When I tried to pinpoint and imagine the great luminaries of modern Jewish music culture of our time, who influenced me and shaped the broad boundaries of the creative spaces in which I operate today, three names of creators rose to mind with pride: Ehud Banai, Naomi Shemer, and Rabbi Carlebach.
While I grew up on Ehud Banai and his 1 Hagas Street shook me in real time (please, let's move on from him too). I learned to know and appreciate Naomi Shemer over time as an adult, and it would be too short to review the ironclad assets she issued in her life.
I only got to know Rabbi Carlebach in the last decade, and that's when I realized his crucial importance in defining my goals and aspirations as a creative musician.
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
The wonderful ability to tell a Jewish story accompanied by a guitar using a few basic chords and singing from the depths of a soulful soul for fifteen minutes, while he keeps me as an open-mouthed, excited, curious listener and he draws me closer to him and cradles my soul as if by magic, and often to the point of purifying and comforting tears… This privilege is reserved for Rabbi Carlebach. From this experience, it was easier for me to try to understand and connect later with the heavier Hasidic melodies that are centuries old and to recognize that music can take your soul on a trip to heaven…
When I was introduced to the album with its collection of stories sung in melody (a must-have gift for every person!), I devoured them with great thirst, listening intently and continuously, while driving along the vast roads of our country. Such an emotional upheaval that combines a human story, the wisdom of life, and of course a Jewish point in poetry is perceived by me as the most sublime goal that exists for a musician. To create and infuse a melody into the pantheon of synagogues, national ceremonies, weddings, funerals, and the national soundtrack of historical events of the country is the peak to which any musician can reach. Not fame, not fans, not publicity and a commercial career, no, no. But the ability to sing a prayer, tell a story with a message, teach and bring one closer to one's inner Jewish roots with sweet words of appreciation, and immortalize all of this through a modern melody - in my opinion, this is music in its refined state.
From my place, in a very small way of course and within the limits of modesty and recognition of the limitations of my ability, this is the pinnacle of vision that I currently aspire to reach as a creative artist.
There was and will be no one as great as Rabbi Carlebach, who left us a real legacy, and a true model worthy of imitation. It was as if he paved the path of the journey into the soul through music. He cracked the secret of the simple Jewish melody of our time, and this is essentially the entire great work of his life that has been preserved, to teach and pass it on.
I was privileged to rediscover "For My Brothers and Sisters," which allowed me to experience more than once the enormous power of the singing of the multitude, which illustrated to me the enormous role of music in creating a better, deeper, and higher world environment.
