When 'Adon Olam' gets a Bossonovite melody. Einat Rosenfeld, a religious artist from Brazil, presents the first song from her upcoming album 'Adon Olam' [premiere here]. Rosenfeld grew up in Jerusalem in a home with a South American flavor, hence the connection to Brazilian music. She later studied art for a year at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and later completed four years at Bezalel - in the Department of Plastic Arts, and her final film was shown at the German Film Festival.
The turning point began with the passing of her mother, when she returned to Jerusalem and began the process of repentance. She traveled to France and there, at the Alta Institute, she was exposed to the idea that as part of the process of spiritual purification, one must separate from certain influences, and so she discarded quite a few styles of music that she loved. However, she was unable to separate from Brazilian music, and so on the many trips with friends from Safed to Jerusalem, "we would alternately sing Chabad melodies and beloved bosnavot...""
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After five years, she met her husband, an artist from Brazil, and they married in Jerusalem. After the birth of their son and daughter, they immigrated to Brazil. About a year ago, her father came to visit and found his daughter playing in São Paulo for a women's group at a gathering. He suggested that she major in music and she turned to her rabbi. "With the approval of my rabbi, I began learning bossa nova from a professional teacher, and in the process, the inspiration came to combine the melodies I knew from childhood with prayers, Psalms, and verses. Each time, I would practice a lot on a particular melody until the exact inspiration for the appropriate words would come.".
She sings "Adon Olam" to women and children and explains to them in Portuguese the meaning of the lyrics. "This Bossanova melody played in her head for several weeks, and precisely in the midst of Yom Kippur, the words of the old prayer came to her and matched exactly, as if the melody had been written specifically for the words," Rosenfeld says.
