The Simply Tsfat band. Members of the Breslov shul on the mountainside just above the steep graveyard of the city’s tzaddikim and kabbalists they knew each other from Shabbos davening

Simply Tsfat

“Nothing like the ruach of a Shabbos seudah in a football field”

They’re the band who met in shul on Shabbos. At the time Yoni Lipshutz was a day trader Eliyahu Reiter a part-owner of Tzfas’s candle factory and Yonatan Zarum played in a wedding band. All members of the Breslov shul on the mountainside just above the steep graveyard of the city’s tzaddikim and kabbalists they knew each other from Shabbos davening. In 1998 Lipshutz was out of a job and a friend loaned him a violin. Reiter had sold his candle factory and was seeking another career. The two teamed up for some informal kumzitzes with Yoni’s classical violin engaging Eliyahu’s Carlebach-style acoustic guitar. The sound was a hit locally and soon they asked Yonatan Zarum who plays classical guitar with a jazz influence to make up a trio. Since then Simply Tsfat has been giving a new sound to both traditional chassidic niggunim and their own compositions — both wordless niggunim and ballads — thrown in to the mix.

Communities across the US have enjoyed the five US tours the band has made with more planned for the coming year. “We were in Atlanta for the Shabbos Project last year and in Scottsdale Arizona the year before ” says Yoni. “Both places gave off a terrific feeling of achdus as we sang and danced with the crowds at the huge communal luncheons. You can’t beat the ruach of hundreds of people from all walks of life joining for Shabbos lunch on an outdoor parking lot or football field. Just gevaldig.”

Eitan Katz

“Davening together brings down all boundaries”

Last year I was invited to the Holy Law Synagogue in Manchester UK for the Shabbos Project with a Sunday night concert in London following. I’d never sung in England before — in fact I had never set foot there and I was nervous about how the crowd would participate. At the event there were 1 500 people in that cavernous shul for Kabbalas Shabbos. When we started “lechu neranenah ” the place seemed to light up the atmosphere ignited. The entire shul was dancing up a storm — no British reserve here. I felt such a sense of connection. I saw how davening together brings down all boundaries. We had an unbelievably moving Shabbos experience and the Havdalah concert felt like the warmest of farewells.

Yehuda Green

“It was a privilege to make Kiddush for them”

Carlebach shul chazzan Yehuda Green has participated in several Shabbos Project events most notably at the Agudas Yisrael of Flatbush. He waxes enthusiastic about their effect. “It’s an amazing idea — not just for those who don’t know about Shabbos but for those who do. Everyone grows from sharing Shabbos.”

Green reckons these Shabbos gatherings are the largest crowds he has ever led in Kabbalas Shabbos and Kiddush. “Kiddush is actually an announcement of Shabbos. The 1000-strong crowd was silent and listening as I announced ‘Yom Hashishi ’ even those who had never kept Shabbos before. It was a privilege to make Kiddush for them.”

On Motzaei Shabbos Yehuda led the traditional Yiddish “G-tt fun Avraham” prayer composed by Rebbe Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev and then sang an English translation of the prayer which enabled the crowd to connect and join him. He also sang his popular “Hashiveinu” and “Nishmas Kol Chai.”

“I believe the participants in these beautiful Shabbosim will never forget the feeling of connection and warmth and as for myself — I’m one lucky person to be able to take part.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 682)