¶ Hasidic Musician's Family Background and Journey
Welcome to . And here's Mody . And we're back in the studio . And here's Mody . Hi everybody , hope you're having . We're like in the height of holidays right now . This episode's airing in the height of your yontifs . That's like the motif of the holidays . Perry , I have no idea what I'm talking about , but we have a guest in the house today , mendy Torski .
Mendy Mendy , who we mentioned on the Ricky Rose episode , and he gave a shout out . He did not give a shout out , he contacted us and in the nicest , let me tell you how he contacted us . It's like thanks for the shout out . He said thanks for the shout out . Let me know what song you listen to so I can let the guys who helped produce it know .
Oh , that's so sweet . He's already understanding . So this how old are you ?
I'm 21 canine ahara .
He's 21 and already understands how important is your team . Am I right ?
yeah , listen , they're the ones that brought me to the place that I am so like . Appreciation is one of the most important things for me , always , always been .
Okay , so now I don't even know you . I don't know your story , I don't know where you're from , I just know I love your music and that's enough to get you on the podcast and so be voinsti . Where do you live ?
So I grew up in Brooklyn . Where I'm from the Hasidic community in Borough Park .
Borough Park Like any other Hasidic community . That's the Cholent . So that means you could be anything . You could be Satme , you could be .
In Hasidic anything ?
yes , Anything , but what kind of Hasidic are you ?
So I am Baba 45 . Like , my family is Baba 45 . You know the 45 and 48 . So my family is 45 . Periel has absolutely no idea what is happening right now . So basically there's a Hasidic , there's like , let's say , a Rebbe passes away and then this kid has to take over the Hasidic right .
So if he has two kids and both kids want to be Rebbe , then this kind of gets like a fight , because each of them opens up their own Besmadrish .
At their own .
What their own synagogue , their own , like Hasidus right .
This is my heaven guest . Thank God , you stayed for this . Leo knew he's not staying for this .
No , this is fun though .
You know , she knows , in the Hasidic world the Hasidim are by the city they came from In Europe . So you know , there's Lababash , there's Satmar , there's Karistir , karistir . I know and when the kids , when the , when the rabbi passes away , the kids take over and , if they have , I didn't know that , that the kids take over .
But what so there's , there are enough kids that usually one of them is going to want to be a rabbi so usually the rabbi says before he passes away I want this kid to be the rabbi .
Everyone has a different story every time it goes differently . But in this specific case the rabbi didn't have any sons , he only had daughters .
So he had some laws , by the way , brother . Okay , by the way same thing .
They should let a woman be the rabbi .
Same thing , same thing , by the Karesti Rebbe . He had three daughters and one of them , the oldest one , married , who then became the Karesti Rebbe and the grandmother . And the grandmother , the daughter , knew she had the power .
This is Dina's grandmother , this is Dina's grandmother , my friend Dina's grandmother , and people used to fly to see her and she was the Rebbitin and that's so . But anyway , so you are from , you're a Bab of Chosid , bab of .
Chosid 45 .
Bab of 45 . Wait wait .
So what's 45 ?
Why is it a number ? What happened was that , basically , the rabbi didn't have any sons , he only had son-in-laws , and he also had a brother which , for some reason , people said that the rabbi wasn't a rabbi for long enough to be called a rabbi . So that means that his brother should become a rabbi , because it means it's like his father just passed away .
You know what I mean he's like .
Next , to my okay .
So basically some people went with the brother and some people went with the son-in-law . So my family went with the son-in-law , so my family was a son-in-law , okay , and then basically what happened was a couple of years later they got into a fight about branding , like who can call themselves Bobbitt ? So they really there was . It was a serious fight .
They made it than Toyota . You know what it entitled is now the Jewish version of court of course basically , you come like the room , there's like three based in sitting based in based on you know , yeah .
Leo's gonna hate this when he has to translate this by Dean . Yeah , she knows , she's . She's she yet to explain , to feed it to her a different way ?
Okay , so go ahead . And so , basically , they got into a fight and then , for some reason , the other one , meaning the one from the brother , won . Now the one from the brother .
The brother took over the shul on 48th street in bar park the big one yeah , and then the son-in-law had to make a new synagogue because he didn't have a shul right , so he opened up one on 45 corner 15 . This is amazing . So that's why they called this one on 48 and this one 45 . That's what happened . Amazing , wow . It was a whole fight .
They had to put on 45 into the symbol of the of the hasidus right so it has a symbol yeah , they put in all of the papers and stuff . So they put like babav . It says babav and big and they put like in the crown and tiny they put in the crown .
It's like yeah that is amazing okay so then you grew there .
How many brothers and sisters you have oh , we're 11 siblings , okay , 11 siblings . And you , this voice , you have , this music you have . When did you discover it ?
so I I basically I always had a passion for music . I always loved to sing and play stuff . When I was young , like I always tried to play keyboard and stuff , like just to figure it out .
But when I was nine years old I started writing music , like actually writing new songs , and I started showing it to all of my friends and but in yiddish in yiddish always yiddish , but you shouldn't see my songs that I wrote then , like the yiddish was very like low quality . You know I was like rhyming words .
It's like you know , like meet , indeed , is like a simple rhyme right it's like okay , fine , you rhymed , you found the word that rhymes with another one , you made a line , but then you can find like deeper , and like more talented and more nicer lyrics to put in right of course so if you're just gonna put like a simple song , people are not gonna feel that
interested and that connected to listen to the song . But if you put nicer lyrics , it's like wow .
