“Sometimes, we have to seek a little stronger, try a little harder, to find Him, but as long as we make that effort, we can be reassured He is always there”

MORDECHAI SHAPIRO’s songs are always a great vehicle for expressing all that boundless summer energy, and his latest album, ACHAS, is this season’s soundtrack for many camps, day camps, and summer programs. The album’s biggest hit, “Ashirah,” a fast-paced, catchy dance song that went viral when he prereleased it as a single and music video in the spring.

Mordechai is proud that the song showcases brand new talent. “My nephew in Yeshiva University told me that he has a very talented friend named Elli Spinowitz who composes songs. He sent me this song, and I loved it as soon as I heard it. Both the message and the style spoke to me,” Mordechai says. “But although the demo was incredible, I was skeptical about whether a 20-year-old could arrange and produce a song on such a high level, so I took the demo and shopped around among a few arrangers who could get it to the next level. But when nothing was working out, it seemed clear that Hashem wanted the song to end up back in its young composer’s hands. Elli actually did arrange the music, and another YU friend, Yehudah Pinsker, produced the final track. All that young energy is out there on the track, and I love sharing the fresh talent with the music world.”

The album’s more serious title track, “Achas,” was created last Elul, Mordechai says, “when I had a lot going on in my life and was feeling distant from Hakadosh Baruch Hu.” The addition of the perek “LeDovid Hashem Ori” at the end of davening during Elul sometimes gets mumbled as a rote recital, but one day Mordechai found himself stopping to take a proper look at what Dovid Hamelech was actually saying in this kapitel.

“I even took out the ArtScroll to get an exact translation, and I read it through carefully,” he says. “When I came to the words ‘Achas sha’alti me’eis Hashem — just one thing I ask of You Hashem, to sit in Your house all the days of my life,’ I was so moved, and I was so grateful that Hashem gave me that inspiration too. It was like a hug.” Heading straight for the piano to compose a melody for these words, Mordechai hoped that others who feel a little distant can be inspired too. “Sometimes, we have to seek a little stronger, try a little harder, to find Him, but as long as we make that effort, we can be reassured He is always there.”

Another of the singer’s own compositions is the energized “Dancing in the Rain.” With lyrics by Chayala Neuhaus, it celebrates the concept of dancing through those tough, cloudy moments when the sky seems gray. “Rather than just get through, we can actually appreciate that those hard times are a yeridah letzorech Aliyah — a descent which enables ascent,” Mordechai says. “There is no way we would be able to reach our highest without our lowest moments.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 923)