The topic as as you heard before is the ענין of nigunim, the power of nigunim, songs, the meaning of songs. Now, we know that singing nigunim plays an important role by חסידים בכלל, truth is by Yidden in general, but mainly by Chassidim and specifically by Chassidei Chabad, Lubavitch, it's plays a very, very important role. It's actually one of those things that was renewed by the Baal Shem Tov. That means that the Baal Shem Tov was the one that stressed the importance of singing nigunim. The Baal Shem Tov's time, before the Baal Shem Tov, this there was no stress on singing nigunim at all. Anybody who's a little bit familiar with the history of the Yidden at the time right before the Baal Shem Tov and a little bit earlier before that knows that the main occupation of most of the Jews, at least the higher class of Yidden, was to learn Torah. Torah was learned to the highest degree in those years. People sat and learned and learned all day, they spent their time only on learning Torah. And because of that, many of other important issues, important matters were neglected. Even to the the idea of davenen, tefillah. Those that are familiar with the history, tefillah, davenen was not an important, didn't play an important role to the people at that time. They sat and learned, davenen was something that they would do to pass. In other words, they had to daven, so they would make sure to daven. Opgedavnt, they finished davenen, and then they would go back to learn. They didn't stress davenen. Even doing mitzvot, which they all were very frum, very frum, and they did a lot of mitzvot and they did everything properly, but it was all very dry. In other words, there was no stress put on it that we have to prepare to the mitzvah and do it. The mitzvah was done, you passed the mitzvah, now time has come back to sit down and learn. Certainly, there was no stress on sitting down and singing songs and singing nigunim. I mean, we can't even imagine anybody would dream imagining the way we know the history of the those times of having a group of scholars in the time of the Baal Shem Tov and before the Baal Shem Tov to sit down and quote-unquote waste their time in singing nigunim. It was definitely a waste of time. They would say, שמחה מה זו עושה, what's the idea? Sitting down and sitting singing nigunim, waste of time, ביטול תורה! Sit and learn. That was their main stress, their main stress was sitting and learning. Which is connected to the general idea that their whole way of observing Yiddishkeit was in a very serious way and the point, the concept of שמחה בכלל was not stressed at all. The greater the person was, the greater scholar he was, the more serious he was. You never would see a smile on his face, because he was always involved in learning, and which was good, I'm not trying to chas veshalom say that that was bad, but I'm saying this concept of simcha was not stressed at all. If you read the Sefer HaZikhronos, which is in English called The Lubavitcher Rebbe's Memoirs, the Frierdiker Rebbe, and he describes the whole period prior to the coming of the Baal Shem Tov. He describes how the great every city had very great scholars and many of them were known as perushim. A parush means it was a person that sat locked up in a room all day, never walked out, never looked outside, looked very serious, never smiled, you wouldn't see a smile on his face, and that was the way they behaved. There's a letter from the Frierdiker Rebbe, a very long letter, they gave it out in English lately, which was written to his daughter, to the Rebbetzin, and there he describes in details different stories about different gedolim, the way they behaved, but it was all that the concept of simcha was not part of their life at all. The Baal Shem Tov, when he came, he started pushing the ענין of simcha. He even brings in the Sefer HaZikhronos I think that in the time of the Baal Shem Tov, right in the beginning, they wouldn't call them chasidim, his followers were known as די פֿריילעכע. That's what they were known, די פֿריילעכע, the happy ones, because they were always happy, you could always see a smile on their face, whatever they did was with happiness. So, together with this that there was no stress on the ענין of simcha, so there was no stress also at that time on the ענין of singing songs, of singing niggunim. Then came the Baal Shem Tov and the Baal Shem Tov put a big dagash, a big stress on the ענין of simcha, and together with that, on the ענין of singing niggunim. And when we say the Baal Shem Tov came and put a stress on it, it doesn't mean chas veshalom the Baal Shem Tov came and made something new in Yiddishkeit. The Baal Shem Tov did not bring anything new in Yiddishkeit, there's no such thing. The same Torah that we had by מעמד הר סיני we had of 2,000 years ago, we had 1,000 years ago, and the same Torah came when the Baal Shem Tov came. What the Baal Shem Tov did Certain points that are there in the Torah, in Yiddishkeit, that were not stressed for certain reasons, Baal Shem Tov, who felt that these are very important points in Yiddishkeit, he stressed them. Just to even give an example, we find in Tanya, in Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah, he quotes a saying of the Baal Shem Tov, and he says, ופירש הבעל שם טוב. What is the saying? We all know that one of the torot, one of the philosophies of the Baal Shem Tov was that Hashem recreates the world every second. It's not the peshat Hashem created the world 5,762 years ago and then it's there. He recreates it every second. So the Alter Rebbe there in Tanya brings that there is a pasuk that says, לעולם ה׳ דבריך ניצב בשמים, forever, Hashem, your words are standing in heaven. And he says, ופירש הבעל שם טוב, Baal Shem Tov explained, what does that mean? That when Hashem created the world with the עשרה מאמרות, with the 10 statements, one of the 10 statements was יהי רקיע, let there be a heaven. So לעולם ה׳, forever, the Baal Shem Tov says this peshat, forever, your words that you said, יהי רקיע, let there be a heaven, is always there in heaven. It's constantly repeated and repeated and repeated. That's why the heaven exists. And the same thing with all the other nine statements, that the reason the creation