“Can you sing this one again for me?” R’ Leib asked. The boy began to sing again with a sweet, crystal clear voice. R’ Leib’s tears poured profusely down his cheeks and he kissed young Yitzchok Izik. He accompanied the boy home, and told his mother that he wanted to take him to study Torah, and that he would regularly send her money to support herself. The woman reluctantly agreed and she blessed her child and sent him off with R’ Leib, who took him to the yeshivah of the renowned chassidic master, R’ Shmelke of Nikolsburg zt”l, where young Yitzchok Izik became an outstanding Torah scholar and Rebbe. His knowledge of both niglah and nistar, the revealed and mystical aspects of Torah, was legendary.
Returning home to Hungary, he became a melamed (teacher) in the Jewish community of Nagy Kallo. Within a short time, he was named the Rabbi of Kalev, serving forty years and gaining thousands of new followers for the chassidic movement.
From then on, R’ Yitzchok Izik Kalever ZT”L made it a habit to walk in the outer pastures to listen to the melodies sung by the shepherds. And like the man who discovered him, R’ Leib, the Kalever chanced upon a shepherd surrounded by his flock and singing a Hungarian love song with the words, “Szol a kakash mahr.” The melody could never be forgotten. Moved to tears by the song, the Kalever insisted on buying it from the shepherd. At the request of the Kalever who wished to memorize the song, the shepherd sang the song once, then twice, but on his third attempt he could not recall the song at all. The Rebbe did, however, and forever after, the niggun belonged again to the Jews. The Kalever said, many times about the song, “that it was once chanted by the Levites in the Holy Temple and was in exile among the unlearned common people.”
