Niggun 7: Shamil

_Series: The Rebbe’s Niggunim_

*Niggun 7: Shamil*

Shamil was a leader of a group of tribes that lived in Russia’s Caucasian Mountains over a century ago. The Russians would frequently attack these tribes, but as long as their leader, Shamil, was in the mountains, the Russians were unable to overcome them. So the Russians deceptively proposed a peace treaty so that the tribal warriors would lay down their arms. They then lured Shamil out of his stronghold and imprisoned him.

Staring out of the window of his narrow cell, Shamil reflected on his days of liberty in the mountains. Helpless, in exile, he bewailed his plight and yearned for his previous position of fortune. He consoled himself, however, with the knowledge that he would eventually be released and return to his previous position with even more glory.

All of these sentiments are expressed in this wordless, yearning melody.

The Rebbe taught the melody on Simchas Torah, 5719 (1958). He explained that the story of Shamil’s imprisonment is a metaphor for the soul as it descends to this world and is clothed in a human body. The body is the soul’s “prison cell,” and the soul constantly longs for its heavenly home. It strives to free itself from its exile in the human body, with its earthly desires, by directing the body to follow G‑d’s teachings and mitzvos.

*The Rebbe*
_At a farbrengen_
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