exists, because Hashem constantly repeats it. Now, when we look in Midrash on that pasuk, לעולם ה׳ דבריך ניצב בשמים, this is the peshat of the Midrash. The Midrash Tehillim on this pasuk says this peshat. So the Rebbe once asked: so why does the Alter Rebbe in Tanya say ופירש הבעל שם טוב, to quote it in the name of the Baal Shem Tov when it's in the Midrash? So the Rebbe says the word u'feresh doesn't only mean he explained it, u'feresh means he spread it out. This is a peshat that's written in the Midrash. Baal Shem Tov didn't make up a new peshat, a new philosophy, but this was a peshat that's there that was not so well known, not so well accepted, not so well understood, and Baal Shem Tov came and he brought this as a major point. The Baal Shem Tov says this vort is a major fundamental idea in Yiddishkeit. And the same thing with everything else the Baal Shem Tov did and all the other Rebbeim did, Chabad, chassidut did. They took important point in Yiddishkeit which were, maybe we could use the word neglected before, not stressed so much before, and he stressed them much more. And the same is concerning these ענינים. We said that before the Baal Shem Tov simcha was not stressed so much. Baal Shem Tov didn't make up the idea that you always have to be b'simcha. It's a pasuk. The pasuk says עבדו את ה׳ בשמחה, you have to serve Hashem with simcha. And obviously it means every moment, because there is no moment in our life that we don't have to serve Hashem. So every moment we have to be b'simcha. There's a pasuk in the תוכחה where Hashem, in the curses, where Hashem says, why will he bring the curses? תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה׳ אלוקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב, because you didn't serve Hashem with simcha and with a good heart. Well, the simple peshat is not like that. The simple peshat is because you didn't serve Hashem at a time where you were b'simcha. When a person is in a bad mood, a person doesn't have it good, and he's not serving Hashem, Hashem says, \"Well, I can understand.\" But when everything goes fine and you're happy and you don't serve me, that's why you're punished. But the Rambam says a different peshat. The Rambam says that it means because you didn't serve Hashem b'simcha, that's why I'll punish you. In Tanya, he brings it in the name of the Arizal, but actually the Rambam says it. The Rambam at the end of Hilchos Lulav goes into details to explain the importance of simcha shel mitzvah. So the idea of being b'simcha is not something that the Baal Shem Tov made up. It's there in Torah. But it wasn't stressed. People did not feel that this was an important thing, \"So I won't be so b'simcha.\" Came the Baal Shem Tov and brought out, and this is not the time to explain that point, but he brought out that this is a major, a major concept in Yiddishkeit. If a person is not b'simcha, who knows where he could go, it could lead him to the lowest מדרגה. As there is even a vort in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, he said that there are two things: one is not a mitzvah, but it could lead you to the greatest mitzvot, and one is not an aveirah, but it could lead you to the worst aveirot. The mitzvah he said was mikvah. For a man to go to the mikvah is not a mitzvah, doesn't, בדין you don't have to, but by going more often to the mikveh, it could lead you to become pure and that you could reach the highest spiritual levels. And עצבות, being sad, is not an aveirah. It doesn't say anywhere in the תורה אסור להיות בעצבות, you're forbidden to be sad. But he said that's something that could lead you to the worst aveirot. You have to be b'simcha. And there's a lot to talk about that. The Baal Shem Tov stressed this.

The same is with the inyan of nigunim or the inyan of singing. It's not something the Baal Shem Tov made up or chasidut made up. We find that throughout the Torah. We find in the Torah that when the Yidden crossed the Yam Suf and they wanted to express their thanks to Hashem for what Hashem did to them, not only the physical miracle that they were saved from the Egyptians, but at the time of Kriyat Yam Suf the Jews reached a very high spiritual level. It says that it says one of the פסוקים is they said, זה קלי ואנוהו, \"This is my God,\" and they the word זה, which means \"this,\" they were able to point, they saw, you can't describe what it is, we don't know, but they saw Hashem, they saw godliness. The מדרש says ראתה שפחה על הים מה שלא ראה ראו שאר נביאים. The lowest of the Jews saw by Kriyat Yam Suf of godliness more than the greatest נביא that describes the מרכבה, Yechezkel. They saw more. So when they came to thank Hashem for the Kriyat Yam Suf, what did they do? אז ישיר משה משה ובני ישראל, משה and the Yidden sang, they sang a song. Then later we go to Parashat Chukat we see that when they had the great miracles right before the with the wars of Sichon and Og, again it says, אז ישיר ישראל, the Yidden sang, they sang a song. That's the way they expressed their feelings, by singing a song. We know בכלל that there are, says 10 songs that the Yidden have, 10 major songs. אז ישיר and this אז the other אז ישיר, the שירה of Devorah, the שירה of David. It says there were 10. The 10th one will be sung when Mashiach will come. It says when they will name, they'll make a שיר חדש, we will sing a new song. That will be the 10th song. So we see the inyan of song is so special that we make a whole fuss over nine songs, and that the 10th one will be Mashiach, and it's connected to the number 10, as many other things that are connected to Mashiach are connected to the number 10. For instance, it says that Hashem counted the Yidden nine times throughout history; the 10th counting will be when Mashiach will come. The Rambam says there were nine פרות אדומות made, the 10th one will be when Mashiach come. So too, there were nine songs and the 10th one will be when Mashiach come. There is the inyan of singing a song. What's the whole idea of Hallel? Hallel is singing a song, a song of praise. We want to express our praise to Hashem, it's through a song. The whole inyan of Tehillim, Tehillim is שירות ותשבחות, it's songs of praise of Hashem, it's all through song. In the Beis Hamikdash, when