Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Taub (1751–7th of

Adar 2 Adar ( he, אֲדָר ; from Akkadian ''adaru'') is the sixth month of the civil year and the twelfth month of the religious year on the Hebrew calendar, roughly corresponding to the month of March in the Gregorian calendar. It is a month of 29 d ...

, March 21, 1821) was the rabbi of

Nagykálló Nagykálló ( yi, קאלעוו, Kaliv) is a small town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary. Before World War II it belonged to Szabolcs county. Location from county seat Nyíregyháza. Histo ...

(in Yiddish Kalov),

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

and the first

Hassidic Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...

Rebbe A Rebbe ( yi, רבי, translit=rebe) or Admor ( he, אדמו״ר) is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spiritua ...

. He was known as "the Sweet Singer of Israel". He composed many popular Hasidic melodies. He was famous for composing the traditional Hungarian Hasidic tune ''"Szól a kakas már"''.

Biography

His exact place of birth is uncertain, most probably he was born either in Nagykálló or

Szerencs Szerencs is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary. It lies away from Miskolc, and away from Budapest. It has about 9,100 inhabitants. History Szerencs grew into a town where the Great Plain and the Zemplén mountains meet. I ...

. Rabbi Taub was discovered by Rabbi

Leib Sarah's Leib Sarah's (''Aryeh Leib the son of Sarah'') (1730–1791) was a Chassidic Rebbe and a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov Israel ben Eliezer (1698 – 22 May 1760), known as the Baal Shem Tov ( he, בעל שם טוב, ) or as the Besht, was a Jew ...

, a disciple of the

Baal Shem Tov Israel ben Eliezer (1698 – 22 May 1760), known as the Baal Shem Tov ( he, בעל שם טוב, ) or as the Besht, was a Jewish mystic and healer who is regarded as the founder of Hasidic Judaism. "Besht" is the acronym for Baal Shem Tov, which ...

. Rabbi Leib first met Rabbi Isaac when he was a small child, a small shepherd boy. Rabbi Leib told his mother, a widow, that her son was destined to be a great

Tzadik Tzadik ( he, צַדִּיק , "righteous ne, also ''zadik'', ''ṣaddîq'' or ''sadiq''; pl. ''tzadikim'' ''ṣadiqim'') is a title in Judaism given to people considered righteous, such as biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The ...

. He took the small child to Nikolsburg to learn with Rabbi

Shmelke of Nikolsburg Shmuel Shmelke HaLevi Horowitz of Nikolsburg (Yiddish: שמואל שמעלקי הלוי הורוויץ פון ניקאלשפורג, ; 1726 – April 28, 1778) also known as the Rebbe Reb Shmelke was an early Hasidic master and kabbalist, who is am ...

. Rabbi Isaac grew to be a great

and was known as "the Sweet Singer of Israel".

Songs

He composed many popular Hasidic Nigunim (melodies). Often he adapted Hungarian folk songs, adding Jewish words, by that transforming it to sacred songs. He taught that the tunes he heard were really from the Holy

Temple in Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two now-destroyed religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusa ...

, and were lost among the nations over the years, and he found them and returned them to the Jewish people. He said that the proof that it was true was that the gentile who would teach him the song would forget it as soon as the rebbe learned it. He was famous for composing the traditional Hungarian Hasidic tune ''Szól a kakas már''. :: Words in square brackets are sometimes omitted. See

Hungarian phonology The phonology of the Hungarian language is notable for its process of vowel harmony, the frequent occurrence of geminate consonants and the presence of otherwise uncommon palatal stops. Consonants This is the standard Hungarian consonanta ...

about proper pronunciation. When Leib Sarah's found him, he sang in Hungarian a song he knew from the shepherds, ''Erdő, erdő'', which he adapted to Judaism by changing the words. In Yitzack Isaac's version, the love in the song is for the

Shechina Shekhinah, also spelled Shechinah ( Hebrew: שְׁכִינָה ''Šəḵīnā'', Tiberian: ''Šăḵīnā'') is the English transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning "dwelling" or "settling" and denotes the presence of God, as it were, in a pla ...

(Divine Presence) that is in exile until the

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...

:"The Singing Tzaddik"
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Forest, O forest, how vast are you! Rose, O rose, how distant you are! Were the forest not so vast, My rose wouldn't be so far. Who will guide me out of the forest, And unite me with my rose? Then he sang it as Rabbi Leib Sarah's heard it. Exile, O exile, how vast are you! Shechinah, Shechinah, how distant you are! Were the exile not so vast, The Shechinah wouldn't be so far. Who will guide me out of the exile, And unite me with the Shechinah?

Another famous song by the Kaliver Rebbe is ''Sírnak, rínak a bárányok'' – also in Hungarian.

References

{{cite encyclopedia , editor-first=Péter , editor-last=Ujvári , encyclopedia={{ill, Magyar Zsidó Lexikon, hu , title=Nagykálló , url=http://mek.oszk.hu/04000/04093/html/0636.html , language=Hungarian , year=1929 , location=Budapest , page=628 Hasidic rebbes