"Some people even tell me that they “hate” chazzanus. They don’t know what they’re missing"
Just name a song, and Berel Tondowski, a music lover and longtime salesman at Mostly Music in Boro Park, will tell you who sings it, who wrote it, when it was released, and all the albums you can find it on. Berel isn’t just on the sidelines though — he also sings in the choir at Boro Park’s Young Israel Beth-El (formerly Temple Beth-El) with Chazzan Benzion Miller.
The choir in shul. Spending Yom Tov without the tefillos of the chazzan and the choir was very, very different.
The famous “Daled Bavos” niggun of the Baal HaTanya is very deep. And the old Karliner niggunim, especially “Kah Echsof,” plus some of the Modzhitzer and Gerrer niggunim by Reb Yankel Talmud, are all sure to move me.
Today, I wish I had learned an instrument as a kid – but maybe it’s not too late now. Definitely not the drums, but who knows, maybe guitar or piano?
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