"Our way is to connect with authentic chassidish warmth and flavor, and we believe that the koach haneginah can work without the audience understanding each word of what they’re singing"
RABBI ARYEH ROYDE is the director of Project Inspire for Rockland County and is the co-founder & director of the Traveling Chassidim, which brings a Shabbos of music and Torah to communities all over the United States
For our organization specifically, our entire kiruv approach is connected to music. When we come into a community, it’s not about giving speeches to our fellow Jews, but instead offering them experiential Yiddishkeit. We help people to live a Shabbos, and then they want more. For us, it’s all about neginah.
There are three types of music we use. The first is music to break the ice. We’re chassidish, and we really look chassidish, so when we begin we need to get people to lift up their eyes and actually look at who we are. So we often begin with a complex type of chassidic niggun to pique people’s interest. Another type is Carlebach-style, traditional sing-along songs in which the crowd can join, helping them to feel Shabbosdig. The third is the ultimate kind of neshamah song — niggunim like the Karliner “Kah Echsof.” We can only sing such songs after the crowd has warmed up and gotten into the Shabbos spirit — but once they have, they’ll respond to such niggunim even if they’ve never heard them before. So “Kah Echsof” has become kind of a litmus test: Is the crowd ready for it or not?
You never know what will touch a person. Years ago, in a community in Pennsylvania, we met a totally secular couple. They stayed in touch with us and we shared visits as they slowly transformed their lives and came closer to Torah. Today they are a strong frum couple who are mekarev others. This man was once interviewed, and said that “when the chassidim came for Shabbos and they were singing and banging on the table, I got all choked up. It reminded me of my own grandfather, who would sing and bang.” This man’s grandfather was a dayan back in Europe. I was amazed when I read that, because for years, I hadn’t known that what actually reached his heart was our banging on the table.
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