So yeah , you know and your father and mother . What your ? What do they do ?
so they're both accountants oh yeah nothing to do with music . But my great-grandfather did like write . You know the song Hashiach et hamecha .
Hashiach et hamecha . So , by the way , I use that tune for when my shul is Ashkenazi and we do Ashkenazi Kedusha , so I go , so I do that . It's great , great . He wrote that . That's an amazing .
And then Chabad picked it up . So you know my great-grandfather's like . You probably know him , dr Tversky . He wrote a bunch of books . Of course , of course my great-grandfather .
That was my next question . Like is this the family of Tversky ? Yeah , this is a huge . He was a huge rabbi and also singing . There was one rab that's his brother that's his brother , he's still alive .
The rapper from .
Milwaukee , that's right . Yeah , he has . Oh , if I should have pulled it up , he has one with this big orchestra . He sings with what's the name of that song ?
Cardavion . Maybe he has a bunch of songs , so many , so many but he's in my .
I have him as well so everyone was supportive when you were like I'm going to be a musician .
So not really that's kind of the thing .
So in the beginning .
You have to understand that in the Hasidic world there is a lot of stuff that we do different than other communities within the Jewish communities .
Oh , really , we know .
We're very extreme to a certain way , but the reason why we're extreme is because , like , let's say , we don't want people to get to this point , so we put the , the bar , the , the barricade .
We put it a little bit before , like , just they don't pass that point in order , they don't get close to that point at all that's a very interesting way to describe that .
I've never heard it oh it also could bite you in the tuchus , because once you break that point , then there's no , you can just go nuts .
Well , like God forbid , you should become a musician .
So that's the thing . A musician is not really a problem . Oh , okay , the thing is that musicians get exposed to social media and the other different platforms . I'm the oldest in my family . My father just all he wanted was for me to grow up in the box and to not know about social media and not know about all of those stuff outside .
So when my father first saw that I started making music , he got a little bit afraid . I didn't understand it at the time . At the time I was like I was embarrassed . I was like what ? My music is not good enough . But then later on I got older and I understood it . It's just he was really afraid .
For me he was like man , you're going to become a musician , you're going to go out there , open up a social media account . Who knows what you're going to get exposed to on social media . And I was a young kid , I was nine years old .
I wouldn't let my nine-year-old Of course not Even a non-religious you don't leave a nine-year-old on social media is how I got to you . I don't know what . I was on Spotify , I was listening to some singer and I hit the radio of that singer and your voice came on . Oh my God . And I will tell you . I stopped and go . What is this ? What is this ?
And your voice is great , the music is great , the tone is great . It's like another level of Now is there a world , there's a new world now of this music . It's hard to explain to you . So there was Shlomo Kalbach , melech HaMelech , the King of Kings , who brought life into Jewish music .
And then from him came amazing singers , ari Klein , who I always keep mentioning also . Did you ever hear of Ari Klein before your time ? But uh , he was a . He also a chusid , but a chazen , but also did pop music-y , a type of of of of of Karl Bach .
And then you have big kings , mordechai , ben David and Avon Fried , which were all lyrics within the Bible , and Talmud and Tehillim , the Psalms , and they take little , little paragraphs or a little , a few words from some piece of Torah and they would make a song of it and it's like unbelievable stuff .
And they'd add a little Yiddish to it and it would be Hebrew . And then all of a sudden I hit him , I hit Mendytorsky , and I'm like , wait , what it's in Yiddish and it's an adorable Yiddish . It's an adorable , easy-to-understand Yiddish .
And it's Yenglish Yiddish , where they mix it in and the music is amazing and it's a beat and if you take the words out you would think it's just a regular vibey Like . If you would put chill pool music , you'd get that . But this is obviously in Yiddish . And so what's your inspiration for songwriting ?
so , honestly , I remember the first time I wrote a song what was your first song ? So my first song that I wrote yeah I've never released and I never will release okay like I . Basically , I remember I listened to a song by there's a different jewish singer . His name is mati elowitz . He also does like yiddish gram and you know who he is .
I know exactly who he is so mati writes songs , and if the song is like a harziger song , yeah you're , you are gonna cry cry that's it right , you're gonna cry and if the song ? is like a happy song . You're about to start dancing . It's like he is . He is so good . He brings out emotion in the songs to another level you understand .
This is what I'm on the treadmill with it's insane just so you understand , just so we have a context for why I'm getting this music in my ear . So I know exactly who he is and he's unbelievable , um so okay , so what ?
so basically I listened to his . He had released an album when I was nine years old . He released an album called uh . I think it was his first album okay , and I listened to the whole entire album . There's one track on the album that he talks about Basically
¶ Exploring Hasidic Music and Inspiration
. He goes through all of the issues problems and hard times .
that I said Sarot because I wanted to no Zivai , zivai , zivai .
I can do Hebrew .
Okay , okay so basically he went through everything . He went through the Spanish Inquisition , second World War and everything that happened to Jews and it was such a heartache song . It got everyone crying right and I decided like I found a couple of things about like the jewish history that he didn't mention in the song .
I decided what if there was like a part two to the song ? so basically I first I took his tune and I wrote like total different lyrics on it . Now , of course , the lyrics aren't like .
I would be embarrassed like if I wrote lyrics like that today , but it was my first song , so I just wrote it and I sat down with a pen and paper and I wrote it down and I was like , wow , it sounds so nice and everything . I sang it to my . You know I was like learning with somebody chavrisa , yeah so I was like learning with somebody .