they brought korbanot, the Leviim, what did they do the time they brought korbanot? The Kohanim were involved in the korbanot: shechitah, the spritzing of the blood, all the other things; and the Leviim, their avodah was singing songs! They sang. They sang by mouth, and they also sang with an instrument, and there's a whole discussion in the Gemara which of the two is the ikar: is עיקר שירה בפה or עיקר שירה בכלי? Is the main song, the main mitzvah when they sang with their mouth, when they sang the song, or the main mitzvah was when they used the instrument? And the halachah is, if I recall correctly, I didn't look it up, is עיקר שירה בפה. The main part of it is the mouth, even though they used instrument, the main thing is the mouth. And it says in the Zohar, why were the לויים זוכה to sing songs in the Beis Hamikdash? Because they didn't sin with the עגל. They didn't do עבודה זרה, which is such a major thing, because of that they got this great reward. What was their great reward? They sang songs! So the idea of singing songs and being an important part of a Yid's service of Hashem is there. In the Beis Hamikdash, which represents the greatest service of Hashem, everything we do now, beside the actual mitzvot, but everything else is a substitute for korbanot: davenen's substitute for korbanot, and whatever other things that we do is it's like we bring a korban. And by the korbanot, a very important part of the korbanot was singing a song. So obviously a song is very important. So when the Baal Shem Tov came and he instituted the concept of singing songs, it wasn't something new that he did, he came with a new idea that wasn't there. Like everything else, he was only, he wasn't a mechadesh, he only stressed things which before was not stressed for whatever reason, and he brought out how important it is. So now we davka have to know, what is so important, what's the importance of singing niggunim, of singing songs? We have a lot of expressions by in sefarim and by the rebbes concerning the greatness of singing songs, and in Hayom Yom you have and you have other places in Chassidus you have. And the same פתגם sometimes you have in different forms.

But let's just pick one of them. One vort in the name of the Alter Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe said that the tongue is he says the expression of the heart, and the song is the expression of the nefesh, of the soul. When you sing a song, a song is a way a person is able to express something much deeper than he's able to express through speaking. The tongue, which is speaking, could express your feeling. Yeah, you could come over to somebody and say, \"I love you.\" So you're using the words, \"I love you,\" you could tell your child, \"I love you.\" You could even do something, you give the child a kiss, you express your love through dibbur, through maaseh, but the expression that a person has to whatever feeling he has, which should be more נפשיות'דיק, more within the soul, more עצמיות'דיק, more essential, that only comes through song. That's the nature. The nature is that when you do something through song, when you express your feelings through a song, it's not just expressing your heart, it's expressing your neshamah, you're expressing your nefesh. And in anything: there are happy songs, and there are serious songs. The happy songs express the happiness much deeper than if it's done without a song. The expression of seriousness, the expressions of געגועים, of desire that a person might have to something or want something, it's much more expressed if you do it through song. And this is why the Baal Shem Tov came and stressed the concept of song, because this is a way we express, when we sing, we're not talking about singing to a person, singing about Hashem and to Hashem and our feeling to Hashem expresses much more our heart. And what in the heart our nefesh, more than if we do it with other without a song. And that's why, in different groups of chasidim, you have different types of songs. But every group of chasidim has their songs, and the songs fit, the niggunim fit to the philosophy of that group of chasidim. Every group of chasidim has their things that they stress in their philosophy, and the songs, they express in a deeper way the feeling and the heart and the nefesh that's there in the philosophy that they have. In Chabad, one of the עיקר ענינים in Chabad is penimiyus. Penimiyus, which means to be more inner, to be looking introspective, looking into yourself. More emet. Everything should be absorbed with emet. Everything should be true. Everything should be דורכגענומען. The truth should penetrate, avodat Hashem should penetrate into everything. That's what Chassidus Chabad wants. It doesn't mean that every chasid reaches that level. But sometimes you say this and someone says, \"Well, I know some Chabad chasidim, and not exactly that level.\" We're not saying what an individual, whether he reaches or not. The philosophy of Chassidus Chabad is penimiyus. And that's why Chabad is חכמה בינה דעת, understanding, because when you understand something, then really it's true in you. If you don't understand something, then as much as you believe it, it's not really true. But when you understand it, it's true. Chabad wants it to be more inside true. And therefore, the Chabad nigunim are more פנימיות'דיקע ניגונים. You could recognize a Chabad nigun, who knows how far away? You could recognize Lubavitcher nigun. And both, whether it's a שמחה ניגון, שמחה'דיקע ניגון, or it's a serious nigun. The serious nigunim that Chabad has expresses so much that you could touch the nigun ממש, you could feel it because it's such an expression of the heart that the nigun gives out when you have the serious nigunim. And the same thing is with the happy nigunim in Chabad. And that's the type of nigunim, by the way, that we're talking about. There is a sicha from the Frierdiker Rebbe where he says there are three categories of of nigunim. It's three categories. He says one category of nigunim is the real category, a nigun that expresses something very deep. And then you have a category of nigun that doesn't express much, but it fits. It has a meaning. It doesn't touch your heart so deep, but it