A Part of Me

The fruit of two years’ preparation and collaboration

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Eitan Freilich’s second album, Yavo Shalom, released last week, is the fruit of two years’ preparation and collaboration with contemporary composers. The title track is signature Freilich, an inviting, clap-your-hands-and-sing–along original Hebrew composition on the theme of peace, with strong background vocals and an easy-listening feel.

Track 2, “Hashken Na” is a contemplative prayer, touching on every couple’s deepest hopes for their marriage (“Rest Your presence between us and enlighten our eyes to Your Countenance…”)

“I brought a huge file crammed with ideas and lyrics to Elie Shwab, the composer of ‘Tefillat Kallah’ and ‘Schar Mitzvah.’ After we scrolled through the material without success, I pulled out the small pocket booklet my wife had used to daven from before our chuppah, and we wound up composing this beautiful wedding song. Working on the melody together truly made this album a part of me — it’s filled with the concepts and values that guide me and my family through life,” Freilich says. “Another song I wrote with Elie that same night, called ‘Slow it Down,’ became a personal statement. I’m pretty young, but not so many years ago, before smartphones and social media, or even before e-mail and ATM machines, life was simpler. People knew their neighbors, families spent more time together. Something in me wanted to express this unfolding social and cultural shift.”

Eitan says one of his more interesting moments in making the album was creating the album cover photo. “I stood in a three-piece suit, splashing buckets of water off a marching drum again and again, hoping that nobody would complain about the noise. After taking about 600 shots I was finally happy — and so were the neighbors.” (Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 731)

Mona Knew to Pick a Winner

e song “Lemaaloh” was the keystone of chassidic singer Shloime Cohen’s rise to fame, but he says that he almost didn’t sing it. “While I was working on my first album, Pinky Weber sent me a tape, with the songs ‘Atah Echad’ and’ Lemaaloh’. I wanted to pick ‘Atah Echad,’ but my producer Mona Rosenblum, listening in to the tape over the phone, wasn’t too excited about it. Then he said, ‘Be quiet, let me hear the next song.’ We heard ‘Lemaaloh’ and he said, ‘Shloime, let’s sing this on Motzaei Shabbos.’ I sang it at an event and the crowd loved it, so of course we both knew it would go on the album.” Titled? Lemaaloh, of course. (Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 731)

Four Stanzas You Don’t Just Sing

Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman ztz”l was the son of the rav in the Belarus village of Daǔhinava. Although the family had some Chabad ties, he learned in Slabodka and developed into a Litvishe rosh yeshivah and gadol. When Rav Ruderman was elderly and infirm, visitors would sometimes play music for him. Once, when a guest started to play the Baal HaTanya’s “Arba Bavos” niggun, the Rosh Yeshivah motioned for him to stop immediately. “This is not a niggun that you just sing!” he exclaimed. “Do you know the meaning of this niggun?!” As Chabad chassidim know well, this exalted niggun is sung with great reverence at chuppahs and at the end of certain Yom Tov gatherings. Rav Ruderman did not want it sung merely to keep him company. (Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 731)

Endote: A Part of Me

A Part of Me

The fruit of two years’ preparation and collaboration

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Mona Knew to Pick a Winner

Four Stanzas You Don’t Just Sing

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