He's learning torah with the person .
In yeshiva he learned torah with yes , your partner kind of yeah so I was like learning with him and I showed it to him and he was like , oh my god , mindy , you know that I play keyboard . You should come to my house and we'll do like we'll jam together . Wow , I was like , yes , sure , let's do it .
I went to his house , we connected this mic into the back of the Yama and I like sang into the mic and we did a recording and I remember he gave it to me . I had it on my , on my sense a clip , and I listened to it over and over and over again .
I was like so excited wow , and that was your first song .
Yeah , okay , but your first song that became a hit is probably good morgan so martin is the first one that blew up fully mainstream yeah I have a few that went like viral before okay a song about loneliness that went viral , like also a hard to get a song which one is that ?
uh , manvelt , don't leave me alone , right ? Manvelt , manvelt , don't Leave Me Alone , right ?
Yeah , la M'ich Nesht Alai .
La M'ich Nesht Alai , la M'ich Nesht Alai .
It's such a great song La M'ich Nesht Alai . Yeah , it's nice yeah .
A very , very nice song and with these inspiration , it's hard to say 21 years old . I mean , what's inspiring you Like you haven't ?
had crazy . Yeah , what do you listen to ? Like now you're out in the world , right , Like you've left , don't assume . Well , I mean he's here .
He's here , but he's here speaking to the number one Jewish comedian . It's not like he's out in I don't know what's .
Speaking to some Russian comedian .
God forbid a Russian comedian .
No , he's in an environment that's conducive to his community . But where are you getting ? What do you listen to ? That's not Jewish .
So , first of all , israeli music , which is Jewish but it's not Hasidic . So that's okay , I mean . So the thing is that Jews are not supposed to listen to . The reason why we don't listen to Goyish music is because of not because of the music . It's because of the stuff that they say in the song .
So it's not that we don't listen to Goyish music , it's more like that people don't want to introduce their children to Goethe's music because they don't want their children to learn everything that they're talking about in the songs .
You know there's people that are making normal songs , but there's also a bunch of rappers that are talking stuff that we don't want our kids to listen to . So that's the whole . I think . In my opinion , that's the reason why we shouldn't listen to Goethe's music .
So I personally I have a lot of artists that jewish community . I listen to benson boone . I try not to listen to like ladies singing because of like the kolisha , yeah and everything you're not supposed to listen to women singing ?
because it's it , it's an erotic , it's an erotic type of a thing it's . It's . Don't just let it go , let it go . Let it go . I can explain it . Go ahead why ? Let me ask the question .
Okay , why is a woman erotic singing but a man is not erotic singing ?
So I actually had the same exact question and I just asked it from somebody . This Shabbos . I was by an event and it was like a lady singing whatever and they made like only the ladies could go in and I was like thinking it was like somebody I know and I really wanted her to hear us singing . So I was like can you guys let me in ? They're like no .
I was like you know what . Let me ask you a question why is it that we can't listen to women singing , but women could listen to men singing ? So the answer I got I mean it's pretty . I don't know if it's a fact or not . You guys can fight over it .
He said that the attraction that women , that men , get from women , is on the looks like it's almost 100 out of the looks and the attraction that women get from men is not so much on the looks but it's also personality .
It's also a lot of different stuff so why can't you listen to a woman ?
if you can't , I mean , if I'm gonna follow this train of logic , fine , let's , that's so I guess listening to women is kind of like oh , let me see this woman , or let me fine what's that's . So I guess listening to women is kind of la , let me see this woman , or let me see you , I what's her ?
name . Let me go check it up and then whatever I mean , you know you should go to deep into this , but okay , but why are we there ?
we were talking about it because of listening to gosh music into a I . I think you as a musician can listen to Goyish music just to hear inspiration of different harmonies , motifs , not so much the words , but like the way they present it and the performance , the performance of it .
I agree , it's a lot to learn from the Goyish music world . A lot to learn .
And from the women , and from lot of learn . And from the women , and from the women and from the women also yeah , and you what you ?
You have a crew that helps you produce these songs and the videos are great . I appreciate it . The videos are great and you're easy to look at and it's .
You know , usually these guys are like , not that I mind , I love they're in full Hasidic cigar and they all have that talus that goes over their heads and they're singing and the music is great , but just like okay , but all of a sudden you have a young guy singing with other young guys behind him and he's proud , he's pious and some of the videos you have
a coat on . So your manager's walking in , so we're not going to futz around with this . Come on in the manager . We were talking about how important it is to have his staff and give a shakayach to all . You . Give him the guitar . Thank you so much , and so , okay , wait , hulk , nothing matters , there's a guitar in the house . Now , now , this is .
There's a guitar in the house .
Imagine the guitar is like a camera . You know , it's just another camera . It's just another camera .
Okay , imagine the guitars like a camera .
You know it's just another camera , okay , so this first song that I'm gonna request is obviously good Morgan , and tell her a little bit about the song so get Morgan was but either either although first of all you gotta understand , get Morgan is not my typical song , like I have never released any song that's even similar to get modern , just because get Martin is
a very I would call a Jewish kind of mainstream . Because it's it's easy words , it goes over and over the same words . So nice , it's mainstream . You know , everybody could listen to it .
