T he tefillah of Shabbos Mevarechim which appeals for a month filled with blessing is a weighty one for Jews everywhere. The closing section yechadshehu is a supplication that Hashem renew upon us joy consolation sustenance peace good tidings and good news healing and recovery and speedy redemption — the words ushering us into a new time of personal and communal salvation.

When songwriter Naftali (Tuli) Weill composed the tune for what would become “Yechadshehu” back in 2007 he actually wasn’t thinking about the brachos of Shabbos Mevarechim but of the blessings that would accompany his younger brother Yanky to the chuppah. “It was actually in a faster tempo with Yiddish lyrics about the chassan cowritten by Motty Illowitz — then unknown — and myself ” Weill says. Titled “Mazel Tov Yaakov Shimon ” Weill performed the original song at the wedding before the mitzvah tantz together with top crowd-pleasers Pinky Weber and Yoeli Greenfeld.

Two years later Weill got a phone call from Yoeli Greenfeld asking if he recalled the song they had performed together at Yanky’s wedding. Greenfeld was then collating songs for his first album Hamevorach Yisborach which would emerge in January 2010. He started humming the parts of the tune he remembered over the phone but in a slower tempo than the way they’d originally sung it. Weill was immediately struck by his friend’s revelation — the slower version of the melody sounded far better than the original. Together with Naftali Schnitzler the album’s producer Weill came up with the perfect words for the slowed-down niggun: the tefillah of Shabbos Mevarechim — words of hope and prayer for the month ahead.

The result was a hit. “I believe most people experience strong feelings when they daven ‘Yechadshehu’ on Shabbos Mevarechim. Asking for all those brachos is an emotional experience and the job of the tune is to reflect that ” Weill comments.

For many composers the use of their tune in shul — to inspire and elevate prayer to a higher realm — is a major source of pride and Tuli Weill is no exception. “One Shabbos Mevarechim in 2010 soon after the song was released I was davening in a particular shul when the baal tefillah actually started ‘Yechadshehu’ with this tune while the oilem sang along. That was a very moving moment for me. I knew then that the song was not only for entertainment it’s actually being used to daven ” Weill says.

Weill who plays guitar and keyboard wrote his first song at the age of ten. With the encouragement of his family and some musical pals — including producer Naftali Schnitzler who is a childhood friend — he kept up the hobby into adulthood.

Weill says he has learned much from great musical talents with whom he’s become friendly over the years. “Musically Yossi Green probably had the biggest impact on me. I remember meeting Yossi at an event. Naturally I started asking him all types of questions about writing songs. Yossi suggested I come over to his home one evening to talk music. I took him up on the offer and this evolved into a series of informal composer workshops. Several musical friends joined us and most of us ended up publishing songs.” The frum musical world is a tight one — other attendees included Sruly Meyer (producer of Benny Friedman’s albums) and composer and badchan Motty Illowitz.

Other popular songs composed by Weill include “Mi Adir ” sung by Yumi Lowy “Yehi Ratzon ” by Beri Weber (on Beezras Hashem Yisborach) and “Mi Kamocha ” by Michoel Schnitzler (on The Wedding of the Youngest).

Today Weill spends his days creating marketing campaigns as director of life-cycle marketing at Ptex Group in New York. He sees this vocation as coming from the same instinct and drive as his songwriting. “It’s just a simple desire to create something artful and unique which affords a great sense of accomplishment. For me coming up with a creative campaign can feel just as great as writing a brand-new song.”

Feedback: 

“Soon after the song was released I was on line at my local breakfast shop when a yungerman came over to say thank-you. He said his ‘Yechadshehu’ tefillah on Shabbos Mevarechim has taken on an entirely different meaning since he’s been listening to Yoeli Greenfeld sing it.” (Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 666)

C OMPOSER: YITZY BALD│YEARS: 1990-TODAY

SONGS: “LEGABAY” “TATTE OY TATTE” “HU KLAL GADOL” “AL HASULAM…” AND DOZENS MORE

Catching up with composer/producer/arranger Yitzy Bald is a journey through some of the most popular songs of the past 25 years. He casually mentions one popular song after another dance-floor hits alongside slow songs of faith and chizuk. One by one they’re songs that are hard not to recognize: “Digi Digi Da Dum (Legabay)”; “Hu Klal Gadol BaTorah”; “Samayach Samayach Tesamach”; “Emes Atah Hu Rishon”; “Tzaddik Be’emunaso Yichyeh”; “Ye’erav Nah”; “Vayichan Sham Yisrael”; “Tatte Oy Tatte Avinu Av Harachaman”; and “Smile Again” are just a small selection.

