Hebrew Voices #27 – True Jew Singing (Rebroadcast)

True Jew Singing, Yitzchok Mayer Melek, Nehemia Gordon, Hebrew Voices, Jewish Unity Project, Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach, zionism, Shema, Tetragrammaton, Cantor Yitzchok Mayer, halakhaIn this episode of Hebrew VoicesTrue Jew Singing, Nehemia Gordon visits the Judean Hills, home of Yitzchok Mayer Malek. Musician, artist, and cantor—Mayer is also the founder of the Jewish Unity Project. When asked to explain how he combines music with a message to unify people, Mayer answers eloquently with his version of a song by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach about little candles—the candles of one God.

Mayer is an articulate and deep conversationalist who shares passionately with Gordon concerning:  atheism, communism, Zionism, the infinite, the Shema, Rav Kook, the tetragrammaton, the tribe of Judah, prenatal Torah, the literal and figurative gathering of the tribes, baseless hatred, “death”, making things holy, halakha, the beauty of united diversity, and lastly (in song)—what it means to him to be a true Jew.

I look forward to reading your comments!

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Hebrew Voices #27 - True Jew Singing

You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Nehemia: Do you think there’ll be a day soon when all Jews will pronounce Hashem’s actual name, the name that was revealed to Moshe at the burning bush?

Yitzchok: I do believe so, yes.

Nehemia: I’m excited!

Benjamin Netanyahu: Le ma’an Zion lo ekhesheh, u’l’ma’an Yerushalayim lo eshkot. (For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest. Isaiah 62:1)

Nehemia: Shalom, this is Nehemia Gordon with Hebrew Voices, and I am here in Beit Zayit, Israel. It's a beautiful suburb of Jerusalem out in the Judean hills, with an amazing musician whose name is Yitzchok Mayer. Shalom, Yitzchok.

Yitzchok: Shalom. Thank you so much for having me on your show, buddy.

Nehemia: Yitzchok, for those who don't know, that's the Hebrew of Isaac.

Yitzchok: Right, because when the three angels came to tell Abraham and Sarah that they're gonna be having a child, and Abraham is 99 and Sarah's 90, and she's like, “What?” She laughed. It was funny.

Nehemia: Like I just did now.

Yitzchok: That's right. You know, there should be a lot of laughing going on. So, Yitzchok means laughter, it means, “He will laugh,” and Mayer means “from light.” So, it's laughing light. It's almost like my indigenous name. “How! I am Laughing Light.”

Nehemia: I love it.

Yitzchok: I'm a big fan of the indigenous.

Nehemia: I love it. All right, it is great to be here with you. Yitzchok, you know, I saw this video of yours that was posted on Facebook and it was a share from YouTube. And it was this amazing thing where you were up on the top of this building in Jerusalem, overlooking the Mount of Olives and the Temple Mount from the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. And you were singing the Shema. And I saw that, and it literally moved me to tears, because the Shema is... I mean, for every Jew the Shema is really important, but especially for me, the Shema is deeply moving.

And to see somebody on top of a building proclaiming it over loudspeakers was really amazing. And I had to contact you, and here I am. I'm sitting in your living room. I'm sitting here, it's like on a mattress on the floor. It's like kind of what you'd see in a Bedouin tent. And there's a tiny little table, I mean, the guy's a musician. He's an artist, so it's a very artisty feeling, but it's also a very tent feeling. There are flags, or actually almost like talitot, you know, prayer shawls, but also flags of each tribe. In front of me is the tribe of Levi, and it's a talit, and then it says Yehuda, and there's a lion there and a crown. And it's all the 12 flags, and we'll talk about that in a little bit. But tell me about how did you come to be on a rooftop in the Old City of Jerusalem, proclaiming the Shema over the loudspeaker?

Yitzchok: Oh my gosh. Well, I really, really am meritorious to play for thousands and thousands of tour groups.

Nehemia: You're meritorious, I like that word. Go on, yeah.

Yitzchok: Meritorious, yeah.

Nehemia: And you told me you've played for over 100,000 Israeli soldiers on that rooftop.

Yitzchok: That's right, on a mixture of different rooftops in Jerusalem, including that rooftop. And we actually call that the "Jewish unity rooftop,” because we use it to bring different kinds of Jews together. But I've also had the merit to play for over 100,000 soldiers over the course of nine years. All different units, whether from the Duvdevan, from the cherry on top, all the way to the guys who just make the coffee. And they don't just make coffee, I tell you. They’re really putting their life on the line.

Nehemia: Wow, yeah. You know, I was one of those in the Israeli army, they call it “jobnik.” And they told us a story of how there was this one incident back in the ‘80s where the jobnik, the guy who makes the coffee, that saved people's lives, so... I never did, but...

Yitzchok: But you did, you took part of it.

Nehemia: I had a very, very small part and that was a great blessing and honor for me.

Yitzchok: It's beautiful that you're humble.

Nehemia: Tell me about this. Tell me about why the Shema? What does the Shema mean to you? You're a musician. Why the Shema on the rooftop over the loudspeaker?