It's a good song , it's such an important thing that what's amazing about Jewish music is we repeat over and over so you can learn it so quickly by goyim , but those christmas songs have so many words in it . Yeah , therefore , you wouldn't go .
I didn't know , you didn't go , when the jewish is just like and we're done like that , and then we also have Non-mainstream songs . Yeah , you know , but Good Morning is so Ziz . Okay , here's Good Morning Is basically what it means .
So the point of the song Is basically the first chorus Is basically I'm like saying Every scenario and it's opposite . So it's basically you woke up in the morning , good morning . You woke up late , it'll be better tomorrow . You're drinking your coffee , so good morning . But if you don't got coffee , it'll be better tomorrow .
And like I'm going through everything , one of the points is , like you know , in like an Israel , you have to warm up the shower half an hour before going out , you know you have like five out of six days a week that you don't have hot water over there . So it's like I made like this thing like if you have a hot shower , good morning .
If you don't got hot water , it'll be better tomorrow so you're gonna say I'm on the treadmill listening to this . I'm like who is this kid ? I'm dying from this song . It's the best song I've ever heard . I go what is this he's like ? Got all this in there . It's such a go ahead . Hit us with this , thank you .
¶ Hasidic Musician's Journey and Music
Agit margen , margen , margen margen , jiden , jiden , lamer zan , zufrieden Bist aufgestanen in de frie . Agit margen margen , in oib bist aufgestanen spät Gait san besser , margen , a aise kave chul of tri . Agit margen margen In oib . Kan melich nishme zey A hot coffee , cool on three . Tomorrow will be better tomorrow In the morning . No milk , no milk anymore .
Tomorrow will be better tomorrow . The pie is crumbled . Tomorrow will be better tomorrow In the morning . A plant doesn't grow . Tomorrow will be better tomorrow . A hot shower started . Tomorrow is coming In the cold water , fresh . It's getting better . Tomorrow is coming the shepherd's brother . It's getting better . Tomorrow is coming . It's getting better .
Tomorrow is coming In the old house . The old house , the best morning is forgotten , amazing , thank you .
If you're pasting , if you're pasting the right way . If your paints aren't coming out , don't worry about tomorrow .
I have it like most of the days of the week . I used to like make it nice every day no , but you still have paint . You still have worry about tomorrow . I have it like most of the days of the week . I used to like make it nice every day no , but you still have . You still have pace . I still have it .
But when I try to make it like in the front , like that , it's so hard it's really hard , oh no when I do my character as a chusel , I just have the what's it called , just going down straight , straight down straight .
I'm not going to try and forgot they're supposed to be . Let's have the conversation .
Really .
Yeah .
Yeah .
Are they supposed to be like curled ?
No , no . So what they're supposed to be is just a spot on the head that's longer than all of the other hair on the head .
Okay , and why ?
The reason why is because , like back in two , three hundred years ago , the priests used to do like their haircut used to be they used to keep the hair on their head , they just used to have like one line around . So , like in the Torah it says it means basically don't go around , okay .
So , basically , what it means is that you have to keep those two spots on your head , okay , in order to not look like the priest or something like that .
It's probably like Also , you can't mar the three corners of the face .
That's with the beard .
That's not cutting the beard Also in the Okay Okay .
So it's just supposed to be like to signify that you're Jewish , yeah .
Okay , so every Jew , like no matter what is supposed to like officially have over here , here that's either longer than all the hair on the head or at least , like I think it's bigger than a one and a half or a two or a one , whatever .
there's like a bunch of so how come some are like super like crazy long .
So this is tradition , so , like the Hasidic people have the tradition to grow it out all the way and everybody has different .
Like you'll go on Bar Park , you'll walk on the street have straight hair going down . You see ones that have it more like this . What other song we have , a song you just released yeah yeah like that one that's so good . Wait , wait , talk about it for us talk about it and over End of our . End of our . End of our , yes , end of our .
Basically , the song is called Ein Dover Weimait and actually what happened with that song ? It's an interesting story . I released it together with Avramosh . You saw the other guy on the track .
I saw the other guy on the poster , yeah .
So basically what happened was that I came to the studio just one random day to record lyrics for like a different song and I'm like coming in and I hear this guy like singing and over to my mind and over to my mind and I was like that sounds so catchy , so good .
So I just walk into the studio . He was finishing off a session and I'm like man , the song sounds so good , can I hear it ? So he turns it off for me . He had like a song , but it wasn't a full song , it was like a beginning and a middle and I was like hold on , like the song needs another part . So he was like you want to come on ?
I was like okay , so I just sat down and like I wrote lyrics on the spot . I just went to the mic and I sang it in and literally , literally the way that I sang it in it is on the track till today and it's like I was like whoa , like I didn't even know that I can do this . You know what ? What I mean ? Like it really sounded good .
Yeah , so tell her what the song is .
So the song is basically about there's nothing standing in the way of your will .
If you have a will , you'll get there .
Oh , that's great .
I love that there's nothing between you and what you can accomplish , and whatever your desire , your intention is , there's nothing standing there .
You ready ? Yeah , yeah , Ein Dovar oimait ein Dovar oimait .
Ein Dovar oimait oimait befnai hurutsoin . Ein Dovar oimait . Ein Dovar oimait . Ein Dovar oimait oimait befnai hurutsoin .
Willst du saastet , willst du saastet , willst du saastet , willst du saastet , willst du saastet , willst du saastet will . One day I will be a woman . One day I will be a woman , a woman with a red hair . You want it , you hate it , you know it . The lamp is red , it makes it green . Dad , mom , daughters , only the will is enough and they come to you .
