A Song of Memory: “Niggun Shel Gemara” – Roi Yadid & Talmidim of Yeshiva’s Mercaz Harav

No one can forget the horrible massacre of 8 holy boys in Yeshivat Merkaz Harav 7 years ago on Rosh Chodesh Adar. Since the attack the Yeshiva has tried to perpetuate the memory of the boys in various different ways, but the story behind the song “Niggun Shel Gemara”, is very unusual. The song was written by Dubba Klerman, the grandmother of Yochai Lipshitz from the Rova in Yerushalayim who was killed in the attack. She sent the lyrics of the song originally to one of the memorial services held in honor of the boys. One of the people who read the lyrics, BenZion Tzinkin felt a connection to the words and composed the melody to them. In the recording of the song is a small piece of the Levaya, from R’ Weiss, the Rosh Yeshiva.

The song Niggun Shel Gemara was played for the first time about two months ago, during the memorial service held by the Yeshiva and everyone who heard it was deeply moved.

The lyrics are written with various parts of the text of the story of Akeidas Yitzchak, described in chilling detail the events of that terrible night. How from sitting and learning gemara, the lives of the boys were cut short, and then the joint funeral that was held the next day with the words of the Rosh Yeshiva bringing everyone to tears.

In order to transform the words and the composition to an independent production, two people were enlisted to turn it into a real song. The first one was Ofir Sobol, who did a fantastic arrangement. The second was singer Roi Yedid, who took the words and the tune and combined them into a brilliant and professional musical production. Roi was joined by the choir of students of the Yeshiva.

The song was produced in three different versions, a regular version, an A Capella version, and a video clip, in order to enable anyone to listen and connect to the message of the song.

Click PLAY below to hear the acapella version

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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