has, it's a ניגון מכוון, he calls it. It's a nigun that fits. And then he says there is a category he called a ניגון שוטה. Stupid nigunim. סתם ניגונים. סתם האק קלאפ and האק קירוואכע. You sing the nigun, it had no meaning. So he says the expression by Chassidim that third category of nigunim is deemed like מוקצה מחמת מיאוס. It's disgusting by Chassidim, to look at it. He sometimes calls it, I don't want to say, but he calls it ניגון חזני. A חזנישע ניגון. A chazan that maybe it's entertainment. People like to entertain themselves, so people do this, this, and you have a chazan also. And they call it ניגון שוטה. Then he said there's a ניגון מכוון. There's a nigun that's מכוון that fits to something. But then there's a nigun that expresses the truth. And that's the type of nigunim we're talking about. So you have שמחה'דיקע ניגונים, you have serious nigunim, but they all express, the Chabad nigunim, the depth of the person and then when he sings it, it's his nefesh that he's giving out. And it works both ways. When you sing the niggun, it bring, it because you have a certain feeling and you have a deep feeling and you express it through singing the niggun, sometimes it works the reverse. When you want to bring out within yourself a certain feeling, so you sing the niggun and the niggun brings it out. That's why the rebbes would tell certain chasidim, \"Sing when you daven! Sing when you לייג קריאת שמע על המטה! Sing a niggun, a serious niggun and that will bring out.\" Just like it says, קול מעורר הכוונה, voice saying words is מעורר, singing a niggun is מעורר even more. That's why sometimes when you hear somebody else sing a niggun, it awakens you, it brings hisorerut to you. This is, but that's why when it comes to serious, by simcha also, it has to be an אמת'ע שמחה coming from the nefesh, that is through a niggun, but through an אמת'ע ניגון that has a true meaning. And this all started mainly at the time of the Baal Shem Tov, and later it went on to other chasidim, including the Alter Rebbe. We know the Alter Rebbe, with Chabad, he started Chabad niggunim. The Alter Rebbe himself was מחבר made 10 niggunim, we all know. The Alter Rebbe was a געוואלדיקער בעל מנגן. All the rebbes were. There is, the Frierdiker Rebbe writes a sicha that when the Alter Rebbe would sing a niggun, anybody who walked by would stop, couldn't move. Just couldn't leave, couldn't walk away because the geshmakkeit and the feeling that was there was so great with the Alter Rebbe's niggunim. And the Alter Rebbe accomplished a lot of things through niggunim. We know the famous story that when the Alter Rebbe came to Shklov, once for having a ויכוח with people with the opponents and he said like how to be a ויכוח? But the first thing by the ויכוח they said to the Alter Rebbe. So, what they said to the Alter Rebbe was, the first thing they wanted to do is, \"Let's we test you.\" They wanted to test him, see did he know how to learn. So they So the Alter Rebbe said to them, \"Okay, ask me questions.\" So for a few days in a row they asked him questions, and he says, \"I won't answer you. Then after I finish hearing all the questions, I'll answer.\" After a few days, nu, time came to answer, so the Alter Rebbe said to them, \"What would you rather have? I should answer your questions, or I should sing a nigun?\" And they said, \"You know what? Sing a nigun.\" And this was told by somebody who was there. I think Reb' Pinchas Reizes was sitting there. And the Alter Rebbe started singing a nigun. I don't know which nigun, I imagined that it's probably the Alter Rebbe's nigun, but I'm not sure. And all the people who were sitting there, the big gedolim of Shklov, said that while he was singing the nigun, all their kashyos that they had in their minds started becoming answered. And when the nigun was finished, they had no more kushyos. The koach of singing the nigun from the depth of the Alter Rebbe's heart with the truth, that opened up their minds, not only their hearts, their minds, that they were able to understand things that they didn't understand before. And then the Alter Rebbe explained it, it's all based on the מראה מקום, wherever, he explained it, but this is all with the Alter Rebbe singing nigunim. And the same thing with the other Rebbeim. We know that all the Rebbeim had a chush in negina. All had were mechaber songs, made songs, or not even made songs, but the certain songs that they stressed very much, and that's known as their song. The Rebbe we know was could bagashmiyus pashut was able to sing very well. I heard from somebody that ת״ש-א, ת״ש, ת״ש-א when the Previous Rebbe came to America, the Previous Rebbe by the farbrengen asked, this was before the Rebbe came, the Previous Rebbe asked let them sing they should sing the Beinoni. To sing the, the Previous Rebbe loved the nigun the Beinoni, that's why it's even known as his nigun. And the people here in America, some started singing, they didn't know exactly, it wasn't so good. So the Previous Rebbe turned around, he said, \"Wait, wait. Soon soon my son-in-law is coming,\" this was before the Rebbe came, \"Er iz a bal menagen, er vet aykh vayzn vi azoy tsu zingen. He'll show you.\" I heard this from somebody who said that, I heard this from Reb' Binyamin Levitin, because he was there by the farbrengen by the Frierdiker Rebbe. He heard the Frierdiker Rebbe say it. \"My איידעם he'll teach you how to sing.