The One Who Composed the Didan Notzach Niggun

By Sruly Meyer – COLlive

For hours on the 5th of Teves 5747 (1987), Chassidim of all ages danced joyously in and around 770 Eastern Parkway, celebrating the legal and spiritual victory affirming the Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s rightful ownership of the seforim stolen from the Agudas Chassidei Chabad Library.

They had the perfect energetic tune to keep them on their feet: the Niggun Didan Notzach.

Up until then, this Chassidic melody was sung wordlessly and only occasionally. One notable instance was during the Purim Farbrengen in 5731 (1971), when the Rebbe began singing it following a Maamar. Chassidim joined in, singing this joyous niggun as appropriate for the simcha of the day.

So when the news broke that Chabad had triumphed in the seforim case 16 years later, Chassidim and bochurim sang this niggun as well.

One of those dancing away was Berel Lazar, an Italian-born bochur who today serves as Head Shliach and Chief Rabbi of Russia.

Around a month earlier, Rabbi Lazar heard that the Rebbe privately met upstairs in 770 with participants of the annual Kinus Hashluchim and gave them an update on the case proceedings. The Shluchim then went downstairs and gathered in front of 770. “At one point,” Rabbi Lazar told COLlive Magazine, “someone picked up Rabbi Sholom Posner from Pittsburgh, one of the elder Shluchim, on his shoulders. Rabbi Posner began yelling out, ‘Didan Notzach!’ The rest of the Shluchim repeated it like a battle cry. It was very memorable, and the words stuck with me.”

The phrase Didan Notzach originates from the Midrash (Rabba and Tanchuma), which tells of a good spirit fending off a bad spirit harming local Jews at a river. A Talmudic sage advised the townspeople to chase away the bad spirit while declaring, “Our side is victorious” (didan notzach in Aramaic). A drop of blood seen on the river’s surface signaled their triumph.

The Rebbe explained that when a victory is achieved, it must be declared loudly and celebratorily. He likened it to a military victory parade, where soldiers march with their weapons to display their triumph. The declaration expressed Chabad’s victory and strengthened its mission to expand and continue achieving its goals.

On Yud Kislev, Parshas Vayetzei, the Rebbe spoke about how the way to bring a yeshua (salvation) is not through despondency but through simcha. The Rebbe encouraged extreme joy, and that carried over even after the Farbrengen.

Rabbi Lazar said: “Myself and the other bochurim went out from the Zal upstairs and continued dancing and singing. During the singing, this niggun came up since we were only singing very fast, simcha’dik niggunim, as the Rebbe requested.

“Somehow, I started thinking about the words Didan Notzach. The moment I had witnessed earlier with Rabbi Posner resonated with me, and I started to hum the words along to the tune.” As Rabbi Lazar did so, other bochurim picked it up right away, and they sang it over and over.

By the next Shabbos, the composition was already sung in front of the Rebbe during the Farbrengen. “And that was it,” Rabbi Lazar said. “From then on, it became the niggun of this court case, which would reach its conclusion later on Hei Teves.”

Unbeknownst to many, there is a second Didan Notzach niggun composed by R’ Sholom Bruchstat, the long-time baal menagen from Crown Heights.

His was an original composition. However, as the Rebbe seemed to favor the older and more upbeat tune, Rabbi Lazar’s version became the go-to niggun for celebrating the day.