Oh , you hold on to it . You hate the cool In the head , a picture , a child , aness , and I have a picture of you , a picture of you as a mule . Those who can't say that can feel it . They think of you as a noble mule , but they want to know that they are right , that they write a resume , not to talk , not to fight .
They become stronger while you shine , that they only believe in you and only want to be like that . Okay , and it goes again . Amazing , amazing , amazing . I'm the one who won't mind .
Who won't mind if my heart hurts . Amazing , amazing , amazing , wait , wait . I'm not , so Hold on . I'm trying to get to the rest of my songs . I always forget .
While you're doing that . That was amazing . So now you're like out in the world . Has there been like anything that's been like really shocking , or do you feel like it's like kind of like a smooth transition ?
so , honestly , I I had a stage like in between , meaning like right afterwards , like when I , when I kind of , let's say , left the box of the system , you know like being a close-minded and everything but you didn't leave you still . You live with your family still .
So , yeah , so today I am living with my family and I'm back and I'm doing only jewish music and stuff , but back in the day , okay back in the day back in the day , I mean years old .
Back in the day when I was 16 . When we came from america the the back in the day , he's 23 years old .
21 but it does , you're right , it does like it doesn't make sense .
No , no , but listen everything . For a 21 year old , three weeks seemed to me like four years . Yeah , yeah , go ahead . So back in the day four or five years ago
¶ Hasidic Musician's Musical Journey and Inspiration
.
Back in the day , so four or five years ago I got kicked out of like a couple of yeshivas in a row , and then afterwards I was like in the last yeshiva which , by the way most people at one point do yeah , it's like , it's not like it's not this .
It's not like the end of the world . I was also . They asked me to this is enough , you can go to public school , it's okay . They were all yeah . So it's not like the kicked out of yeshiva okay .
Okay . So it's not that big of a deal . But if you get like kicked out of a bunch of yeshivas in a row and again and again and again and again , then it comes to a certain point . And also the yeshiva they tell you that you're in yeshiva for God .
Like , you're not in yeshiva to mature or to learn or for your own growth , you're in yeshiva because of God . So it's very hard to work for somebody else the whole entire day . Being a yeshiva for God is very hard versus being a yeshiva .
If they would have told me in the beginning , man , you're going to be in yeshiva and you're going to learn and you're going to be a Talmud Chocham one day , then maybe I would have like behaved and I would have stayed , because I would have felt like I'm doing it for myself .
But if they're lying to me and they're telling me , man , you're doing yeshiva for this and for , I didn't feel comfortable . So it came to a certain point that I was like , okay , I'm fed up and that's it . I'm not going to try to go into another yeshiva , I'm out , good for you yeah , and then I stayed .
I was on the street and then at that point I had so much hate on me so I was like trying to do everything the opposite of the jewish coming . So at that point I was like this I released like a , a couple of songs that some of them I removed from youtube later . Whatever it was like just I was trying to be like a journey .
What's the name ?
journey .
Yeah , it's part of the journey , that's the part of the journey , and then later on , I just matured he matured and he and he said this this being jewish is amazing , and there's amazing lessons in being jewish , and I'm speaking for you you speak better than me . And you said let's hit , let's hit it nicely . And he wrote these amazing songs .
And what's your favorite ? Yontif Neginer song from Rosh Hashanah .
Rosh Hashanah , yom Kippur , whatever you know this one Toh bo boi v'yohim ar kalaše , nesho mu v'yapo , nesho mu , nesho mu v'yapo . Want to do the second chorus ? Of course no . No , yasen eloika , eloika ha'yisrua , of course no . Wow , great piece .
It's a song by who wrote that . I don't even know . Is that Karloff ? Possibly but I think it's like even older . The holiday prayers have a nusach . There's a proper way to . But then there's songs , that the songs that came in , that we put the words into them and it's amazing . What do you mean ?
What do you mean ?
What do I mean ? All ?
kinds of tunes . There's a lot of tunes that they used to sing back in the day , and then we took it and we put it on the davening Like , let's say , songs .
So I was . That's an actual motif of the song , but then you can put it into a song and it just brings it alive , and it brings the synagogue alive and people are singing along and it's an amazing , amazing , amazing film .
It's a good vibe . It's a really good vibe . I love Rosh Hashanah . It's like my favorite yontif to be in a show .
It's my favorite yontif .
You know that sound like before , the Hamelech is like Ah . Ah Ah , ah . Ah , it's like ah , I can literally faint just from listening to that . So good .
I can literally faint just from listening to that so good , it's so good .
That's your favorite holiday . I mean it's ?
not my favorite holiday , but it's my favorite holiday to be in synagogue like to listen to the davening . That's interesting . Favorite holiday is .
Purim , of course .
Of course .
No , but for davening , for singing , it's the high holidays . It's like here we do the whole year , we do to the similar motifs , these minors and majors that we sing in , and then we go into this brand new , like out of nowhere , a whole new other soundtrack that we go into for just two days . Unbelievable , unbelievable , it's unbelievable , it's unbelievable .
What other songs .
It's unbelievable how much you know about this . This is almost my . I know it's like what other songs are over it's unbelievable how much you know about this .
This is almost my . It's all I talk about . I know it's like your favorite thing .
This is the only reason we do this podcast . We've done like 150 episodes . It's just so that we can have a few episodes that Modi gets to listen to Yiddish music .
