“Baruch Hashem it’s Shabbos,” Abie’s composition as sung by Shloime Gertner on Journeys, is a beautiful way to segue into Shabbos

A rebbi at Yeshivas Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem and the founder of a marketing and music/podcast production agency, ZEVI KAUFMAN is a second-generation singer and songwriter who has composed such hits as “Akavia,” “Ivdu,” and “Lulay,” the latter having played as the crowd filed out of the last Siyum HaShas at MetLife Stadium.

A SONG I NEVER GET BORED OF

There are certain songs that I can sing continuously in order to more deeply integrate the messages. Those are songs such as my “Lulay,” about how lost we would be without Torah and how integral it is to our lives, or Rabbi Shmuel Brazil’s “Bilvavi,” or Eitan Katz’s “Ki Karov.” These and other such songs use the medium of niggun to help us internalize very powerful truths and live by them.

A SONG THAT GIVES ME CHIZUK IN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS

The classic vintage Pirchei “Ani Maamin” still does it for me, as well as Abie Rotenberg’s “Acheinu.” Songs like those widen my lens and connect me to the bigger picture of Klal Yisrael’s story. When you zoom out to the bigger picture, the connection itself offers comfort.

SOME UNFORGETTABLE ENGLISH LYRICS

“They rose from the ashes.” It’s an incredibly poignant piece of imagery sung by the Maccabeats in “From the Ashes” on Journeys V, celebrating rebirth after the Holocaust. It’s also a pun, because our nation is compared to a rose. Abie Rotenberg has said on occasion that Moshe Yess a”h inspired him as a lyric writer. Moshe had that gift of crafting moving imagery in English, with great lines such as the memorable “Who will be their zeidies if not we?”

MUSIC THAT HELPS ME UNWIND

I actually don’t use music to unwind. I use it to connect or to communicate.

A SONG THAT’S GONE OUT OF STYLE BUT I’D LIKE TO BRING  BACK

Can I have two? One is the old song “Ranenu Tzaddikim,” from the 1972 Camp Kol-Ree-Nah Sings. My father is the composer and was a child soloist, so I know their material, and that song is a special one. And Moshe Yess’s “The Angel Song.” I sang it on the Moshe Yess Tribute Album, and it’s a shame more people don’t know this great song, about how the most precious thing in the entire world is a tear of true teshuvah.

A SONG THAT GETS ME INTO THE SHABBOS MOOD

“Baruch Hashem it’s Shabbos,” Abie’s composition as sung by Shloime Gertner on Journeys, is a beautiful way to segue into Shabbos. Also, I want to give a nod to Benny Friedman’s Bnei Heichala Shabbos album. It is on repeat in our house on Erev Shabbos, and I think of it as representing the Shabbos journey, as well as an amazing entry point for building Shabbos associations.

AN INSTRUMENT I WISH I COULD PLAY

I play a little piano, but I would like one day, if time allows, to learn guitar or violin, because understanding more about those instruments, how they work and the part they play in the emotional impact of the music, would add to the creativity and performance of my own compositions.

MY MOST MEMORABLE MUSICAL MOMENT

I would say it was when my song was being played to accompany the crowd out of the Siyum HaShas. When I write a song, I always hope it will be used not just as background noise for a jog, or to unwind, but to connect and to communicate, and that daf yomi connection was very special.

MY GO-TO MELAVEH MALKAH SONG

My kids, aged four and six, have two great loves: herring and chazzanus. Every week, when they are awake for Havdalah, they like me to sing Yossele Rosenblatt’s Hamavdil. “Hamavdil, hamavdil bein kodesh lechol, chatoseinu Hu yimchol…” and they try out some chazzanus too. Recently we’ve also started singing Joey Newcomb’s “A Gutte Voch.”

A SONG I ONLY HEARD ONCE, BUT NEVER FORGOT

I find it hard to forget any song I hear, which means I try to be somewhat discriminating in what I listen to, because I know the music will become a part of me once I’ve heard it.

A SONG WITH PERFECT HARMONY

I was in Miami Boys Choir as a kid and I feel that a lot of the MBC songs really come into their own when a group sings together. Songs like “Yaaleh Veyavo,” for example, have powerful harmonies that are especially uplifting when sung with a big choir.

WHEN IT’S EITHER A SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND FULL CHOIR OR INTIMATE KUMZITZ

They both have a place. The mass accompaniment gives pomp to an event, but there is a special degree of connection in sitting with just a few people to connect to a niggun and to each other.

A SONG THAT BREAKS THE ICE WITH KIRUV AUDIENCES

Rabbi Baruch Chait’s well-worn classic “Kol Ha’olam Kulo,” especially with the English, “The whole world is a narrow bridge,” has become a universal Jewish song, even among unaffiliated Jews. It’s a good idea to use Jewish songs that are partly in English, because when people know what they are singing, it’s that much easier to open up.

AN ALBUM I’D TAKE ALONG ON A ROAD TRIP

I’d choose the latest Journeys V, which came out 18 long years after the last Journeys album. So much went into that album, and I find the songs so finely nuanced that I can constantly squeeze out new understanding and inspiration.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 932)