\" Because the inyan of nigunim has this depth that it's able to express certain things that you can't express any other way. And this is what the whole idea of nigunim is. Now, in nigunim itself, bichlal we have two kinds. Not talking about the kind that we mentioned before, stupid nigunim and nigunim that mean something, I mean within the real, real nigunim. Nigunim that have a meaning and express a lot, there are nigunim with words and nigunim without words. And we know that the nigunim without words are deeper, have a deeper meaning than the nigunim with words. And the reason is because nigunim with words express what the words say. When you have words, you're expressing something in words. So, just like we said before that when you say things, it's limited to what you're saying and there's not more. So when you sing a nigun with words, as much as it expresses much deeper than just saying the words, and it has the feeling that's there in the nigunim, in the nigun, but still limited to the words. The words contain it and hold it within, they're מגביל it, they limit it to what it is. But nigunim without words have much more feeling, have much more meaning, because they express something which is not limited. Now, it doesn't mean that in Lubavitch we don't have nigunim with words. We have a lot of nigunim that are with words, that the Rebbeim themselves were מחבר, the Alter Rebbe himself was מחבר ניגונים with words. But even the nigunim with words are much deeper, they're more on the style of Chabad than others. But certainly the nigunim without words, they express, even when they express a certain idea, but they express it without a limit. For instance, the Alter Rebbe's nigun. The Alter Rebbe's nigun is known, special nigun, we only sing it at certain times, it's the holy nigun. But there is a meaning to the nigun. The nigun has four parts to it, and there's a whole explanation that it depends it refers to, it's parallel to the ד׳ עולמות, to אצילות, בריאה, יצירה, עשיה, all kinds of ענינים. But when you sing that nigun, cause it doesn't have words, as much as it expresses these ענינים, it's not limited to it. It expresses it in a much deeper feeling, much more from the עצם הנפש. Take for instance, Shamil's niggunim that the Rebbe taught. Now, this niggun has a deep a meaning to it. There's a reason for the niggun. And the Rebbe explained what the niggun means, that it was a mashal to the neshamah coming down to this world, feels bad, remembering how it was in that world up there before it came down, and then how it feels down here, and then how it has the feeling of the future that it's going to come back. It's true. But when you sing it, if it would have words, and the words would say this, it wouldn't have that much feeling as it is without the words, because then you're not really limited, as much as this is what you're trying to bring out, but it has the feeling more of the עצם הנפש. And the bottom line is that from all, whichever way we look at it, the niggunim are supposed to bring out a closeness of a Yid to Hashem. It's supposed to bring out a simchah that he has in Hashem, the געגועים, the desire, the feeling he has to Hashem, which automatically brings a person to change his ways, to become better. So singing niggunim in the right way is a form of avodat Hashem. It's a form of a person getting closer to Hashem. בכלל, the concept of singing niggunim, of neginah,

we know is one of the שבע חכמות. We know that besides the Torah, which is חכמת התורה, this the greatest חכמה, there are seven חכמות in the world. I don't even know if I remember them offhand, which they are: the חכמה of astronomy, the חכמה of חשבון which is math, the חכמת הטבע which is science, the חכמה of art, the חכמה of רפואה, and the חכמה of neginah, and there must be a seventh one. Oh, languages, right. Oh, here we have them all seven, good. And then we have the חכמת התורה. One of them is חכמה of neginah. Now, these seven חכמות are not kedushah, they're not holy, we're not talking about Torah now, we're talking about חכמות of the world. Art is not kedushah. Math is not kedushah. But these are not, chas veshalom, things which are on the other side. That's in the middle, and they could be elevated, they could be used for either kedushah, or used for other things. Which, על פי חסידות, it would be under the category of קליפת נוגה. We have the level of kedushah, things which are holy are kedushah. Then we have things which are forbidden, the שלש קליפות הטמאות לגמרי. Then we have things which are קליפת נוגה. Anything which is not holy, but not forbidden, is called קליפת נוגה. And קליפת נוגה is something that you could elevate to kedushah. If you use it for not for a holy purpose, you lower it. Even a simple thing like eating a piece of bread. A piece of bread is not holy. Matzah on Pesach has a special thing, but a piece of bread is not holy. It's not forbidden, so it depends on the person. If you eat it לשם שמים, with the proper intentions of serving Hashem, you make a berachah, then you elevate it. Chas veshalom you eat it, we're not talking about treif food, kasher food, you eat it for a ta'avah, and if certainly if you don't make a berachah, then you lower it. The same is with neginah. When we're talking about using nigunim as a means of serving Hashem, it's not taking something that's a mitzvah and using it to serve Hashem. We're taking something that's קליפת נוגה, something that's a worldly matter, it's one of the seven chachamot of the world, which is not holy, and utilizing it, bringing it up, and using it for Hashem. Just like a person could use cheshbon to serve Hashem if he uses math to understand קידוש החודש, astronomy, there's קידוש החודש, math to understand eruvin, or בכלל for other things which is to serve Hashem. And because of that, because we're saying that neginah is קליפת נוגה and you take it to serve Hashem, we find something else interesting with nigunim. There are some nigunim, and maybe many nigunim, which were actually taken from גוים. We know there are some nigunim that the רביים sang, chasidim sang, and they were taken from גוים. For instance, there is a famous song, not in Lubavitch actually, but Hungarian chasidim. It's the holiest song that that's there. I don't think, I don't know if I pronounce the words right, a kakas szól már, that's how it starts. That's What is the word? Szól. Szól, szól a kakas már. That's from the Kaliver Rebbe. The Kaliver Rebbe was in the time of the Maggid. He heard a goyishe shepherd singing this nigun. And the nigun meant, had so much depth. So he asked him to teach him the nigun, and he taught him the nigun, and after he taught him the nigun, the shepherd forgot it. And now it's a nigun that's used, you only sing it certain special times in order to express your feeling to Hashem. The Alter Rebbe took the nigun from Napoleon, Napoleon's march, and turned it into a חסידישע ניגון. And what the way the story goes, when the Alter Rebbe started singing it, Napoleon's army stopped. The Rebbe took the Marseillaise from France and made it into a חסידישע ניגון. And the truth is, this is the the French national anthem, but that year when the Rebbe took it, they made a certain change in that song. Which also shows that this is the idea of taking a nigun from קליפת נוגה and elevating it, and bringing it to kedushah, and using it for kedushah. Because bichlal everything in the world is created to serve Hashem, these things are created to serve Hashem, so the concept of nigunim is also created to serve Hashem. So if there is a nigun with meaning that could be used to serve Hashem, this was the idea. So some of them were done by Rebbeim, some were done by great Chassidim. Not everybody could do it. Not anybody who would decide, \"Oh, I hear a song, it's on the radio, or l'havdil from a goy, and I'll start singing it, and I'll daven with it, and I'll make a this and that, it'll become.