The Chamber of Song is a book of compiled stories, recorded talks and correspondence, and trivia about the songs of the Chabad Chassidim. Except it’s known only as היכל הנגינה (Heichal Haneginah), and does not yet exist in an English translation. My husband bought it for me when we lived in Israel, only for it to sit on our shelf until the right time came.
Fast forward to a couple years, when I found a like-minded friend who happened to live half a block away–Rishe Groner now comes to do a regular translation and study with me over tea.
The titular “Chamber of Song” is a spiritual realm in one of the many non-physical planes. In Jewish mysticism, the physical world we live in is the tip of the iceberg of the spiritual worlds. The Chamber of Song is where the music we hear originates, but in totally spiritual, non-physical formlessness.
Heichal Haneginah is comprised of a few sections: a collection of talks the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneersohn gave at Chassidic gatherings (farbrengens) that had anything to do with music; records of the appearances of various nigunim (the Hebrew term used for wordless Chassidic tunes) at those farbrengens; and information either overheard or passed down traditionally about various nigunim.
I’m still working out how to manage this blog and its presentation, such as how to reference Jewish/Chassidic/Lubavitch concepts and customs. Please, give me any feedback and/or corrections you have!
Our raw translations are saved on my hard drive, but here I’ll be providing summaries.
More from Laura at www.melnicoffmusic.com
More from Rishe at www.thegene-sis.com
The Chamber of Song 