At any rate, here is Dan Sacks from Deleon on his new album, his move abroad and the perils of the Jewish music industry.

Click here to listen to the Deleon Podcast

More info on Deleon’s Spotify project…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcFCu5aSsJ8

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k372K07L8j8

Visit Stereo Sinai online.

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Welcome to 10 Tevet: a day long Mourner’s Kaddish.

On 10 Tevet, the Babylonian army laid siege to Jerusalem. Thirty months later, the city walls were breached, and on 9 Av of that same year, the Temple was destroyed. The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia for 70 years.

After the blast of Hanukkah with food, candles and fun, suddenly our commercial break from reality is interrupted by a fasting period and solemn reflection.

To a degree, 10 Tevet is like a day long kaddish. While Mourners Kaddish marks a sad moment, it’s also uplifting, because the actual kaddish (the Aramaic words you don’t actually know yet somehow angels do) are not that sad at all:

Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the world which He has created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days, and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity. 

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in His celestial heights, may He create peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

There is a custom that even in dark times, we should say a few good words of hope. Mourner’s Kaddish does that. And for 10 Tevet, I believe that healthy dose of emo, darkwave and 80′s music will be the light at the end of the tunnel. So here’s a YouTube music video list that I hope will make 10 Tevet a little more tolerable. Have a meaningful fast.

The Cure – Boy’s Don’t Cry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n547VhR1aRY

The Mars Volta – Eriatarka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjAltxAWTRk

Feeding Fingers – Manufactured Missing Children

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB6WQh6YylA

Sunny Day Real Estate – 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS_tfEjoiss

New Order – Regret

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r4QGJpsYaE

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In other news, thousands of children die every year from drinking unsanitary water, starving, suffering from diseases we cure with a quick ride to Walgreens and getting blown away by terrorists and dictators.

Who cares about Matisyahu’s beard? Apparently 125 people…because that’s the number of people who wrote on his wall comments like, “what, are there only 612 mitzvos now?” and “so have you given up on your faith?”

I have a challenge to the people who are so bored with life that they have to talk lashon hara on Matisyahu’s website: if you are so angry about him “doing off the derech” (which he never claimed he was), then donate $18.00 for every hair he shaved off his face to a charity that helps children and their mommies around the world. HaShem will be delighted that you are doing such amazing work, so much that he’d thank Matisyahu for shaving!

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Click below to hear the noise.

PunkTorah Podcast 10/06/2011 – Yom Kippur Edition

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Check out the video for All These Years ft. Mojo Hanna that shatters the stereotype that all Jews have big noses but solidifies the notion we all have curly hair (even if it is receding), and when your done checkout Gina & the Garage Sale EP on Shemspeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppRuVOjPcsQ

Jeremiah Satterfield is the host of PunkTorah Radio’s music podcast, spinning the best in Jewish rock, pop, hip hop, punk and more.

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Click here to play.

Playlist:

1. Girls In Trouble – DNA – Half You Half Me – Jdub
2. Deleon – Mansevo Del Dor – Jdub
3. Y-Love – This is Unity – See Me – Shemspeed
4. Diwon & Dov – Hatikvah – Hatikvah – Shemspeed
5. Darshan – To Zion – To Zion – Shemspeed
6. Moshiach Oi! – This World is Nothing/Got Nothing on Me – This World is Nothing – Shabasa
7. Gangsta Rabbi – Obama Rama Yeah – DiKtatoR17 – Jdub
8. Can!!Can – G~d Lives in New York City – Monsters & Healers – Jdub
9. The Sway Machinery – All the People – The House of Friendly Ghosts Vol. 1 – Jdub
10. Wailing Wall – Dear Mother – Hospital Blossoms – JDub

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iho0JSFX99Q

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I have counted endless Facebook Flame Wars about whether or not the sky is falling on Jewish start ups. I’ve seen the older folks wave their fingers at us good-for-nothing kids who really need tote the party line and stop building silly websites. I’ve seen non-profit consultants wax poetic about “innovation”. And yet, in all this, no one has thought to ask the artists on JDUB anything about the label.

Why? I post this question to you, Jewish media…why has no one interviewed any JDUB bands?

This is the part where you expect a conspiracy theory on my end. But you won’t get one. There’s plenty of really long articles out there by people who didn’t work for JDUB about what-went-wrong.

But JDUB critiques are like memories of Studio 54: if you can remember it, you weren’t really there.

I reached out to several artists, but due to time restraints, the only person who could be interviewed in time for publishing of this article was The Gangsta Rabbi, whose album came out just before mine did.

Here’s what Steve had to say about JDUB. I hope this article will be the last article ever written about what-went-wrong-with-JDUB.

What was it like to be on JDUB?

The greatest thing about being on JDub is that it finally gave me some long sought after credibility. Being on the label that launched Matisyahu and a score of equally good and better artists made me look less of the novelty (which is not bad in itself) and more viable in the industry.

Any special memories…from being on JDUB?

JDub treated their performers special. My two visits to their offices were also memorable on how I was treated by all. That’s so important.

What are your plans now? Releasing on your own? A new label?

I released the first sixteen [albums] on my own and will do the same for numbers nineteen through one hundred plus. As for a new label, I’ll be 104 when that happens, so I will become a baseball player while I wait!

Alicia from Girls In Trouble was also on hand to give a quick statement:

Editors note: it has come to our attention that Jacob Berkman (aka Fundermentalist) may be interviewing some JDUB bands. We will update this article if that is the case.

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Not gonna share the actual email I got from JDUB executive Jacob Harris, but here’s what they sent JTA (and it’s very similar to the message they sent me anyhow):

I’m writing to let you know that after almost 9 years in operation, JDUB’s Board of Directors has decided to wind down the organization.

The decision to close was entirely financial, as the challenges facing our business model are too great to overcome.  JDUB earned half of its annual budget from mission-related revenue, including album sales, concert tickets, and consulting fees, and the other half from foundations and individual donors.  The collapse of the music business in the decade that JDUB has existed, combined with recessionary effects and aging out of the cohort of Jewish “start-ups,” made securing the necessary operating support an insurmountable challenge.

Determined to overcome this challenge, and inspired by our mission of forging vibrant connections to Judaism, we took opportunities to expand our work beyond music beginning in 2005. We co-founded the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists, and we adopted Jewcy.com, a platform for the ideas that matter to young Jews, which is the most popular peer-run website of its kind.  We also launched a consultancy through which we helped over 30 other organizations including Hillel International, Birthright Israel Next, Nextbook Press, and Tablet Magazine to connect Jewish content, products, and experiences with new audiences.  While these strategic moves have dramatically increased our impact, they never yielded a sustainable revenue base.

Just as JDUB modeled what a new Jewish organization could look like and achieve, we will also model how one appropriately winds down.  We plan to share as much information as possible, and seek appropriate homes for our successful programs and assets…

I’m one of those assets (though hardly, as I’m sure Monsters and Healers probably sold three copies…and all of them to my mother) so I’m curious to see what happens next.

I guess that leaves Shemspeed to fill the void. I asked Erez “Diwon” Safar for his thoughts, and his reply was:

“Not much to say, besides as the artists already know, [Shemspeed is] actually all about collaboration and we are here for them.”

I’ll do a follow up article on this soon.

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Way back in the day, you know the late 90s early 00s. I was one of those guys who only liked obscure hardcore punk bands who sounded like they time traveled from pre-1986 Washington DC, New York City, or the sun bleached beaches of SoCal.  Not a lot has changed for me music wise since then.  Sure, I’m “respectable” I pay my taxes, vote, and even have a desk job,  but one thing remains the same I have never stopped being a Hardcore Kid. So what does this have to with PunkTorah and Judaism as a whole?  The answer is simple New York’s best kept secret Moshiach Oi!

This World is Nothing is the second release from the Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman chant infused hardcore band Moshiach Oi!  While still keeping it musically fast and lyrically simple (face it when your circle pitting its best to keep the sing alongs simple) T.W.I.N. is slightly more polished and musically diverse than their debut Better Get Ready.

Where Better Get Ready shuckles more towards the early Washington D.C. sound This World is Nothing tips the Kippah more to the Cali sound of the early 80s. Despite being a “Punk Buffet” of style and influence T.W.I.N. has the perfect balance between fast thrash riffs, Oi, and a dash of Reggae and Ska splashed in here and there.

Curious for more check them out below.

Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/moshiachoi613)

Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/#!/MoshiachOi)

Video for Got Nothing on Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVlCahhogv8)

by  Jeremiah Satterfield

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This month’s playlist features music from multiple genres and decades: DeLeon, Matisyahu, Girls in Trouble, Stereo Sinai, Tomer Yosef, Yael Naim, Regina Spektor, Lou Reed, DeScribe & Y-Love, Joshua Radin, Billy Joel, Montonix, Clare Burson, Leonard Cohen, Amy Winehouse and Carole King.

Also, note that the DeLeon song comes off of his new album, Casata; we will have the album review up on PunkTorah very soon!

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So in light of that, this week’s Torah portion is stolen from our friends at G-dcast. The narrator is Hesta Prynn, and if you don’t know who that is, then clearly you don’t live in NY. Watch and learn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhZoihnMII0

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“We’re extremely excited to have three amazing nights of incredible music with a diverse group of artists,” said AJMF’s director Russell Gottschalk. “When we launched the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival last year we felt that something was missing from the Jewish and cultural fabric of Atlanta, and I think this year we’ve filled it in a big way.”

