Rabbi Baruch Chait and Gadi Pollack return with another middos masterpiece

Photos: Elchanan Kotler
Illustrations: Gadi Pollack

Nearly twenty years after master mechanech and veteran composer Rabbi Baruch Chait teamed up with beloved artist Gadi Pollack to create four best-selling books of the Middos Voyage series for children, they’re finally back with the next chapter in the lives of Rebbe Lev Tov and the passengers and crew on the Gaavatanic oceanliner. But while those children are now adults themselves, the duo’s newest message is actually targeted to them, too.

IT’Sbeen over two decades since children were first entranced by The Incredible Voyage to Good Middos: the story of the unsinkable Gaavatanic, its love-to-hate-them passengers, and the earnest Rebbe Lev Tov, determined to bring the gigantic boat of haughtiness and greed to humility and repentance.

Books two, three, and four of the loveable Middos Voyage series quickly followed — The Lost Treasure of Tikun HaMiddos Island and parts one and two of The Terrifying Trap of the Bad Middos Pirates. And then the children of the world waited for book five. And waited.

In the world of frum Jewish children’s literature, these books were groundbreaking. Not only did they feature Gadi Pollack’s trademark illustrations with captivating depth, they also conveyed the child-friendly messages of avodas hamiddos created by veteran composer, writer, mechanech, and yeshivah founder Rabbi Baruch Chait. Readers were enthralled by the Gaavatanic and its crew, and clamored for more.

And now, 20 years later, when those same children have grown and started families of their own, Rabbi Baruch Chait and artist Gadi Pollack are at long last giving us the next chapter in the lives of the passengers of the Gaavatanic: Shadow Pirates — The Wheel Is in Your Hands.

What brought the duo back to the drawing board, and how does this new offering complement the previous books in the series even as it reflects the changing trends and needs of a new generation?

“Those kids who were the original readers are all grown up now, so the images became more mature as well.” Rabbi Baruch Chait and Gadi Pollack regrouped for a new generation

Many Are the Thoughts

I knock on the door of the Chait home in Jerusalem; someone calls out to come in. I push the door open and step into a cultural experience. An aquarium of burbling fish, a canary in a cage, a piano, and several guitars are interspersed around the wall-to-wall shelves of seforim in the tasteful Har Nof apartment.

“Lashon hara!”

I jump and turned around to find myself face to face with an extremely large, African grey parrot. He cocks his head and clicks his nails on the bars of the cage.

“Lashon hara!” he cautions me again.

I’m about to protest that I haven’t even said anything yet when Rabbi Chait comes bustling in from the other room.

“Careful, Cocoa bites,” he warns. I step back hurriedly, and we sit down at the table.

“He can also whistle the first stanza of ‘Mi Ha’ish,’ ” Rabbi Chait says, referring to the iconic song he composed back in the 1960s and made famous by his singing ensemble, The Rabbis’ Sons, the group that brought a new vibe to modern chassidic music with catchy, guitar-driven songs layered with depth and meaning.

Rabbi Chait sits by the piano and plays for a moment; it’s elevating.

“Do you still compose?” I ask, taking in how natural Rabbi Chait seems at the piano.

He smiles. “Every Thursday we have a kumzitz at Maarava Machon Rubin [the high-level yeshivah high school he founded in Moshav Mattityahu 35 years ago, which offers matriculation studies alongside limudei kodesh]. Boys make siyumim, we have a mussar seder, and then we turn down the lights. I take out my guitar, and those talmidim with guitars accompany me. At least once a month I try to teach them a new niggun, something I’ve composed. Last week, popular radio host Menachem Toker came down and recorded us, and then played some of our niggunim on his Motzaei Shabbos program on Radio Kol Chai.”