Bald first broke into the frum music scene in 1990 at the first Miami Experience concert. After he had composed “Pischu Li Shaarei Tzedek” and taught it to his friends in Camp Agudah the song was noticed and purchased by Yerachmiel Begun — and a new-old name 21-year-old Shloime Dachs was scheduled to sing it at the concert. Dachs was no stranger to the stage though having sung as a kid in Miami Boys Choir Tzlil V’Zemer and Amudai Shaish.

“As the orchestra began to play the new song Shloime’s microphone was accidentally turned off so no one could hear the vocal — but my friends from camp were in the audience and they spontaneously began to sing ‘Pischu Li.’ Dachs motioned to Yisroel Lamm who stopped the orchestra until a new mike was brought and they began the song again. But those few minutes of the audience singing were pretty memorable ” Bald reminisces.

For both composer Bald and singer Dachs a new journey had begun.

THE EARLY 1990S introduced a new genre of Jewish music and Bald was at the center of this boom. His songs on Yisroel Williger’s first album The Voice of a New Generation released in 1994 are a classic example. The energized “Hu Klal Gadol BaTorah ” the album’s instant hit was actually composed a year earlier when Yitzy was still a teenager learning in Torah Vodaath. After high school he learned in Eretz Yisrael for a year.

“When I came back ” he says “I had this desire to be a mechanech [Today in addition to leading the New York Boys Choir writing songs and producing albums and music videos he’s also a rebbi in the Mill Basin Yeshiva Academy]. There were so many nice yeshivah boys falling through the cracks. When I began to learn with a boy I always started with the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch opening to the first page to shivisi Hashem l’negdi tamid.”

Those words the continuation of “Hu Klal Gadol BaTorah ” became one of Bald’s most popular compositions — and he says he feel the success of its upbeat clap-along rhythm was Heavenly recompense for his patience with the young boys to whom he taught these powerful words each time they began to learn.

As a child Yitzy Bald spent summers at Camp Agudah and had the opportunity to meet legendary Agudah leader Rabbi Moshe Sherer with whom surprisingly he formed a bond through song. “When Rabbi Sherer came to camp I played the welcome song for him and I subsequently got to know him through his grandson through my years as a counselor at camp and through my attendance at the Agudah conventions. In 1996 Rabbi Sherer was notably absent — he’d already fallen ill with leukemia. But in 1997 he was in remission and was back speaking at the convention. On Friday night he asked me and a friend to sit and sing at his table. He told us to sing ‘Tatte ’ and so we sang the ‘Tatte Tatte’ from Dveykus. Afterward Rabbi Sherer explained that he actually meant my own composition ‘Tatte Oy Tatte Avinu Av Harachaman ’ sung by Srully Williger. As we reached the refrain this master of self-control began to cry.”

Reb Shimshon Sherer Rabbi Sherer’s son later told Yitzy that his song was an absolute favorite of his father. “He told me it got him through the year of his illness and treatments.”

When Yitzy’s own mother was niftar that same year after a two-year battle with cancer Rabbi Sherer expressed his gratitude for the song by coming to be menachem avel Yitzy and making several phone calls to the fresh yasom. When Yitzy attended the 1997 Siyum HaShas that September in Madison Square Garden together with his father Srully Williger was called to the podium and began to sing “Tatte Oy Tatte ” just before Rabbi Sherer — already weakened but still so strong — got up to speak.

“I knew that Rabbi Sherer had arranged to pay me back with that song ” Yitzy says.

In 1998 Rabbi Sherer passed away — and Reb Shimshon told Yitzy that the song accompanied his yetzias haneshamah.

THE CONNECTION to Rabbi Sherer remains dear to Yitzy Bald and Camp Agudah is still a part of his life. Music and chinuch go hand in hand as he spends each summer as a learning rebbi and naturally takes charge (who else?) of the camp’s production at the end of the season.

Most of Bald’s hits were composed surprisingly quickly but he remembers that for “Sameach ” the title song on Mendy Wald’s album Sameach! back in 1996 he had the high part ready and waiting for five years before the low section of the song came to him. “I davened a lot for that one and Hashem eventually sent me the inspiration.”