This year’s festival features a night for local artists at Eddie’s Attic on May 19, a night of sacred music in a special Shabbat Service at Congregation Bet Haverim, and a huge closing night party featuring the headlining acts at Center Stage.

Purchase tickets online at www.atlantajmf.org.

The full schedule and pricing are as follows:

Thursday, May 19 – Local Artist Stage featuring Sunmoon Pie, Lily of the Suburbs and Ariel Root Wolpe at Eddie’s Attic, 515 N. McDonough St #B, Decatur Price: $10

Friday, May 20 – Shabbat Service featuring musicians from Congregation Bet Haverim and Special Guests at Congregation Bet Haverim, 2676 Clairmont Rd, Atlanta Price: FREE

Saturday, May 21 – Closing Night Party featuring The Sway Machinery, Jaffa Road, Nick Edelstein and the Grooves and Diwon (DJ) at Center Stage, 1374 West Peachtree St., Atlanta Price: $20

PunkTorah is a promotional sponsor of AJMF.

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We’re thrilled to announce the release of our first album Etz Chaim: Kabbalistic Meditation featuring…

• Ten world music inspired tracks with guided meditations by Michael Sabani
• Ten music-only tracks
• Two bonus tracks … your free gift from PunkTorah

That’s 22 songs for only $9.99. You can download directly here using Paypal. Once you submit payment, we will email you a download link in twelve hours or less.

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It’s pretty cool to have a day job that involves writing and editing a siddur. But to be honest, at the end of the day, I really just looked forward to blasting my stereo on the way home from the office.

I imagine that the siddur is a mix tape of lamentations to G-d. And with that in mind, I tried to craft a playlist that, for me, would be the equivalent of a morning prayer service (Shacharit). Here’s my best shot:

Here Comes Your Man – The Pixies

The perfect song to start off your audio davening, the chorus “here comes your man” is like a blessing before study, leading you with its pop sweetness onto the stronger stuff, like an audio gateway drug.

G-d Only Knows – The Beach Boys

“G-d only knows what I’d be without you” is an amazing line that captures yearning and the essence of the morning blessings.

Heartbeats – The Knife

The daily sacrifice is found in Orthodox siddurim, and a song by a band called The Knife only seems appropriate when dealing with issues of animal slaughter. Plus, I couldn’t think of a good metal transition from The Beach Boys…but I’m open to suggestions.

Lips Like Sugar – Echo and the Bunnymen

A darkwave song that reminds me of Psalm 30, since the psalm is about turning “mourning to dancing” and that’s about as goth as it gets (or maybe it would be more goth if it turned dancing into mourning?)

Breed – Nirvana

And speaking of mourning, Breed by Nirvana is my mourner’s kaddish. You’d think this kaddish would have reference to the dead or something dark (like Echo and the Bunnymen) but remember that Mourner’s Kaddish as a prayer never actually talks about the dead. Nirvana is so iconic (as is this kaddish in the Jewish prayer ritual) that I can’t help but put the two together.

Hellelujah – Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley’s cover of Leonard Cohen is the musical equivalent of the Shema.

I Was A Desert - Girls In Trouble

The Amidah, for me, is like a roller coaster. I start off with a slow build with the “Elohei Avraham, Sarai, Yitzak, etc. etc.” then go full steam with the chest striking. That’s what this song is like for me: layer after layer of guitars and percussion adding up to the explosion of “I was a desert until I learned to make the sky rain down on me.”

La Serena - DeLeon

Kaddish is one of those things where the element of group prayer really comes together. Since I like singing this song to myself in the car, it’s close enough to congregational prayer.

Modern Love – David Bowie

I think I would end my audio morning service with an Aleinu from David Bowie, especially since this song says “modern love puts my trust in G-d and Man” and Deuteronomy 4 talks about the idea of G-d being G-d alone…a similar, powerful statement.

And now for the Tehilim, the Psalms that you study after the service. For me, these are the songs that on their own don’t do it for me, but in this combo, really give me that extra boost…like a sonic cup of coffee.

Salvation – The Cranberries

Oh Lord – The Brian Jonestown Massacre

All Women Are Bad – The Cramps

Your Mangled Heart – The Gossip

Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division

That Great Love Sound – The Raveonettes

Samson – Regina Spektor

Never Gonna Give You Up – Rick Astley

Kool Thing – Sonic Youth

The World’s A Mess, It’s In My Kiss – X

Photo stolen from AmericanApparel.com.

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Early arrival at Jewlicious with a Saturday night concert only ticket means no entrance until the start of the show promptly at 9:30pm. Boo! What will you get for being half an hour early? An amazing conversation (free of charge) with a security guard who likes to ramble about how much the Jewish folk keep feeding him (well what did you expect, Sir? You should come over for Shabbos dinner sometime). For good measure, and just to make sure we were clear on how well he was being fed, he threw in a tidbit about all the food his Hispanic lady was also feeding him. We decided to leave and come back, all the while pondering if by his Hispanic lady he meant his girlfriend/cleaning lady/personal chef???

That left us to our own devices. Getting ice cream seemed like a logical choice for kicking off a night of good, Jewish fun. So off to Baskin Robbins we went.

Dear Long Beach, Los Coyotes Diag is a confusing street with an even more confusing and strange name. Some diag you got there! Whatever that means. So clearly from there we needed to unscramble our minds and let loose for all the dancing that would shortly ensue. Pre-show partying continued next door at the local supermarket where we found ourselves some mini bottles of Gallo cabernet. If only Manishevitz made small bottles of wine! Dear Manishevitz, get on it!

Back to the show we went, now a little late, we caught the tail end of Kosha Dillz’s set. He definitely knew how to get the small, but enthusiastic, crowd going, jumping up and down and stirring up energy with a lot of call and response. (When I say Kosha, you say Dillz!) However, I probably could’ve done without the sweatpants song. I like sweatpants. I like songs. I don’t like sweatpants songs. Rappers have been wearing baggy clothes, sweatpants included, for a long time, old news. A couple Jewlicious festivals ago he donned a sequin hat with elephants on it. Now that’s an article of clothing I wanna hear about.

Soul Farm was a welcome addition to the lineup. The dancing progressed in intensity as these guys brought out the most eclectic sounds of the night; influences from rock to bluegrass, vocals in Hebrew and English, and instruments from hand drums to mandolin, really made Soul Farm a special treat. I looked back later to find a note I had typed up on my phone ‘Soul Farm sounds like bluegrass Smashing Pumpkins with Pete Seeger covers, heavy hand drums and celtic mandolin. More mando(lin)! (The wine may have also begun kicking in more right around this time). This was country fried, kick your shoes off, get down music.

The expected highlight of the evening was Jewlicious newcomers, Fool’s Gold. I was particularly excited about seeing them since I had missed their previous show with Local Natives. Indie music scenesters had finally made their way to Jewlicious! Rabbi Yonah gave a special introduction and without further ado, they went to town with their special worldy, rhythm driven, dance worthy, chant-with-the-tribe lyrics, musical blend. Now Stop for a minute. Open up a new tab or window on your computer. Go to Youtube and listen to a few songs by Fool’s Gold, if you haven’t already. Try ‘Poseidon’, ‘Nadine’, and ‘Surprise Hotel’. It’s good right. Your head is bopping along, your hands are drumming on your desk, you can dig it. Now here’s a question, do you have any urge, whatsoever, to do the electric slide??? Because for some reason, unbeknownst to me, the Jewlicious crowd seemed to think this was a good idea. Did 1993 call? Because it would like the electric slide back, thanks!

I’m all about having a good time and dancing it up but this was beyond my inner music snob’s comprehension. Shout out to singer Luke Top for kicking it back to 1993 in a different way, by throwing in the old school kid’s song ‘Ha Kova Sheli’! Seemed like not much of the crowd, except me, remember the musical glory days of Hebrew school though, as much as Luke and I; they watched on in slight confusion as he sang it, until finally he exclaimed, “C’mon I thought you guys were Jewish.” In the end, Fools Gold finished out their set with percussion instruments in one hand and with their other arms around each other in a semi circle. That brotherly/sisterly tribal vibe emanated from between the musicians and onto the crowd, resulting in a feeling of unity—which is ultimately Jewlicious’ goal—to connect and bring together all different types of Jews.

The hippie vibes continued with Acharit Hayamim closing out the show. Our ‘Gallo’ haze and dancing had left us happy but weathered already and we left as the crowd danced it off into the wee hours. All in all, the Jewlicious concert left us with good vibes and worn out feet as any good concert should. Little tweaks, such as entrance times and ‘no electric slide’ warning signs, would be useful but there’s always next year. L’shana ha’ba’ah b’Jewlicious Festival!

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PunkTorah Radio: The G-D Project!

And for those of you listening, here’s Giorgio Moroder!

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PunkTorah Radio: Michael’s Music!

