Everyone knows the "Purim Rob" in the Hebron Yeshiva, as well as in other yeshivahs: a group of talented young men take to a stage made up of interconnected tables, dozens of yeshiva members crowd at its feet, and the cheerful, and it must be said, drunk group begins with monologues, and also dialogues, that illuminate the yeshiva's atmosphere in a humorous, humorous, and cynical light, to the delight of the members.<\/p>\r\n
Also at Rabbi Zephaniah Drori's Kiryat Shmona Hesder Yeshiva, three friends named Matan Tzur (26), Yair Yaakovi (31), and Nadav Neve (28) decided to hold a program called 'Purim Spiel' in response to the enthusiastic responses of their friends.<\/p>\r\n
But this small group, which was later joined by another member \u2013 Asher Ben Abu (31) \u2013 also had far-reaching plans, which were not necessarily limited to the yeshiva. Within three years, they became 'Andrados' - the religious comedy troupe that is driving the internet crazy, and has become a hit in the religious sector.<\/p>\r\n
[youtube url="https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9TpMpf9Pm0k" width="600" height="400" responsive="yes" autoplay="no"]<\/p>\r\n
\""That's where our love for it began," says Matan Tzur, "and then we decided to do it professionally.".<\/p>\r\n
It was on the eve of Sukkot, exactly 3 years ago, and the four began collecting humorous materials dealing with the religious lifestyle. Three months later, filming began, and the materials were released to YouTube.\u00a0\""We waited until we had a lot of material, so we could release it professionally every week, to the general public.".<\/span><\/p>\r\n And the audience, it turns out, is indeed wide.<\/p>\r\n Within a short time of its establishment, the cheerful group gained an audience of fans who watched videos uploaded to YouTube in numbers that would not shame even the idols of world singing: As of today, Tishrei 5775, Andrados' video channel has crossed the 14 million views mark.<\/p>\r\n Their songs like 'Song of the Text' and 'Achla Hasuda' have been viewed approximately 600,000 and 700,000 times respectively. Their Facebook page has 33,000 followers. "Everything is with the help of God," Tsur tries to clarify. "It doesn't just depend on us.".<\/p>\r\n [youtube url="https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=V7RKf40g1g4" width="600" height="400" responsive="yes" autoplay="no"]<\/p>\r\n Were you surprised by your rapid success?<\/b><\/p>\r\n Andrados: "We thought far ahead at the beginning, we weren't thinking about anything esoteric, but we were groping in the dark. We didn't know who to compare ourselves to, and most of all, we didn't know how quickly it would happen. When people started sharing our videos, we realized we had a good product.".<\/p>\r\n The group, it turns out, was mainly afraid of the phenomenon of 'network stars' - who gain momentum, go viral and bask in the lights of Windows, but disappear as quickly as they blossomed. An act that tens of thousands of 'successes' before them suffered from. "It was only when I saw the success of 'Ahla Hasuda' that I realized that we were here to stay," says Matan.<\/p>\r\n However, success, even meteoric, on the free YouTube does not necessarily indicate success in the personal bank account.<\/p>\r\n Andrados produced commercials for various companies, and two years ago launched a stage show based on new material that had not appeared on the YouTube channel. So far, the group has recorded close to 100 performances, some in front of audiences of thousands of people. "Thank God, the reactions are good. And that's important. Because on YouTube, anyone can watch. Paying money and physically coming to a performance is something else," they say.<\/p>\r\n The group members, three of whom are married with children, do not rely solely on performances and are engaged in additional work.<\/p>\r\n [youtube url="https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-j8mzaEZdfo" width="600" height="400" responsive="yes" autoplay="no"]<\/p>\r\n \u00a0Matan Tzur is a screenwriter, a graduate of Sam Spiegel, and a journalist at the newspaper ''Small World''<\/span> And 'Motsash', Yair Yaakovi is also a screenwriter at the Rogatka company, Asher Ben Abu studies at the Academy of Music, and Nadav Naveh teaches at a high school yeshiva. Nadav is the only one of the group who studied film directing at the 'Ma'ale' school, and he is responsible for the photography and direction of all the scripts.<\/p>\r\n Apart from him, the friends do everything together, without any outside help: they write, film, edit, and produce. "We don't have unlimited resources, we do everything on our own, and in full collaboration," explains Matan Tzur. "We all write and sometimes have long minutes and hours of discussions about every idea, and even every word. Whether to say, for example, 'papaya' in a sketch or the name of another fruit ["What are the blessings for papaya," from 'Song of the Text'], precision and conciseness are very important.".<\/p>\r\n How do you manage to both work and photograph?<\/b><\/p>\r\n \""So far we have produced over a hundred videos, and we have a similar number of texts waiting for us. We meet once a week for a whole day and dedicate it all to filming and writing. Sometimes we also go the extra mile and stay in touch during the week.".