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The Pastakh
Baruch Thaler, z"l, gifted me with this nigun during the wee hours of Chulent in May 2007. Pastakh means "The Shepherd", and one cycle through the song lasts more than five minutes. Baruch was once a deep-inside Chabad bochur turned burner, then (spiritual) party promoter and filmmaker, then he became teacher of Kabbalah and Chasidus. He was so deep inside Chabad, he would sit under the Lubavitcher rebbe's table when he was little during the rebbe's tish. He was also one of the Rebbe's pallbearers at the Rebbe's funeral.
That night in 2007 Baruch also wanted to share with me me a second long nigun called "The Pilpul", but the Shul (meaning, the Carlebach Shul on W. 79th) was being locked up by Reb Naftali, and Riverside Park, where we last holdouts regrouped, was too noisy with traffic to record the second song. Of course back then all these songs were not on YouTube. Now they are all easily accessible in multiple formats. But I still prefer the neohasid versions for learning, because they are unadorned with schmaltz, excessive instrumentation, or boys choirs - just the nigh.
Baruch died this past year (2024) and we all miss him dearly. He became a bit of a rebbe himself near in the last years of his life. This sweet and deep nigun could take years to fully learn
Download "The Pastakh"
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