Zeev Kitzis - Shabbat Bi-shabbato Chaye Sarah 5774
As is well known, Chassidim believe that a story has the power to "provide salvation," to enhance life and redemption in the world, and to create a spiritual movement that would not be possible with speech and explanations alone. The Chassidic tune works in a very similar way, in that it can strum on the cords of the soul and engrave on it in a way that would not have been possible in any other way.
In Chassidut many lessons can be learned about the power of a tune, about which it can be said that "its high level is beyond the imagination" (Rabbi Nachman of Breslev, Sichot Haran, 273). The earliest testimony about the sanctity of a melody in Chassidut seems to be that of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Efraim, the grandson of the Baal Shem Tov. He taught that his grandfather would say, "When the other nations sing songs, they are all filled with fear and love, wearing a garment from down below" [Degel Machaneh Efraim, Torah portion of Vayeira]. We will occupy ourselves today with a story about a melody, and specifically one that is sung by other nations.
Such a story that shows the power of a tune is to be found in a small and inexpensive book of stories published at the end of the nineteenth century, called "Tales and Talks of Tzadikim."
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A wealthy man once asked the Baal Shem Tov to raise his son in his house for a fee for three years, on condition that the Baal Shem Tov would take the son along on all of his trips. During that time, the Baal Shem Tov did not go on any trips, but a short time before the end of the three years, at the end of one Shabbat, the Baal Shem Tov decided to take a trip to an unknown place, taking the boy with him. Before midnight, the wagon stopped at a wayside inn. The Baal Shem Tov went to his room to sleep, and the young boy, left alone, started to sing a melody in a pleasant and quiet voice.
A Gentile who was in the inn that night heard the singing. He asked the boy to sing louder, and he said that he would dance and pay for the drinks of the other Gentiles who were there. The boy agreed on condition that the Baal Shem Tov would give him permission. When he received the permission the owner of the inn would put him on a table to sing.
The Baal Shem Tov agreed, and the innkeeper stood the boy up on a table. The Gentile asked the boy, "What is your name?" The boy answered, "Moshke." He began to sing a pleasant song, and the man danced and shouted, "You are Moshke, and I am Ivan!" He bought a large amount of beverage and gave it to all the other Gentiles who were there. The dance and the song continued for a long time. Afterwards, the Baal Shem Tov returned home, and the young boy went back to his father's house.
Many years later, when the young boy had become a wealthy merchant himself, he was captured by murderous robbers who brought him to their leader, the robber chief. When he saw the merchant, the chief recognized him, and he asked, "Is your name Moshke?" The man said, "Yes." And the chief asked, "Do you recognize me?" And the man replied, "No." So the chief said, "Have you forgotten? You sang and I danced!" And the man replied, "That's right! You danced, and you shouted, You are Moshke, I am Ivan. Now I remember!"
Moshke's life was saved, and he was even given all of his money back, and a generous gift too.
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This story was told in order to show the power of the Baal Shem Tov, a Tzadik who knew mystic secrets, who acted taking the future into account and who did something to save Moshke years before he was actually in danger. But it is also a story about the power of a Chassidic melody, the tune that the young boy sang, which in the end saved his life.
Not only did the melody save Moshke's life, it also linked together two complete opposites in a remarkable way – Moshke and Ivan sing together. The tune links an innocent boy to a coarse adult. It links a Gentile and a Jew, an evil person and a Tzadik. It also links the past with the future.
Just as in the story of Moshke and Ivan, the Chassidic melody is not always a creation that appears in a Beit Midrash, and Gentiles often participate in it too. The ability of the melody to combine the coarse and the pure, the physical and the sublime, is what led the Chassidim to see the movements connected to a song as a way of mending the material world. This is also the reason that the sources of some well-known Chassidic melodies come from saloons, and they sometimes even include the irritating words of the Russian drunkards, such as "Don't worry, comrades... We will get to the saloon, we will fill our glasses..." Because of such words the melodies bear testimony to the fact that a melody has a power which is pure, unifying, and clean, and that it can combine the lowliest places in the world and in the soul to perfection, purity, and holiness. In the above story, it is Ivan, a lowly and dirty "uncircumcised" Gentile, who reminds Moshke of the melody which he himself has forgotten. By their joint action the tune is redeemed. The miraculous combination rescues Moshke from death and brings redemption to the world.
