Composer: Dudi Kalish

Year: 2016

Album: Yedidim II (2016)

Song: “Lashem  Ha’aretz (Bum Bum)”

Composer: Yitzchak Fuchs

Album: Shloime Taussig’s Lashem Ha’aretz Umlo’ah

There’s something special about watching Yitzchak Fuchs sing. The tall white-bearded musician swaying over a guitar eyes closed and peyos swinging projects an incredible stage presence his features intense and absorbed. He’s a veteran performer who for decades has been inspiring audiences as varied as his milieus — from chassidic weddings to kumzitzen on Samarian hilltops from Antwerp sheva brachos celebrations to Monsey bar mitzvahs to student concert halls in Tel Aviv. Beyond the uplifting words and fresh style of his compositions it’s obvious just watching him that Fuchs who is also a silversmith   is singing his heart and soul out.

His personal journey is expressed through his music. “My parents arrived in Israel from Poland after the war. They came from chassidic families but were so broken that no religion was left. My grandfather was a religious Jew a baal tefillah but his song was lost.

“As a teenager” Fuchs continues “I wanted to sing but I had no words. What was there to sing? And then I turned to Sefer Tehillim.”

At 30 Fuchs who is now 62   found his way to the world of Torah and also to the Holy City of Jerusalem which became his home. “And when I had made that ascent to Yerushalayim I just had to sing a shirah — a song of praise and gratitude to Hashem just like the Jews who crossed the Sea. I began to compose and a new sound emerged — a shirah chadashah.

Unlike secular songs which he says are usually ephemeral passing hits that capture the spirit of their decade if that Fuchs found that the words of Tehillim are timeless. “You can sing and sing. It’s 30 years later and I’m still singing the same songs. My songs have that ta’am shel od. Everywhere I go they ask for the same songs again — ‘Lashem Ha’aretz Umlo’ah ’ of course and ‘Menuchah V’simchah’ and ‘Ben Chamesh Lamikra’ [from the album Mimamakim].” Fuchs has also composed songs for MBD Shloime Gertner and others.

“Lashem Ha’aretz” was composed around 25 years ago and although it’s been popular since Fuchs didn’t include it in any of his own albums . “I took the words from the Shir shel Yom of Sunday. So much of Jewish music is centered around Shabbos but I felt these words had a special energy and called for a song of their own.”

The song begins with a distinctive “Bum bum bum bum bum bum da da da da bum bum bum bum…” which Fuchs describes as a melody of bitachon and joyful assurance. “Lashem ha’aretz… the Earth and its fullness belongs to Hashem…” All is His. The music rises with the question “Mi yaaleh — who will rise on the mountain of Hashem… in His holy place?” and Fuchs stops playing leaving a speculative pause. “Bum Bum Bum Bum” resumes taking the listener back to that place of certainty and joy.

After 18 years living in Meah Shearim Fuchs relocated to Boro Park a move he describes as “galut.” Yet that’s where his musical career really took off and along with it a proliferation of new compositions. American audiences especially the chassidim loved his fresh bold songs and Fuchs performed widely. His song “Boro Park” is a fitting tribute to this period which for all its perks didn’t last long. Three years later Fuchs returned to Eretz Yisrael.

“I know a guy who lives in an outpost — literally a tent — in the Chevron Hills. I went there to visit him in his tent. No electricity no running water no phone nothing. But he still had music. My first album from back in 1985 Banu B’yachad was singing into the wilderness on a little CD player.”

He now lives in Tzfas and travels abroad several times a year to perform at weddings and other venues. Yet wherever he is Fuchs has the intensity of a man who lives in his own musical world. “I once played into the wee hours of the morning at a concert in the US for Reb Shlomo Carlebach’s yahrtzeit. The hours and hours of strumming caused my hand a lot of pain. I flew back to Eretz Yisrael where I had booked a concert on Motzaei Shabbos. But my hand was killing me and I had no idea how I would play. The hall filled and the pain remained. Then I picked up my guitar. I began to play. Mysteriously the pain was gone with the music.”

Song: “Kerachem Av—A Tatte Blabt a Tatte”

Composer: Chaim Meir Erps

Year: 2015

"I

can’t compose out of the blue” claims Chaim Meir Erps (aka C.M.E.) New York wedding-hall-manager-turned singer and composer. “Music has to come from somewhere deep within and for me it has to be inspired by some strong feelings or a special occasion.”

“Kerachem Av”— better known by its unofficial Yiddish title “A Tatte Blabt a Tatte” (A Father Remains a Father) — emerged in November 2015 on the heels of his compositions “Dus Lechtele” (about how each of us can change the world if we harness our own internal candles) and “Rabi Nachman.”

