There’s no need to adjust your screens or visit your optometrist, this really is a new JMN post.

Over the past couple months, I have been silently grappling with the oft sung Talmudic dictum, “Mishenichnas Adar Marbim B’simcha.” Commenting on the words of the Mishnah that Mishenichnas Av Mima’atin B’simcha, just as we reduce simcha at the onset of Av, so too, we increase simcha at the onset of Adar (Taanis 29a).

My major takeaway from this well-known statement has always been that simcha is a permanent state of existence; sometimes there’s more, sometimes there’s less, but that a certain sense of gladness and joy should constantly keep us company throughout our lives is a given.

With that being said, I have found this maxim quite difficult to fulfil, as the difference these days between merry and melancholy is minuscule. There’s been a spirit of seriousness that has all but taken over which we Yidden have had to concertedly contend with over the past 6 months. And while the double dose of Adar was absolutely ideal, it didn’t make it any easier to turn on the ‘happy.’

That it took me until after Rosh Chodesh bentching and after we read Parshas Hachodesh to have the koach to sit down and send this out is really not so surprising. The first mitzvah given to us was החדש הזה לכם. It is the ראשית, beginning, so it was given to us when we were a ראשית, just becoming a nation. Moreover, the mitzvah symbolizing renewal was given to us בראש חדשים, in Nissan, the first of the months – the month that symbolizes chiddush!

So now, after two months of turning up the smile dial, and focusing all my efforts towards being able and ready to enter the month of Nissan – the season of redemption and renewal – with a rebooted, reprogrammed and refreshed focus, I am ready to present to you the sixth chapter of the Songs of My Heart series. May this Rosh Chodesh herald an unparalleled hischadshus and achdus, yearning and returning, and with it, a permanent end to all our tears.

{As always, here are the links to the previous five, in case you’re new to the group and would like to see how we got to this point:}

https://jewishmusicalnotes.com/songs-of-the-heart-part-1
https://jewishmusicalnotes.com/songs-of-the-heart-part-2
https://jewishmusicalnotes.com/songs-of-the-heart-part-3
https://jewishmusicalnotes.com/songs-of-the-heart-part-4
https://jewishmusicalnotes.com/songs-of-the-heart-part-5
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🎵 Lev Chodosh – Composed and sung by Baruch Levine (Lev Chodosh, 2023) 🎵

Rav Simcha Wasserman, son of Rav Elchonon Wasserman Hy”d, the talmid muvhak of the Chofetz Chaim, offers a very powerful thought.

The Navi Yechezkel tells us, וְנָתַתִּי לָכֶם לֵב חָדָשׁ וְרוּחַ חֲדָשָׁה אֶתֵּן בְּקִרְבְּכֶם וַהֲסִרֹתִי אֶת לֵב הָאֶבֶן מִבְּשַׂרְכֶם וְנָתַתִּי לָכֶם לֵב בָּשָׂר, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove the stone heart from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh (Yechezkel 36:26).

Rav Simcha Wasserman explains that while we are in golus, Hashem has given us a heart of stone, a lev ha’even. Why would he give us a heart of stone? Isn’t a soft, sensitive heart important in the service of Hashem and in our interactions with others?

The answer is that Hashem has given us a heart of stone to afford us the ability to emotionally survive the golus.

Hashem has instilled in us a heart of stone to endure the murderous Crusades. For when children are kidnapped and baptized by the Inquisition. For when families are burned or shot right before the eyes of their loved ones. And so much more, Rachmana litzlan! Hashem provided us with a heart of stone so that in these horrific situations we don’t go mad. The stone heart is unfeeling, and some of the pain is not fully experienced. We are not completely sensitive to the raw and agonizing pain of the enormous tragedies that have befallen our people.

Hashem has hardened and desensitized our hearts in order to preserve our sanity and allow us to proceed with some semblance of normalcy.

Truth be told, however, it is not all that good to have a heart of stone. We are supposed to be compassionate, sensitive people. We are supposed to be attuned to the needs of our friends. Having a heart of stone is not ideal – but it is necessary.

But that day, on that great day when Moshiach will come, Hashem will remove our hearts of stone, and provide us with new hearts: לֵב טָהוֹר בְּרָא לִי אֱלֹקִים וְרוּחַ נָכוֹן חַדֵּשׁ בְּקִרְבִּי, Hashem will create a new, pure heart and place it within us, renewing within ourselves the steadfast spirit to do what is right (Tehillim 51).

