Some of the Jewish music world’s most talented composers are also marbitzei Torah... it’s about letting everyone hear the soundtrack of the beis medrash

RABBI SUKI BERRY’s main claim to fame in music is as the producer and arranger who is the other half of “Suki & Ding,” yet for over two decades his official job was as a rebbi at Yeshivas Ohr Dovid and today he’s menahel ruchani at Yeshivas Imrei Binah. And while composing isn’t really his niche, his few compositions from many years back, among them “Keili Chish Goali” and “Arukah,” are what he calls incidental.

“Arukah,” sung by Avraham Fried on the 1980 Amudai Shaish wedding album, is a refined, meditative song that Suki composed as a bochur in the beis medrash. He came across the words from Iyov in a mussar sefer, and they seemed to sing themselves to him. “Keili Chish Goali,” a popular Motzaei Shabbos song that has stood the test of time, was written together with his friend, Shimmy Blumenthal.

The foremost influence on Rabbi Suki Berry’s life was his father’s rebbi, Rav Yitzchok Hutner.

“The Rosh Yeshivah was the sandek at my bris. He kept up with our family and guided us until his petirah in 1980, and he guided my music career too,” Rabbi Berry explains. While it was common in yeshivah circles in those days to discourage music as a waste of time, the Rosh Yeshivah saw his students as individuals with unique qualities, and in Suki’s case, he understood how much music was a part of him. In the Rosh Yeshivah’s view, someone who was so clearly gifted with a great talent should not only use it, but develop it as well. He encouraged young Suki never to be complacent, but to always seek to learn more and improve his music.

Suki was a young bochur of 17, already a gifted musician, when Rav Hutner called him into his office to ask if he played at weddings. When Suki replied that he did, the Rosh Yeshivah guided him as to which weddings were appropriate for him to perform at — specifically, those where the tzniyus was up to a certain standard. His next words would chart the course of Suki’s life and career.

“Rav Hutner said to me: ‘Playing at chasunahs is a nice thing, but for you — you should know that when you turn 20 playing at weddings is not for you. That ended up dictating my entire life. I was playing weddings constantly until I was 20, but then I knew it was time to stop. That actually freed up my schedule — and my head and my heart — to go to yeshivah in Eretz Yisrael. And I’m still here today, because ‘playing at weddings is not for [me.]’ ”

Instead, the Rosh Yeshivah’s words sent Suki into the areas of production and arrangements during yeshivah breaks. “He encouraged me, yet made sure to put a cap to my youth and gave me direction for life.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 860)