Composing

Reb Yeshaya Garelik relates:

"Among the Chassidic families that lived in Nikolayev, I remember the Althaus family, the brothers Reb Eliyahu Chaim and Reb Binyomin, Pinye (Pinchas) the son of Reb Eliyahu Chaim, and Pinye, Menashe and Shmuel Bezalel, the sons of Binyomin. Also, the brothers, the musicians, Reb Ahron and Reb Sholom Charitonov, who composed many of the Chabad niggunim.

Reb Sholom I remember in particular because I witnessed the composition of one of his niggunim. This was in our house, he was sitting and learning Chassidus with my father (Reb Yitzchok), when suddenly he said to my father, 'This minute a new song came to me.' He began to sing the song, he changed it here and there, until it became a chassidic niggun. Afterwards I heard it sung many times at a Chasidishe fabrengen.