\" An individual, we are not in that madregah to elevate these nigunim. But the Rebbeim and the great Chassidim were able to elevate the nigunim to use them to serve Hashem. Because they're originally קליפת נוגה, which is able to be elevated. And among the inyanim of קליפת נוגה, this is easier to elevate than other things. Because even though it's one of the inyanim of the world, which is not kedushah, but it's from the more refined inyanim of the world. In קליפת נוגה itself you have different levels. You have something that's very coarse. The Gemara says, Chassidut explains, that a piece of meat is קליפת נוגה. If it's kasher meat, it's not evil, it's not treif, it's not holy, it's klipat nogah. But it's a very coarse object of klipat nogah. That's why it says it's very hard to elevate it. Got to be careful. Not everybody is able to do it. Gemara says, עם הארץ אסור לאכול בשר. An am haaretz should not eat meat because he can't elevate it. And then there are finer things within the world which are closer the finer it is, the closer it is to kedushah. Neginah is one of the closest things to kedushah. It's klipat nogah, but it's the closest thing. Actually, it says in sefarim that the היכל הנגינה למעלה, there is a chamber called the chamber of neginah, happens to be very, very close to the chamber of teshuvah. This is why there's a I don't know if it's a joke or it's true, they say in the name of gedolim, that why does the velt say, \"ale chazanim zenen naranim\"? All the chazanim are fools. They say the word chazan, it's a ראשי תיבות, חזנים זענען נאראנים. But why is it? What's their foolishness? We see plenty chazanim who are smart. So they say, well, this is why: if you're in the היכל הנגינה, you're in that chamber of neginah, you're so close to the היכל התשובה, why don't you go in? Frak! You're so close! This is just a joke, but the idea here that neginah is very, very close to kedushah. It's very eydel. Because we do find eydele things in der velt. For instance, just here is another example of a eydele thing in the world. One of the chushim a person has, one of the senses, is smell. And it's a gashmiyusdike thing, it's not strictly ruchniyus. Nevertheless, the smell and the sense of smell is much eydeler, it's more refined than the ability of eating or hearing or seeing. That's why you know there is no taavah in smelling. It's a funny thing. There is a taavah in eating, the yetzer hara wants you to eat non-kosher food, even kosher food, there's a taavah there. There's a taavah to look at things that you shouldn't. There's a taavah to hear things. There's a taavah to hear lashon hara. You hear a guy speaking lashon hara, you come over, \"Yeah, yeah.\" What's the taavah? There is no taavah in smelling. They say that once somebody brought the Alter Rebbe a present, a טאבאק פושקעלע, a little box, a silver tobacco box to sniff tobacco. The Alter Rebbe said he's not going to use it for tobacco. What he did was, he took out the pin and used the cover, it was so smooth and so shiny that he used it to make his tefillin straight. And he said, \"Why are you not going to use it for tobacco?\" So he said like this, you know, \"איין אבר אין מענטשן וואס איז נישט קיין בעל תאוה, וויל מען נאך אים אָנשטאָפּן מיט תאוה?\" There's one limb in the person that's not a בעל תאוה, and that's the nose. The nose, there's no ta'avah in smelling. It's a geshmak, and people like it, but there's no ta'avah in it. \"וויל מען נאך אָנשטאָפּן מיט תאוה\", you want to fill it up with ta'avah? So he didn't use it. But this is an example of a gashmiyusdike thing, but it's very close to ruchniyus. That's why it says that when you smell a good smell, it's דבר שהנשמה נהנית. Interesting, the neshamah has pleasure, has benefit. That's why Motzaei Shabbos, we have to smell besamim. Why? Because the נשמה יתירה, your extra neshamah left you, so the neshamah feels bad, so to make the neshamah feel good, the neshamah to feel good, you smell besamim. But the body smells, not the neshamah, but it's an איידעלע thing, that's why it's closer. Neginah is an איידעלע, it's part of this olam hazeh, it's part of the things of the world. It's קליפת נוגה, it's not kedushah, but it's one of the איידעלערע ענינים and most refined ענינים in in קליפת נוגה, and that's why you're able to elevate it much faster. And it was, it was elevated, many of them were used for kedushah. And because of that, this expresses your nefesh much more, because it's an איידעלערע thing. Even before you elevate it, in דער שיינע איידעלע זאך, a איידעלערע thing. So this is closer to your nefesh, and it's able to express your nefesh more. And then there's another thing when it comes to nigunim. When a person sings a nigun, and if he sings it properly, he puts his whole being into it. You're never, because we said, it's expression of your nefesh. A person who composes a song puts himself very much into it. There is part of him in that song. Much more than when a person writes a book. We know when a person writes a book, in order for the book to come out good, you have to put yourself in. And when you read the book, by reading the book, you get something of the author. There is some connection that you have to the author. It's lehavdil like the אויבערשטער did. In the Torah, the אויבערשטער said, אנא נפשי כתבית יהבית, I wrote myself into the Torah. When you learn a Torah, you have Hashem there. אותי אתם לוקחים, we take