Back in 1973, a young man named Mordechai Werdyger slipped on to the Jewish music scene with a little-known album called Original Chassidic Melodies. While that early album never took off, listeners sat up when they heard Mordechai Ben David’s next album, Hineni, the following year. The magic of his new-old musical style and the sheer power of his voice soon won a place right at the heart of the frum soundtrack.

For over four decades, we’ve sung and danced, swayed and prayed, to hundreds of iconic MBD songs, the ones he wrote himself and those collaborations he made famous. And now we’ve asked our readers:

Which one of Mordechai Ben David’s songs has touched your life?

Avraham Binyamin, Ashdod | “Shema Yisrael” (Hineni, 1974), “Shiru Lamelech” (Kumzitz, 2003)

Growing up in a traditional Yemenite home in the 1980s, I was first attracted to Mordechai Ben David’s songs that I would hear from the porches of my neighbors. Though I was just a young boy from a non-Torah home, something inside me was stirred and I was inspired. Something about his voice and songs connected me to David Hamelech, who I knew about from my elderly Teimani uncles, and these songs became part of the journey back to an authentic Torah life. The songs I felt most connected to were his classic “Shema Yisrael,” and later, “Shiru Lamelech.” I’m still singing them to my three young children, the oldest with his long flowing Yeminite peyot.

MBD'S TAKE

“I learned ‘Shiru Lamelech’ from my son Yeedle who always brought us the best music. This one was written by Rabbi Hillel Paley and was the lead song on Yeedle’s album of the same name. May he continue bringing us great songs to inspire and uplift us. Bottom line, we’re so fortunate that we’re able to sing praise to Hashem.”

 (Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 738)