The song “Od Yosef Chai” addresses the pain of children who are excluded

When BERI WEBER speaks about boys who are bullied and have a hard time finding their place, it’s clear that the cry comes from his own heart, and from the hearts of the teenagers he’s mentored.

“Again and again, I’ve seen how the brightest lights are suppressed under the heaviest heaps of rubble,” he says. “As many tzaddikim have explained, those who were ignored, pushed aside, or made fun of suffer tremendously, but they often have the greatest potential.”

The song “Od Yosef Chai” on Beri’s most recent album, Korban, addresses the pain of children who are excluded, comparing their experience to the pain of rejection suffered by Yosef Hatzaddik. Writer/composer Motty Ilowitz’s refrain of “Di bist Yosef. Di bist Yosef. Nisht a chilik vus di geist ariber, bist di a tzaddik, a gibber. Di bist Yosef [You are Yosef. No matter what you go through, you are a tzaddik, a hero...]” can be a mantra of hope to a suffering child, infusing him with the belief that he will overcome his difficulties and emerge strong.

“I’ve gotten tremendous feedback on this,” Beri says. “Kids have told me that they felt themselves comforted by Yosef. But they’re not the only ones. I got a message from a father, crying and thanking me for this song, because it inspired him to reunite with his own son. The boy had behavioral issues, and they didn’t have a good relationship. He’d sent him to dorm in an out-of-town yeshivah to minimize the friction, but that just pushed them to grow further apart. He hadn’t had a conversation with his son in two years.

“A rosh yeshivah from a well-known yeshivah also called me. He had a ride home from a wedding with a family member who had this song playing in the car, and he told me the song so penetrated his soul that it had an effect on the entire yeshivah, because he started looking at boys with an eye to their future potential instead of focusing on their current issues.”

The feedback prodded Beri to get the message out even further with a powerful music video produced in Eretz Yisrael, with screenplay by Malchus Choir’s talented Reb Pinchas Bichler, released a few weeks ago.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 945)