“I composed ‘Kerachem Av’ in honor of the wedding of my close friend Shauli Katz whose father passed away during his engagement” C.M.E. explains. “You can imagine how painful it was for him and how his father would be missed at the wedding. I was in the house a few weeks before the chasunah and I really felt for my friend. His father Yanky Katz was an extremely upbeat and warm Yid who always exuded a feeling of simchah. Baruch Hashem the song I composed emerged positive and upbeat not mournful. It expressed my feeling that he would be present at his son’s wedding taking part in the joyous occasion from his place Above. Of course the lyrics also refer to our Heavenly Father who always remains with us.”

Chaim Meir Erps timed the release of the song for a few days before his friend’s chasunah so that the crowd would already be familiar with it but he never anticipated the popularity it would achieve. “Kerachem Av” rhythmic and contemporary yet heartwarming and couched in familiar Yiddish has become one of the year’s favorites at chassidic weddings where it generates great excitement on the dance floor.

Although C.M.E. plays keyboard he generally composes without an instrument in hand. “I get inspired and then I feel like the song comes down from Heaven” he says. “I’m just the messenger the guy on the motorcycle delivering the pizza.”

Erps left Ateres Golda, a popular wedding hall, to pursue his heart’s musical calling, although at the time he had no music bookings lined up. In the ensuing years composing and singing have become a parnassah for him but he feels strongly that the purpose of his gift is to uplift and spread inspiration.

“Music has to come from the heart and when it does it will touch others. It really can encourage people and make the world a better place and the constant feedback I receive reflects this. Through my singing I have not only had the chance to inspire but I have been inspired by those I encounter. I once visited a 16-year-old patient who was facing his 65th operation. He asked me to compose a song so I asked him which words would speak to him. He told me ‘Ein anachnu maspikim lehodos lecha Hashem We can never thank You enough Hashem.’ I asked the Eibeshter to give me music to these words to encourage him with. The answer to that prayer is on my upcoming album. And then there’s a young child from Israel lying sick in Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital and he’s singing ‘A Tatte Blabt a Tatte ’ telling himself that his Father is still protecting him. That’s what this music is for.”

Feedback:

“Fathers separated from their children continue to draw chizuk from this song and several have used it as the impetus to reconnect. C.M.E recounts just one story. “One father contacted me to let me know that he was estranged from his son and had not spoken to him in years. The father sent his son a recording of ‘Kerachem Av’ along with the note: ‘Please listen to this song. And please call me.’ And the son did.”

Song: "Chamol"

Composer: Rabbi Akiva Homnick

Albums: L'maan Achai— Camp Bnei Torah ;  One Day at a Time - Shloime Dachs

Year: 1981

Tishrei sounds waft through cooling air: shofar blasts and hummed tunes of Rosh Hashanah prayers. Rabbi Akiva Homnick an educator who today lives with his family in Jerusalem recalls the creation of “Chamol” — his own contribution to the awe-inspiring tefillos of the Days of Awe.

“Thirty-five years ago I was learning at Rav Boruch Mordechai Ezrachi’s yeshivah Ateres Yisrael and spent a few summers at Machane Bnei Torah — a camp for bochurim from all the yeshivos. One of the highlights of camp was a song contest where original compositions were performed and then voted upon by all the campers. I had composed a song that came in third place and a friend of mine from yeshivah had composed a beautiful niggun with an Elul theme which came in first place so it was a kind of kinas sofrim that made me try to compose ‘Chamol.’ It was Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul 1981 and I sat in my room took out my guitar and decided to write a niggun for those words.”

“Chamol” was first performed the following summer at Machane Bnei Torah in Migdal Haemek where it secured first place in the annual contest. When the campers returned to their respective yeshivos for Elul the song went with them and spread rapidly through the yeshivah world. Today it is sung in thousands of shuls. Even communities who prefer a strongly traditional nusach with no singing seem to have made an exception for this initially gentle tune which rises into an eloquent musical plea — “tukdash Adon…” — for mercy and sanctification of Hashem’s Name.

“I don’t think ‘Chamol’ is very sophisticated musically” Rabbi Homnick reflects “but it does justice to the words and captures their essence. Truthfully the song has seen unusual siyata d’Shmaya. I mean it’s a very nice song but I have definitely composed nicer ones that are not nearly as famous.”

Initially recorded nearly ten years later on a relatively unknown tape put out by the camp (sung by Aryeh Glazer with soloist Ruli Ezrachi) “Chamol” has since been recorded over 20 times most famously by Shloimie Dachs.

