Canto Moshe Teleshevsky performing at Lag B'O
Canto Moshe Teleshevsky performing at Lag B'OCourtesy of JEM

The man known affectionately in the Chabad-Lubavitch world as “the Rebbe's Chazzan,” Moshe Teleshevsky, has passed away.

Teleshevsky, known around the world among Chabad-Lubavitch Hassidim, died Tuesday morning in New York, the second “holy day” of the Sukkot holiday in the diaspora.


The cantor was famed for his signature rendition of “Yehi Ratzon” that led into the Hassidic niggun (song), “Sheh Yiboneh Beis HaMikdosh” (May it be Your Will to soon [rebuild] the Holy Temple).

Born in Russia, by the age of nine he was already performing before audiences, playing piano while his father, also a professional canot, sang. By the age of 11, Teleshevsky made his professional debut before a standing room-only audience. A student of Europe's Professor Santina, he graduated from the Gilden School of Sacred Music, and was the outstanding student of Professor S.S. Horowitz of the Milan Opera.

But in the Chabad world, he was known for the niggun that he performed most often for the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson of righteous memory, especially during the festival of Sukkot.

"It is very interesting that he passed away during Succos, which was one of the dedicated times when R' Moishe would daven for the Rebbe,” Rabbi Yosef Katzman wrote on the CrownHeights.info website upon hearing the news. “He had three special days every year that he would daven for the Rebbe, who would always give him a special Yashar Koach after davening; one was on Shabbos Chol Hamoed Succos... he put his whole heart and soul into this special tefila (prayer) that he would daven...”

Teleshevsky's funeral is scheduled for Thursday morning EDT in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, home to Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters at "770" Eastern Parkway.