Hashem in the Torah. When you really read a book lehavdil, you take the author, which basically means when a person reads a book, to use the simple words, he gets mekushar to that author. By nigunim, it's much more. When you sing a song of somebody, of a person who composed it, you become connected to that person who composed it. And that's one of the forms of hitkashrut to a tzadik. If you want to be mekushar to a tzadik, it says, learn his Torah. Why learn his Torah? Because he put his being into the Torah, so when you learn it, you're connected. When you sing a song that he composed, or a song that he sang a lot, which means it was his, he became part of him, then you connect yourself to this tzadik. Because it's something that is connected deep into the person, even deeper than other things. But on the other hand, because of that, if you sing a song that was composed by some שיכור'ער גוי, or composed by who knows who, then you get mekushar to that goy. So if you sing a song of who knows who, you're mekushar, you're connected to that goy. And here, that goy put himself in more than he put himself if you read his book. And here, it has an effect on your nefesh much more than it has an effect when you read a book. Because you're taking something so fine, so eidel, and that is where you have more of the person, and that is used for the wrong things, then certainly there is it has a worse effect. Just like there's a mashal given that when you have a stain on a silk garment, a smaller stain is worse on a silk garment than a big stain on a cloth garment. This concept of song is silk. And when this connection that you have is to with this inyan of this type of silk, To some who goy or who, some freier guy or who knows what, then the connection is much worse, the stain is much worse than the stain that you would have if you would read his book or read something of his, his philosophy, because this is something that really has him in it. So you get connected to this, who knows, this shikor a goy, and Rachmana litzlan, who wants to have that? On the other hand, when you have a connection, when you have a song of a tzadik, and you connect, you sing it and you connect it to the tzadik, because he put himself in, and you connect yourself to him. And when you connect yourself to him, and you sing the song, it helps you to express what the song is supposed to express much more, because here you have, besides the song itself, you have the help of that tzadik that helps you, just like התקשרות בכלל, connected to a tzadik it helps you. And this is the idea of singing songs.

So getting back to the beginning, singing a nigun is a form of avodat Hashem. That is why in the Beit Hamikdash, when they brought the korbanot, and the epitome of avodat Hashem was the Beit Hamikdash, it was done through song. They had, they sang songs בשעת מעשה, the Leviim sang songs, because this is the way a person expresses himself. In davenen, פסוקי דזמרה is song. That's what it is. We don't say it. The truth is the Sephardim do say it in the form of a song. Originally it was songs. And these are songs which are a preparation to שמונה עשרה. You can't get to קריאת שמע and Shemoneh Esrei if you don't go through Pesukei Dezimra. And especially when you have songs without words, that has even more. That's what the Alter Rebbe said, why didn't he put zemirot into the siddur? Friday night, Shabbos morning, shalosh seudot, everybody has all kinds of zemirot. And in the Lubavitch Siddur all you find is Friday night you find אזמר בשבחין, שבת morning אסדר לסעודתא, and then you have בני היכלא. But all the other zemirot, not. And they asked the Alter Rebbe, why didn't you put it in? So he said, what I want the chasidim to do by the table is to sing nigunim. And he said these words: ניגון איז העכער פון זמרה. Nigun is higher than zemirah. Zemirah really refers to, refers to songs with words, and nigun refers to songs without words. And to sing a song without words is higher. And when a person wants to express his feeling to Hashem on Shabbos, so the Alter Rebbe said, I would like that they should sing nigunim. They do say that later years he said that had he known that they wouldn't sing so many nigunim, maybe he should have put in the zemirot. Which means that he really wanted them to sing nigunim by the table Shabbos, because this is the way we express ourselves. And this is not, and we find many stories of the Rebbeim concerning different nigunim. For instance, there is a story that the Frierdiker Rebbe writes in the רשימה that in תרע״א he was in the city of, with his father, the Rebbe Rashab, in Menton, Menton in France. That's a place, a a a resort area that the Rebbe used to go for health, used to go there many times. And he had a house that he always stayed in the same house there. Actually, I was in that house, I saw it, I was there a few years ago. This Menton is right next to Nice, and I was in Nice, so we specially went over. The whole area, all the houses that used to stand there years ago were all knocked down, they're all big high-rises now. And there's one house that they, for some reason, they didn't break, they didn't knock down. Old goyah lives there, and this is the house of the Rebbe נ״ע where he used to stay. And the way he describes, the Frierdiker Rebbe, where the Rebbe sat on the porch there, we were on that porch, where he said that he started writing ע״ב on that porch, and on the bottom he describes a little yard with the etrog tree, it's mamash there the way it used to be then. And the the the Frierdiker Rebbe said that his father told him in תרע״א that, I remember when I was here, he said, in תרמ״ו. תרמ״ו was three years after his father, the Rebbe Maharash passed away. And the Rebbe נ״ע said that, I was here, and I happened to pass by the park, there was a park not far from there, and I saw a חסיד, Rabbi Zalman Lakshin, Lakashzin, I forgot his name, something like that, old chasid, and I saw him sitting here, and I watched him, and he didn't notice me. He was sitting there with his closed eyes, and he was singing a nigun, a very, very הארציקע ניגון, and I saw tears, tears coming down his eyes. And I watched him for a half hour, he said, and I saw the expression of a chasid who