Track List:

1. Sh’ma Yisrael – Abayudaya Jews of Uganda- Shalom Everybody, Everywhere

2. Modern Day Moses (Elerctro Morocco Remix) – DeScribe-Harmony

3. Am Yisrael Chai - Justin Jude and The Schneiderman Sisters-We Sang That At Camp: Songs Remembered From Jewish Summer Camp

4. Medley 3: Salaam (Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu) – Kirtan Rabbi-Live!

5. Blackberry Manischevitz - Shalom Feivel & Rocky Mountain Jewgrass-Live At Swallow Hill

6. My Mouth Is a House of Prayer - Eprhyme-WAYWORDWONDERWILL

7. Heaven and Earth - Neshama Carlebach and The Green Pastures Baptist Church Choir-Higher and Higher

8. Shalom Aleichem – Melita Doostan & Octopretzel-Shirei Gan Shalom

9. Hava Nagila – The Barry Sisters-To Life! Chanukah And Other Jewish Celebrations

Find us on iTunes

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PunkTorah is working on an awesome project called Etz Chaim: Jewish Guided Meditations. This calming yet powerful world music album will feature ten tracks of guided meditations based on the sephirot of Kabbalah.

In order to make this happen, we need to spend $150.00* on new audio software for Garageband as well as the fees to put the audio tracks up on iTunes.

If you’re interested in getting a copy of the album, please pre-purchase for $11.99 on Paypal. You’ll receive the tracks along with having your name in the liner notes and a thank you video on YouTube courtesy of PunkTorah TV.

Not a fan of Paypal? Send a check to:

PunkTorah
Attn: Jewish Meditation
872 Baltimore PL SW
Marietta, GA 30064

*If we receive over $150, the additional funds raised will go into the PunkTorah General Fund. To request that your donation be used solely for the above project, please specify so with your donation.

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PunkTorah Radio: Jewish Meditation, A Cookbook, And Kurt Cobain

And subscribe here on iTunes!

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This week we try something a little different…again.

Patrick takes over the podcast with his favorite Jewish hip hop, Euro pop and of course, a healthy dose of punk rock. Happy Valentine’s Day!

PunkTorah Radio: Why Did We Let Patrick Aleph Do This?

Playlist:

1. Baruch HaShem (Moshiach Oi)

2. Secrets/You’re Always Watching (Girls In Trouble)

3. Sheena Is A Punk Rocker (The Ramones)

4. Be My Maccabee (The Bachelorettes)

5. Change (Y-Love feat. DeScribe)

6. Us (Regina Spektor)

7. Radiant Faces (Stereo Sinai)

8. Black Rainbow (Can!!Can)

9. Dodi Li (Congregation Bet Haverim)

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PunkTorah Radio: Outsiders

Also, click here to subscribe on iTunes! And tell your friends!

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For days and days of work of the last two weeks I have be compelled to listen to a music project called Pomplamoose. Nataly Dawn is the singer, and I decided to go to her YouTube page. There I think the song Dying to Live found me. It is simple and clear questioning. This song is brilliant in that it is a social commentary and a quiet call to arms. The poetry of it resonates with me just as a psalm would. It starts:

We don’t always see eye to eye
But we see how the time’s flying by
And we live with a daunting suspicion
That it might not go into remission

This stanza points out so many frames of mind that the world is in. In becoming a more tolerant society we must agree that we don’t always agree, and that is ok. This is the human condition and we must work to create peace with in its turmoil. She most defiantly queries the great struggle of life. She sings, “We’re dying to live/Cause there’s so much to live for”, I feel that speaks to the lethargy this generation has for change compared to many of our ancestors. We see the rewards of life but are stuck in the struggle of an individual in society.

Miracles don’t seem all that fair
If I were G-d I would know who to scare

I think this is a state many of us are stuck in. We are dealing with everyday struggles and can only do so from a human perspective. She posits a great idea in looking to the reaction a deity would have. If you were an all powerful, all knowing being, would you know who to scare? Would your message be heard? Would you have Joan of Arc cry your name in battle or would you seek a passive way to get your message across? Maybe a prophet?

Angels always get the best lines
Fear not must have worked back in biblical times

The Angels do get the best lines. There is one in particular that had a most important line. He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because you have commanding power with [an angel of] God and with men, and you have prevailed.” (Gen 32:29) This is the conclusion of one of the most important events in the bible. The moment that affirms ones right to wrestle with Hashem. Though the words of texts may be out of date, if we looked closer we might find many unimagined things. Looking back may help us find our “fear not”.

But we’re full of the facts it’s the cross on our backs
When we pray are we just closing our eyes

Knowing all the facts we do, knowing that if we do not change our ways the earth cannot continue. We must look to acting ethically, practicing eco-kashrut, or whatever act we can do to slow this train before we jump the track. Are we praying with intent? Even if we are does it help the world? Have we closed our eyes in frustration? It all comes down to the repeating call:

We’re dying to live
Cause there’s so much to live for

What are you living for?

Rivka

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Yoko Ono had a famous performance artwork called ‘Cut Piece’. Sitting on a bare stage, she placed a pair of scissors before her audience and instructed them that they were to come forward and cut at her clothes.

Some were gentle and tentative, but others took the scissors to Ono’s garments in ways that were starkly violent. And through it all she sat, maintaining her invitation to an arena in which social manners and conventions were themselves cut away, revealing the currents of light and darkness beneath.

The genius of ‘Cut Piece’ is that it provoked a suspension of normal social relations, allowing the audience to step outside of themselves. The results were disturbing – disorienting. They hinted at darkness and horror.

But I want to suggest that Ono’s social-suspension technique shared much with another, different set of techniques, designed to produce a far more positive and joyous insight – the demands and prohibitions of halacha.

Performance art and religious ritual are birds of a feather. They share a concern with rendering the familiar unfamiliar, stimulating a more careful consideration of how and why we do what we do.

Both create space – both physical and psychological. Both poke holes in everyday life and allow something ineffable to shine through. They are disruptions, that take you outside of yourself, emphasise connection through disconnection, and force a discomfort that hints at transcendence.

At the heart of halacha is the notion of separation. The division between what is allowed and disallowed, sanctity and profanity. The separation of food, of individuals, of time.

Shabbat is a work of performance art. It comes with instructions – strict rules that create a disruption in quotidian reality, bringing holiness and reflection and respite.

To put on tefillin is to clear a mental space through physical distinction. To observe kashrut is to force difference and consideration – of origins, of causality.

Through following Ono’s guidelines, the audience created a space through which currents of communication could run, guided by her intentions, channeling unpredictable, unarticulated forces through a relationship that revealed to them something beyond anything they could expect.

How much more must this be so, with rules of a far more sacred kind?

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PunkTorah Radio: Living A Jewish Life Online

Subscribe on iTunes!

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It’s here! It’s here!

This week we try something a little different! The podcast is a half-hour glimpse into the musical habits of the PunkTorah World Headquarters. A solid thirty, uh, something, minutes of cool Jewish music that we listen to, some you’ve probably never heard before! So get ready to take a musical journey!

PunkTorah Radio: RADIO!

Also, subscribe on iTunes!

Play List:

1. Rav Avraham Kook (by White Shabbos- Shabbos Holy Shabbos)

2. Mezuzah (by The Macaroons- Let’s Go Coconuts!)

3. Shalom Aleichem (by Tzipia- Tzipia)

4. I Love Torah (by Moshiach Oi!- Better Get Ready)

5. The Binding of Isaac (The Silence) (by Matt Bar- Bible Raps)

6. Ballad of the Exiled Prince (by The Mongrel Jews- Songs For A Minor)

7. Kahn (by CAN!!CAN- Monster and Healers)

8. Big Water (by  Shalom Feivel & Rocky Mountain Jewgrass- Live At Swallow Hill)

9. It’s All G!D (by Eprhyme- WAYWORDWONDERWILL)

10. The World Turns ON A Dime (by Clare Burson- Silver and Ash)

11. Let There Be Peace (by Trudy Kisser, Bobby Wolf, Herbert Novacek & Shlomo Carlebach- Shlomo Carlebach Live)

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I’ve never liked indie record stores.

I’ve never really liked synagogue.

But Patrick, you say, how can you not like the independent music shop or the house of worship? You’re Mr. Punk Torah guy! Isn’t this your area of expertise? Yes. And no.

I’ve never liked indie record stores, because with only two exceptions (Wuxtry in Decatur and a small shop in Bloomington, Indiana) I’ve never had positive experiences there. I guess I’m not cool enough, or maybe I don’t care enough, or maybe I’m too critical…but the attitude of the indie record store has always seemed so trite and arrogant. I get it: asking if you have some Yeah Yeah Yeahs CD from 2001 makes me sadly out of date. Fine. Whatever. I don’t consider it part of my duty as an American citizen to read NME.

And as for synagogue, amazingly, it’s a similar attitude. There’s an outsiderness that “the group” maintains at the expense of the individual. Now, I don’t need a Moses-parting-the-Sea-of-Reeds type of event when I walk into shul, but you’d be amazed how many synagogues I’ve bounced around the past five years can’t get the basics right: say hi to everyone, make people feel welcome, offer to help them with anything that they need, and invite them to come back often. I will say that I have had several positive synagogue experiences, but most of the time the shuls just completely miss the mark.

What does all this mean? Customer service.

Synagogues and indie record stores are in business. It doesn’t matter what you sell, whether it’s HaShem or Deerhunter on vinyl, limited edition. You’re not in the product business or the religion business. You are in the people business. You are in business to serve the needs of others. And if you can’t do that, then you shouldn’t be in business to begin with.

