כי רגע באפו Ki rega ba’apo by Natan Wishedski

Ki rega ba’apo (“For His anger endures but a moment”) – Rabbi Avraham Lisson was part of the scenery of my childhood in Kfar Chabad – a lively and happy chassid. In my youth, I used to go out sometimes on Friday night after the meal to the central shul of Kfar Chabad, to see R. Avraham davening. The picture is still in front of my eyes: R. Avraham is standing in the left-hand corner and praying for hours, sometimes silently and sometimes while humming a Chassidic niggun that emphasized his words and gave them a new, personal, inner meaning. This was not routine prayer – it was a Jew talking out his heart and soul before Hashem.
The passuk “For His anger endures but a moment” in Tehillim expresses a Jew’s prayer and pleading to his Creator. R. Avraham attached them to an ancient niggun, whose source is in the chassidim of the city of Kremenchug in Ukraine. The ancient Chabad niggun seems to enhance the words and what they express.