Today, the 11th of Cheshvan, marks the tenth anniversary of the passing of the cantor Rabbi Yehoshua Heshil Lerer, one of the greatest cantors of the previous generation, a God-fearing man and a scholar of great stature.
Cantor Lerer was born in Old Jerusalem in 1915 to a family of Boyan Hasidim. He was a fourth generation cantor. His great-grandfather, Rabbi Aharon Nathan Sofer, who immigrated to the Land of Israel from Kishinev over a hundred and fifty years ago, had a rare voice and served as "Baal Musafim" at the "Tiferet Yisrael" synagogue named after Nissan Beck in the Old City. The elders of the Hasidim used to say about him that when he sang in "Tiferet Yisrael", they could hear his voice as far as the shelters.
His grandfather, Rabbi Avraham Lehrer, served as a prayer leader for decades at the Boyan Hasidic synagogue. His father, Rabbi Yosef Leib, was also considered one of the best prayer leaders in Jerusalem, and his brother, Shmuel Lehrer, was also a famous cantor who served for many years as cantor at the American Brotherhood Synagogue in New York.
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At the age of six, Cantor Lehrer was brought before the "Cantor of Jerusalem," Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Rivlin, who immediately discovered his rare talent and added him to his choir, predicting a bright future for him. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman placed the young Yehoshua among the first sopranos in his choir, and when great cantors such as Yosla Rosenblatt from America, Zevulun Quartin from Budapest, Shlomo Pinchasowitz from Berlin, and others visited Jerusalem, little Yehoshua accompanied them in special solo pieces that the conductor Rabbi Shlomo had dedicated to him. Later, Yehoshua was considered the greatest of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Rivlin's students, was one of his close friends, and even conducted his choir. As a teenager, Yehoshua also sang in the choir of Cantor Shmuel Kabetzki.
Cantor Lehrer grew up in the Kerem neighborhood and studied at the Etz Chaim choir. The neighborhood rabbi, the eminent Rabbi Eliya Ram, who was a cantor, recognized the boy's talents and allowed him to approach the pillar in the neighborhood synagogue for the "Keblat Shabbat" prayer, which is permitted for a child under the age of mitzvot.
As a boy, he spent a lot of time in the company of Rabbi Kook, as his father would bring him to the rabbi's house every Shabbat. When he reached the age of maturity, he studied at the mechina of the Merkaz HaRav yeshiva, which was established that year, and every Shabbat he would attend the third meal that the rabbi held at his home. In 1935, upon the passing of Rabbi Kook, he moved to study at the Hebron yeshiva.
As he himself testified, he knew from childhood that he was destined to be a cantor, and indeed, even during his studies in the yeshiva, he would often visit the Knesset neighborhood, where he continued to study cantorship at the Shirat Israel Institute, and later at the Jerusalem Institute of Music. In 1951, he married Mrs. Sarah, née Rosenthal.
Musical career
His first prayer that gained widespread publicity was in 1937. The world-renowned cantor Zevulun Quartin visited the Land of Israel, and the advertisements that were published stated that Cantor Quartin would lead the prayer in the "Ohel Shem" hall in Tel Aviv on Shavuot, which then fell on the evening of Shabbat, when on Shabbat the boy Yehoshua Lehrer, who was then only 17 years old, would pass before the Ark.
At the age of 21, he earned his first position as chief cantor at the Mount Carmel Synagogue in Haifa. He was also appointed supervisor and cantor of the Hevra Kadisha in Haifa.
In Haifa, he was greatly admired by the worshippers of the synagogue where he served for 12 consecutive years. During the War of Independence, he enlisted in the IDF and was appointed cantor and deputy chief rabbi of the Air Force.
In 1954, a concert and prayer tour was organized for him in the US and South Africa by the United Jewish Appeal in America, and he was invited to many performances throughout the US by the 'impresario' Mr. Hyman of Chicago. During his tour, he received important offers but he rejected them, saying that he was not ready to live abroad.
