"I have to thank you for keeping me going at a time when nothing else could inspire me to keep Shabbos”

You can never know the impact a song will have on others — all you can do is sing sincerely and let the words and music speak. An avreich once called and said he wanted to speak to me personally, not over the phone. We arranged to meet at a wedding where I was singing, and he came over very discreetly. “I owe you my life,” he began. “I may not look it, but I have faltered and stumbled very greatly in my Yiddishkeit. There was a time when I was barely keeping Shabbos. But every Friday afternoon, I would listen over and over to you singing ‘HaShabbos Noam Haneshamos’ [words from the Friday night Kah Echsof, the tune composed by Pinky Weber] and it gave me a push and a desire to keep just that Shabbos, even if it would be the last one for me. This was around six years ago, and baruch Hashem that period passed, but I have to thank you for keeping me going at a time when nothing else could inspire me to keep Shabbos.”

—Singer SHLOMO COHEN

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 848)