Janosh Nigun - Ot Azoj Klezmerband
[link: What is a Niggun?]
âWhen does a Jew sing? a Hebrew writer once asked. His answer: when he is hungry.
Truth is, a Jew is always hungry, and to most observant Jews the niggun (a wordless song, but not necessarily) is the fastest way to feed his hunger. Hungry, a Jew searches because his Jewish soul won't let him rest until he has come to hear what he needs to hear and to say what he needs to say. Hungry, he turns to music when words fail and he looks up to Him and sings his heart out. With the right intent, any Jew who sings a niggun always reaches his Creator.
In a sense, a niggun is a combination of parent-child sounds that no one else can understand. "Ya--na--na--ya--na--pa--pa--yaya--ya"--a stammering infant language G-d created for us when our feelings are too delicate or too intimate for others to hear.
A child speaks this perfect language, but forgets it when he learns his parent's language. Yet nothing is lost to a Jew. One day, when he is at his wit's end, the parent rediscovers suddenly, in singing a niggun, the language of the child in him. Then he speaks to his Father, and all becomes right. This is what a niggun is for.
As for the person who has not yet a child? He who experiences such inner aspect of a deeply moving emotion, through a niggun is flooded with light, beauty, and soul, above all, awareness of details, even those that are related to the emotion.â