Let us be zocheh.

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🎵 Father Don’t Cry – Composed and sung by Avraham Fried, Backup vocals arranged and sung by Bentzi Marcus (Bein Kach, 2006) 🎵

A special shoutout to my cousin and music connoisseur Reuven S. for inspiring this next one. Thank you, Reuven!

This past Erev Shabbos, following a flurry of earthquakes, many of us were shown various quotes from Chazal regarding how one is to interpret and otherwise understand the seismic phenomenon. One such reference was the Gemara in Brachos 59a which states that earthquakes occur when Hakadosh Baruch Hu remembers His children who are suffering among the nations of the world, He sheds two tears into the Yam Hagadol. The sound of their reverberation is heard from one end of the earth to the other, and that is what causes the earth to shudder.

Says Rabbeinu Chananel, earthquakes are Hashem’s way of letting Klal Yisroel know that He is pained by our harsh golus. He is telling us that He will soon redeem us and that we should strengthen our calloused hearts, reassured that the Geulah is near. Soon the day will come, the day there’ll be no more tears.

I will never forget / the night I saw my father cry / I was frightened and alone / and his tears were burning in my eyes / deep in my soul / I held him tight / and tried to ease the pain.

Father in heaven / it’s no secret at all / when You think of Your children / how far they are from home, / two tender tears fall from Your eyes / and Your cries / shake the world / I cannot bear to see You this way.

Chorus:
Father don’t cry / I love You too much to see You in pain / and only, You Who created tears / can wipe them away forever. / So bring on the day / when there’ll be only joy / You and I will smile, / bring on the day / when there’ll be no more tears / we’ll never cry again.

I know it’s tears of love / but still it hurts me just the same / You have always held my hand / and now I want to hold Yours too / and be there for You / don’t You agree / it’s time to send the tears away.

Father in heaven / there’s no reason at all / Your precious children / still are so far from home / we’ve done all we can / now it’s in Your hands / let it end, oh, let it end, / the whole world is waiting for You.

Chorus

וּמָחָה הַ’ אֱלוֹקִים דִּמְעָה מֵעַל כָּל פָּנִים (ישעיהו כ״ה:ח)

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🎵 V’shovu Bonim – Composed and sung by R’ Shlomo Carlebach (מקדש מלך – In The Palace of the King, 1965) 🎵

M’inyan l’inyan b’oso inyan…

קוֹל בְּרָמָה נִשְׁמָע
רָחֵל מְבַכָּה עַל בָּנֶיהָ
וְשָׁבוּ בָנִים לִגְבוּלָם

{A voice is shaking heaven and earth – a voice of lamentation and bitter weeping – Rochel is crying for her children because they are in exile (they are strangers in the world – without roots – without wings). Thus says the L-rd: “Please stop crying Rochel – you true Jewish mother – your children will return to their homes.”} (Yirmiyahu 31)

Today they have only an address, tomorrow they will find their place.

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🎵 Unity – Composed by Mordechai Ben David & Sheya Mendlowitz, Sung by MBD (MBD & Friends, 1987) 🎵

Over the years, we’ve spoken plenty about the undisputed value of harmony and oneness, and how we form the sweetest music when we sing our song together. Needed now more than ever, unity remains essential as we continue to write the final pages of our extraordinary story.

Like angels in the sky / in a garden full of glory / the galaxy, so brilliantly related. / Ultimately high / on the first page of our story / Until the time our parents were created.

An envious brother Cain / threw a blow so mad and chilling / tragically, he never did recover. / It’s really so insane / all our selfishness that’s killing / that stranger who’s our sister and our brother.

Chorus:
Listen brother, listen friend / just a little smile, a helping hand / and our hearts will find a loving kind humanity / we must teach our children too / treat your fellow friends like they were you / and then the world will find such peace of mind and unity.

Ages rushing by / writing chapters full of sorrow / webs of self-destruction we are weaving. / If we don’t even try / there’s no hope for our tomorrow / cause what’s it all worth if we are not achieving.

Chorus

But one thing makes me smile / now at last a happy ending / a universal union undivided. / In just a little while / we will join the angels singing / with peace and love across a world united!

Chorus