Yitzchok: Sure, but, you know, if you're listening right now and you can close your eyes, the Shema is generally said with our eyes closed. And the Shema is a meditation of ours that we're born with it. We wake up in the morning with it, we die with it and we say, “Shema Yisrael, Adonay Eloheinu, Adonay Ekhad. Barukh Shem Kevod Malkhuto Le'olam Va'ed.” And the literal translation is, “Hear Israel, “Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu,” that yud-kay-vav-kay is our God, because that's the name that Hashem revealed him/herself to us with, “Hashem Ekhad,” “Hashem is One.”

We're not saying just literally that Hashem is not two, that's not only what we're saying. We're saying Hashem is One; now think about it. If all of creation happened, even if you like evolution, you don't like evolution, you like the Big Bang, you don't like the Big Bang, it doesn't matter. This rule applies anyways, that Hashem is One, everything was created from nothing, “yesh me'ayin,” “something from nothing.” So, everything came out of that, even if it was a Big Bang, for those who are into the Big Bang. And if everything came from nothing, everything came from something, one “phew” like that, and this table, these headphones or this computer, these speakers and you actually come from the same thing. Especially you and other animals, especially you and the trees, and you and the plants, or even the radio waves around you, it's all one, everything is one. And that's what we're meditating on, is that everything is one and it's finite, it’s infinite, it's huge, it's Hashem. There's no way to understand it.

Nehemia: Wow, and for my listeners who don't know, when he says “yud-kay-vav-kay,” for many Jews that was what was referred to as the tetragrammaton. I actually wrote a book about that called “Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence.” We're not gonna get into that.

Yitzchok: Why not?

Nehemia: Out of deference for my guest here, I'm actually not going to say God's name, because in tradition, His name isn't spoken. I speak it, but I'm not going to speak it today.

Yitzchok: I say it during prayer...

Nehemia: Would you tell us about that? You don't have to say it now.

Yitzchok: Well, sure, I said it when I said the Shema, the way our tradition is to pronounce it these days.

Nehemia: Well, you mean “Adonay.” What I meant is the actual four letters yud-hay-vav-heh which I do say, but...

Yitzchok: We're getting back there. I believe we're on our way.

Nehemia: Do you think there'll be a day soon when all Jews will pronounce Hashem's actual name, the name that was revealed to Moshe at the burning bush?

Yitzchok: I do believe so, yes.

Nehemia: I'm excited. Are you kidding me? What? Would you share something about that?

Yitzchok: Well, you know, right now I could let you know that many Jews are saying it at least in that voice in their head when they're praying, when they're looking at their prayer book, and they see all the different formulations of it and the different spellings of it, and the different vowels underneath the spellings, and different vowels for different prayers, and different paragraphs with different things. We're going over it in our heads. So, when will we say it, who will say it, and will we say it, and when will we say it, and can it be said not in vain, to the point where you're not obligated to undergo the death penalty? That is special and questionable. But is it happening? Are the voices in our head saying it? Always, never stopped.

Nehemia: Wow. Okay, I'm excited. All right, and you wear a lot of different hats. In fact, you're wearing a really nice hat right now.

Yitzchok: Thank you.

Nehemia: But I mean, it’s part of what you do, you're a part of the Jewish Unity Project that we'll talk about. You have what's called “mainstream music.” In fact, you've done like a music video together with some people who have worked for Matisyahu, who's a famous mainstream musician, a Jewish musician. And you have like a love song. We're going to share some of these, and there's going to be a link to that on nehemiaswall.com, which is my website. You'll be able to see the video of Yitzchok Mayer on top of the rooftop and he's doing the Shema there. He also has some love songs, mainstream songs.

He's flown all over the world as a part of this thing called the “Jewish Unity Project” that we'll talk about. But one of the things you do is you're a khazan. You're actually a professional paid musician, a khazan, who is a cantor in a Synagogue, and not just any Synagogue, Beit HaRav Kook, which is a really important Synagogue in Jerusalem. It's called the “House of Rav Kook.” Who was Rav Kook, Rabbi Kook?

Yitzchok: Yeah, Rav Cook. His name is Avraham Yitzchok HaCohen Kook. He was a High Priest, he was a Cohen.

Nehemia: He was actually a priest, a Cohen? Okay.

Yitzchok: He was a Cohen. You know, I can't help holding this back, but his great nephew is also named Avraham Yitzchok HaCohen Kook, and he's one of the ones who was associated with flying me around the world.

Nehemia: Really, as part of the Jewish Unity Project?

Yitzchok: That's right, it was kind of a collaboration, it's cool that it came together.

Nehemia: Wow, nice.

Yitzchok: And then after that, I was offered this position. And more recently, I've actually been trying to focus my time and efforts to Beit Zayit, this community I'm living in right now, and trying to stay more here and a little less in the city and trying to build up over here, because I could feel it's about to explode, Beit Zayit.