In contrasting style but also sung by Mendy Wald on his second album L’Chaim (which was also composed and arranged by Yitzy Bald) the song “Smile Again — Refaenu Hashem” touched the hearts of listeners with an emotional appeal to the Heavens for the sick to be cured. With the help of his buddy Dr. Yechiel Zagelbaum Yitzy added English lyrics to the prayer which he set in a soaring melody of hope: “Wipe away the tears of sorrow pain and fear/ And even when His master plan is sometimes hard to understand/ To the Heavens above our prayers will ascend/ In the blink of an eye all our suffering will end…”

He might have been young when he wrote the song but the emotion was genuine. “I wrote it for my mother but then it ended up becoming a prayer for so many families struck by illness.”

MBD’s famous “Emes Atah Hu Rishon” also started as a song of healing. About 18 years ago Bald and his keyboard accompanied Mordechai Ben David to sing for a very sick ten-year-old boy and while performing Mordechai mentioned that he would be traveling to Israel that night to record his next album We Are One but he was missing a geshmake niggun. On the spot Yitzy played a song that he had just composed and they started to sing it in front of this boy. MBD loved the song so much that he took out a cheap recorder and when he played back “Emes” for Mona Rosenblum at the Israeli studio the next day the enthusiastic producer/arranger immediately notated the entire song on tissue paper so the orchestra could follow along. That song became an instant hit — and it had all started the day before with the mitzvah of being mesameiach a sick child.

ONE EVENING at the end of a grueling day Yitzy Bald was playing keyboard at a vort. As the simchah wound down he was thinking of singer Dovid Gabay who was looking for songs for his debut album. The tune of “Digi Digi Da Dum” came to mind and Bald began to play it.

Just then Rabbi Yaakov Salomon a guest walked in and came over. “I never heard this music before what is it?” he asked and Bald said he’d just made it up. Together they committed the tune to memory until Yitzy was able to record it. Rabbi Salomon then located ten different Gemaras that use the word “l’gabbei.”

“I loved the one about the Kohein Gadol — ‘regarding (l’gabbei) the service of the day he is zealous.’ I thought about how every Jew needs to stay eager and conscientious in his daily avodah.” The album was entitled Legabay and although Bald wrote most of the album’s other songs too this one became Dovid Gabay’s signature hit.

Since 2008 Yitzy Bald has been pouring most of his musical energies into his New York Boys Choir. As an idealistic yeshivah rebbi his choir is part of the extracurricular framework he sees as so important for boys of today.

“Yes we do perform but it’s not really about concerts ” he explains. “It’s about the whole experience of spending time on music of getting together for enjoyable extracurricular time in an meaningful endeavor.”

That’s what the song “Al Hasulam” from the choir’s first album is all about. One Shavuos he saw a quote from the Piaseczno Rebbe in Mishpacha’s Shavuos magazine: “A man has to build a ladder up to Shamayim and one of those ladders is the ladder of song.”

He loved the quote and that night he dreamed of an inspirational song with lyrics based on the concept. “I woke up and I tried to hold onto the tune. Second day Shavuos is a long day but I kept humming it because I couldn’t record. On Motzaei Yom Tov I sat down to work on it and by 4 a.m. I had the song complete.” It’s a high-energy tune with Hebrew and English words: “Shiru shir laShamayim al hasulam shel shirah — sing a song laShamayim ladders of song… wo-oh-wo-oh…”

Yitzy Bald for one is moving up the rungs. (Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 662)

S ONG: “TEFILLAT KALLAH”

ALBUM: KOLOT — YAAKOV SHWEKEY

COMPOSER: ELI SCHWAB

YEAR: 2014

Whether the chuppah overlooks the beach at Caesarea or is under the open roof of a Lakewood hall a kallah’s heart is full of hopes and dreams — and prayer. When Eli Schwab sat down to compose a song that would capture this fervent mood he had in mind the entire spectrum of couples standing under the canopy k’das Moshe v’Yisrael.

“I designed the song to have as broad an appeal as possible from American yeshivish to nonobservant Israeli ” Eli says. “My hope was that secular Israelis might also connect to a theme of kedushah and taharah at their weddings. With that in mind I ran the lyrics by an Israeli chiloni friend to check that they wouldn’t sound ‘too dati’ or ‘too chareidi’ to a secular audience. He suggested that I leave out the word ‘taharah ’ but I decided that the song might have more siyata d’Shmaya with this concept included. Baruch Hashem ‘Tefillat Kallah’ has enhanced thousands of chuppahs and is starting to be heard outside of the traditional Jewish music audience. I hope it will continue to spread and inspire.”

