We said the twenty-seventh chapter of Tehillim from the
beginning of Elul and throughout most of the month of
Tishrei. Occasionally, a fitting melody can bring out the
true heart-and-soul pathos of the words and inspire them with
new meaning for us.
"Achas Shoalti" - Musical Chizuk for Am Yisroel Now, More
Than Ever
"In these troubled and tormented times, what powerful message
of chizuk for Am Yisroel could be more apt than the
timeless words of Tehillim and the Siddur?" asks Dovid Honig,
producer, arranger and composer of the just released new
album, "Achas Shoalti."
"Read over Kapitl 27," says Dovid Honig, musical
virtuoso and producer who lives in Mea Shearim -- and looks
it. "It sounds like news headlines screaming out current
events in Eretz Yisroel, with vicious enemies and camps
threatening us from all sides. But Dovid Hamelech calls out
confidently to Hashem, amid the bloodthirsty enemies
threatening to ambush him. He has no fear for he trusts in
Hashem. He has only one request: to get closer to Him, to
perceive His Divine Presence and live in His abode through
Torah and mitzvos, through holiness and purity. This
is a Jew's whole life -- to come close to Hashem and fulfill
His will."
*
From Meah Shearim to Melbourne and Back
"My grandparents were born here," says Dovid Honig. His
flowing payos, long black coat and Yerushalmi hat make
him hard to distinguish from the other chareidi residents --
until one hears his lilting Australian accent.
"Zeida Moshe and Bobbe Rikl Honig left Meah Shearim to far-
off Melbourne, Australia, in the famine years of the Turkish
era, almost a hundred years ago," he continues.
"My grandparents in Melbourne never stopped pining for the
unique atmosphere of Jerusalem," Honig recalls. "I grew up
always hearing from them about the spiritual treasures a Jew
could mine in the sacred city of Jerusalem. And every
Shabbos, the zemiros we all sang expressed that
yearning for the Old World."
When Honig moved to Eretz Yisroel, he resumed the family's
presence in the heart of Meah Shearim, about a century after
his grandparents had left the very same neighborhood.
Honig broadened and deepened his Torah knowledge at numerous
yeshivos, including the Lakewood Kollel of Melbourne and the
Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. In addition, he developed his
musical talent, gaining a high standard of professional
expertise in the field. He excelled in orchestration and
arranging -- the subtle art of combining the sounds and
qualities of the diverse instruments comprising an orchestra.
He himself plays piano and keyboard, guitar, bass, trumpet,
flute, trombone and violin, but when asked what his real
instrument is, he answers, "the orchestra." He also
specializes in high-tech musical production, and was awarded
the national prize as "Australian Music Arranger of the Year"
by the Australian government before he came to Eretz
Yisroel.
Honig's music comes proudly with the "hechsher" of
Harav Moshe Halberstam and Harav Binyomin Yehoshua Zilber for
his simultaneously released three new albums: "Achas Shoalti"
and "Oitzros Shabbos I and II." The last two are the
beginning of a series which preserves priceless musical
treasures of our Jewish heritage, rare, old zemiros
which might otherwise be lost to future generations. And his
popular new album, "Achas Shoalti", boasts Honig's exciting
original musical compositions with rich orchestration, sung
by the top singers in Eretz Yisroel.
"Oitzros Shabbos" is a sublime blend of ancient Jewish
melody, virtuoso musicianship, rich orchestration and state-
of-the-art production quality.
"There are old Yerushalmi Jews, some of them over a hundred
years old," says Honig, "who remember themselves as little
boys, hearing these wonderful niggunim at their own
grandfathers' table, or while peering over the tables of the
giants of chassidic Jewry at their Friday night tish.
These precious elderly Jews are only too delighted to
transmit these musical treasures so that they can be recorded
for posterity."
Volume II of the Oitzros Shabbos series includes marvelous,
little-known niggunim from the Modzitz, Karlin,
Slonim, Meilitz, Siaten and Nadvorna Chassidic traditions.
The third album in the series, Oitzros Shabbos III, is a
superbly orchestrated instrumental version of a selection of
the best niggunim from volumes I and II including
brass, woodwinds and full strings. Musical connoisseurs will
enjoy the soulful quality produced with this unusually rich
and full orchestral instrumentation. This series is available
on CD and cassette, in selected Jewish music stores around
Eretz Yisroel.
Something about the Singers, Something about the
Songs
Efraim Mendelson, a Kloizenberg Chossid who grew up in Boro
Park, explains that he sees his primary goal as a musician to
provide spiritual chizuk. "The first goal of every Jew
is to do the will of Ovinu Shebashomayim. Every Jew
contributes in the way most suitable for him and my way is
through the gift of song, which both helps people to be
b'simcha and at the same time, inspires them to do
tshuva. I personally have heard of stories of people
thus inspired."
Mendelson has a proud musical and spiritual family heritage.
His great-uncle was R' Abish Meir Bransdorfer, the personal
chazzon of the Divrei Chaim, who composed and sang
many of the popular famous Tsanser niggunim. His
grandfather, Binyomin Mendelson, was for eighty years a well
known chazzon who gave concerts with Yossele
Rosenblat. And his father, R' Shmuel Mendelson, was for many
years the gabbai of the late Kloizenberg Rebbe.
"My song, KeAyal Taarog, is the opening song of a
nightly program on Teshuva. One young man in Eilat,
completely secular, wearing a ponytail, worked throughout the
night in a supermarket, arranging the shelves to the tunes on
this station. He insists that he was inspired to do
tshuva through this particular song." Today, he no
longer has his ponytail and puts on tefillin every
day.
Another story Mendelson relates is about a former stewardess,
today a charedi young mother who lives in Bnei Brak.
Mendelson was returning home on a plane from New York about a
year ago when he noticed a chareidi- looking stewardess with
a sheitel. Surprised to see such a heimishe
stewardess, he asked her about this and was told that she had
actually been inspired to do tshuva by a song she had
heard, "KeAyal Taarog." What a surprise she had when
she discovered that she was talking to the actual singer of
that very song!
Another Mendelson song, "Al Tahster," which also takes
its lyrics from Tehillim, begging Hashem not to hide His
face, has touched the hearts of many listeners. "I was told
the amazing story by the nephew of a Chassidic lady who was
still childless after fourteen years of marriage. The nephew
was visiting when the tape recorder was playing this new
cassette. The woman was so overcome with emotion, so
powerfully moved by the music and the words, that she began
to sob uncontrollably. Everyone just had to leave the room.
Within that year, this lady gave birth to twins."
