His melodies carry the depth and flavor of old-time chassidish niggunim into the future
The world of chassidic music lost one of its senior composers last month, with the passing of Vizhnitzer chassid and prolific composer Rabbi Yitzchok Ungar of Bnei Brak. While many dozens of his niggunim are sung at Vizhnitzer tishen, several have made their way to a much broader audience, through popular albums including Motti Steinmetz’s Atik Yomin and Yosef Moshe Kahana’s L’Chaim Tish series. Reb Yitzchok, who was born in 1939 in prewar Pressburg (Bratislava), the city of the Chasam Sofer dynasty, survived the war as a child, hiding with his mother and siblings under a closet for seven months. He later said that his composition for “Mah Nishtanah” was inspired by the memories he had of those critical days.
Arriving in Eretz Yisrael after World War II, Yitzchok found himself attracted to chassidus, and would frequent the tishen of such Chassidic giants as the Beis Yisrael of Gur and Rav Aharon of Belz. When he left Yerushalayim for Bnei Brak to learn in the yeshivah of Rav Shmuel HaLevi Wosner, he discovered the tish of the Imrei Chaim of Vizhnitz, and subsequently became a frequent visitor to the Rebbe’s court — and then a full-fledged Vizhnitzer chassid. The Imrei Chaim loved and appreciated Reb Yitzchok’s compositions. Among the most widespread of his hundreds of tunes are the slow “Ach le’Elokim Domi Nafshi” (generally attribute to Chabad), the Vizhnitz “Yehei Raava,” and “La’asos Retzoncha Chafatzti.” He was also responsible for a slow and pensive “Racheim Bechasdecha,” which the Ribnitzer Rebbe said had a powerful effect in Heaven.
Reb Yitzchok was respected in the community as a talmid chacham, and earned a living as a sofer. He continued to offer new songs to the Vizhnitz court for decades after the passing of the Imrei Chaim, singing at every tish of the Yeshuos Moshe (the Imrei Chaim’s son) as he stood right behind the Rebbe. And one of those niggunim was actually taught to him in a dream by the Imrei Chaim after he had passed away.
In 2013, before the marriage of the Belzer Rebbe’s oldest grandchild, the Rebbe, who is a son-in-law of the Yeshuos Moshe of Vizhnitz and spent the early days of his marriage in Bnei Brak, sent for Yitzchok Ungar and requested that he compose a new niggun in honor of the simchah.
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