Rabbi Homnick recently read an interview with Israeli singer David D’Or who sang “Chamol” before an audience of over 10000 people at a concert in Japan. “He described the emotions there as being very intense” Homnick says. “But I think there is nothing more emotional than every Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur when it is sung in major yeshivos and shuls throughout the world.”

Many people have told Rabbi Homnick that they walked down the aisle to his “Chamol” because it’s their favorite niggun; others tell him it never fails to enhance their Yamim Noraim.

Following in the tradition of his father grandfather and great-grandfather who all used their musical gifts to inspire others as baalei tefillah Rabbi Homnick himself leads the davening at Minyan Avreichim Rav Yitzchok Berkowitz’s shul in Jerusalem’s Sanhedria Murchevet neighborhood. Inspired by composers like Shlomo Carlebach and Bentzion Shenker and the early Pirchei choirs while he was growing up some of Rabbi Homnick’s other well-known compositions include “Shalom Aleichem” and “Merachok ” sung by Mendy Werdyger (on Ani Holech BeSimcha) “Hareini Mezamen” by Abie Rotenberg and Shlomo Simcha and Yeedle Werdyger’s “Al Zeh Haya ” “Beni Beni ” and “Ilan” (on Yeedle IV and Lev Echad).

“I once received a wedding invitation from a bochur whom I had never met” Rabbi Homnick recalls. “He wrote a dedication on it telling me that he owes his spiritual growth to this niggun.”

Song: Ani Ma’amin 

Album: Ani Ma’amin (Pirchei Choir III) 

Composers: Itzy Weisberg and Motty Parnes 

Year: 1968

I It was 1968 and the message was old but new. “Ani Ma’amin” had been sung by the lager Yidden a declaration of resolute faith on the lips of martyrs and survivors in the shadow of gas chambers and crematoria. Now a new and powerful setting of “Ani Ma’amim” symbolized all that was idealistic among frum American youth of the 1960s.

The cover of the third Pirchei Choir record titled Ani Ma’amin in honor of this song read: “Today’s ‘Ani Ma’amin’ has a special message to the Jew caught up in the maelstrom of modern-day affluence ...You still need this eternal faith in the coming of Mashiach to withstand the moral ravages faced by a generation that worships man’s own power over the power of G-d… This Pirchei record is dedicated toward imbuing this ani ma’amin spirit in the masses… to help build a flourishing Klal Yisrael equipped to march forward toward the coming of Mashiach.”

The composers of “Ani Ma’amin” are listed as Itzy Weisberg and Motty Parnes while the names on the Pirchei record cover are a nostalgic who’s who of early Jewish music: Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum a”h Motty Parnes a”h Rabbi Baruch Chait Yisroel Lamm and his brothers Dovid Nulman and Rabbi Eliyahu Klang.

“Most of those musicians played at my wedding in Chicago” says Mr. Itzy Weisberg who lives in Detroit today. “It was 1967 and definitely the first time Chicago had heard a band like that.” Mr. Weisberg retired from an education career in 2010 after 40 years teaching English literature and writing in public school — “with a yarmulke ” he comments. He also taught afternoon Hebrew school and notes that “some of those students have frum grandchildren today. A lot of our impact was through Jewish song and davening.”

A talmid of Telshe in Cleveland and Chicago then of Yeshivas Chaim Berlin and finally Yeshivah Gedolah of Detroit under Rav Leib Bakst Mr. Weisberg’s contribution to Jewish music is considerable. “Ani Ma’amin” is his most enduring song recorded and sung by many artists over close to 50 years. That niggun is closely followed by the still-popular “Siman Tov U’mazel Tov” from the Pirchei and Neginah albums. “Keitzad Merakdim” was recorded by Camp Sdei Chemed “Pischu Li” featured soloist Yossi Sonnenblick on the very first Pirchei album (composed together with Motty Parnes who also collaborated on “Davka Nafshi ” another vintage Pirchei tune) and many others.

“I am immensely grateful to Rabbi Teitelbaum and Yisroel Lamm — the greatest arranger and conductor of Jewish music in our lifetime — as well as the other producers for selecting my songs” Weisberg says as he reflects on an avocation that has touched the hearts of three generations.

Neginah Orchestra’s Modeh Ani album (1976) featured 15 Weisberg compositions and Suki and Ding’s What a Wedding album featured his “Asher Bara” co-composed by Yisroel Lamm. Later at “The Event” concert in 2005 a nostalgic Pirchei performance of “Ani Ma’amin” and “Pirschu Li”— warm simple tunes and arrangements of times gone by — entranced a packed concert hall.