<\/p>\r\n Andrados' materials consist of religious life, a new humor channel that did not exist before them, certainly not in a professional way, and so broad in scope. Thus, one can see sketches from community and synagogue life, gabbaot, cantor, Shabbat, High Holidays, Passover, matchmaking, beggars, searching for a minyan, Shabbat singing, chevruta and more.<\/p>\r\n Sometimes the nuances reach a very high resolution. For example, in the sketch "Coffee Coffee," Nadav serves his friends two cups, while he finds out in a very unconventional way who gets the less hot cup of coffee (the third cup) because he is Ashkenazi and who needs a "second vessel" because of his Sephardic origin. Will someone who is not religious understand this? Will they even realize that the situation is taking place on Shabbat?<\/p>\r\n [youtube url="http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8Fo03o0sf2E" width="600" height="400" responsive="yes" autoplay="no"]<\/p>\r\n I tell Matan Tzur that at Bar Ilan University, as part of a Judaism program, I gave a presentation with video clips of Andrados, and I was honestly surprised to discover that among the participants were also secular 'feminist' women who displayed an amazing familiarity with the group's materials.<\/p>\r\n \""These phenomena are not foreign to me. Once, a friend of my brother who lives in Tel Aviv, who is not religious, approached him and said, 'You look like the guy from Andrades,' and then I realized that we had also reached the so-called 'Tel Aviv audience,' but the core of our audience still belongs to national religious people," says Tzur.<\/p>\r\n Are you aware that you are also popular among the ultra-Orthodox sector?<\/b><\/p>\r\n \""We really like the Haredi sector. There are those who like to find differences between the sectors, we are not like that. In the end, we are very similar. We really like them and it's just fun to know that our humor works on them too, and that it receives the 'kosher' of the Haredi sector, which has different criteria.".<\/p>\r\n And the unwritten 'kosher' does not appear in a vacuum.<\/p>\r\n [youtube url="https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MpUVsCz8bx4" width="600" height="400" responsive="yes" autoplay="no"]<\/p>\r\n Andrados only deals with the religious way of life, but will never make fun of it. In the hundred sketches that have already been produced, there will not be a swear word, a personal 'degradation', slander, or mockery of Halacha or a rabbi. "We are not 'religious darlings.' We are yeshiva graduates. We come from our religious life, which we are very comfortable with, and we are just trying to add a fun smile to it.".<\/p>\r\n This does not mean that there is no satire in the sketches and cynical statements (also, 'not very harsh,' they emphasize) about social phenomena such as the oppressive chaos surrounding the sale of places for the Apocalypse, unsynchronized collectors, or the endless inquiries in matchmaking. But the focus is on social phenomena that characterize the religious audience and not on religious life itself. "We don't come from the outside and criticize, we tell stories and laugh at ourselves, and that's probably why people aren't offended.".<\/p>\r\n The group members tell of positive feedback they receive from rabbis, including their rabbis at the Kiryat Shmona Yeshiva, who let them know that they are satisfied with the clean humor they produce.<\/p>\r\n [youtube url="https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-SbmIn3vW3U" width="600" height="400" responsive="yes" autoplay="no"]<\/p>\r\n Were there any sketches you rejected?<\/b><\/p>\r\n Matan Tzur: "Certainly. As soon as we discovered that a sketch might be interpreted as mocking halacha or something like that, even if that wasn't our intention. There was a sketch like that that we filmed, and after we finished it we simply decided to shelve it, because we were afraid that there would be those who would misinterpret it.".<\/p>\r\n Are there things you won't do?<\/b><\/p>\r\n \""Anything that is not within the boundaries of Halacha or modesty will not be done. There was a sketch in which women also participated. There was no question at all of 'keeping a touch' or anything like that, since I maintain that in my private life as well, I will not change it on set, or act differently for the camera.".<\/p>\r\n Is there a place for this kind of humor in Haredi society as well? Matan Tzur believes that there is: "Every society has its own way of life. Its own traditions and customs, and hence there is a very fertile ground for humor. If someone picks up the gauntlet and does it consistently, it will take hold in the area where it is ultimately the one giving the indication.".<\/p>\r\n And what are the plans next?<\/p>\r\n As far as the group is concerned, we can only move forward. A prime-time show on Reshet is also in the cards. "On Channel 2," they say, "they will still prefer the ratings-pumping "Big Brother," and less of a somewhat sectoral satire show, but we believe there is definitely room for our new humor.".<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the eve of Sukkot, exactly 3 years ago, the 'Andrados' group, a group of religious comedians, began collecting materials \u2022 Since then, they have become a hysterical hit and their video channel has already surpassed the 14 million views mark \u2022 Eliezer Heun went to find out how it happened","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-93"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n