Rabbi Mordechai Ben David is a great scholar and a well-known Torah figure in the city of Haifa. He serves as the rabbi of the 'Moreshet Raphael' community and as the head of the kollel for the study of the revealed and hidden Torah and the Holy Zohar.
About 20 years ago, he sat and meditated, as usual, on the Book of Zohar.
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""Suddenly," the rabbi says, "I felt a kind of inexplicable feeling that I needed to make a song to encourage the study of the Zohar, a kind of heavenly enlightenment that is difficult to explain in words. A moment after the feeling, I simply started singing the melody of 'Ilana Dahai'.".
Everyone who studies the Book of Zohar knows that when Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was alive, the soul of Moses our Lord came to him, and the prophet Elijah appeared to him, and both of them said the following words to him, which the Rabbi set to the heavenly melody: "Because of my judgment, Israel, for the sake of the tree of life, which is the Book of Zohar, they will come out of exile with mercy." And translated into the Holy Language: "Because of the right that the people of Israel will taste of the tree of life, which is the Book of Zohar, they will come out of exile with mercy.".
Recently, Rabbi Ben David visited an important rabbi and told him about the song and the lyrics. The rabbi heard, was enthusiastic and told him: It would be worthwhile to make it public and thus encourage the study of the Zohar and bring about redemption.
As a resident of Haifa, Rabbi Ben David has known Rabbi Chaim Bennett for years. Bennett's nephew studies at Rabbi Ben David's kollel, and it was he who recommended connecting the two - and from there the path to musical production was short.
Wedding singer and director of the 'Fargenigen' choir, Yoeli Tsishinsky, who is also the house singer at 'Bennett Studios', was called to the flag to perform 'Ilana Dahai', in a duet with the rabbi - with Tsishinsky also responsible for the bouncy and sweeping musical arrangement.
Credits:
Composer: Rabbi Mordechai Ben David.
Poetry: Yoeli Tsishinsky and the Rabbi.
Arrangement and musical production: Yoeli Tsishinsky.
Voices: 'Fargenigen' choir.
Recorded at Bennett Studios'
