What was world-class chazzan Yossele Rosenblatt doing on a rowboat floating down the Jordan River serenading the movie camera with his cantorial “B’tzeis Yisrael MiMitzrayim”? 

It was June 18 1933 and the beloved chazzan was filming a documentary of the Holy Land. For his audience Yossele was singing his heart out in a glorious rendition of G-d’s salvation based on the immortal words of King David. Yet inside he was a broken vessel bankrupt and destitute trying valiantly to use his golden voice the only asset left to him after he was swindled out of his entire fortune to regain his footing. 

The camera lens may have captured the majesty of the Splitting of the Sea as only Rosenblatt could deliver it but hidden beneath that scene was a pious and broken man trying desperately to escape financial ruin. In fact that’s why Yossele Rosenblatt was in Eretz Yisrael in the first place. He agreed to star in the film to try to pay off his debts.  

But the personal salvation never came. After four decades of unsurpassed fame and adulation that was to be Yossele’s last song. Toward the end of the boat ride he fell ill. He died the following day of an exhausted wrung-out heart. 

Yet although his life ended so abruptly — he was only 51 when he passed away — he did merit to be buried in the Eretz Yisrael he loved a fitting tribute to a master who could have written his ticket in the secular music world of the 1920s and 30s but instead clung to his faith and heritage.