So I started buying my music at concerts or online. And I started attending services at OneShul. And I’ve never been happier.

Image taken from nydailynews.com.

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Check out the video for their single, Got Nothing On Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVlCahhogv8

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This week is part one of a talk with a good friend of ours, Rabbi Menachem Cohen of Mitztiut and The Night Ministry. Check it out! And take a look at his community if you are in the Chicago area!

PunkTorah Radio: The Times, They Are A-Changing…

Also, subscribe using iTunes here!

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With his bald plate, ominous double labret vertical chin piercings and chic, black, embroidered T-shirt and pants, David Draiman doesn’t look like anyone else in the David Citadel Hotel business lounge. Not that the 37- year-old native of Chicago looks much like anyone you might see anywhere else in Jerusalem either. Let’s just say, he’s got a style all his own that sets him apart from the normal street scenery of the Holy City.

But one of the many ironies surrounding Draiman is that he can move around Israel in relative anonymity.

People look at him and can’t help but immediately comprehend that he must be someone famous. But unless they’re under 25 or a fan of American hard rock bands, they won’t pick up on the fact that the muscular, confident tourist is the vocalist for Disturbed, a heavy metal band that has sold over 11 million albums world-wide since its 2000 debut. Each of their subsequent four albums has debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 list, a testament to the rabidity of Disturbed’s fans and the apparent chemistry its explosive music creates.

Another irony surrounding Draiman is that when he wants to jump off the album/rehearsal/tour merry-go-round – or recuperate from the rigors of rock & roll life which include a throat infection which caused part of a tour to be canceled – he doesn’t opt for a secluded Caribbean beach or a French Riviera resort. He returns to Israel.

“I love it here! I come every year or two,” said Draiman last week. He claims to have close to 200 relatives in the country, including his brother Ben, also a musician, and his grandmother. However, that isn’t what keeps him coming back repeatedly since he made his first trip with his parents when he was six years old. It’s because Israel and Judaism are part of his being, and though they aren’t as dominant in his life as they were, Draiman remains one of the few high-profile hard rock singers who are defiantly Jewish – imagine a young Ozzy Osbourne as the spokesman for the Jewish Defense League.

And in what is perhaps the greatest irony in the Draiman saga, the same voice heard belting out the angst-ridden, menacing vocals that characterize Disturbed’s music used to regularly inspire teenage yeshiva students as the shaliach tzibur for Shaharit, Maariv and High Holy Day services. In fact, the young Draiman was well on his way to achieving smicha (ordination as a rabbi) when secular music changed his destiny.

Hours before taking off to Eilat for a New Year’s weekend of scuba diving with his stunning girlfriend – model and former pro wrestler Lena Yada – Draiman loquaciously discussed his transformation from brilliant but rebellious Jewish day school student to heavy metal hero.

When did your relationship with Israel start?

I came here many times as a kid with my family. I think the first time I was six. I used to come here for summer camp a couple times in my childhood, and I spent the year after high school here studying at Neve Zion yeshiva [in Telz Stone]. I was one of those guys you used to see getting into trouble or hanging out on Kikar Zion in Jerusalem.

You attended your brother’s show last night in Jerusalem (at the Off the Wall Comedy Club). Did you get up and perform with him?

No, no, no! I didn’t get up and perform. You know, the last time I went to see him, he called me up and I told him then to never do that to me again. I don’t mind being put on the spot, but I’m coming there for my brother and it shouldn’t be about me. I didn’t wear these [pointing to his oversized chin piercings], I went to watch his show, I’m off the clock.

It also makes me feel uncomfortable if I think that he feels any residual feelings over attention being given to me – I want it to be all about him and to honor him.

When did you first become enamored with music?

With me it was ever since I was a little boy. The first record I ever bought was Kiss’s Destroyer. And those classic bands like Black Sabbath were my first loves. When I was a teenager in the 1980s, I was split in two directions.

On the one hand, I focused on the seminal metal bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Pantera and Queensryche.

There were two different cliques in my school – those that liked glam rock, the teased hair, the Cinderella bands and all that, and the others that liked what we called “real rock.”

But I could also appreciate the hair metal bands – When you hear Whitesnake, you can’t deny their greatness. Then I went in the direction of punk and new wave, groups like the Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Misfits and later The Smiths and The Cure – that’s was my ’80s.

And then when the grunge revolution happened, it was like a wakeup call. I’ll never forget getting my first Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice in Chain records, and hearing that wonderful, beautiful darkness. And the rhythmic intensity, that’s what attracted me more than anything else.

I formed my first band when I was going to Valley Torah High School in Los Angeles.

What was your Jewish upbringing like?

I attended five different Jewish day schools as a teenager. I mean, I was trained as a hazan! I led High Holy Day services a number of years in Chicago. If I did a little refresher I could still do it, but I don’t think I’d be a really good representative before God for anybody these days.

My freshman year of high school was at WITS, the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study in Milwaukee. And I got asked to leave after my first year there. It wasn’t because of my studies – they were always way past the norm, I graduated with a 3.75 GPA and scored just under 1400 on my SATS. Academics were never the issue. The issue was suppression of normalcy. I couldn’t really stomach the rigorous religious requirements of the life, I just wanted to be a normal teenage kid, and here I was being shipped of to a yeshiva.

In an environment where you’re not allowed to watch television, you can’t read magazines or go to the movies, you can’t fraternize with the opposite sex whatsoever, you have to wear the uniform every day of tzitzit, the button- down the shirts, the dress slacks, the shoes, you have to make sure you’re not even wearing a kippa sruga, it was just stifling. So what did that end up turning into? I’d set my friends up on dates with girls that I knew, in defiance of the school. So I became the “pimp” of the school even though no such thing was happening Or I’d smoke a little bit of weed here and there, I‘d get my buddies high, so I was the drug dealer on campus even though that’s not what I was doing. I just rebelled against the conformity – the gag reflex worked.

When I got sent to Los Angeles, it wasn’t any better – it was easier to get away with it because I wasn’t in a dorm and living at the rabbi’s house. Unfortunately, during Pessah cleaning, the rabbi was searching for hametz in the drawers and he found a half empty box of condoms and a half empty bag of weed, and that was the end of my living in the rabbi’s house. I actually ended up graduating high school from the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago, which was the school I wanted to go to in the beginning.

Were you resentful of your parents for shipping you off to these schools?

Yes, I was a bit resentful, because like I said, I just wanted to be a normal kid. But I was the one who introduced religious observance to my family. They weren’t dati to begin with, and I’d go to spend Shabbat with school friends and I fell in love with the whole experience and the warm feeling of family and togetherness.

And my father would go to work every Saturday. I said to my parents, “Why aren’t we keeping Shabbat?” So my father said, “If you won’t watch TV and play video games I won’t go to work.”

So we started down the path, only my father went further than I did. And today they’re still modern Orthodox.

Did you go on to college?

I attended Loyola and worked at many jobs – as a bank teller and in phone sales for Granger Parts Supply. I got a degree in pre-law but once I took my LSATS and I had been accepted to good law schools, I didn’t have the heart to pursue it. The only law that interested me was criminal defense law and I couldn’t really look at myself in the mirror and say I’m going to lie for a living and protect criminals. A colleague of mine told me about an administrative assistant position available at a health care facility, and since one of my degrees was in business I applied and beat out 30 other applicants.

I learned the business and within a year’s time I had my own administrators license and a year after that I was running my own facility. I was health care administrator for five years prior to leaving my job for Disturbed once we got signed.

How did you end up in Disturbed?

I was in seven bands through high school and college before joining Disturbed. But it was first hard rock/ heavy metal band I was ever associated with. The first band were more punk rock and the couple after that were more in the vein of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More with a rock funk vibe. That’s where I started forming a lot of my rhythmic sensibilities.

I was managing the health care facility and saw an ad for a singer in a local Chicago music publication. It was a band called Brawl and the singer they had was much more abrasive than me. The ad had these exaggerations like “on the cusp of being signed” but what piqued my interest was their list of influences.

My roommate at the time was a friend named Jordan, and he was a big fan of the new wave of metal – Korn, Tool, The Deftone – and he turned me onto them. And the ad listed similar influences and that’s what made me respond. I had been to about 30 auditions in the last couple months since I decided to find a band to sing with.

I had a good conversation with Dan [Donegan, the band’s guitarist] and when I went in to audition, they said, “Ok, do you know any covers?” I said that I knew lots of covers but to be honest, I didn’t come to sing covers, let’s do some of your originals. That surprised them since I had never heard their music and it didn’t have words, but I just said, “Give me the mike and let’s see what I can do. I should be able to come up with something.”

So they started playing this riff, and I listened for a couple minutes and starting singing this melody over it with lyrics I had written for another song. That song became “Want” from our debut album Sickness, so right away, there was energy and vibe and magic between us.

I was still very intimidated – I had never sung to anything that aggressive before and I wasn’t confident that my vocals would be able to accentuate the ferocity of their sound. But Jordan, my roommate, who had heard the audition, convinced me to call them back and pursue it. They were being evasive, although they couldn’t hide the sh**-eating grins on their faces, and it took a week or so for them to say, “Ok, you’re the guy.”

Were your parents supportive of your decision to join Disturbed?

Initially, no, they were not at all. I was leaving a career as a successful health care administrator making over six figures and with a chance to own a piece of the business in order to try and be a rock star.

