Aside from being a popular singer, you’re a baal tefillah on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Yes. I’ve been davening Maariv for the amud on the first night of Rosh Hashanah and Musaf on all three days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in the Krasna beis midrash for the past four years. Krasna has a very nice tzibbur. They sing along during the davening; it’s very varem. There are some very ehrliche and chashuve yungeleit who daven there. Before that, I davened in Krula by Rav Moshe Chaim Gold.
Which nusach do you daven?
It’s a nusach I’ve developed after working on it for many years and listening to some of the best baalei tefillah in the world. Once in a while I’ll throw in some chazanus, but I try to stick to more of a baal tefillah style so people feel that they can daven along with it.
Reb Meir Boruch Cohen mixes the style of a baal tefillah with chazanus.
I listened to him for many years and learned a lot from him. In Williamsburg, we didn’t get to hear genuine baalei tefillah. Growing up, we would daven in Satmar, first by the Divrei Yoel and then by the Beirach Moshe. That was a very warm but rebbishe style of davening. So I had to nosh from here and there to come up with my own style.
They say that the Divrei Yoel was a good baal tefillah. Maybe not with respect to his voice, but to his nusach.
He had a very special ne’imus. In his later years, when he wasn’t well, it was hard to hear him, but he still had that ne’imus that really hit you. I don’t know if he was musical, but he clearly understood a good niggun. I heard that his gabba’im once put on a recording of Yossele Rosenblatt singing his lively “V’chol Maaminim.” When the Rebbe came out of his room, they quickly turned it off, but the Rebbe said that they should turn it back on. He listened to the whole thing and enjoyed it. “You see?” he said. “It’s possible to make a “V’chol Maaminim” like this as well.”
Is there a direct connection between your singing and your davening?
Davening is a very different experience. I sing all the time, but when it comes to davening for the amud on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it’s a completely different mood as well as style. The performance is also very different; it’s like entering another world. When I’m standing at the amud I don’t feel boxed in; I can do whatever I want. By contrast, at a chasunah where there’s music and a choir, I feel like I have to conform. It isn’t terrible, but I still feel limited. At the amud, you can improvise however you like.
Wouldn’t that apply to davening for the amud all year round?
Yes, but it’s especially true on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. That’s why there are big singers and chazanim who won’t daven for the amud on the Yomim Nora’im.
I once told Chazan Benzion Miller, who I hope is going to start davening for the amud again, that when he goes up to the amud he becomes a completely different person. “No,” he corrected me. “That’s where I’m really myself. It’s after I leave the amud that I become a different person.”
That’s very true. It’s a unique experience. Do you know why the davening on the second day of Rosh Hashanah is often much better than the first day? It’s because you’re already in that mindset.
Do you also daven Selichos for the amud?
Yes. The Lelover Rebbe of Boro Park is mechabed me with the amud. I consider him my rebbe. Selichos is supposed to start at 1:00 a.m., but sometimes it doesn’t start until seven in the morning. For the past couple of years, the Rebbe has had someone call me half an hour before they actually begin. That way, I can stay home until they need me.
Lelov has its own nusach, correct?
They do, but the Rebbe lets me do certain things I want to do, even though I have to daven more quickly than I otherwise would. The Rebbe will also sometimes tell me to sing various pieces.
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