The uplifting chorus of “Tefillat Kallah” — “T’zakeinu l’hakim bayit ne’eman bikedushah u’vetaharah l’avodatecha v’titein ahavah v’achvah v’shalom v’reut beineinu” — has reverberated at thousands of weddings since it was recorded by Yaakov Shwekey on his Kolot album in 2014. Like the opening lyrics which speak of the blissful yet humble gratitude a kallah feels the melody begins softly with awe and humility before G-d’s kindness and then rises into the chorus a heartfelt plea for this singular eis ratzon. It asks that Hashem bless the new couple with holiness purity and the traditional blessings of love brotherhood peace and friendship between them. It was Yossi Green a mentor on Schwab’s musical journey who listened to his first version and advised him to take the chorus right from the top of the musical scale allowing the song (and prayer) to soar.

The concept of a specific tefillah for a bride is not a novel one. As far back as the 18th century seforim record various techinos and prayers for a kallah to recite on this momentous day crystallizing her thanks hopes and dreams for her new home.

Schwab sought to represent these through a popular song. “I formulated the lyrics to feel like a familiar and traditional tefillah but also simple enough to be appreciated by those less familiar with lashon kodesh ” he says.

“‘Tefillat Kallah’ has made a big mark on so many couples including those with no religious background ” says Yaakov Shwekey whose recording brought it to the public. “The lyrics — in thanks to the Master of the Universe and a request for blessing in building a bayit ne’eman — add inspiration to the holiest day of their lives which will hopefully accompany them into the future. The song is constantly requested as an introductory song to the chuppah ceremony both in America and in Israel. In fact just yesterday I spoke to a couple about a post-Sefirah wedding and of course they want “Tefillat Kallah” played first.”

Schwab — who wears another hat as a corporate real-estate attorney having graduated from Harvard Law School after years of yeshivah learning — has composed for MBD Tzvi Silberstein Beri Weber Benny Friedman Mordechai Shapiro Dovid Gabay Ohad Moskowitz Gad Elbaz Eitan Freilich Shlomo Simcha and Simcha Leiner hits like “Al Tishlach ” “Schar Mitzvah ” “Yachad ” and “Osim Teshuvah.” He says he can trace his musical gene to his renowned great-grandfather Rav Shimon Schwab who composed several niggunim and had a beautiful singing voice. Eli’s brother Meir has begun to compose too and sister Rikki is making her mark on the frum women’s music scene. As for influences on his own music like so many he singles out Abie Rotenberg and MBD for special mention and is grateful for Yossi Green’s friendship and expert input which has helped his work to shine.

“It’s an amazing feeling to have been part of the yom hachuppah prayers of so many chassanim and kallos and I hope they can internalize these words throughout their lives ” he says. (Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 660.)

"A true musical chiddush is so hard to find nowadays” muses Meilech Kohn’s music manager Zevi Fried. Musical chiddush seems an apt description of “VeUhavtu” (as in “VeAhavta”) — a fresh sound that has captured the hearts of chassidim Litvaks bochurim of all stripes and the national-religious crowd alike.

Born in 1969 in Williamsburg Brooklyn Kohn has experimented with many different musical genres. Once seeking a personal blessing he was told by a mekubal that if he composed a song that would strengthen ahavas chinam — brotherly love among Jews — he would find the success he sought. One night unable to fall asleep an old chassidic song replayed in his head: “Ahavas chinom vifil koach host di Shechinah hakedoshah vi vaat bist di — how much power ahavas chinam has how far away G-d’s Presence is… if sinas chinam [baseless hatred] would be eliminated we would long have been redeemed.” These concise angst-filled Yiddish lyrics inspired the composition of a niggun to the words of v’ahavta l’rei’acha kamocha — a signature piece with Kohn’s own Yiddish English and Hebrew lyrics linking the command to love our fellow Jew with hastening the coming of Mashiach.

“The tune is so creative in itself ” Zevi Fried says. “And the words and the way they repeat back on themselves are so get-up-and-dance catchy.” Fried an Israeli based in Brooklyn and conductor of the Shira Choir has been the manager for composer Elimelech Kohn’s packaging of “VeUhavtu ” which has become an unexpected hit over the past months. Gershy Schwarz is the song’s talented producer.

