“It was a frightening time. I was looking through Sefer Tehillim, and I came across this pasuk in Tehillim 27"

"It was one of the first nights of the 1973 Yom Kippur war,” AVRAHAM ROSENBLUM, founder of the legendary Diaspora Yeshiva Band, remembers. “We were newlyweds, living in our small Jerusalem apartment in Sanhedria Murchevet. Even though you could not hear or feel the actual war being fought in Yerushalayim, laws were strict. You had to close the trissim so that not a crack of light would escape. Outdoors, you could not so much as strike a match during the hours of darkness. Indoors, the radio kept announcing the casualties of the war.”

Rosenblum, a rock and blues guitarist, had come to Israel and discovered Torah at the Diaspora Yeshiva. A few years later, in 1975, he would found the band, which became famous for Melaveh Malkah concerts on Har Tzion, international concert tours, and a slew of hits and albums. But during those nerve-wracking nights of war, he wrote one of his first “Diaspora” classics: “LULEI HE’EMANTI.”

“It was a frightening time. I was looking through Sefer Tehillim, and I came across this pasuk in Tehillim 27. A little melody came to me, and when I asked my wife what she thought, she suggested something a little different. Soon, between us, we had a niggun carved out, in two parts — “Lulei He’emanti,” and “Kavei el Hashem.” There are those times when you feel things around you in a very profound and connected way, and the music follows your emotions.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 841)