“Ani Ma’amin” has become a musical legend in its own right absorbing some of the timeless quality of the prayer itself to become an immovable classic for nearly 50 years. The song begins low and contemplative. Its high part a soaring declaration of hope “Ve’af al pi she’yismahmaya im kol zeh achakeh lo achakeh lo bechol yom sheyavo ” has served as the uplifting highlight of thousands of kumzitzes from NCSY to Aish Hatorah Bnos and Pirchei to Ohr Somayach American summer camps to IDF platoons.

“Someone sent me a clip which was just a pleasure to watch. The Kosel Plaza filled to bursting with IDF inductees singing ‘Ani Ma’amin.’”

Actually the song’s first segment was composed while Itzy was on a Shabbos walk together with his friend Motty Parnes in Telshe Chicago back in 1964. By the time Shabbos was over he’d forgotten the niggun but Parnes revived it for him and Itzy promised that if he’d ever complete the niggun he’d credit his friend for saving the song. A year later when Itzy was learning in Detroit and studying at Wayne State University he completed the niggun and introduced it to the yeshivah at Shalosh Seudos. When they sang it for 45 minutes straight Itzy knew he had a winner. He sent a cassette of the niggun to Motty Parnes and Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum who were working with Pirchei then — and the rest is one unending glorious song of faith. “Ani Ma’amin” sung solo or in a chorus of hundreds of voices carries singers and listeners along on a wave of certainty. Mr. Weisberg doesn’t take the credit though. “The song was a gift from Hashem.”

Song: Rebbe Rebbe Rebbe 

Album: “Barcheni” — Yehuda Green 

Composer: Reb Pinchas Pomp 

Year: 2014

Any bochur learning in Yerushalayim knows he’s welcome. They call on Thursday or sometimes even Friday to book themselves in for a seudah bringing along a friend or two. Reb Pinche Pomp is delighted to have a full table but his precondition is well known too. “Don’t come if you don’t want to sing ” he tells the callers.

“I don’t need a lot but I need that Shabbos singing in order to get through the next week” he says. It’s not just the sweet sound of a couple dozen harmonizing voices that does it for Pomp; it’s the spiritual uplift which a group kumzitz affords — the neshamah yeseirah expressed in song.

Reb Pinche’s own famous song “Rebbe Rebbe Rebbe mir villen zich mekasher zein tzu dir” has been adopted by many chassidic groups and its composer is just fine with that. Some people think it was originally composed as an ode to Rebbe Nachman of Breslov but the song actually came in to being at the tziyun of the sainted Bnei Yissaschar in Dinov where Reb Pinche — head of Mosdos Dinov in Poland -- has built accommodations for traveling chassidim. The song was fine-tuned with the help of mashpia Rav Motta Frank.

“Around four years ago I was in Dinov by the tzaddik’s kever. I feel a great connection to the Bnei Yissaschar. I’m a Toldos Aharon chassid so I’m a talmid of Rav Aharon Roth [the founding Rebbe of the chassidus from two generations ago]. Rav Ahreleh in turn was a talmid of the Dinover dynasty. The nusach that we daven is the nusach of the Bnei Yissaschar. I wanted a song to connect to the tzaddik.”

The words of the song — “Hineni mikasher nafshi…” [I bind myself in spirit emotion and soul to the soul of my great Rebbe] — are taken from Rav Aharon Roth’s “Tefillas Kabbalas Ol Malchus Shamayim.” In this prayer he asks for his tefillos and his intentions to be united with those of his mentors and all the tzaddikim of previous generations. When the inspiration of these words together with the soulful tune and Yiddish translation came into Reb Pinche’s mind as he stood davening at the kever in Dinov he felt he was able to pour out his heart and connect to the elevated soul of his own rebbe’s rebbe.

Pomp returned to Eretz Yisrael and recorded his composition very simply on a private disc. “It had no professional arrangements and people laughed at me” he says. Yet the next time his group of friends from the Nekudah Tova kollel traveled to Dinov for a Shabbos of hisorerus the new song “Rebbe Rebbe Rebbe” swept participants up and became a highlight. On Motzaei Shabbos the group went to Uman. “We sang it for three hours by Rabbi Nachman ” Pomp retells “and someone recorded it. Yehuda Green saw the clip and called me to ask for the song. I said ‘sure take it. ’”

Reb Pinche has since composed some other songs but he does not seem interested in selling them for a profit. “If I have something and someone wants to make something nice out of it let him enjoy it.” Although “Rebbe Rebbe Rebbe” is sung by crowds today Pomp still feels it comes into its own when sung in solitude. “When I am alone at the kever I can really pour out my heart to the tzaddik and connect ” he says.

