Rabbi Chaim Shlomo Sabiner, who composed the lyrics to the song "Shoshanat Yaakov" in one of his best-known compositions today, passed away today (Sunday) at the age of 89. For years he was one of the leaders of the poets and public messengers in Gur Chassidut.
The "Behadrei Haredim" website says that he wrote the melody when he was a student at the "Shfat Emet" yeshiva in Jerusalem.
When he was on his way to the Purim meal.
He played the song for the first time at that Purim party, and when they went out for the inaugural prayer, his friends distributed it.
"Overall I was not a composer nor did I try to compose too much afterwards," he later said.
"I never imagined it would catch on like that."
Over the years, the melody has become one of the unofficial hymns of Purim, and in many synagogues it is customary to sing the piyyut in the melody of Rabbi Sabiner, without knowing that it is a song he composed decades ago.
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