He then returned to Israel, and was appointed chief cantor in Hadera, and later in the Great Synagogue in Ramat Gan. On Passover 1955, he led a prayer service in the Rama synagogue in Tel Aviv.
In 1977, the position of cantor at the Great Synagogue in Tel Aviv became vacant with the retirement of cantor Shabtai Ackerman, and the person appointed in his place was Yehoshua Lehrer.
The first broadcast of the Selichot he conducted on Rosh Hashanah Eve in 1957 aroused many echoes and proved that he had reached full maturity in his profession. For two years he prayed in the Great Synagogue - accompanied by a synagogue choir conducted by Aryeh Graf. During this period he released his first record on the Had Artzi label.
In 1979, Cantor Lerer moved from Tel Aviv to the United States to serve as cantor in the "Ohev Tzedek" Haredi community in Belle Harbor, Long Island.
On one of his trips to Israel in 1952, he passed through Antwerp where he was asked to pass in front of the Ark. The audience, enchanted by his singing, invited him to stay, and indeed - he was appointed the chief cantor of the "Shomrei Hadat" congregation in Antwerp.
For 15 years he lived in Antwerp, and crowds flocked to his prayers, with the synagogue frequently filled with Jews from all walks of life in the city. The choir's conductor was Shlomo Goldhor, until in 1965 Goldhor retired and was replaced by conductor Moshe Franco.
Conductor Shlomo Goldhor later said: "Many times I saw tears flowing from his eyes during prayer, and it moved the choir and me, and sometimes their voices fell silent from the response out of excitement. Yehoshua really stuck to the style of Rabbi Zalman Rivlin, the late, and when we sang his works in Antwerp, the audience was really electrified with delight at the manner of performance. He was a true soprano, and always when he sang others' works, it had his fingerprint on it with his unique touch," Goldhor said.
At that time, Belgian television began broadcasting the first Selichot live, and they were played throughout Europe. In Antwerp, EMI released his second double-disc album, accompanied by the synagogue choir conducted by Moshe Franco.
In 1975, Lehrer returned to Israel and his place in Antwerp was filled by Cantor Benjamin Muller, who serves there to this day.
In Israel, he was accepted for a second term in the Great Synagogue in Tel Aviv until 1980. In the 1980s, he prayed for several years at the Beit Yehuda Synagogue, which was founded by Rabbi Kook, in the Selichot prayer and the prayers of the Holy Days.
Cantor Lehrer composed melodies for Shabbat prayers that are still in manuscript, and in his old age he served as the rabbi and director of the "Torat Chaim" kollel in Jerusalem.
Memory of Joshua
The sages said, "The world stands on three things: the Torah, work, and acts of kindness." Throughout his life, the cantor was steadfast in these three qualities, in his love of the Torah - throughout his life, he was absorbed in the Beit Midrash and never missed a verse. Wherever he served as a cantor, he found the appropriate frameworks for studying Torah. In prayer - as a cantor, he was always found three quarters of an hour before the start of prayer, wrapped in a tallit and adorned with tefillin, reciting kurbans with great moderation. And in acts of kindness - in his home in Antwerp, the heads of yeshivahs and many pilgrims who passed through the place to stay for days and even weeks found an open door. He even organized a charity fund in Antwerp for the poor in Jerusalem and would send a large amount of money to support dozens of families.
He was a Bar Orian scholar, and when he was about 20 years old he delivered a halachic sermon at the Ahiezer Institute in the Old City. About two years after his death, the book 'Chazon Yehoshua' appeared, edited by his son Rabbi Yigal Lehrer - a judge at the Be'er Sheva Beit Din and a rabbi at the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva - containing his father Rabbi Yehoshua Lehrer's novellas on Shas issues, which he wrote at the age of 18.
Cantor Rabbi Yehoshua Lehrer, deceased on the 11th of Cheshvan 5765 and buried on the Mount of Olives in the Wohlin section,
May his memory be blessed.