Nehemia: And you told me something that really impressed me. You founded a prayer service, what we call a “minyan,” basically every day of the week in the morning here.

Yitzchok: That's right.

Nehemia: I see all these books around your house... And look, I've got a lot of books, but I see a lot of books here. And there's the Talmud, and there's a Khumash, which is the Torah, and there are other books of Jewish learning. And I asked you, “Are these just for decoration?” And look, some Jews are very busy, and the books are on the wall for decoration. You told me you learn these books every morning with whoever's at the prayer service.

Yitzchok: That’s right.

Nehemia: After the prayer service you actually sit down and study these books. So, this isn't just something that you sing about. This is something that you're living.

Yitzchok: 100 percent. I've been studying them since I'm in my mother's womb.

Nehemia: Wow, and you actually mean that in a literal sense, don't you?

Yitzchok: Oh, yeah.

Nehemia: Because there’s Jewish beliefs about the unborn child actually knowing Torah, isn’t there?

Yitzchok: That's right. You know, there's the figurative and there's the literal, like everything, like the background to this interview. And in the figurative sense, we do have a tradition that the angels come down and actually teach you all the Torah there is to know, while you're in your mother's womb. And then when you're born, they come and touch you above your lip, and that's what that cleft above your lip is. They touch you over your lip and you forget it all. But in a more literal sense, I mean, there's a video going around, it's a video of a baby... Is it a sonogram? No, sonogram, it’s where you could see the baby…

Nehemia: An ultrasound or whatever they call those things, yeah.

Yitzchok: Ultrasound, and you see the baby clapping his hands to music.

Nehemia: You're joking.

Yitzchok: I'm not joking. And there's definitely communication going on.

Nehemia: I didn't know that.

Yitzchok: Yesterday was my mother's birthday, I went to dinner with her and she was telling me a beautiful story about... Was it the Baal Shem Tov, who started the Hasidic movement, or was it the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the one who started the Lubavitch movement? It was one of these big Rabbis…

Nehemia: A famous Rabbi.

Yitzchok: A famous Rabbi. It might have even been not from the Hasidic, it might have been from the Litvish movement. It was a big, famous one. And they said, “Oh, we've been educating, we've been given khinukh,” meaning that we're teaching our child, so to say, Torah...

Nehemia: Really, religious education or spiritual education.

Yitzchok: Yeah, Torah education.

Nehemia: Torah education.

Yitzchok: “We've been doing it from when he was born, is that okay?” Oh no, “We've been doing it since he's been three months old, is that okay?” He said, “Wow, that's about 12 months late.”

Nehemia: Wow.

Yitzchok: Meaning you should be doing it from conception.

Nehemia: Giving them Torah education from conception.

Yitzchok: To the child.

Nehemia: Wow, that's amazing. So, Rav Kook, he’s Rabbi Yitzchok HaCohen Kook.

Yitzchok: Avraham Yitzchok HaCohen Kook. It was a tangent, and we went off it there.

Nehemia: What did he do? Why is he important? And I know…

Yitzchok: He was the Chief Rabbi of Israel.

Nehemia: I actually grew up going to Bnei Akiva, so I, of course, know who Rav Kook is. But my audience may not know who that is.

Yitzchok: Sure. He was the first Chief Rabbi of Israel. And the Zionists and the “religious,” some people think they don't get along sometimes, you know. But he really brought them together, I would say. He was the first authoritative figure to bring them together. There's also Rav Reines who brought them together. But he was the first one who was authoritative, and he was the first official Chief Rabbi of Israel, and he really stood to bring the Zionist movement and the Torah movement together. And he really did so. But you know, it's funny. It's a funny thought to think about how those things would not be together. I’m just saying, it’s like where does the word Zion come from? I mean, how could you have Israel without that? Explain to me...

Nehemia: I was once sitting on an airplane and I was connecting through Frankfurt or something, and I was sitting next to this German kid. And he hears I'm from Israel. He said, “Why do you live in Israel?” I said, “Because I'm a Zionist.” And you would have thought I just admitted that I was, you know, a serial killer. He couldn't believe I was... You just admitted you're a Zionist? I'm like, “Yeah, of course.” And I didn't know what “Zionist” meant to him. To me, Zionist means that God gave the Land of Israel to the people of Israel and we should live there if we can. What does Zionist mean to you?

Yitzchok: First of all, adding the word “ism” or “ist” at the end of a word is dangerous.

Nehemia: I agree with you.

Yitzchok: I do it, you do it, we do it, everyone does it. But I'm just saying, it always seems to create another stream of people. And that's fine, too, and it's beautiful. We should be creating more streams, why not? We all fall back into the same sea at the end of the day, and that's where we'll unite.

Nehemia: Amen.

Yitzchok: Amen. But Zion comes from the word “Tziyon.” Whether you like Zion from lion, Zion, Bob Marleyness, or whether you like Tziyon from Arieh, tribe of Judahness, it's really the same thing.

Nehemia: Like on your wall right here. I see the Lion of Judah next to the crown, which is, the Lion of Judah is...

