Intricate, beautiful, majestic, and inspiring.
The rarefied atmosphere of the Yamim Noraim, a blend of awe and longing and intense prayer, is closely tied to the solemn tunes and the stirring words. The power of a niggun to awaken our hearts is a blessing which comes into its own at this auspicious time of year.
The niggun I most enjoy singing around our Rosh Hashanah seudah table is “Mechalkeil Chayim,” which I learned as a young boy listening to Modzitzer Favorites Volume 2, and which I had the zechus to sing alongside Reb Ben Zion Shenker a”h in the presence of the Modzitzer Rebbe at a gathering hosted a few years ago by my friend Reb Shmuel Dovid Spira. The niggun is intricate, beautiful, majestic, and inspiring. We say this tefillah three times a day, but Klal Yisrael has a special minhag to sing “Mechalkeil Chayim” on the Yamim Noraim, reflecting our acknowledgement at these critical moments of Hashem’s awesome power and loving-kindness. Singing the remarkable words of our daily Shemoneh Esreh to this particular niggun brings out the grandeur of the Yamim Noraim like no other niggun I can think of.
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 726)
