About a year and a half ago, when Yehuda Katz was in isolation, he played as anyone who is in isolation and has a guitar to play with does, and a melody fell upon him from heaven. Suddenly he remembered a story that happened to him in 1987.
He arrived for ten days in Moscow, the former Soviet Union. His mission was to meet as many music people in Moscow as possible.
In those days, it was forbidden to play Jewish music there in public, as was the sweeping prohibition on expressing anything related to the mitzvot. "The last day I met with Leib, Leib is a pianist who lives on the edge of Moscow near the forest, and he told me that for many years, every year on Lag BaOmer, the klezmers would gather together in the city secretly and play and dance together.".
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Katz asked Leib what could be done for him? - and he replied: "The world thinks there is freedom in Russia. That is not true, the Jews live here in depression, we need a spiritual injection. And if there is one thing you can do for us, it is to bring Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach here to Russia.".
Israel Shavoni, Katz's friend who was with him, pledged to help with this, and indeed, as soon as they returned to the US, they worked to bring Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. After two years, and thanks to Leib, Shlomo Carlebach's famous concert tour took place in six towns in the former Soviet Union.
Katz, who to this day cannot explain how he remembered this story, called Hamutal Ben Zeev and asked her to write a song called "Forest Dance" - dedicated to the pianist Liev and his klezmer friends.
The lyrics of the verse are taken from the Song of Songs, and the chorus was written by Hamutal Ben Ze'ev. "The song has a line, 'This is the dance of the city, let us join in and be enveloped in the holy light,' Hanukkah is a holiday of light, and we will all be blessed to be enveloped in the holy light of Hanukkah. The words I connected with the most in the song are 'Yachad Yisrael.' It is very important to me that as the people of Israel, we will be together. Let's dance together. We have many things in common that we can connect through, and that's how I felt when I was in isolation that I wanted us to be 'Yachad Yisrael.'""
My uncle's voice, here it comes.
Uncle, here it comes.
Skipping the mountains
Hopping on the hills
This is the dance of the forest, join in.
And in the light of holiness we are enveloped
Dance, sing, pray
Together Israel
""Forest Dance" | Lyrics: Song of Songs, Hamutal Ben Ze'ev | Composition, arrangement and musical production: Yehuda Katz
