Yankel Talmud
| Yankel Talmud | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Yaakov Dov Talmud |
| Born |
18 December 1885 Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire (now Warsaw, Poland) |
| Died | October 1965 (aged 79) Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Genres | Jewish liturgical music |
| Occupation(s) | Prayer leader, choirmaster |
Yaakov Dov (Yankel) Talmud (18 December 1885 – October 1965) was a Hasidic composer of Jewish liturgical music and choirmaster in the main synagogue of the Gerrer Rebbes both in Ger, Poland, and in Jerusalem, Israel. Known as "the Beethoven of the Gerrer Rebbes", he composed dozens of new melodies every year for the prayer services, including marches, waltzes, and dance tunes. Though he had no musical training and could not even read music, Talmud composed over 1,500 melodies.
Yaakov Dov (Yankel) Talmud was born on 18 December 1885 (10 Tevet 5646) in Warsaw, Poland, to a family of Gerrer Hasidim. His father, an accomplished Talmid Chacham, worked in the lumber trade. Yankel was orphaned at a young age and was raised by Kotzk Hasidim in that city.
As a young child, Yankel often sneaked into the main Ger synagogue to listen to the choir rehearse for the High Holy Days. When he was 12, choirmaster Yisrael Eckstein spotted him and demanded to know why he was there. Yankel begged Eckstein to test his voice. He became a member of the choir the very next Shabbat.
Talmud broadened his understanding of music and prayer by visiting well-known baalei tefillah (prayer leaders) such as Reb Zeidel Rovner and Reb Nissan Belzer. As a young man, he was given the responsibility of importing the niggunim of Reb Yonah Erlich, Reb Nissan Koshinover, and others to Ger. Often he altered the tunes with his own additions and revisions.
He became the choirmaster in the main Ger synagogue during the leadership of the third Gerrer Rebbe, Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter, the Imrei Emes. Singing and leading his choir of 20 boys under the age of bar mitzvah, he also began composing his own melodies. In the Ger tradition, the prayer leader is the only one who sings the words of the prayers with their melody; the choir and congregants sing only the melody. Talmud wrote hundreds of melodies for every part of the prayer service, investing each tune with rich emotional expression. The Gerrer Hasidim would return home after a visit to their Rebbe humming Talmud's new melodies, popularizing them in their hometowns.
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