It’s amazing how success seems to justify things over the course of time – they ended up becoming very supportive of my decision. It took them two record cycles to come to a show, and my mother said after seeing us for the first time, “Even though I may not agree with your decision to do what you’re doing, after seeing you I cannot deny that you were born to do this.”

Playing heavy metal, you must run into fans occasionally who espouse anti-Semitic or neo-Nazi sentiments.

How do you deal with it?

I’m incredibly defiant against neo-Nazis and skinheads.

In fact, here’s a true story that occurred in the band’s infancy when we were playing Southside Chicago clubs.

One of the guys who would come to see us was a skinhead, he had a swastika tattoo, the whole nine yards.

After he became a die-hard fan, the band was sitting down having drinks after a show and he comes in and starts going on about [African Americans] and Jews, and I interrupted him and said, “Dude, I don’t know if you realize this but I’m Jewish.”

He responded, “You’re Jewish! This completely changes my whole idea of what a Jew is supposed to be.” And soon after that, he had his swastika removed, and denounced the skinhead culture.

I’ve always been very proud of my heritage and where I come from, and I’ve defended it to the extent of being bloodied on many occasions. In fact, most of the fights I’ve been in my life – and there have been many – have been because I was defending my family or my faith. And I don’t apologize for it.

There’s still anti-Semitism everywhere, and unfortunately, what has happened with our people no longer being the underdogs in this region, peoples’ perception of Israel has changed dramatically. I find myself more and more having to defend us, and I will continue to do so.

I wrote a song on our latest album Asylum called “Never Again” about the Holocaust and the people who deny it, like Ahmadinejad, that piece of sh**. And part of our live show includes a video presentation depicting him as the new Hitler. Believe you me, I’ve always been direct about hits, I never pull any punches and I will never apologize for who I am or where I come from.

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Warning: this album review contains a lot of kvetching and self-serving cross posting. Just sayin’.

After listening to fifteen seconds of the opening track to the new Monotonix album Not Yet (Drag City), I already knew what I wanted to write:

Why am I not on tour with this band?

I could end the review with just that. But our Creative Director told me that I’d look lame for doing that. So I’ll keep going.

Given my musical interests, you’d think that I’d be the horse and pony show opener on Monotonix USA tour. Not so much.

It’s not just the fact that they are from Tel Aviv. It’s not just the fact that they sound like MC5, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Black Sabbath, Iggy Pop or every other cool band that I idol worship. And it’s not just the fact that they have the same loud-fast-furious recording style as, ahem, this band I’m in. No…the real reason I want to be on tour with Monotonix is the fact that they have the greatest live show of any band I’ve ever seen. And I hate their guts for it.

People don’t go to live shows anymore. We’re in a Guitar Hero, Autotune the News, did-you-see-the-last-episode-of-Glee culture of eating potato chips and never leaving the house. Many, many bands that I know are giving up touring all together. Why play a show in front of thirty people when you can release a video on YouTube, link it to iTunes, and have two hundred people download the song? But not Monotonix. Their recent show at 529 in Atlanta sold out in an instant: skinny hipsters packed Sonic Youth t-shirt to Sonic Youth t-shirt against each other, as Monotonix cut through them like a hot knife through cold butter.

Not Yet really showcases that live feel. While Where Were You When It Happened? had its cool moments, the weirdly Southern Fried vibe to it (probably due to its recording in New Orleans) took away from the face-against-the-wall-dirt-bag energy that Not Yet proudly brandishes. I can smell Israeli sweat in this album. And it smells pretty tasty.

So while I’m not expecting to get a phone call from the management of Monotonix soon begging me to open their next tour, I can at least run around in my underpants Risky Business-style, listening to this record, and pretending that I am there.

Not Yet will be released January 25th on Drag City. Above image courtesy of Drag City.

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By Gefiltepunker Emily Saex

Drop that Starbucks like its hot! And pick this up instead! ‘Livin’ on the Grind’, the new single by Describe comes out today. The Shemspeed reggae hip hop musical juggernaut has in a multi-faceted collaboration w/Rohan Marley (yes, son of Bob) brought us a song that is more than just a punny play on words. Brewed from a chance meeting on the street, there was an instant connection between Rohan and Describe. Before you could say orange-mocha-frappuccino, ‘Livin on the Grind’ was in the works. Inspiration from the legendary Bob (note the lyrical influence of Bob’s ‘One Cup of Coffee’), the eco and social justice missions (ie stopping use of harmful pesticides and promoting responsible farming practices) of Marley Coffee and da riddims of Describe all came together to make this jam. Get your click on!

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Check it out!

PunkTorah Radio: Reb Shlomo, Disney World, And Rabbinical School

Also, subscribe using iTunes here!

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Show Review: Hank and Cupcakes @ Drunken Unicorn, Atlanta (Nov. 19, 2010)

There’s something special about a deep bond between a man and a woman.* Whether it is through marriage (congrats to Patrick A. of Punk Torah and his new wife Anna!!) communal kinship or shared musical expression, two becoming one is a sacred experience. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of witnessing such a strong connection when Hank and Cupcakes took the stage at the Drunken Unicorn.

At first glance, Hank and Cupcakes resemble the White Stripes. They’re a minimalist, high energy pop duo. She’s behind the drum kit, he’s slapping strings… their relationship is not directly addressed. But that’s where the comparisons end.

When the set begins, you realize Cupcakes (AKA Sagit Shir) is leading this party. She’s the group’s vocalist while controlling the tempo with a strong bass drum foot and a steady snare. It’s odd to see someone play a drum kit while standing (she loses speed and precision) but I can’t envision any stool containing Cupcakes’ energy.

Hank (AKA Ariel Scherbacovsky) matches her vigorous performance in an almost hypnotic trance. He rarely talks (only to Cupcakes) and spends a large part of the set looking down and stomping on a wide array of peddles, switches and other bass effects. Their connection is tight if not visible.

Hank and Cupcakes were about halfway through their East Coast tour when they stopped through Atlanta and already have plans to repeat some stops on this tour next February. They have passion and are unique. They have played larger venues in other cities and should return to a bigger space next year.

I missed out on a chance to interview Hank and Cupcakes as they were stuck in Atlanta traffic. If you want to know more about Ariel and Sagit and their influences, check out Star Child’s interview from earlier this year.

* I’m not implicitly commenting about the specialness (or perceived lack thereof) for a same sex couple. Myself and AJMF are open minded and tolerant.

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THERE IS A GOD

DEAL WITH IT

While that movie never happened (because apparently Prince is insane), the story of Prince’s declaration of faith did make me think about how to talk about the Torah portion for Yom Kippur: the book of Jonah.

We all know that Jonah was the guy who got swallowed up by the whale, but there’s a little more to it than that.

The story starts with G-d telling Jonah that he has to go to the city of Nineveh because they are a sinful bunch and G-d is going to destroy their town. Jonah’s job is to let them all know about it.

Jonah’s not having any of that. So he runs off to the sea and that’s when the whole fish-swallowing-thing happens.

G-d spares Jonah who finally goes to Nineveh. He lets everyone know that some stuff is about to go down, and they all freak out and start repenting. G-d says, “OK, no worries, you’re spared.”

Jonah gets a little mad. G-d told him that he was going to get all Sodom and Gomorrah on everybody, but G-d didn’t. The conversation between Jonah and G-d goes something like this:

G-d: What’s up?

Jonah: Yeah. Noticed that Nineveh is still kinda OK. Looks like there hasn’t been any fire and brimstone stuff.

G-d: Nu?

Jonah: Don’t give me that Yiddish talk!  You lied to me.

G-d: And?

Jonah: And by the way, didn’t I say that you were a merciful G-d and would spare them and that there was no reason for me to leave town and go through all this mess?”

So Jonah sits under a tree and chills out. Then G-d sends a worm to destroy the tree. Jonah gets sad about this tree and G-d profoundly says…

G-d: Hey, this is just a tree and you’re crying like a little baby. But I just spared two hundred thousand people from dying and you act like it’s some kind of moral crime against YOU!

The end.

What does this have to do with Prince? Well…there is a G-d. Deal with it! Deal with the fact that sometimes, this G-d doesn’t make a lot of sense. Deal with the fact that sometimes in life, you’re gonna get swallowed up by the whale. That sometimes in life, you have to get off your couch and do something you’re not really that interested in doing. I’m not thrilled about going hungry for the entire day and hanging out in a synagogue…but you know what, if pleasing G-d is good enough for Prince, it’s good enough for me. Maybe then I’ll be able to be a Guitar Hero.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiWYT8oSAiE

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Three Minute Dance Party – The Soundtrack for a Most Excellent Bedroom Dance Party

Can!! Can – “God Lives in NYC”
Time to get your indie shake on kids, whether you’re at home and sliding around the foyer a la Footloose or at a hipster house party sippin’ on PBR and trying to get the party started. And no I didn’t just write this cuz Patrick Aleph is in the band. This song is good! You want this, you need this. Check it out for yourself and when your whole body starts spazzing uncontrollably, in an ever so hip fashion of course, you’ll thank me.

DJ OokRoo – “Manginot”
I came across this gem on the Shemspeed audio player and I kept coming back to it. This LA duo has created what Hadag Nachash, Kanye (a la College Dropout) and Calle 13′s female backing vocalist only WISH would be their song lovechild. This song makes me want to pop and lock right in the middle of Starbucks. Ain’t no shame in my game.

