘Father’ represents ספירת החכמה the mother’ represents ספירת הבינה which has a deeper effect on the person over ‘Chochma”, but even ‘Bina’ isn’t enough to save a Neshama drowning in Galus, for that you need the “wife” which represents ספירת הדעת which as explained in Chassidus, has the deepest impact on the person.

Some versions sing the words “Tzama Lecha Nafshi” at the end of this Niggun (to the tune of the first few lines of the song). Such a version was sung on Shabbos Parshas Kedoshim 5714, when the Rebbe asked if anyone was familiar with the Niggun “Tzama Lecha” of the Alter Rebbe and various Chassidim attempted to sing Niggunim with these words before the Rebbe taught the Niggun ‘Tzama’.

Rabbi Leibel Raskin relates that on Sukkos 5722, the elder Chassidim were Farbrenging in the Sukka below and the Rebbe overheard from his Sukka as they sing this Niggun in Russian and he seemed displeased from the meaning of the song. When Chassidim heard that, they changed the last part of the song to say how no one was able to help but the Rebbe can. It seems that this is the source of the Niggun ‘Fort a Yideleh” in it’s Yiddish version.

For some reason, when Rabbi Berel Zaltzman sang this Niggun at that famous Kos Shel Bracha, the Rebbe felt it was important to learn it in the original Russian and told him that he should teach it to the Bachurim so that by Shabbos Breishis they should be able to sing it by the Farbrengen.

Rabbi Yosef Zaltzman relates: I wanted to help my father with this job, especially since the Rebbe told me at that Kos Shel Bracha about honoring my father by helping him in the singing and I wasn’t much of a help with that... I went to a friend’s (Levi Yitzchok Bruk) dorm room and used his typewriter to type up the words to the Russian Niggun in Hebrew letters, I then went to Rabbi Binyomin Klein and used the printer in Mazkirus to make dozens of copies.

That Friday night after Davening, a remarkable scene unfolded, hundreds of Bachurim crowded the downstairs Shul and my father taught the Niggun until they all knew it. The next day at the Farbrengen, my father sang it and when he concluded, the Rebbe remarked that the Niggun is a sad one and that he should add a Lebedike Tenua to it. That very moment, a Lebedike Niggun (niggun 121) popped in his mind and he sang it. That’s how it’s sung today.