GALLERY: “The Voice of Song and Salvation in the Tents of Tzaddikim”

“The voice of song and salvation in the tents of Tzaddikim.”  Last Monday on the night of 9 Iyar, the engagement celebration of the grandson of our Rebbe R’ Eliezer Berland shlit”a took place in Beit Shemesh.  The groom-to-be was Avraham Rubinstein, the son of Rav Natan Rubinstein and grandson of the spiritual mentor Rav Yehoshua Rubinstein.

The engagement took place in the “Tov HaChesed” event hall in the Rama A’ neighborhood in Beit Shemesh, and at 12:45 am Rav Berland arrived, entering to the song “Length of days and years of life should be multiplied for you,” and the song, “Sameach Tesamach” and he sat down at his holy place at the table of honor.  Immediately after the song, the Rav began giving over a fiery shiur about the level of bride and groom and of dancing and holy melodies.  Below is a small section from the shiur:

“At the engagement, the Chatam Sofer says, the groom is the Kohen Gadol (High Priest], and every blessing that he says, in Heaven they are obligated to approve this blessing, and it is fulfilled…”

“Then, the more that a person sings melodies, Rabbeinu says, 'Fortunate is he who contemplates the needy' – that only through niggunim (holy melodies), he can draw all the wisdoms in the world – 'and know that through niggun, he arouses all the souls…'"

So, over the course of an hour, the Rav showered upon us his holy words.  After an hour, he began to sing “Sameach Tesamach…,” singing for around an hour and fifteen minutes together with the entire congregation which arrived to take part in the celebration of these families of tzaddikim.  Amidst the song, the Rav shlit”a wrote the Tanaim [conditions] document and instructed his grandson, the groom-to-be, to do a kinyan (halachic legal acquisition) with the Rav’s shtreimel hat. After singing which lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, at 3 am in the morning the Rav left the celebration with the song “Or Zarua L’Tzaddik…” [“Light is sown for the Tzaddik”] and returned to the holy city of Jerusalem, with a procession of cars fitting for royalty escorting him in his return to his holy dwelling.