Electro Morocco – “Joe Pill”
Right from the first second of this song hips will begin swaying and shoulders will be shaking. hands will go up in the air and you can bet your damn Keffiyeh that they’ll be waving them like they just don’t care. This is street festival stylee beats right here, where even the most shy dancers will let loose.

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Songs About Jerusalem

Dan Bern – “Jerusalem”

I spent ten whole days in Jerusalem
Mmmm Jerusalem, sweet Jerusalem
And all I ate was olives
Nothing but olives
Mountains of olives
It was a good ten days I like olives I like you too.

And you WILL like this song.

Matisyahu – “Jerusalem”

Psalm 137 never sounded so good.

Various – Jerusalem of Gold (Yerushalayim shel Zahav)

This 1967 classic written by Naomi Shermer is…classic. So classic and amazing that everyone has tried their hand at covering this one. From Phish to Klaus Maine of Scorpions to Ofra Haza. Listen to them all and see which is your favorite version. Or even better yet, sing your own version!

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By Pamela Alexander

I was at the cafe rocking to the Sex Pistols when a friend came over to say hello. Bob is an evangelical Christian pastor who has never tried to debate the merits of our respective faiths, or tried to “win me to Jesus” (and thank G-d for small miracles!) His respect for our differences has allowed us to forge a friendship based on a mutual love for HaShem and a desire to follow His commandments. Baruch Hu.

When I told Bob I was listening to my favorite punk band, he roared with laughter. “Pamela! How can you listen to the Sex Pistols and be a religious Jew,” as if punk rock was anathema to faith. While he used different words, it echoed for me shades of “what makes a ‘good Jew,’ good?” I reminded Bob that I was not a fundamentalist, that my Judaism included teachings from the past and the present, and that as much as I challenge what Judaism has always been, I challenge with equal tenacity and enthusiasm what Judaism has become.

Well, that sounded intellectual enough. I can simultaneously delight in our oral tradition, without relegating myself to the 18th century. I can live in our post-modern world, recognizing the many things that must change without crashing head first into secularism. It’s a nice balance, right? I am always hearing about how we should strive for balance in all areas of our lives; it’s supposed to be a good thing. But, never mind the mental health experts. What does G-d desire of me? If my life is to bring about tikkun olam, is this the way I should go?

Can I be the Jew G-d wants me to be if I approach my faith, my Torah and Him, as if in Jewish deli, and is that what I’m doing?: picking and choosing what sounds good at the time, what is easy on my wallet, easy to eat in the car, and easy to digest? In other words, give me Orthodoxy as long as it’s always enjoyable, requires little sacrifice, is very convenient and will never give me heartburn?

When people of faith petition their institutions for change, whether it be Catholics who want Vatican approval for birth control, Presbyterians who challenge the ban on gay pastors (I cannot help but wonder what the members themselves think of the Presbyterian Church’s call for a world-wide boycott against everything Israel) and Jews who want Orthodox Rabbis to perform inter-marriage ceremonies, my gut reaction is always the same: you cannot ask a centuries-old religion to change its fundamental doctrine to suit your individual needs. But, what of Judaism?

I believe the Torah was inspired by G-d and while I believe that our Sages were also inspired through their deep prayer and study ~ and while their writings did become Jewish law, I have never viewed them as having the same voice as our prophets (even though the tale of the carob tree tells us that G-d responded that “the Torah is not in heaven!”) Maimonides was not Isaiah, Nachmanides was not Jeremiah, Akiva not Daniel. If this is indeed the case, why would we follow rabbinic law with the same fervor and commitment as we do biblical law?

What does this say of traditional Judaism, which is far more rabbinic in nature than it is biblical? And, what of today’s rabbis, perhaps even less “inspired” than our Sages (and I realize that this entire line of thinking is highly problematic). Currently, it is perhaps by five American Orthodox rabbis who issue poshkim, current Jewish law, that most of us will be most profoundly affected; that is, if we desire to follow halachah as set forth by them. Current poshkim address such as politically hot issues as assisted-suicide and stem cell research.

If I am going to pursue halachah, should I not first require myself to think, pray and make decisions on the relative importance I ascribe, for example, to biblical as opposed to rabbinic law, to the importance of tradition versus change? If I find that I do wish to balance what are ancient though not archaic laws, with current ideas, should I not first decide how I am to create that balance? To which view should I give deference?

As the Pistols go, their name is the most provocative thing about them. If I can share their lyrics with my parents without shame or embarrassment, it’s a pretty good sign that they are not a morally corrupting influence! The real issue is, if I had made a decision to become as observant as possible, and a poshka were issued prohibiting the listening to the Sex Pistols, would I throw out my records? Or, would I decide to follow my own heart, and my own beat, picking and choosing at the rock and roll delicatessen? Hmm.

Honestly? While part of me hopes I would pursue other types of music, I know that I would turn it up just as loud. Yeah, I’m sure I’d go kicking and screaming on this.

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“A lot can get done with a dance party. If you watch movies from the 80s, how did everyone save the community center? With a dance party!”

DJ Lil Ray is the bat mitzvah DJ you wish you’d had. She’s cool, young, and she knows what you want to hear…and plays it. Top 40 and obscure stuff that NME doesn’t even know about “weaving in and out”, according to Lil Ray, in ways that keep the party moving. “I like electro and hip hop and those things have been intertwined,” says Lil Ray, citing that “there’s no hip hop without Kraftwerk.” I highly doubt that there are serious bat mitzvah DJs that would throw down about German experimental music, and for that, DJ Lil Ray wins the award for coolest DJ ever.

Lil Ray had previously been in Atlanta, where she cut her teeth as a DJ with the Astoria group and a regular Saturday night spot at The Highland Inn Ballroom. But the move from Atlanta’s small party scene to the hub of culture had more to do with career than with art. With a masters degree in Social Work from Georgia State, Lil Ray planned on moving to New York to work in the non-profit sector. Turns out, no one needed her, even “for the lowest entry level job.”

So Lil Ray broke the mold and did something few creative people ever do: she “fell back” on her artistic ambitions. And now, after just a few months of living in NY, Lil Ray has positioned herself as an up-and-coming player in the local dance party scene.

This includes her incredible niche market: DJing bat mitzvahs. It doesn’t seem like a trendy DJ like Lil Ray would want to even go there, but for Lil Ray, DJing to twelve and thirteen year old girls is…well…a mitzvah in and of itself.

“It was a dream come true. I played Top 40 female vocal hits and they were screaming. They were the roudiest crowd I have DJ’d in a long time.”

DJ Lil Ray is proud of her bat mitzvah work. On her website, Lil Ray talks about growing up in “Ft. Lauderdale bat mitzvah scene” and told me that, through her DJing, she hopes that she has a “meaningful impact” or her teen audience, that they, too “can be a DJ or anything that they want to be.”

I asked Lil Ray what, if any, role being Jewish has in her work. Normally Jewish musicians have nothing to say about this, citing that music is universal and that tribalism is meaningless. Lil Ray shocked me with this answer:

“Growing up in an enclave, the value of joy…is always there and important to celebrate. So after all of these years of being an activist, landing on: being a good person…really goes a long away. Religion and culture can give a framework for being a good person.”

In a way, DJ Lil Ray fulfills two amazing spiritual values in Judaism. Through her work as an activist, she has shown an incredible commitment to tikkun olam (repairing the world). And through her hip shaking record spinning, Lil Ray is shaking the branches on the Tree of Life with the mitzvah of simcha, of bringing joy to others through her music.”

You can catch Lil Ray in action at Enid’s in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on Saturday, July 24 for Hot & Sticky, a totally free Hip Hop dance party.

What’s Lil’ Ray listening to? Check out her hot picks…

Aloe Blacc – I Need a Dollar (Pristine Blusters and DJ Mulher ‘Millionaire’ Remix)

Brazillian DJs get all Baltimore on an instant neo-soul classic.

Round Table Knights – Calypso

This song is magic because most people don’t know it but it gets them going anyway.

Get Em Mamis – Shake It All Night

I love sassy lady MCs spitting on throwback club tracks.  I not so secretly dream about doing a show with them.  If Kid Sister was there, I would probably plotz.

Sensato Ft. Black Point – Watagataputisberry

If you like jumping up and down and shouting and having fun, you like this song.

A-Trak – Trizzy Turnt Up

A-Trak, a fellow Jew, is a big inspiration.  His free Dirty South Dance mixtapes are genius.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di5coZUGg0Y

Kirtan is a part of bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion. It is done in call-and-response format, and is used to bring the chanter into and altered state of consciousness, “at once ecstatic, contemplative and — most of all — playfully improvised”. In kirtan, the goal is to chant to G-d and to develop an ecstatic state of awareness that brings insight and peace, so that we merge with the Beloved through devotion, hence the moniker “the yoga of devotion”. Borrowing certain ideas and instruments from Hindu tradition and basing them solidly in a Jewish framework, the Kirtan Rabbi, Rabbi Andrew Hahn, Ph.D. uses Hebrew texts as a basis with the lyrics “drawn from the Hebrew Bible and the siddur (the traditional Jewish prayerbook), as well as from the language of Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism)”. At first I was skeptical, but it works, and it works very well.