I put Bernie Roganitsky on . He's like the guy who's like the go-to . Now info for cantorial singing In the Jewish world ?
What In the Jewish world ?
In the Jewish world . Yeah , I've been Americanizing it and I'm just sitting here talking about all the Chazanim I love . Do you listen to Chazanish music ?
A little bit . There's like maybe three Chazanis songs that I know which one .
Raza de Shabbos . I love the Wow , the scales on that . It's insane .
By the way , I take that I put it everywhere , I put it everywhere , I put it everywhere . It's so nice when I do Put that in there too . It's very , very . That's a very . That's okay . What other Chazanisha songs do you like ?
I'm thinking like there's the only Chazanisha songs that I like are like the old ones . Oh , you know that other one , shulam , did it on his album . You know , shulam .
Lover ? Yes , of course .
So he has like the song it's basically , I don't remember the beginning , but it's like In the beginning it's like it's like you can hear the baskal singing .
In the actual song . You know what I mean yes , yes , yes , yes , yes .
And the third one . The third one , I'm trying to remember you don't have to If you sound .
Cantorial singing Is a different type of Different kind of music . If you ever get a chance listen to an opera . Yeah , it's basically . These pieces were written almost like operas , right , you know ? And it's a story they're telling . It's so amazing , it's so , so amazing .
¶ Songwriting and Musical Inspiration
All right , another one of your songs that you're like beyond proud of you want to hear .
Yeah , of course it's the one that you sang before , but like I need her to hear the second chorus , she might go and sing give her .
Give her a little explanation what's happening , all right so this is one of the songs that I wrote , like actually in that first uh time , like right when I was trying to go like the opposite of everybody and I one of the songs that I released , by the way , it's not this one , I'm just saying like one of the songs that I released , I spoke about like
judging other people and like I , literally , I I like addressed all of the problems or issues we have in the community , like , literally , I was going through one by one . I was trying to like tell everybody this is what you're doing , do the opposite .
I was like so one of the songs that I did , which is this one , is basically a song about loneliness and I'm basically all I'm doing is basically explaining the value of having another person with you in your life .
So the first half of the song , I'm basically putting it in scenario and I'm like I'm saying like imagine it's a winter night and there's like snow falling and you're walking just by yourself and you have nobody next to you , and I and you're walking just by yourself and you have nobody next to you , and I'm basically explaining how sad the person is and why
he's sad . And then the second half of the song . It's basically talking like appealing to the people and saying , hey , you see your friend seeing sitting over there by himself . Do me a favor and go talk to him , like you know he might need it , okay . So it's like it starts off with like a winter night , whatever . I'm basically putting the situation .
And then afterwards it's the second chorus where the guy's basically crying and he's saying like my life feels so quiet and everything . So that part the tune that I wrote for that part is one of the only tunes that I wrote that . I listened to it afterwards and I'm like how did I write a tune like that ?
it's like you didn't abish to gave it to you , I know , but it's like it's it's mad . I gave that to you any joke I have that's worth . Anything is from God and Leo gives a punchline .
I thought it was Leo .
Leo pops a punchline in there too . Leo gives you the joke it's an Ebor .
It's an Ebor it's an Ebor , it means like it goes through .
There was an opening in your neshama and God put this oh , there you go .
A message go a message like a basket a little exactly fell down . Yeah , yeah , yeah . So this is how it goes .
I'm going to start with the second chorus . It's basically like okay , my life , my life feels , my life , my life feels I play out . I feel like someone who can touch me . I'm exposed to everything , my own world , my own language . It's not interesting for me . Me , in the sun , In the same place , you stand there looking , you know the thing .
I see you looking . I pray . Come talk to me , Don't leave me alone . Don't leave me alone .
So the song officially goes much higher it's Bob Dylan-y , it's beautiful .
It's Bob Dylan-y . It's beautiful .
It's totally Bob Dylan-y . Do you know who Bob Dylan is ? Oh my God , no , I know , I know , I know . No , no , no , no , no , I know , I know .
You're in charge .
He has to listen to Bob .
Dylan .
Who is that ?
He's like one of the most famous Jewish . Bob Zimmerman was his real name Robert Zimmerman . He's still alive . He's probably in his 80s now One of the most famous .
When did you ever meet such a pure soul ? It's amazing , but no , no , it's a crime against your gift and talent that somebody is not giving you bob dylan .
Bob dylan , you're . You're writing that down you're writing that down .
It's the best . It's the best he's like the most famous musician on the planet really have you know , I'm telling you we recently we we got a house for the weekend house up in connecticut and out of my parents house I took this old stereo , this he doesn't know what a stereo is the thing is
¶ Crafting a Unique Brand in Music
momish . Four years ago the big DVD like CD the big DVD , the vinyl and all this old music that we had from like I don't know , when we used to collect the albums and sit there on the floor and listen to it . You couldn't walk around with it yeah , yeah and this music you have to hear All Jewish .
It's all like Jewish music that he had .
So then , yeah , it's all back in there .
Why does ?
nobody know about it . There's this unbelievable music that you have to listen to , and also non-Jewish music . You have to listen to singers that really moved people , even though they're not Jewish . You can take from them you can not steal from them , but like inspiration from them Inspiration , true .
So I don't know if you've seen , but I did like started like about a year and a half ago . I started like doing Yiddish covers on English songs , on like non-Jewish songs . I think I did see that I did like a bunch of them , a bunch of them , and I still have like a bunch of them backed up . I just got to film videos for everyone .
