Litvishe Singing Star? Yes, you got that right. Not a misprint.
I was looking around online, and was pleasantly surprised to come across an impressive talent that I was not aware of, a short while ago, a Shmuel Greineman of ארץ ישראל. Kikar Shabbos had a stellar post with a very recent recording of him, singing some great songs.
To give you an idea, some of them have lyrics like this:
א-ל נקמות ה' א-ל נקמות הופיע
אזכרה אלקים ואהמיה בראותי כל עיר על תלה בנויה ועיר האלקים מושפלת...ובכל זאת אנו לי-ה ועינינו לי-ה
לא אירא רע כי עתה עמדי
מי יתן ראשי מים ועיני מקור דמעה ואבכה יומם ולילה על חללי בת עמי
אל תזכור לנו עונות ראשונים
טוב לחסות בה' מבטוח באדם
סבוני גם סבבוני בשם ה' כי אמילם
דחה דחיתני לנפל וה' עזרוני
ואעבר עליך ואראך מתבוססת בדמיך ואמר לך בדמיך חיי
Take a look, have a listen, enjoy, and be strengthened.
יה"ר מלפני אבינו שבשמים שנשמע ונתבשר בשורות טובות ישועות ונחמות בקרוב
Thanks for this interesting discovery.
ReplyDeleteThat being said I have two questions:
1)Is he still a true Litvak (he is from the Chazon Ish family)? I ask this because I have vivid memories of him as a little child when had came to Lakewood to cheer up a relative of his who was not well, and who is friend of my family's. At the time I recall he did not sport the long hair. So perhaps he adopted a more Carlebach-hippie-style persona over the years?
My second question is about the optics of making kumzitzen when the country is at war. Although it was small and probably warranted, maybe the publicity may not reflect well on the Litvishe world?
I would love to hear your opinion on this.
Pardon the delayed response. I didn't respond here earlier, as I only saw the first sentence of your comment at first it seems, for a technical reason.
DeleteI only recently became somewhat acquainted with him, so am not the greatest expert on the topic.
1) Having said that, from what I see he is quite Litvish, learns in such a kollel, etc. And what I saw and heard about his songs (e.g. song titles and lyrics), definitely seems quite so. Having said that, he is someone who sings, performs at times. Someone like that, by definition is different than a typical, run-of-the mill kollel avreich, maggid shiur, that people may conjure up when thinking of a stereotypical "Litvak" these days.
2) I don't see it as a problem. He stepped up to be mechazeik people in a time of crisis and difficulty, in an appropriate way, in a tznius'dike way. Hey, there are public performances, concerts now, in large venues, many videos, clips...what we shared here was much more private than that.
He learned in Brisk. I remember him there.
DeleteI know it's off the subject but I wanted to share this with the group. Yochanan Gordon, in last week's column wrote, "All Jews are soldiers in Hashem's army but it's the Shluchim who are the spiritual partners of the Chayalim." I showed this to a Lubavicher and he told me, "What's your problem? This is true. Nobody does for the soldiers what Chabad is doing." Anyone care to comment?
ReplyDeleteThere are loads of people, from different backgrounds, doing many things to help. But if you read a Lubavitcher publication, like the 5TJT paper, owned and operated by the Gordon family, who are Lubavitchers from back in Europe, what do you expect? You get a diet of Chabad PR naturally. Lubavitchers engaging in an orgy of self-promotion and PR. Nothing new under the sun there.
DeleteI'd just like to add this point. This week's Parsha begins, "Vayetzei Yaakov from Beer Sheva." Rashi comments that when a Tzaddik leaves a place it makes an impression. So the obvious question is, "Doesn't he make an impression when he's in that place?" And the answer is no, because a Tzaddik does all the right things but never calls attention to himself. It's only after he leaves that people realize how indispensable he was. Esav, on the other hand, is the pig who constantly shows off his kosher sign. And this is Chabad, which never stops, even in this matzav, to tell the world how great it is, and that other Jews are essentially irrelevant. BTW, your point is well taken. Many non observant Jews have stepped up to contribute.
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