“I
was three years old when I first stood next to my grandfather, Chazzan Aaron Schwebel, when he led the davening on the Yamim Noraim,” says singer/composer Eli Schwebel. Today, a choir of 20 people stands around Eli’s father, Rivie Schwebel, when he davens for the amud on Rosh Hashanah, and grandson Eli is involved in numerous musical projects of his own, mainly contemporary Jewish soul music, with a special love for a cappella singing. But he can still hear his zeide’s voice echoing in his ears. “He used to drive into me, ‘Eli, peirush hamilim! The entire davening is about peirush hamilim.’ ”

When Eli was in Jerusalem learning in yeshivah, he’d find himself and his friends Gadi Fuchs and Ari Cukier booked up for Shabbos meals weeks in advance, as rumors of their beautiful zemiros and rich vocal harmonies spread. Making an album was an easy decision, and the group found their way to Creative Audio studio in Givat Shaul’s Merkaz Sapir industrial complex, which his father Rivie Schwebel had been involved in establishing. This was the start of the group Lev Tahor, and Eli and his friends are still singing together, almost 20 years later.

Essentially, Eli’s still basing his music on what his zeide taught. “My grandfather was right. To create soul music, you have to sing ‘inside’ the lyrics, be mefareish them in your singing. I’ve always had this ability to do that — even as a kid in a bad mood I had this capacity to enter the words I was singing and get lost in another reality.”

 (Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 746)