That's fun . That sounds really fun . It is . They're doing Gaga songs , but with Yiddish words .
Gaga songs . I usually do you know that song , please , so I did that . On Moshiach Wow , it actually blew up on Instagram . We got like 200 .
Do you want to hit a few chords of that ?
That's great .
Yeah , yeah , yeah it's very good , I heard it , let's see .
Please stay .
Okay , so we got it .
Please , please , hey , ich sog dir , ich darf jetzt dan hilf Shit Schon De helft erfind . Ganz klar , je zroh Shit , hold on , I already know it . Yeah , wow , it's basically like whatever .
He does that .
yeah , I don't remember it by heart , heart . But I did like a bunch of different songs . You know the song I can buy myself flowers . Yes , I did that one too . Whatever , I did a bunch of them what about old old school Yiddish songs ?
my Yiddish mama .
I love those songs , yeah , like they're in my playlist , yeah , but I feel like it's kind of like it's clashing with my brand when I sing those songs , because you can make your brand , you can make it your brand , my brand is talking yiddish from today . You don't speak yiddish , so you wouldn't understand . Like really get the concept .
He probably try me , it's no people who say that yiddish is a dying language , or are the dumbest people that there is ?
not only Yiddish is all- .
Yiddish not only that it's not your grandmother's Yiddish . It's Yiddish that's been like Americanized kind of a little bit , so it's so good yeah .
It's so good . Wait , what is the Yiddish of today ?
Instead of bring me , bring mich , bring mich des . Bring mich it became wasser .
It's like Water , water is Wasser .
Look , I got it .
Let's say , in Germany they would have said that means can you bring me a cup of water ? But today they would say Because cup , which is a word like in English , but it became a part of the language .
Can you call me ?
It's so great , I just want both of you to know that when I walked into the studio half an hour early with leo to make sure that everything was set up , I looked around and took everything off the shelves and said that this is very unga patch oh see there you go , don't tell me but almost next time wait what is it ?
it's wrong oh , ungepatched means like like . When you slap Like somebody , you're like Patsch .
It's like a patsch , but isn't like a bunch of like Hazerei , oh again .
Oizgepatscht . Oizgepatscht Is also means , like Someone's dressed Overdone .
Yeah , that's oizgepatscht . Or you could say Somebody is cepatscht , that that guy is like .
Messed up A , a mess , though . A mess Like he's been through it . He hit every branch on the way down .
Basically , it's a patch . Yeah , boom boom , boom , boom boom . That is one of the funniest words .
Best words , all the words are great . Everything is Yiddish-y , it's so amazing and it's great , and so your brand . Now we're discussing your brand . How are we on time ?
we're good , we have , uh , I would say , about 10 more minutes um uh okay so your brand now .
So what is this brand ?
so my brand . So in the beginning of my music I didn't really have a brand , I was just going with the flow . But then I started working with uh nachman , right over there .
Hi His manager's here , and we began the episode by me giving him a shkoyach to the fact that he thanks the people that work with him . When he gave the shout-out , he said I got to let the people know that you love their music , and so he gave you the shout-out . But okay , so the brand now .
So he came to me at a certain point and he was like what are you trying to do ? Like I knew that he worked with somebody else , that I know he works with a couple of different artists also . So I was like he met me in the studio , we were just like sitting , and he's like what do you do ? Why are you doing it ? And I was singing in Yiddish .
No , he does not understand Yiddish .
He's like you , Like he no he doesn't know what I'm seeing like about no what's your background quickly he recognized talent of course , this is yeah , no , okay , so , okay . So the brand ? So I'm guessing , that that's what happened .
I guess he heard one of the songs and he was like inspired and he told me okay , listen .
So it started off with one song and we released the first song and then we started working together and then , at a certain point , I was doing work but I wasn't being consistent , meaning I would post , let's say , three reels this week and then the next two months I would go clean and then you can't you know .
So that's also not good for the algorithm and you can't grow like that so he came to me , told me listen , man , consistency . He gave me a list of questions . He said you gotta , you gotta decide what's your artist , what are you trying to bring to people ? Okay , and this is a question that has to be answered .
You can't just say what are you trying to bring to people ? I don't know music . No , what are you trying to give them that they don't have yet ? Just like in marketing , you need a persona and go through everything . So that's what you have to do . So we sat down in the car I still remember it like today and I was like so thirsty .
I was like man , can we get over with this ? I don't have time , like I just want to make some more music . He was like no , we have to do this and we have to do this and we have to do that . And finally , but and like we have like answers on all the questions , and I left the car and I didn't feel like it was making a big difference .
But then , slowly , I started seeing how I , for myself , started going into the character that I created for myself , because being an artist is all about being a character . You have to be like there's there is Mendy Tversky and there is another singer . Why should I listen to Mendy Tversky over that other singer ?
Right now everybody has nice music , so you have to give them something . And also it has to be fun for people to listen to you . They want to feel like , oh , let me listen to that Tvers guy , like they have to have kind of a fond memory about you .
So there's so many stuff that you have to do for people , and Nachman helped me get there , and one of the things is which is something that I decided , but he helped me get to the decision is that I'm trying to keep my Yiddish extremely , extremely like from today . Like even . Israelis that listen to my songs .
They're sometimes like why are you putting in so many American words and stuff ? I'm like this is how we speak Yiddish . I'm sorry , this is how we do it . I think it sounds cool like that .