Yitzchok: The royalty.

Nehemia: The royalty, and the crown represents what, the Mashiakh?

Yitzchok: The crown represents royalty.

Nehemia: Okay, royalty. And it says there, “Yehudah.” So, Zion. Zion is a mountain…

Yitzchok: Zion comes from the word “Tziyon,” and there's Mount Zion, Har Tziyon, the physical location located on or right next to, or adjacent to the Old City of Jerusalem. And it's a real deal, it is no joke. And you know, David HaMelekh, King David writes, “Ki miTziyon tezeh Torah,” “Because from Zion will the Torah come,” “udvar Hashem miYerushalayim,” “the word of Hashem from Jerusalem.” That is just how it goes. Something happens in Jerusalem, it explodes over the whole entire world.

Nehemia: He just quoted Isaiah chapter 2. I'm excited. Okay, go on.

Yitzchok: The reason I mentioned David HaMelekh, is because Dovid HaMelekh, King David is buried on Mount Zion.

Nehemia: Right.

Yitzchok: That's where he's buried and that's where he lived. And that's what I was referring to. And yeah, that’s definitely from Yeshayahu.

Nehemia: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I want to get all technical, because archaeologists say that the Biblical Mount Zion is what we call today the “Temple Mount.” And it was only in the Middle Ages that what we today call Mount Zion... And when I studied archaeology at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, they used to refer to it as the “mountain referred to by the tour guides as Mount Zion,” as opposed to the real Mount Zion, which is... But you know, we're talking about… You're from New York, right? Whether it's First street, or Third Street, or Third Avenue, whatever, they're next to each other.

But wow, so Zionism really for me, and for you, I think, is about Zion, which is Jerusalem, which is the land of Israel. But there was a point when there were people who called themselves “Zionists” who were actually - I hate to say this, guys - they were communists, and some of them were very anti-religious. And one of the beautiful things that Rav Kook did is, he said, “Look, Zion is in our prayers. Every year we pray, ‘next year in Yerushalayim’ next year in Jerusalem. Zionism should be embraced by Jews who have faith as well, not just by communists.” And he kind of brought these two opposing streams in some kind of dialogue.

Yitzchok: Beautifully. Yeah, well said. You know, it's so interesting, we really believe that everything has good and everything has bad to it, everything. Every concept has good and every concept has bad. Everything can be used for the good, and everything can be used for the bad. That's us, and that's why we make Kiddush on wine every Friday night, alcohol. Some nations stay away from alcohol. We also make kiddush on marital relations, also known as sex. Some people stay away from that and some people say, “Hey, that's actually a really holy thing.”

Nehemia: Wait, when you say "kiddush," you mean like a marriage? What do you mean, I don’t know what you mean?

Yitzchok: When I say kiddush, I mean the word "making holy", taking something and making it holy.

Nehemia: Oh, okay.

Yitzchok: We do it Friday night on wine. And when we get married, we're obligated to have sex with our partner.

Nehemia: Bekarov etzli, may that be soon for me.

Yitzchok: Amen, may I dance at your wedding soon, Amen.

Nehemia: So, you’re saying…?

Yitzchok: I'm saying that we can take everything and make it holy. We could take wine and make it holy. We could take sex and you can make it holy. Everything in its right time and place.

Nehemia: But wine can also be an evil thing, and sex can be a bad thing, too.

Yitzchok: That’s right.

Nehemia: If it's not in the right context.

Yitzchok: That's right. You know, killing could be used for the good or for the bad. It's an interesting time to be talking about this. There's time for war, there's time for peace time, there's time for love, there's a time for hate.

Nehemia: That's Ecclesiastes, Kohelet.

Yitzchok: Exactly. So, I guess what made me think of this was, you said the word “communist,” which comes from the word “commune.”

Nehemia: Yeah.

Yitzchok: And a commune and a community is a beautiful thing. As a matter of fact, the communist idea was a beautiful idea. But like any idea, if it becomes more important than the people and you start killing people because of the idea, then you just lost it. So, you can't worship anything specifically and say, “This concept is more important than the greater whole.” And that's why I think communism had its downfall, at least according to those who think that it had a downfall. I also want to share something really beautiful about Rav Kook, and some of his teaching…

Nehemia: This is the Rabbi whose Synagogue you are the khazan, the cantor at.

Yitzchok: That's right. He says, “Why does he love atheists so much?”

Nehemia: This is a Rabbi who said, “I love atheists?”

Yitzchok: That's right.

Nehemia: Wow, why does he love atheists?

Yitzchok: Rav Kook says, he loves atheists so much because they remind the world how finite their perception of Hashem is, of God is. It's true, because a lot of times, I don't care what school you go to, they're gonna say, “God’s a man in the sky with a stick. He’s gonna hit you. He's gonna punish you if you do something wrong.”