“Rav Ahreleh Roth didn’t write which tzaddikim his prayer refers to” Pomp continues. “So everyone can take the song to their own rebbe. I know the Breslovers sing it to connect to Rebbe Nachman and the petitioners in Lizhensk sing it about Reb Elimelech. Israeli Sefardim have created a version with Hebrew words sung by Chaim Yisrael. To connect oneself to the neshamah of any tzaddik is something very elevated.”

Feedback 

“A group of tourists came to Dinov and we sang a lot together” Pomp recalls. “When we began to sing ‘Rebbe Rebbe Rebbe’ one American woman told me that she first heard this song during her Pesach cleaning and what was once an agonizing chore became a spiritual experience. That’s how it is with connection. Many people have thanked me for the song because it helps them connect to their deepest reserves of emunah during hard times and in the merit of that emunah they have seen salvation.”

Song: Ato Horeiso 

Album: “Al Hehorim” — Isaac Honig 

Composer: Pinky Weber Year: 2013

"Ben Bag Bag” “Racheim” “Lemaaloh” “Tefillah Le’ani ” “Bezi Hashoh ” “Mi Kashem”…The list goes on and on ranging from authentically chassidish to up-to-date gentle niggunim to dance-floor hits but don’t ask Pinky Weber to choose his favorite. “It’s like a father with his children — they’re all favorites.”

Based in Williamsburg Weber has been one of Jewish music’s most prolific composers over the past twenty-five years. As a composer he is wide-ranging and versatile saying that his music is inspired both by Moshe Goldman and by Yossi Green. While his tune for “Lechte’le” (Weber’s heartrending song about a broken Holocaust survivor who would light an extra Shabbos candle for her lost son until she sees the image of an old man who tells her not to light a candle for someone who is still alive…) is sung by Abish Brodt on his Ribono Shel Olam album for the passage of Mimkomcha in the Shabbos morning Kedushah and the niggun is a staple at the Friday night tischen in Lelov and Tosh “Bentsch Bentsch Noch a Yid” (from Avraham Fried’s newest Yiddish album Ah Mechaye!) is a horah song that’s become popular at more modern weddings. Even his more chassidish-style numbers have broad appeal.

Weber has composed songs for MBD Fried and Shwekey for Dachs Williger Yeedle and Michoel Shnitzler and more recently for Beri Weber and Yoeli Greenfeld. “I work as a badchan so it’s busy though and often hard to find time to compose.” Mostly his new music is the fruit of sessions during Sefirah or in the summer weeks when the wedding scene is quiet.

“Singers call me for songs and we sit together either at my piano or in the studio” Weber says. “I compose and they give their input — maybe they want to change the words. Then we record and they usually listen to it for a day or two sleep on it and see if they still like it. Sometimes they need to take a break before hearing it again. If they don’t like it I keep it—I can always show it to someone else. There are a lot of famous songs though which I had to persuade singers to take. You can’t know if a song will make the cut but sometimes I have a good feeling. There are also plenty of songs which I think were potential hits but never made it big in the market. They have to come onto the scene in the right time and the right place.”

Today one of Pinky Weber’s most beloved slow songs is the soulful “Ato Horaiso Loda’as” which Isaac Honig sings. “People have come to love it particularly among the yeshivish crowd ” he says. Honig first performed at the BMG Evening of Chizuk in 2013 and the Lakewood crowd loved it.

People often associate Pinky Weber with Isaac Honig and in fact the two go back a long way. “We learned together in the Nitra yeshivah in Mount Kisco and we still daven together in Nitra here in Williamsburg” he says. Back in those days the two collaborated on the Purim shpiels which were performed for the bochurim and the Mount Kisco families.

“Sometimes the Nitra Ruv himself came to watch” Pinky Weber recalls. “We arranged and appeared in those plays together. Isaac was the main actor and I did some singing and played piano. There were some emotional parts some funny parts some drama…” After their respective marriages Honig and Weber also took part in other chassidish plays. “There was the Yosef Shpiel and Al Naharos Bavel. I wrote the lyrics and songs and he sang.”

Weber high-demand badchan sought-after composer admits that his family is not particularly musical. “My great-grandfather on my father’s side was a chazzan in the Ari shul ” he says. “Nothing much closer than that.”

Feedback: 

Someone who works in kiruv told Isaac Honig that he once set up an appointment to meet with a teen who was “off the derech”. A while after the appointed time he found the young man waiting in the parking lot listening to music in the car with tears pouring down his cheeks. “I’m glued to this song ” the bochur said. It was Isaac Honig’s rendition of Pinky’s song “Ato Horaiso Loda’as.”