Nusach
A few years ago, late at night, I saw a frail Jew by the Holy
Wall who drew my attention. He really prayed. I waited until he
finished and he begain telling me he had arrived that day from
Russia after ten years in Siberia. I asked him, “How did you survive
Siberia?” He said, “I was singing all the time.” Suddenly I
had this flash and I asked, “Did you sing the songs of the Holy
Temple?” And he was quiet for a long time tears of ten years
of Siberia and maybe two thousand years of exile came out from
his holy eyes. And he said, “My whole family are Chassidim
from the time of the Baal Shem Tov, and my holy grandfather
told me in the name of the holy Baal Shem Tov,
of all the melodies we sing in shul today, only two remain from
the Holy Temple—the way we chant the Amidah on Shabbos,
and the way we chant the prayers for the High Holidays.
We chant these prayers the way King David sang them
—the way we were singing in the Holy Temple.”
by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach
Posted in: Personal Growth