And wait a second. The greatest Jewish philosophers, who were probably some of the greatest philosophers of all time, have all started off their philosophy courses or discourses by saying, “If you think you are going to comprehend the Creator of the Universe by reading this book, you're wrong. There is no understanding, and that's why He is infinite.” And so, Rav Kook is saying, “The reason I love atheists so much is because they remind us how finite our conception, perception of Hashem is, of God is, and that's beautiful.”

Nehemia: Wow, that's profound and I have to think about that.

Yitzchok: And I believe in Hashem.

Nehemia: Hallelujah. You're not an atheist, is what you're saying.

Yitzchok: You know, in the regard that I'm often frustrated by certain religious figures, or non-religious figures' perception of God by creating a finite being out of Hashem, then in that sense I am an atheist. I get really annoyed and frustrated.

Nehemia: You can't believe in certain people's conceptions of God. But in your conception of God, who is this infinite being, that you do believe in.

Yitzchok: Yeah, in that sense. And I empathize with many atheists' frustrations.

Nehemia: Okay, you understand their frustrations, I get it.

Yitzchok: I empathize with their frustrations.

Nehemia: So, in a sense, you could say what Rav Kook was saying is that the atheists' objections teach us more about what God isn't, so that we can understand what God is. That's interesting. That's profound.

Yitzchok: Yeah.

Nehemia: So, you do this thing, the Jewish Unity Project, and I think that's connected to Rav Kook, in a sense.

Yitzchok: Totally.

Nehemia: Tell us what that is.

Yitzchok: Well, first of all, I can't copyright unity, and I won't. Unity is a concept provided in the Torah, akhdut, coming together. And the Second Temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred.

Nehemia: Which we call “sin'at khinam.”

Yitzchok: Sin'at khinam. And Jewish Unity Project is about fixing baseless hatred and reminding each other that we don't need to agree in order to love, and breaking down the misconception that we don't need to be the same in order to love one another. And we do it by creating events and parties that bring all these different kinds of Jews together. Sometimes, we'll take the train tracks which separate the Makhane Yehuda marketplace, which is a very colorful place.

Nehemia: This is in Jerusalem.

Yitzchok: In Jerusalem, from the more "black and white" Orthodox community, and we'll do a meal there. And thousands of people will come from both sides of the train tracks, so to say, actually.

Nehemia: Literally, actually both sides of the train tracks.

Yitzchok: Both sides of the train tracks, and they'll join together.

Nehemia: And these are communities that probably wouldn't normally come together for a meal like this?

Yitzchok: Exactly.

Nehemia: Wow.

Yitzchok: We do parties on Purim which bring together thousands of people. And sometimes, we'll just do an event that caters towards one kind of people, and then we'll do an event that caters towards other kinds of people. Then we’ll do an event where they’ll meet each other…

Nehemia: And you were telling me before we started about this concept of religious, because in Israel we're very quick to label somebody, “This man's religious, this man's not religious. This man's only a little religious, this woman...” So, what is your view on that whole concept of religious? Can I put you in a box?

Yitzchok: Let me out of here. I definitely grew up…

Nehemia: Because my box for you would be, you're an Orthodox Jew. And in Hebrew we'd say “dati,” that you're religious, which means Orthodox Jew.

Yitzchok: I did grow up in a world where people would label me Orthodox. And because I prayed three times a day you might call me Orthodox. Because I keep the Sabbath in the traditional way you might call me orthodox, but I actually don't consider myself Orthodox...

Nehemia: Really?

Yitzchok: ...or religious. I actually think religion is a concept which is fairly new to the world, a couple of hundred years old, maximum 1,000. And that Hashem, and the Torah, and Mount Sinai and the 12 tribes, and our traditions date back way longer than this concept of religion. And I would like to think of myself as more of a Hashem-Torah observant Israelite.

Nehemia: Wow, I love that.

Yitzchok: Even the word “Jew” is taken from the word Judah, and who created the word “Jew?” Not Jews, I tell you. Non-Jews have been calling us “Jews and Juden,” and labeling us. And that's what's been happening. And really, Israel is a 12-tribe nation which is so beautiful, how different, diverse yet united we are. And it happens to be that the tribe of Judah, Yehudah, have held on very strong to tradition and to halakha which has built fences around them, which has given the ability to survive for many years.

Nehemia: For those who don't know what halakha is, what is that?

Yitzchok: Halacha is, I would say it is the brought down law, brought down by the Rabbis by studying the Torah, and the Talmud, and the Mishnah and bringing it down all the way to halakha.

Nehemia: I like to define it as the practical implementation of Torah law through tradition.

Yitzchok: Thank you, those are the words I was looking for.

Nehemia: And it's like, “Okay, how do we actually put this into practice, based on tradition and based on study?” And I want you to get back to the tribes, ‘cause you just brought that out in the word “Judah.” But you're a musician, and what kind of podcast would this be if we didn't play one of your musical songs? We're gonna play two songs, if we have time.

Yitzchok: Nice.