On the newest album, Achat Sha’alti (One Thing I Seek), Rabbi Hahn has delivered a very well produced album full of affecting chants. The call and response format works very well and allows the listener to connect with the rhythm of the music and the patterns of the chanting. I found myself chanting along in the car and while working, giving me a nice respite in the middle of the day. Using the chants drawn from the bible and the siddur brought a unique insight to them, and in some cases it was as if I had heard them for the first time. On the previous Kirtan Rabbi album, Live! the music and chanting was just as engaging, though not as fresh. The production values on Achat Sha’alti are a refreshing step forward. The lush instrumentals add to the atmospheric chanting from the melodious opening Kaddish to a trance Lecha Dodi medley. The droning harmonium makes an incredible background to the traditional niggunim used as melodies and inspiration for the different tracks. As a tool for personal worship or meditation, I can highly recommend this album, especially to those familiar with other kirtan artists like Krishna Das or Jai Uttal and who want to be able to use kirtan and the bhakti yoga system as a devotional tool in service to Hashem. Or if you just like cool music!

Achat Sha’alti (One Thing I Seek) and Kirtan Rabbi Live! are available at iTunes and on the Kirtan Rabbi website.

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Less talk, more rock. Watch this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYUkJ8CqSfU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1RcaOqcjwc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu-WR03hHJ0

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I met Russell Gottschalk at the Limmud Southeast Festival last year. One of the few indie dudes at the family fun fest, I was instantly impressed by his love of the Jewish people, his taste in music, and the fact that I had a wing-man to help me with the ladies that weekend.

Russell told me he wanted to start an Atlanta Jewish Music Festival and I was totally into it. I have been watching the progress of the festival (of which I have not been nearly involved as I wish I would have been) and was really excited that Russell wanted to talk with me about the festival. What I learned is that the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival is not just a music festival, it’s a mission.

“I think it’s important to celebrate Judaism culturally. I’ve worked for the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival for the past four years [and] unfortunately it hasn’t done the best job of engaging the younger demographic.”

It made me wonder: why hasn’t Atlanta had a Jewish music festival, when cities like Houston, which aren’t exactly Jewish hot spots, are having them? The answer to Russell is not about Jews, but about Southern history:

“The South has a history of delayed social change…it takes chutzpah (courage) to get something started. It’s difficult to start something new, particularly in the South [and] people are going to wonder what this is about.”

This education of the masses is something Russell is engaged in all the time, not just about the festival itself, but the idea of Jewish music all together.

“The biggest issue we’ve had is ‘what does a contemporary Jewish music festival look like’? It’s not what your accustomed to hearing. There are Jewish musicians who are creating music….. that people should know about.”

Russell and the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival have approached this question of “what is Jewish music” by taking a very open policy. “We define Jewish music as artistic expressions that come out of someone’s Jewish identity. [Your music is Jewish] if you’re artistic expression is an extension of your Jewish identity.”

Russell represents the cultural Jew…the Jew-ish person. And in that way, he also represents an entire generation of Jewish youth. “Our identities are very complex…other generations didn’t have that option. That Jewish piece of the pie has gotten a lot smaller. Our peers don’t need to promote [their jewishness].”

This makes the need for things like the Jewish music festival so important. “This is going to be a cool Jewish event and we don’t have enough cool Jewish events in our community. Our demographic … wants to have cool Jewish programming”.

The music festival is going to highlight some awesome artists including Moshav, Deleon, Girls In Trouble and Atlanta’s own Atlanta Afro Klezmer Orchestra. The Jewish south shall rise again, June 5th at the Apache Cafe.

www.atlantajewishmusicfestival.org

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“You should post this.”

A single line email with a YouTube link from our friend and PunkTorah contributor Heshy Friend (of the infamous FrumSatire.net) is not something you want to pass up.

The video is called “Get” and the band is The Groggers. A post-emo, indie-punk song about the orthodox community and divorce fills my screen and I’m experiencing a feeling that is part shock and hysterical laughter.

Doug Steiman, the front-man for The Groggers, granted me an interview where we talked about Green Day, frum politics, and one of my favorite subjects, women.

The Groggers was just an idea when Doug started writing. “I got into this mood where I was writing these funny Jewish punk songs…[and] the first song I recorded was Mitzvah Night.” The song about having sex on Shabbat became an “underground hit” which led to another song called “Get”, which became the video that has made a splash on the Jew-Tube, and put Doug in the position of needing to put together a real version of The Groggers.

Songs about sex and dating might seem like controversial topics for a self-proclaimed “orthodox band”, but Doug seems to like that. “We’re pushing the envelope with some of our songs…we stand behind what we say. We’re poking fun at our religion and our own vices [and] I hope that there’s something that people appreciate about our honesty.”

Doug is not a one-act-wonder. Although The Groggers is inspired by Doug’s early love of Green Day, Nirvana and Motion City Soundtrack, Doug has been in numerous bands, including a band he put together just to play a Battle of the Bands, which they ended up winning after only one practice.

Like Jewish pop-punk predecessors Yidcore, The Groggers use humor to convey their musical message. But unlike most gimmick acts, The Groggers are surprisingly “real”. “We’re getting slightly more political because we have opinions on Jewish happenings. It could be looked at as a gimmick, but that’s not our intention.” Doug went on to tell me that they aren’t wearing yarmulkes and tzitzit to “look” Jewish, but instead that “this is how we dress”.

In the non-Orthodox world, it would sound insane that a song about dating whoever you want would be in any way “political”. But for The Groggers, it is the reality of their life. Says Doug, “in many circles it’s not OK to meet someone on your own. I know people that are finding it really difficult to meet someone in that [shidduch] system, but won’t look in another direction.”

The Groggers are looking forward to producing their first album (set for release this August), dates on the Shemspeed Music Festival and G-d willing, booking a college tour. Check out The Groggers on Myspace: www.myspace.com/thegroggersband

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OK fine, I broke Shabbat to go see robots sing cover songs by Journey and Rick James. Got a problem with that?

For what it’s worth, I also davened (prayed) with the Atlanta Chevre Minyan, a pretty cool group of independent people doing a mixed Orthodox/Progressive service and one of the best oneg pot lucks I have ever seen.

At the Earl, I met up with my friend The Other Jeff Clark (also known as Jeff from Channel Zero, an Atlanta music scene icon). As I got out of my car, I remembered that I was still wearing my egalitarian kippah from the PunkTorah shop and thought, “mmmm, gee, better put on a hat instead.” So I threw on a hat over my yarmulke and ran in, just in time to catch the last few songs by The Falcon Lords, a band best described as superhero minimalist dance rock. Think Batman Forever chase scene music with the bravado of The Tick and a drum machine.

OK, on to Captured By Robots.

All I can say: coolest. thing. ever. And it helps that the singer Jay Vance (JBOT) is Jewish, and probably a genius.

The “group”, for lack of a better word, features one human (Jay), and a series of robots including DRMBOT 0110 (the drummer), GTRBOT666 (the guitar/bass player) and some stuffed apes that look like the demented cousins of the characters from Chuck-E-Cheese. Each robot actually plays an instrument, with Jay providing vocals and additional guitar.

What makes the show amazing is how Jay interacts with the robots, mostly DRMBOT and GTRBOT insulting him, the audience, and making sick, lewd jokes. I loved it. The on-stage conversations were seamless, and actually made you feel like these robots were alive (or maybe they were?)

Jay started off the set by asking if there were any Jews in the audience. Immediately my friend Jeff pulled my hat off, exposing my yarmulke. Jay got a kick out of it, and this “outing” gave me a chance, after the show, to talk to him.

I asked Jay about why, after thirteen years of Captured By Robots, he still does his act. “Because I believe in it,” he said, citing his work on a TV show featuring the band and the fact that he no longer needs a day job (Jay tours once a year with the group).

In 2005, Captured By Robots put out a CD based on the 1950′s film, “The Ten Commandments”. I asked Jay about it, and he said that the Exodus is the “greatest story ever told” (pun intended). He has been “watching the movie since [he] was a kid” and for him, “Heston is Moses.”

I asked Jay about his Jewish background and he replied, “I don’t go to seders or temple. When they [the Jews in my family] died, [my Judaism] was buried with them.” But for Jay, connecting his on-stage act with the Jewish people is about “heritage” and belonging to the culture. This included songs about the last plague of Egypt and a sex-romp about Nefretiri. I would make the argument that JBOT was a rabbi that night, not only connecting me with my Jewishness, but also creating an interfaith dialogue through metal-goes-dance-pop-rock. For a moment, we were a two person havurah (community).

Less talk, more rock. Check out Captured By Robots!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSZV1BAGUbQ

(image courtesy of Captured By Robots)

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By Patrick Aleph

I was thrilled when my friend Russell from the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival told me about an Israeli hip hop/reggae group he was helping called Axum (named after the Ethiopian city which folklore says holds the Ark of the Covenant).

The duo features two MCs, Tedros (of Ethiopian descent) and Judah, whose family is from Yemen. And their music is just as diverse. The dancehall goes techno filtered through a hip hop pop aesthetic is electric.

