To get in touch with the singer and songwriter Yosef Karduner don’t bother contacting him through websites or agents or record labels — he doesn’t have any. It’s much more efficient to go looking for him in the beis medrash which is where we found him during his recent visit to New York — sitting in shul engrossed in his Gemara Bava Metzia. Using terms like “Jewish music star” and “singing sensation” for Reb Yosef isn’t just inaccurate it’s downright laughable. Even the Wikipedia entry for Yosef Karduner notes his surprising “aversion to public relations and advertising… he rarely gives interviews.” One could perhaps imagine another music personality of his stature creating an entire persona as the inaccessible reclusive “un-star.” But not Reb Yosef. With him it’s just authentic temimus pashtus emes. In the music industry for someone with his talent — he has produced 11 albums in 17 years and his enchanting “Shir Lamaalot” is a veritable national anthem in Israel — to exhibit such a complete absence of airs and artificiality is a refreshing rarity.  Having tasted the success and acclaim of secular stardom he saw through the deception of that world and fled in disgust. He searched instead for a place that’s real pure true. And having found it he’s not turning back. He spends an hour daily on his musical pursuits and the rest of his day is devoted to his growing family to Torah and tefillah and to nurturing a relationship with his Creator following the unique path of Breslov.