Nehemia: But the first one I want to play...You know, you talked about the Jewish Unity Project, and you told me this really interesting thing before we started recording, that you do this thing of, you combine the music and the message. So, just mention that in a minute. And then as you're doing that, explain this song, which is a Hebrew song called “True Jew.” And you do this traveling around the world to unite Jews. So, the message and the music, how do you do that to unify people?

Yitzchok: Wow, you know, maybe I'll actually do that for you right now with the guitar. Maybe I'll just pull a guitar off my wall and do that for you.

Nehemia: The man is standing up from this little couch on the floor, in the Bedouin tent of his living room, and he just grabbed a guitar. This is cool. All right.

Yitzchok: [sings] “Shalom. I wanna tell you a story of our holy master, the Baal Shem Tov. When a Chasid came to say goodbye to his holy master, his holy master said, “Wait. I have a gift for you for your way.”

And the holy master came back with two little candles. He said, “Take these little candles, when the night grows dark and lonesome light them, they will show you the way. One day, one day, our children are going to leave our home. Give them two little candles, the candles of light, the candles of peace, the candles of joy, the candles of One God. One day, one day, all these little candles will gather in the streets of the world. They will make a fire from earth to heaven, from heaven to here. And the whole world will know, the whole world will know, that we are all one.”

Shema Yisrael, Adonay Elohenu, Adonay Ekhad. God is One, God is One. The whole world is one. Israel is one. Other nations of the world are one. And I hope to sing with you and dance with you really soon. In the house of prayer for all nations on the Temple Mount rebuilt really soon. Amen.”

Nehemia: Wow. I'm gonna cry.

Yitzchok: Today, is the day that Shlomo Carlebach died. We don't say "died,” we say "passed on.”

Nehemia: It's the anniversary of his passing. And who’s Shlomo Carlebach?

Yitzchok: Of his passing. He passed on to the next world. First of all, he's the one who taught me that.

Nehemia: So, he wrote that song, or that style?

Yitzchok: He did that before. That was me trying to imitate him in something that he did, that I've used with thousands of groups.

Nehemia: He was a famous Rabbi here in Jerusalem.

Yitzchok: Shlomo Carlebach was originally born in Germany, I believe, or in Vienna…

Nehemia: Oh, really? I didn’t know that.

Yitzchok: Or he moved to Vienna, born in Germany and moved to Vienna, yeah, Eastern Europe. And he was, you know, destined to be one of the biggest Rabbis. I mean, he was part of the founding of one of the biggest yeshivas, places of study, in Lakewood, New Jersey. And they thought he was gonna be the next Rosh Yeshiva, the next head of the establishment, the head of the yeshiva establishment there. And he actually ended up breaking away and playing guitar.

He dabbled in Chabad Lubavitch a little bit, and then eventually they even said to him, “Listen, you're so powerful, you need to do your own thing and be able to do your own thing under your own guise.” And he brought back thousands, I think even thousands is an understatement, of Jews back to their roots. Very strong in the hippie movement, and then as of now, as we speak, Friday night prayer in shul, in every shul across the world is different because of Shlomo Carlebach.

Nehemia: Wow, for those who don't know what shul is, it's Synagogue. There's a traditional liturgy, and the actual tune they use in the liturgy is because of this Rabbi, and… who inspired you. You were inspired by his style of combining - I hope I'm describing this right - of combining worship and music, and kind of a spiritual approach to the prayers.

Yitzchok: You got it. You got it.

Nehemia: Wow, this is amazing.

Yitzchok: So, it's really beautiful, we're doing this interview on the anniversary…

Nehemia: So, this is the anniversary of his passing. And why is that important in your tradition? Because people don't know.

Yitzchok: We don't look at death as a bad thing, actually. Maybe at the funeral itself, and then we have seven days of mourning, and then we have 30 days of grieving. And then we have a whole entire year not being too happy, overjoyed. But after that, every single year, we actually celebrate and we raise a glass, maybe some whiskey, maybe some vodka, maybe some arak and we say, “Lekhayim.” We say, “To life,” and we sing and we do things that are joyous on that day.

Nehemia: So, why are you celebrating the anniversary of someone's death?

Yitzchok: Because we actually believe that when someone leaves this world it was not by accident, and that it represents their fulfilling, their purpose in this world and passing on into the soul world, the Garden of Eden, etc.

Nehemia: If you would agree, I want to do a second part of this interview, because there's just so much more to talk about. And I want to end this part with the song, “True Jew,” which is a song that you have in an album that's coming out soon. And it's a Hebrew song, and you told me it's on the album that's coming out, it's a hidden track.

And by the way, people, I’ll have the link on my website, nehemiaswall.com. Introduce the song and then we'll play it.

Yitzchok: Sure, yeah.

Nehemia: And then we're gonna come back in a future episode and continue with Yitzchok Mayer. He's gonna talk in the next episode about the literal and figurative significance of the 12 tribes being ingathered. There’s so much more to talk about. But introduce “True Jew.”