On Purim “VeUhavtu” blared from buses vans and trucks full of bochurim on their way to collect funds for their yeshivos. Now as these eternal words of Rabi Akiva are reflected upon throughout the Sefirah days the song has remained on everyone’s lips and in their consciousness.

“We had an amazing call from two friends in Brooklyn who had been partners in a business and then broke off after a fight developed into a complete rift between them. A mutual friend of theirs had been trying unsuccessfully to make peace but nothing worked until this song came out. He sent it to them and they must have soaked up the energy of all that hugging and dancing together because now they’re friends again ” says Fried.

While his image and videos have veered far from the mainstream chassidish community he grew up in Kohn’s eclectic music is primarily a means of positive self-expression and a reflection of the journey he has traveled throughout a colorful life. Now enjoying the international success of his hit song he is delighted to have been invited to perform at ski resorts in Utah and in Bournemouth a resort on the British coast that attracts many Jewish vacationers among other venues across the USA and Israel.

“Rafi the King ” a creative energetic young man with Down syndrome who has made a name for himself as a popular entertainer at New York weddings by being mesamei’ach the chassan and guests night after night loves this recent hit. “The crowd loves when I sing ‘VeUhavtu.’ Everyone starts to smile and they just love dancing to this music. Whenever I sing it they call out to me ‘Again Rafi one more time!’ ” (Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 658)

Album:  B'Shetzef - Avromi Flam

Composer: Yoel Calek

Year: 2003

"Hisnaari mei’afar kumi — Shake off the dust arise. Adorn yourself with your robes of glory My people… My soul draws near to its Redeemer.” Rav Shlomo Alkabetz’s profound poetic metaphor echoes through time with a haunting beauty.

Dozens maybe hundreds of niggunim are sung for Lecha Dodi but Yoel Calek’s “Hisnaari” stands out in the way it sets off this particular stanza as both a liturgical prayer and a popular song. The melody even without the words is clearly one of longing with the verse’s final kneitsh of “karvah el nafshi ge’alah ” bringing listeners to a new degree of Shabbos inspiration. In Israel the niggun is popular as a wedding song and can even be found as a ringtone on countless kosher cell phones.

As son of legendary London Boys’ Choir composer and founder Yigal Calek Yoel grew up as part of a musical family. He remembers first playing the piano at age two. By age nine he was already composing and at 15 some of his songs were performed and recorded by his father’s choir. “Yerushalayim harim saviv lah va’Hashem saviv l’amo ” for example popped into Yoel’s head as he walked down the stairs at home when he was 12.

“If you listen carefully to the tune you will see that it is very similar to one of Mozart’s pieces which was in my mind at the time ” he says.

The Caleks’ gifts of music and song was there to bring enjoyment inspiration and wholesome values to others. “My father never viewed our music as the path to fame or to becoming a star ” he says. “As children although we sang in public around the world we never thought highly of ourselves for something that was so clearly Hashem’s gift and a fulfillment of our duty to entertain and inspire.”

Today Calek is a successful business development and marketing consultant who lives in Belgium and yes he still composes songs. Back in the days when he was a bochur in Yeshivas Ateres Yisrael in Jerusalem Yoel Calek borrowed a guitar from a friend.

“I was in my dorm room one Thursday night and the seed of the niggun the ‘karvah el nafshi ge’alah’ and ‘kevod Hashem alayich niglah’ parts came to me. Then the entire song played itself out along with the sweeping ‘Bo’i b’shalom’ climax of the chorus.”

The “da da dum dum dum dum dada dada dum dum…” part was added later inspired by a tidbit of a tune from a French singer named J.J. Goldman and expresses the rhythmic walk of Klal Yisrael toward Shabbos.

Avromie Flam was a good friend and Yoel Calek sent him four cassette tapes containing 54 songs for him to choose from for an album back in 2003. “I knew that ‘B’shetzef’ and ‘Hisnaari’ were a given and I left the rest of the choices to him. There were no wedding songs on that album nothing commercial just good music yet it sold beautifully.”

“Hisnaari” has been recorded over 35 times since but the composer doesn’t necessarily approve of each rendition. “It gives me great pleasure to hear ‘Hisnaari’ sung and beautifully rearranged at weddings for example. But when people proudly send recordings of my song produced in some unrelated style — I actually feel like it desecrates the music. In my book music is sacred an outpouring of soul as well as a piece of my heart. I think you can feel free to create different flavors of ice cream — but not of someone else’s song and message.”