America has been good to Axum. A tour with Soulico (JDub Records), and a residency in Georgia sponsored by Emory University’s Hillel. Atlanta has given them the opportunity to collaborate with Slade da Monsta and Mr. Fish, hip hop artists Jarrod and Rusky, reggae/dub artists Dubconscious, and rockers Nick Edelstein and Darin Seldes. They’ve also spent several nights at the Apache Cafe, performing with Dubconscious and their local band, attending open mic nights and hanging out.

When I asked the group about their connection to Judaism and Israel, their reply was, “[We] live an Israeli experience, not a Jewish one in particular.  Like many Israeli’s…religion is not a point of emphasis. [The] main tie to Judaism is the language, not the content.”

What you will hear is the bigger message of Axum: a peaceful, “One World” view through the eyes of the global hip hop community. The power of music to unite people, all people, under one banner.

Axum did have an opportunity to jump into America’s Jewish space. Emory Hillel hosted the band at their Passover seder. Congregation Bet Haverim, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Decatur, Georgia, asked the duo to perform at a Shabbat service. The guys were uncomfortable as they approached the stage to perform a few sacred songs with CBH’s lay cantor and choir, but enjoyed seeing the “new forms of worship” that congregations like this have.

There’s no rest for Axum. The group performs the evening they land and have shows in the following weeks in Tel Aviv.  They are currently working on new material for their second album produced by the Soulico family.

Check out Axum at www.myspace.com/axumisrael

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This got me thinking about the story. How good of a story is it?

This question resonated in my mind more because of some reading I was doing lately, in a book called Ancient Near Eastern Thought and The Old Testament by John Walton. This book, which I recommend, strives to let people know what more than a century of intense archaeological investigation has uncovered about the cultures surrounding ancient Israel. It puts the Torah into context. Walton says, as many have before him, that the story of the tower of Bavel takes its central image from the Babylonian ziggurat.

In Genesis 11:1-9 a group of early humans settles in Shinar, probably Sumer, an area in southern Mesapotamia associated in the Torah with Babylon. The Mesapotamian building materials are foreign to Israelites, so the Torah describes them for us. The “city and tower” being built (see below), if true to history, would have been an urban area housing public buildings. In this case it was in effect a temple complex. These structures, which began being built at the end of the 4th milennium BCE, were still visible in Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. The tower in the story is almost certainly based on the ziggurat temple complexes of Sumer, which are frequently described in Mesapotamian literature as”with head touching heaven”, as in the Torah as quoted below.

The story in the Torah is as follows:

1 And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another: ‘Come, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 And they said: ‘Come, let us build us a city and a tower with its top in heaven and let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ 5 And YHWH came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men built. 6 And YHWH said: ‘Behold they are one people and they have one language and this is what they begin to do.  Now nothing will be withheld from them which they aim to do. 7 Come, let us go down and confound their language that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ 8 So YHWH scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off  building the city. 9 Therefore was the name of it called Bavel; because YHWH did there confound the language of all the earth; and from there did YHWH scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

This enigmatic story seems to warn human beings about the hubris of using technology to storm the heights of heaven and make themselves secure from any danger. Sound familiar? Far from being a story that should irk Bad Religion, a band which continuously snarls warnings about human arrogance and self-deception, I would think this story might make it on to their “acceptable biblical stories list”. I suspect that such a list does not exist. In any case I didn’t write this to explain Bad Religions drash on the story but to look at the story itself and its ancient context.

In the story YHWH confounds people’s languages and spreads them out over the world. The story then explains the existence of multiple languages: they are there to prevent the creation of a mega-mono-culture and the attendant human hubris and blindness. Uh-oh: God does not approve of globalisation.

The fact that the story appears based on ancient Israelite perceptions of Babylon is also interesting. Babylon was a sophisticated, expanding empire with technology beyond Israel’s. Israel, a society of farmers and shepherds, looked up at the urban megalopolis of Bavel and its temple-towers and saw nothing but a symbol of human arrogance and, it seems, a force that threatened to destroy smaller cultures and impose it’s own hegemony on everyone.

One interesting thing about this story, though, is that the Israelite perception of the nature of ziggurats- temples reaching upwards to heaven- is wrong. As Walton points out, ziggurats had a different nature and purpose. Humans did not use them, did not live in them or climb up them. Ziggurats existed as stairways upon which the gods descended to bring blessing to the earth, and to receive offerings. The ziggurats were not for the use of human beings, but for the use of gods!

We can thus see that the Israelite story is not an accurate depiction of Sumerian or Babylonian religion but rather takes up an image from the civilization of their neighbours and riffs on it to make a point- a point that is both a shot at perceived Babylonian arrogance and a broader theological and ethical statement. Anyone familiar with the sourcing of the story of Noah and the flood in older Akkadian and Mesapotamian stories knows that this is not a singular occurence in Israelite literature. It appears that the crafters of Israelite literature took up motifs from the literatures and civilisations of their neighbours and ran with them in a completely different direction. Completely different because the religious sensibilities of Israel were truly an anomaly in the ancient near east, as archaeology only proves more and more.

But wait- did I write “crafters” in the plural? Didn’t the Creator of the Universe write the Hebrew Bible? Well, let’s assume for a moment that She did. In that case we would have the interesting fact that God wrote a story about Bavel that was, in effect, a factually inaccurate satire of Sumerian civilisation which made compelling points about human culture and God’s vision of it.

Whether Moshe wrote that story down at Sinai or it was redacted centuries later from oral traditions and old scrolls, it is still possible to accept the Jewish claim of divine inspiration for the story of Bavel and the Torah as a whole. As the Christian theologian CS Lewis wrote in Reflections on The Psalms, just as God can take up humanity and make it serve divine ends, so can God gather up a literature (in this case the literature of Israel and the surrounding cultures upon which it was partially based) and make it serve divine ends. The Torah never once describes God working independent of nature: when the red sea is split God doesn’t simply push the waters back. Rather a wind separates the waters, and likewise blows them back. Perhaps we can understand God’s authorship of the Torah in a similar way. Nothing is here created ex nihilo.

To answer my own question: is the the tower of Bavel a good story? Yes, I think it’s a very good story. The technological explosion, and its accompanying arrogance, have not only allowed us to touch the heavens. We have also exterminated more than 50% of the cultures and languages of the world, an untold number of its animal species. We have pierced the atom and cell and are quick approaching the doleful day when “there is nothing they cannot do”.

I am reminded of a verse from the Daodejing, the ancient classic of Daoism by the Old Master, which describes the ideal civilisation (translation by Red Pine):

Imagine a small state with a small population

let there be labor-saving tools

that aren’t used

let people consider death

and not move far

let there be boats and carts

but no reason to ride them

let there be armor and weapons

but no reason to employ them

let people return to the use of knots

and be satisfied with their food

and please with their clothing

and content with their homes

and happy with their customs

let there be another state so near

people hear its dogs and chickens

and live out their lives

without making a visit.

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“HARMONY” Music Video
Pick up HARMONY (CD/iTunes)
Check out The CHANGE EP (CD/iTunes)

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What, no Jewish punk? No Heebie hip hop? Patrick, shul is the “establishment”!

Before you get your undies in a twist, let me tell you a little something about Congregation Bet Haverim: their rabbi is a gay body builder, and the lay cantor screams Earth Goddess when she wails on hand drums. At Friday night services, you’ll find yourself wedged between a black, lesbian college student and a retired hippie couple, craving the organic, locally sourced vegetarian oneg prepared by a Sephardic family while adopted Asian children run around at your feet dropping crumbs of challah on the floor.

Am I still a sell out? Didn’t think so.

Less talk, more rock. And the Threshing Floor rocks!

The album kicks off with “Dodi Li”. Lay cantor Gayanne Weiss has this kind, maternal voice that later booms to life as hand percussion and choral background dance together in harmony with melodic guitar and make your spirit shoot out of your chest. Moving on to ballads by Will Robertson (who also produced the album), world musical influences with Iraqi, Ugandan and Indian flair, Sephardic and Hasidic incantations and African American call-and-response, this album breathes new life into congregational music.

It doesn’t surprise me at all. Bet Haverim is Atlanta’s “misfit” Jewish community, a rag tag group of people united under the banner of diversity. It’s no wonder that “The Threshing Floor” is equal parts Civil Rights spiritual and Shabbat liturgy, features covers of Michael Stipe (REM) songs and folk music inspired midrashic interpretations of Lamentations. “Solu, Solu” could easily be an homage to the Benedictine monks, while “Ken Es Akeyo De La Meniana/Wayfaring Stranger” could be the missing next single by DeLeon. In the back of my mind I heard the voices of my friends say, “if I could hear this kind of music, I would come to services.”

The kicker for me is track five, a cover of Mosh Ben Ari’s “Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu”. The warm strings are like a parent soothing you to sleep while guitar picks up the tempo. Suddenly you’re hypnotized by the percussion creeping beneath the choir’s mantra and without warning, you’re a True Believer.

The Threshing Floor shows me our greatest strength as a people: our collaborative nature. Across genres, languages, cultures and styles, this album is a love poem, a psalm, to our higher power. I love it, and I think you’ll love it, too.
Visit www.congregationbethaverim.org to order the album. Available on iTunes soon.

*Since the Feds are cracking down on bloggers accepting gifts and the whole “ethics” thing, I should in full disclosure admit to being a member of this synagogue. But even if I weren’t, I’d still review this record because I love it.

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The video that started it all…

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