Shneor Lerer

About Shneor Lerer

Shneor Lerer (שניאור לרר) is a pianist of Chabad nigunim on Lehallel — the filtered YouTube platform. 57+ of his recordings can be watched here, with no ads and no comments.

Shneor Lerer (שניאור לרר) plays Chabad nigunim on the piano - most of them with no words at all, the melody alone, soft and slow. His titles say what each recording is for: for babies, for Shabbos, for a time of the year, or simply to rest or to work by.

The longest are his sets of Chabad melodies for babies - a first set of twenty minutes, a second of twenty, a third of an hour and a fourth of two hours - and with them "Oyfn Pripetchik" played as a lullaby and the nigun of the Baal Shem Tov for babies.

For Shabbos he plays two sets of Chabad nigunim for Erev Shabbos and "Anim Zemiros" with Shua Katzman on the saxophone. Through the year: a set for Elul and the Yamim Noraim and "Yaale Tachanuneinu" for Elul, "Haneiros Halalu" and Chanukah songs for children, Purim songs with Chabad melodies, Pesach melodies and "Vehi She'amda", the Chabad nigun, in two arrangements.

Beside them stand long sets to rest by - an hour of mellow Chabad nigunim, "Nigunim LaNeshama", Chabad melodies with the sounds of water, a jazz set to play while eating or working - and single nigunim: the nigun of Rabbi Michel of Zlotshov, the Berditchever nigun, the Shamil nigun, "Oy Rebbe", "Tzomo Lecho", "Ki Hinei Kachomer" with Avremi Feldman, "Nafshi", and "Acheinu Kol Beis Yisrael" in the days of the Iron Swords war.

His own descriptions tell where the nigunim come from. "Ki Hinei Kachomer" was composed by R' Sholom Charitonov, a great baal menagen, and he plays it on the keyboard with Avremi Feldman on guitar. "Haneiros Halalu", chassidim say, was composed by the chassidim of the Rebbe Maharash while he was ill and came out to them only rarely - they wanted to stay near him as long as they could, so the nigun is long. "Oy Rebbe" was composed in Camp Gan Israel and carries the longing for the days when the Rebbe was seen going out to daven and saying sichos. "Vehi She'amda" the Rebbe taught at the farbrengen of Pesach 5715, and "Tzomo Lecho" on Shabbos Mevarchim Iyar; "Tzomo Lecho" and "Anim Zemiros" he played for Yud-Aleph Nissan, the Rebbe's birthday. "Yaale Tachanuneinu", also called "Tatenyu", was beloved by the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, and he played it for Chof-Beis Shevat; the Berditchever nigun is one of those attributed to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, and "Nafshi" he plays with Amiran Dvir's band and Motty Steinmetz. The Shamil nigun he played for Yud Shevat, and the hour-long set of nigunim for babies he made because parents asked for a longer one. Each one opens on its own page, with no ads and no comments around it.

You can search inside the songs by what was said, play the whole catalog back to back, or follow Shneor Lerer to be told when something new comes in.