Yoel Calek’s own favorite composition has to be “B’shetzef” — a haunting song about the hester panim [hiding of Hashem’s Face] during the deportations to Auschwitz and Treblinka. The pesukim from Yeshayahu 54 translate Hashem’s promise “I left you alone for a miniscule moment and with great mercy I will regather you ” and Calek added evocative English lyrics of his own. “Suddenly the trucks rolled up. Suddenly the tears rolled down.”

“It’s not really the melody there that is so powerful but the drama and the imagery of the whole song ” he says of the words that come from the haftarah of parshas Ki Setzei one of the Seven Haftaros of Consolation. “Every year after that haftarah is read people tell me the song has inspired their understanding of those pesukim. But perhaps most memorable was when an elderly Yid asked me to sing it for him. ‘I don’t understand the English words ’ he told me ‘but when I hear this song I go back to waiting in the train station in Poland… and I can hear the trains approaching. And now here I am a zeide still alive and here talking to you.’ ”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 656)

Album: Shloime Gertner — Mincha

Composer: Shimshi Neiman

Year: 2014

M ore than anything else “Neshoma” is the song of a search. “Neshoma vi bist di Neshoma ich vart azoi lang of dir… Neshoma kim tzi mir — Neshoma where are you? I’m waiting so long for you…” The Almighty searches for His lost children. A Yid searches within himself for that holy pintele [spark]. Fathers search for lost children and lost children wait desperately for the call that shows that someone is searching for them and waiting with open arms.

We blunder and stray; the search is long sometimes difficult or even painful yet its very existence is in itself a source of comfort — the continued pursuit guarantees that the eventual revelation will follow. Shimshi Neiman’s song somehow conveys this: His music is haunting yet comforting and the added prayer of “Hashiveinu” — that Hashem Himself bring us back to our spiritual source adds a deeper dimension.

The composer Shimshon Neiman is a young Vizhnitzer chassid in Stamford Hill London. He is also a good friend of singer Shloime Gertner. “Shimshi came over one night with another friend and they played this new composition on the guitar. We sat there strumming and singing and together we completed the lyrics in Yiddish ” Gertner recalls. “I loved the song. Its message is just so widely applicable. We thought it could either wait for my next album — or we could move on with it to an arranger and release it as a single.”

Arranger Naftali Schnitzler had an arrangement ready within a few days “and it was so good that we decided to bring it out immediately. Why wait?”

Soon after its release “Neshoma” has become one of the season’s most requested songs. “I believe the appeal is that it’s coming from a very pure place of raw emotion and a desire for closeness to the Source ” Shloime Gertner says. Following the single’s success he incorporated it into his recently released Mincha album too.

Composer Shimshon Neiman spends his days learning in kollel gives a shiur in yeshivah and moonlights playing guitar at simchahs and other gatherings. His music is appreciated for its tasteful hartzig quality. “Neshoma” was Neiman’s maiden composition for the public but he has already sold another niggun to Shloime Gertner. That one is waiting patiently for his next album though. “It’s a beautiful slow Shabbos song with words from a Gemara on Shabbos ” Gertner says. “It also has the regesh influence typical of Vizhnitzer chassidus.” He has a few additional songs in the works as well soon to be released by singers Motty Steinmetz and Ahrele Samet.

Since its realease “Neshoma” has been sung and released by dozens of bands and musical groups and there has even been a request for English lyrics from a special-needs educator who wants to teach his pupils to be aware and in touch with their neshamos. While Neiman and Gertner are working on an English variation they say their experience has been that even non-Yiddish speakers can be inspired by a Yiddish song. “One man came over to me at a Yeshivas Mir dinner and told me he had to use a dictionary to look up ‘farblonjet ’ but he still enjoyed the song ” Gertner says.

One father told the composer that he plays “Neshoma” as he prepares the candles for Shabbos. Each candle represents a different child’s soul and the song has become a loving ode to this symbolic act of lighting a lecht and thus touching a child’s neshamah with the holy lights.

Hopefully there will be plenty more music and inspiration from this fresh chassidish composer.

Album: Kumtanz 2 DVD

Composer: Shmuel Yefet

Year: 2014

It lay forgotten for eight years.

Song: “Veyazor”

Composer: Boruch Sholom Blesofsky

Year: 2015

Album: Achakeh Lo — Levi Falkowitz