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The Yagilu Kotel Minyan-Thursday, 8:15 AM!

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You’re Invited!
Yagilu Chol HaMoed Minyan at the Kotel
Thursday, Sep 27 at 8:15 am
Front Right of the Kotel Plaza

“Do these people know what they’re getting themselves into?” I thought to myself.

We were standing by a Bima in the Kotel plaza, recruiting the last few guys needed for a Minyan. It was Chol HaMoed Sukkos, and the Yagilu guys in Israel were getting together for the annual Chol HaMoed Minyan at the Kotel. This Minyan features a beautiful davening, starring Yagilu Niggunim throughout Hallel and some dancing at the end. Our Minyan has even been featured in an Uncle Moishy video!

I always look forward to this Minyan as a Chol HaMoed highlight. But every so often, a twinge of foreboding niggles in the back of my mind while recruiting. Will fellow Jews who had never been to Yagilu, who didn’t know our unique nigunnim, appreciate our ruach? Would they feel like they were sucked into a never-ending happy Minyan? Sure, this is a gamble you take whenever you join a Minyan at the Kotel.  But how would these other people respond to the length and ruach of this Minyan?

The overwhelming majority of people don’t respond the way I expect.

We start our davening normally enough. By now, we’ve learned to push our Bima as close to the Wall as we can so as to avoid the sun which scorches the plaza later in the morning. When we get to Hallel, though, we really break loose. R’ Tani takes the Bima, if he hasn’t been davening yet, and belts out the Bracha. From the first Mizmor, we’re already singing away. The Yagilu guys are excited for this and get right into it.

Three Groups

I’ve noticed three reactions from the non-Yagiluers who join the Minyan over the course of the davening. Some love it – they join in for the songs they know, smile and dance for the ones they don’t. After davening, they gush about how leibedik it was. They want to know who we are, where we’re from and the whole story. Others, at the first sign of song, leave the Minyan and try their luck with another group. A third group seems thrown off by our enthusiasm, and don’t know how to respond. As our Hallel continues, they gradually morph into either Group 1 or 2.  They either get into the spirit along with us, or walk out and find another Minyan. The majority of people have ended up as Group 1-ers, joining us for years of beautiful tefillos and adding to our davening as inspired Minyan-members. What happened this past year, though, was unprecedented.

Can’t Get Enough Of It!

A couple of older men joined our minyan and they loved the davening from beginning to end. As we neared the end of davening and began dancing around the bima to one last song, they pulled R’ Tani aside to ask what our story was. R’ Tani explained Camp Yagilu, the emphasis on happiness in life and specifically in Avodas Hashem, and the power of one good song with meaningful words to power our emotions. These two men were so impressed! However, they didn’t leave it at that. On the spot, one of them invited Tani to come lead a Kumzitz at his apartment later that night. He wanted more, and wanted to share it with his family, too!

Another time we davened together, a slow-moving old man came over and smiled so large while humming one of the songs that he had just learned from us. Then – surprise! – he pulled out his harmonica and started playing that same song. Everyone jumped into the dance around the Bima one more time. What a happy celebration of the Yom Tov!

Gil Locks' book

Most years, everyone gets together after the Minyan for a Chol HaMoed ‘potluck’ breakfast somewhere in the Old City. Often, the alumni on their years in Israel in Old City Yeshivas (Usually HaKotel) get us access to some amazing locations for our breakfast. There, we catch up, share delicious food and Divrei Torah, and end things off with a few of the songs that didn’t make it into that morning’s Hallel. After that, anything can happen. Two highlights have been an impromptu slackline session, and a surprise visit to Gil Lock‘s Sukka.

What’s going to happen this year? If you’re in Israel, come join us and find out-

Sep 27, Thursday of Chol HaMoed, gathering at 8:15 am in the front of the Kotel Plaza towards the right. See you there!

Post-Bushwhach hikers

What’s In a Niggun?

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Do you have that one Niggun, that one tune that has the power to jerk you back to another time and place?

Rav Yeshayahu Hadari ZT'L

Rav Yeshayahu Hadari ZT’L

A niggun that the moment you hear it, you start re-experiencing something from a different point in your life? For many people, Elul and the Yamim Nora’im are times when Niggunim take front and center.

Rosh Hashana just isn’t the same without ‘your’ HaYom Haras Olam or Avinu Malkeinu, Yom Kippur loses a bit of its strength if Unesaneh Tokef isn’t the same melody that you’ve grown up with your whole life. In fact, Rav Yeshayahu Hadari zt’l, late Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat HaKotel, used to say that different times of the Jewish year are associated with their Niggunim, to the extent that singing tunes of the Yamim Nora’im outside of the Yemei HaDin causes Hashem to bring Din into the world!

A Special Song

Along with all of the classic Elul and Tishrei Niggunim, there’s a unique one that sticks out from a story that happened a few years ago. To the best of my knowledge, the only people who know this tune are Map and compassYagilu people! We were on the first-ever Yagilu 3 bushwhack – a 3-day trek aiming for 4 peaks with no trails to guide us. All we had were our maps, compasses, and our experienced guide, Chayim. It was day 3, we were powering along the trail, and a string of amazing events (a longer story for another time) led to us still hiking along later in the day. Later, as in twelve o’ clock at night! We took a break on the bank of the Neversink River to share some snacks, catch our breaths a bit, and check our course on the map. As you can imagine, people were tired and worn out, so spirits were a bit lower than they usually are on these hikes. During the break, R’ Tani, somehow still full of energy, exclaimed that this was a perfect time to teach us an incredible new Niggun for Elul. We learned the words-

Dancing to a niggun“Lecha Amar Libi, Bakshu Panay – Es Panecha, Hashem, Avakesh!”

The quick, happy pace of the tune got everyone moving and spirits up as we moved on from the break. We kept singing and walking, our headlamps bouncing in time with the tune. It was slow going, as we didn’t have a reliable trail to follow (it was a bushwhack, remember?) so progress was slow, but the singing was fast and fun. Somehow, the singing only stopped two hours later, when we finally reached our trail and decided to sleep the rest of the night. We’d finish the last mile or two much quicker in the light than if we’d have to struggle to pick out the trail markers in the pitch black of a forest night. Aside from the incredible stories of that first bushwhack, we all walked away with an amazing new Niggun to enjoy.

The Takeaway

Every year, reciting L’Dovid Hashem Ori from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Simchas Torah, I come across these words. They remind me how this line, this Niggun kept us going even in the toughest of times. We’re all on our own bushwhack, aren’t we? ‘Hiking’ through life without a trail to follow, doing our best to follow our ‘compasses and maps,’ both when things are easy and when times are tough. The story surrounding this Niggun reminds me that when your goal is clearly set out in front of you, whether it’s the end of a long hike or a rendezvous with the King of Kings (Es Panecha Hashem Avakesh!), you WILL achieve it-eventually.