Yitzchok: Sure thing. So, the reason it's a hidden track on this mainstream album is because it's not a mainstream song. I would say what doesn't make it a mainstream song is that it's in the language of Hebrew, which is not a mainstream language. It is a beautiful language, and I am very proud of my roots. But this specific song kind of represents everything I'm about, and it's very personal.

Nehemia: Wow.

Yitzchok: And that's, in a sense, why it's hidden, because some of the most personal things, you don't necessarily throw out there.

Nehemia: And now, we're going to listen to his song.

Yitzchok: “Yehudi Amiti” which means “True Jew” or genuine Jew, in a certain sense. Yehudi Amiti, I really like "True Jew.” I like it better.

Nehemia: What's the song about?

Yitzchok: I'm actually just going to tell you the words, I'm gonna translate the words for the audience and then they'll know themselves what it's about.

Nehemia: And then we’ll hear it, yeah.

Yitzchok: Exactly. “Aseni Yehudi, Yehudi Amiti,” “Make me a Jew, a true Jew.” “Lo kharedi, lo khiloni, Ashkenazi o’Sefaradi, “Not ultra-Orthodox, not secular, not from the Ashkenazi Eastern European background, not from the Sephardic Spain Middle Eastern background.” “Lo lita'i, v’lo khasidi, smolani o yemani,” “Not Litvish,” which is more, I would say, “Lithuanian,” kind of black-hat Jew, “not Hasidic, not left wing and not right wing.”

And then the second time around I say, “Also Orthodox, also secular, also...” Instead of "lo,” instead of "not," I'm saying "also.” And then the third part of song is, “Ki rak kakha yesh od tikva, nit'akhed, nevatel et hasin'ah,” “For only like this is there hope to unite and nullify the hatred.” “Verak kakh yavo hago'el, nit'akhed am Yisrael,” “And only like this will the Redeemer come, nation of Israel, unite.”

Nehemia: Amen. I want you to listen now to this beautiful song which we've gotten special permission from Yitzchok Mayer to play here, “Yehudi Amiti,” a True Jew.

Yitzchok: [sings] “Aseni Yehudi, Yehudi Amiti, Aseni Yehudi, Yehudi Amiti. Lo kharedi, lo khiloni, Ashkenazi o’Sefaradi, Lo lita'i, v’lo khasidi, smolani o’yemani. Aseni Yehudi, Yehudi Amiti, Aseni Yehudi, Yehudi Amiti. Gam kharedi, gam khiloni, Ashkenazi ve Sefardi, Gam lita’I, ve’gam khasidi, smolani ve yemani. Ki rak kakha yesh od tikva, nit'akhed, nevatel et hasin'ah, verak kakh yavo hago'el, nit'akhed am Yisrael. Am Yisrael. Aseni Yehudi. Aseni Yehudi, Yehudi. Yehudi Amiti. Aseni Yehudi. Yehudi Amit. Gam kharedi, ve’gam khiloni, Ashkenazi, ve Sefardi, Gam litai, ve’gam khasidi, smolani ve yemani. Ki rak kakha yesh od tikva, nit’akhed, vevatel et hasina’ah, verak kakh yavo hago’el, nit’akhed am Yisrael. Ki rak kakha yesh od tikva, nit’akhed, nevatel et hasina’ah, ki rak kakha yavo hago’el, nit’akhed am Yisrael. Yehudi Amiti. Ani Yehudi Amiti. Hagoel am Yisroel.”

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We hope the above transcript has proven to be a helpful resource in your study. While much effort has been taken to provide you with this transcript, it should be noted that the text has not been reviewed by the speakers and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. If you would like to support our efforts to transcribe the teachings on NehemiasWall.com, please visit our support page. All donations are tax-deductible (501c3) and help us empower people around the world with the Hebrew sources of their faith!


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Related Posts: Here We Are (Part 2 with Yitzchok Mayer) My Favorite Bible Verse A Physicist on Creation, Evolution, and the Human Soul Holy City Soccer Jewish Unity Unity vs Uniformity Hebrew Voices Episodes Support Team Studies Nehemia Gordon's Teachings on the Name of God Verses Mentioned: Deuteronomy 6:4-7 Exodus 3:15 Isaiah 2:3 Ecclesiastes 3 Links: Yitzchok Mayer's Music Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach Rav Kook
  • Danilo Henry says:

    Would be more wonderful when the shema be told with IehoVa

  • Walter Schwenk says:

    Yitzchok Meir, putting everything he has into glorifying Yah, as he understands him, from the rooftops. Heartwarming.

  • Yochanna says:

    May we be blessed to hear The Name in the Shema. May we and our children after us be blessed to sing it.

  • Larry C Trombitas says:

    True Jew=Trust Ha Shem Aveinu. TY

  • walter schwenk says:

    It would be valuable to have on-screen transcript. Some of the topics discussed were fascinating, but a blurred by the acoustics. The rooftop “sh’ma” is a much needed answer to the meuzin. I would like to hear more about the dichotomy and relationship between atheism and Yahwism. As one who has been both, I am now seeing atheism as a denial of all that would be falsely represented as elohim; and Yahwism as an affirmation of the true elohim as the one who will be what he will be.