feels for his great longing towards his Rebbe who had passed away, because it was three years after the the Rebbe Maharash passed away. I saw it, in the nigun you saw the feeling, you could see this is what it was, this is what this nigun was. And he, and in תרע״א, which is close to 20 years later, the Rebbe Rashab still had that feeling and he said, I still remember like now how I saw it, how what kind of an impression it made on me hearing that song from him. And we have many other songs, and have different, all kinds of expressions. For instance the Michael Zlatchever's nigun, that Rabbi Michael Zlatchever sang it in the time of the Baal Shem Tov. And the Baal Shem Tov asked, before the Baal Shem Tov passed away on Shavuos, the day he passed away, he asked that they should sing that nigun. And the Baal Shem Tov called it the התעוררות רחמים רבים ניגון, the nigun that he awaked רחמים רבים, and he said, where when wherever I will be, in any היכל, in any chamber up there in שמים I will be, and anybody who will be in need of something, and will sing this nigun, this this nigun, but he added, with a התעוררות תשובה אמיתית, with a true feeling of teshuvah, wherever I will be, I will come to help him. And that's this nigun. Then we have other nigunim that we that we know goes back all the way to those generations: nigun of Rabbi the שפאלער זיידע which is קול ביער which has words, but it has such depth, the the האפ קאזאק and other nigunim. Even Chabad nigunim go back to so many years, the nigun that we know Simchas Torah that we sing which is known as the רבי'ס פאטער'ס ניגון, The Rebbe's father used to always sing it, they used to sing it by הקפות by the Alter Rebbe, going back over 200 years. But and many of the nigunim we have the explanations of what they mean, but if you sing it properly, it has such a great meaning and it could accomplish within the נפש of a person much more than sitting down and learning. And that's why those people that would say, \"It's ביטול תורה! How could you sit down and sing nigunim?\" It's not bitul Torah. It could make you learn Torah much more. It helps, it makes you, gives you a chayut, a feeling. And that has chassidim by a farbrengen. What's a farbrengen? You sit down, you say l'chaim, and someone speaks דברי תורה, דברי חסידות. But part of the time you spend on singing nigunim. And I think that the part that you sing nigunim has a greater effect than the part of the talking. Talking, you talk all day, you say shiurim, we learn chassidus, we learn נגלה, we learn Gemara, we learn Shulchan Aruch, all kinds of things. The time when you sing, and you sing seriously, that has a bigger effect on the person, that could make a person change. The most important time of the week, עפ״י קבלה, the most important time of the whole week, עפ״י קבלה, is the time of Shabbos between Mincha and Maariv. That's called רעוא דרעוין. What do chassidim do? Now, some other chassidim have a tish, שלש סעודות, which also What is part of the שלש סעודות? Singing nigunim. But in Lubavitch, we don't have that tish of שלש סעודות. So what's the custom by Lubavitch in all years up to now? That Shabbos between Mincha and Maariv, the most serious moment of Shabbos, you sit around the table and you sing nigunim, especially hartsike nigunim. And then in the middle someone chazart a maamar. But at that time you sing nigunim. Why so? And people are walking in and can't understand. \"You have the people together and everyone is there. Take out a sefer and learn a sefer!\" When you chazar a maamar, I understand, so you're learning something. \"But take out a sefer and learn all the time, why sing nigunim?\" Because that time, which is the best time of the week, the most hartsikste time, and the time that you can accomplish the most, what do you do? You sing nigunim. Because these nigunim can affect a person and bring him to higher מדרגות than anything else, if it's done properly. And this is why the Baal Shem Tov established singing niggunim. But one need is for the simcha aspect of it, the simcha niggunim, that you should serve with an emes, and also that these are such הארציקע things that have an effect on a person's nefesh, and it could elevate a person's nefesh to such מדרגות that other things can't. And if we do it properly, and we sing to the Baal Shem Tov, and take whatever we do, while the Baal Shem Tov's back to us, so he sings to us, and together these two songs meet and they go up. And we hope this will all turn into a very big song, the song that will be sung when Mashiach will come, bimheirah beyameinu. When did they lose the שירה or tune for Tehillim? You mean the trop? I don't know that. I mean, after so many, many years, I I can't say when, I don't know. The truth is, the Alter Rebbe knew it. The Alter Rebbe knew the trop, the tune. It's very hard. No, no, no, I'm sure he heard it from somebody who taught it, he didn't hear it from the שמים. He taught it to the רב״ש. The רב״ש, Baruch Shalom, the Tzemach Tzedek's oldest son, who was the Rebbe's great-great-grandfather. He taught him. It was very hard, it's very hard. But it's true, it's one of the things. We see when you read the Torah, there's a tune. Calls it, and it's one of the important things that נקודות, תגין, טעמים, ואותיות. It's תג, טעמים, the trop, which is a song. That's very important. Lubavitch has, by ברכת כהנים, which is made up of two parts, two parts, one of the two, we don't know which one, one of the two is מיוחס that the כהנים in the Beis Hamikdash used this for ברכת כהנים. There are two parts to it, higher and lower, so one of the two, that's what's known. That's halacha leMoshe miSinai? The trop, yeah. The trop is halacha leMoshe miSinai. Goes back to when the Eibershter gave the Torah, He gave the trop. Yeah, the trop is halacha leMoshe miSinai. Goes back to מתן תורה, yeah. Oh, that's It's all versions. It's all the same. It's like the Hebrew itself. You have ספרדית, you have אשכנזית, you have Polish and Russian, but it's all versions of the same thing. Here also, if you look, the trop is all the same. A רביע is the same, a פאזער is the same. It's just with a little little twist, the musical, it's there. It's all versions, but it's all the same. It's הלכה למשה מסיני. Thank you.