The letters of the word NGN (song) are also the initials of the words Nafesh (spirit), Guf (body), and Neshama (Soul), which shows that the Nigun (song) affects these three aspects of a man.

A small handful of words in Hebrew are read the same backwards as forwards, one of them is the word NGN. This teaches that music is contagious as it were, i.e. one tune brings another in its wake. Music stimulates one to sing again and again. When one is involved in composing he can compose one song after another in a kind of melodic momentum.

A person who sings a niggun one hundred times is not the same as the person who sings a niggun one hundred and one times.

The Rabbi Zalman of Laida gave a masterful sermon one Shabbos morning in services. But he could see that there was one man in the congregation who did not understand a single word. Afterwards, the rebbe went up to the man and said, “I see that you did not understand my sermon…perhaps this would help.” The rebbe began to sing a niggun. He sang the same niggun over and over, and the man finally said, “Ah yes, now I understand!”

At particular periods of time the gates of heaven were open bringing down spiritual abundance hence influencing the world. This can be seen by the fact that the surge of Classical music occurred at the same times as the development of the Chassidic movement. Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement, lived at the same time as Bach, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi lived at the same time as Mozart and Beethoven. Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav lived at the same time as Schubert. This shows that the source of music is Divine.

When Rabbi Levi Titzhak of Berdicherv, a great tzaddik of the eighteenth century saw that music was becoming an overly powerful and dangerous force, he prayed that God should close the tap to so much inspiration in music. This explains why the Classical movement came to a sudden close and the level of music has never reached the same place.

The Modzitzer Rebbi wrote in his discourses about the musical scale that when a person goes down and down he gets very close to the beginning. This is what is meant about what has been said about our generation. The more a generation deteriorates the more it will be able to awaken and arise. We may be further away from the Creation of the World, or the revelation at Sinai, but we are close to the coming of the Messiah than ever before and moving closer all the time. Albert Einstein the Jewish physician said that if a space ship took off from earth and travelled in a perfectly straight path, after almost an eternity it would return to its starting point not unlike an insect walking along a globe. At any given moment it appears to be moving forward but it soon is walking toward the place where it began. One who has the holy Torah as his guide can transcend the dimensions of time and space and realize his proper place.

Before you pray, decide that you are ready to die in that very prayer. There are some people so intense in their worship, who give up so much of their strength to prayer, that if not for a miracle they would die after uttering only two or three words. It is only through God’s great kindness that such people live, that their soul does not leave them as they are joined to Him in prayer.

Think that the letters of prayer are the garments of God. What a joy to be making a garment for the greatest of Kings! Enter into every letter with all your strength. God dwells within each letter; as you enter it, you will become one with God.

Do not think that the words of prayer as you say them go up to God. It is not the words themselves that ascend; it I rather the burning desire of your heart that rises like smoke toward heaven. If your prayer consists only of words and letters, and does not contain your heart’s desire, how can it rise up to God?

Do not laugh at one who moves his body, even violently during prayer. A person drowning in a river makes all kinds of motions to try to save himself. This is not a time for others to laugh.

According to Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato the planets are moved by musical waves. These are his words: All those things above are carried out by music and all the luminaries, when they go out from their source, are motivated by music. Each planet has its music. It is interesting to note that recently in the united States they discovered that each planet produces different melodies. According to Rabbi Luzzato, it is really the music itself which effects and hence moves the planets.

There are numerous examples of great musicians and composers in the past who became very corrupt. Many even died from sicknesses caused from an evil lifestyle. Music elevates a person to such a high level that one must have some meaningful form of expression to direct ones energy. If one does not have a positive way of expressing oneself after playing or hearing music then one feels an awful emptiness which leads to seeking something to fill the void. When confronted with an attractive sin at such a moment, it is very hard to resist. thus evil and lust may fill the vacuum. The Germans constantly listened to the music of Beethoven, Mozart, etc and attended operas and symphonies. They were then charged up to direct their godless energies to mass-murder and other evil deeds. Mozart himself lead a corrupt lifestyle and died very young as did many recent pop stars.

There was once a musician, well-known for the great beauty of his music, who came to play before the king. One particular melody was so loved by the king that he ordered the musician to play it for him several times each day. And so it was.

After a time, however, the musician began to weary of the tune; no longer could he play it with the same passion and excitement as before.

The king, to rekindle his musician’s love for this favorite tune, ordered that a man be brought in from the market, one who had never heard the tune before. Seeing someone who had never heard him play, the musician’s vigor was renewed, and he played the tune in all its beauty, thus the king ordered a new man brought each day.

After some time, the king sought other counsel, for to find a new audience each day was not an easy matter. It was decided that the musician should be blinded, so that he never see a human form again. Now the blind musician sat before the king, and whenever the king sought to hear his favorite tune he would simply say: “Here comes someone new, one who has never heard you play before!”

And the musician would play his tune with the greatest joy.

This parable is not explained.