  • Mary Yeh says:

    I was filled with joy and great gladness listening to you two talking. What a precious heart of belief and the music is so heavenly! I love his definition of “love” and the rejecting the “Jew” definition to fit nicely into the intellectual box-fix to understand him. With his definition, I can fit in with you nicely. It is my heart, too! I find him to be a national treasure for Israel and particularly Jerusalem! I definitely will be listening to this Hebrew Voices episode over and over again because it is so uplifting, even for singing with him in Hebrew! And I remember hearing him via the internet singing over the city of Jerusalem and I am in awe, Nehemia, that you were able to interview him! Please keep in contact with him and let us have the overflow springs of water from God Most High to us little ones with you.

  • Don Zusya Goodman says:

    B’H
    A point I want to address-the name Jew of Yehudi is found in Megillas Esther a writing with prophetic inspiration as in Ester Chapter 2:5. “There was a Judean man in Shushan the capital, whose name was Mordecai the son of Jair the son of Shimei the son of Kish, a Benjamite.’ On the one hand Mordechai he was from the Tribe of Benjamin yet he was called Yehudi/Jew-So to assert as Yitzchock Meir did he considers himself an Israelite I would not debate-however Yehudi is also inclusive for all the tribes. As well, in Mesecta Megillah it is written that whoever denies idolatry is called Yehudi-so an Israelite who denies idolatry is a Yehudi-no matter what tribe he or she is-FYI Mordechai’s mother’s side I have learned as well was from the Tribe of Yehudah!!!
    Ahavah Echad via acts of kindness, prayer and deep Torah learning in the PARDES of Hashem.

  • Devora Clark says:

    I think this is the BEST INTERVIEW I’ve heard in quite awhile and what Yitzchok is saying about the use of HaShem’s Name THRILLS ME, and Nehemiah, I’m sure you can understand why, based on a conversation I had with you for the first time several years ago:) I also LOVE that he refers to Israel as theTWELVE TRIBES of Israel which makes room for ger to be included in Israel (at least as far as I understand Bamidbar 15:15). And I love that he’s so artistically-minded in his approach to Torah study – I’d love to be at his minion and study Torah as a ger, and see you at the Abraham hostel, but for now, I’m in Florida. And being a chazzan, I wonder if he can recommend a way for me to learn online, with English translation so I understand what each word means b/c right now, I chant the Siddur in Hebrew with English transliteration but I don’t know what I am saying word-for-word and I want to know what EVERY HEBREW WORD MEANS. Can I join the Jewish Unity Project if I am in USA and not a Jew, but a HaShem Torah Observant Israelite? I envision a Bedouin tent decor in my full-time RV:) The Devora Clark Show http://www.devoraclark.podbean.com

  • Joe Lesejane says:

    Shalom, this is amazing listening at Yitzchok Meir. Very humble but knowledgeable and passionate about the Torah and his music. i actually learnt a lot from this interview and look forward to the follow up interview. On another matter,i do listen to Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach music and enjoy it a lot.He has the ability to draw one’s attention and gives meaning to what he signs. Well done

  • Wanda Ratcliffe-Smith says:

    Wow Wow Wow, this was Beautiful… The way Yitzchok conveys his understanding of the Shema is very powerful and of course his music/singing is very beautiful and uplifting. Thank you both

    Shalom and Many Blessings

  • Shalom yeall! I really don’t have much of an educated comment but would like to convey my thankfulness for Yahovah, you Nehemiah and Hebrew Voices. Top quality content every week. Also, I’m sure that there are many listening who do not and would not leave there thoughts here so please, with Almighty Gods grace and linked sponsors, continue soldiering on! Blessings as you do.

  • Great Show! Todah Rabbah!Shabbat Shalom!

  • Janice says:

    His Shema, exactly way I’d expect to Hear It! Makes you want to prostrate, be be laid low in reverance, that’s were we came from dust, and to dust we’ll return; however the neshama will rise at the breathe of the King.

  • Janice says:

    Wow ! I suggest on Arutz Sheva, that if we were not allowed to pray on Temple Mount we should do exactly what this True Jew is doing. Other’s should join him, there is nothing that says you can’t ring out from a high place the Shema, be your own prayer towers.

    If I were in Israel, I would show up every Sunday night. Hebrew is glorious! I only know a little, however, I could sing right along with him. Why? It reaches our souls where we all know Hebrew. The Voice of the Father.

    Thank you Mr. Gordon for these marvelous interviews with Israeli people. Keep em coming. Torah Pearls good for the head, Israeli people good for the neshama.

    Todah

  • Karen Jolly says:

    I enjoyed the whole program and thanks to Yitzchok for sharing his music. The only thing I want to know is, where is the second part ? I would like to hear what you all spoke about concerning the tribes.

  • hamishhay says:

    Thanks guys, this episode was a blessing for me. It relieved my stress of dealing with reluctant grandkids to do their homework. I love this series Nehemia. Jim