It sounds very cool . It sounds very , very , very , very , very cool and it's an amazing brand and it's proud . It's like I'm a chassid I might not be wearing the full levush , the full outfit , but I am a chassid , I'm proud . I got my payas , I'm singing my music , I have my connection to Hashem , to God , and it's an amazing brand . I think it's great .
I mean , is it like considered that , like , are people allowed to listen to you who aren't traditionally allowed to listen to , like , not music ?
Like I think it's great because it seems very modern to me and I think that the year is 2024 , and you're probably inspiring a lot of kids who maybe want to be Jewish and want to be Hasidic but aren't , like you know , straight ahead In the box . As we said , you know in the box .
So about a half a year . Until about a half a year ago , my music was kind of like you just said . It was considered very modern and very like people weren't letting their kids listen to my music . My music was removed from like a couple of the Jewish music apps like just like there's Spotify right , there you go on Spotify you'll search music .
Let's say , you listen to a Jewish singer , but then it'll put in the queue , it'll put you in some non-jewish music , right . So basically what they did is they created Jewish music apps that have only Jewish music on it mostly music .
Which ones ? So mostly music is a website .
It's a website they have 24-6 .
They have Zing , they have a whole bunch of apps 24-6 .
Yeah 24-6 .
It's also like it's so Jewish , like 24-6 .
Whoever came up with that is very , very clever so basically my music was like not there .
They didn't want to put it on at a certain point . It's insane .
I mean honestly , I don't blame them , no come on no , no , no , I really do not blame them .
Okay , you don't have to blame them .
I can blame them , I know . But let me explain to you what they were thinking they had like , let's say what ? Who are they ? Who are their clients , right ? So their clients are mostly fathers from brooklyn , lakewood , muncie , all of the people from the hasidic community that want that their kids should listen to yiddish music , right ? So those are the .
This is the clientele of 24-6 . Now those people over here . They do not want their kids to get inspired by somebody that is not 100 of the vision that they want their kids to be so until a certain point , I was not being the person that they should let their kids see .
I mean , if their kids would be following me on instagram , they would be doing a lot of stupid stuff .
This , by the way , happened to many other Jewish singers who then came , and then people realized that this is Moshiach energy .
Right , that's what I'm saying .
I would think this is exactly who you want your kids to be following you don't understand exactly , but yes , he's giving a little Moshiach energy , a little spark , a little hope you don't have to be locked into
¶ Success and Future Plans in Music
your .
Then everything changed by Gitmaring , the second I released Gitmaring , besides of everything , like my whole career changed after Gitmaring . Everything took a big , big , big turn , like after I released Gitmaring , after like three or four months of not releasing nothing , no posting , no , nothing , and then it just blew up .
I remember like it was we released it on Thursday , I think , and then Sunday . We're like going into YouTube . I'm like the videos like at 30,000 views , which is a lot for the procedure community and everybody is still talking about it .
And I'm like going into Spotify for artists and I see like 70 something people listening right now and it's like already 20,000 streams . It didn't make sense , mm-hmm . And I'm like I can see the , the analytics , like everything is real , everything is coming and what is going on .
And then it just blew up great feeling , huh yeah , and that's great feeling that you're touching you're in people's lives you're in people it's an amazing amazing feeling and um , and that's it .
What is the future here for you ? Currently , this short term . Where are you performing ?
so my future pretty much is I'm trying to get a little bit more into the get modern kind of style music okay meaning that I'm trying to make only that kind of like . I want to make the music easy for people to sing okay so I'm like trying to do more like simpler , like lyrics , like lyrics wise okay more simple on the songs .
People should be able to sing it . I'm working on a couple of like short rap snippets . I don't know if you've seen like my rap . I do like Yiddish rap .
It sounds cool .
I have yeah .
Yeah , so it's basically like you'll see it on Instagram .
It's like just rap you know readily Do you perform live ? Do you perform live ?
So yes , I do , and we actually just had , like this Shabbos now Upstate New York , nachal Neveah Festival .
Okay .
It was gigantic . We had Barry Weber over there .
Oh , wow .
We had you know this guy from Crown Heights , mendel Music . Yes , he did In a Minute . Ich will nehmen ein Sentimental .
Yeah yeah , yeah .
That's hilarious . We had a bunch of good guys .
You know who else we had . You know , yachiel Jacobs . This guy .
Genna . John Instagram the one who does like Sebastian Maniscalco . Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah he was awesome .
He was there also , whatever it was like a lot of big people nice and I went there straight from the flight . It was exhausting but it was fun a flight from where . I came back from Israel on Thursday yeah , what'd you do in Israel ? I was in Israel for the whole entire year oh for for yeshiva no , but like I was there , oh , just there .
Okay , and recording okay , like learning .
And recording .
And recording , and recording in the studios in Israel .
Studios in Israel Are the studios amazing ? What's the vibe in these studios ? Because they film like them filming in the studios , and you can tell it's a vibe .
So some studios in Israel are much better . They say that in the Hasidic world . They say that the best producers are in Israel .
Okay , producers are in israel . Okay , I can agree with that , like okay , you can see , the best producers are in israel . Amazing america produce different quality . Amazing israel is moshiach , energy , mamish . It's is and isn't . There is and there isn't . Um , we uh , um . On october 7th , which is the off next , not this monday .
Next monday , my synagogue is having a ? Uh , we're doing an event to commemorate the , the , the anniversary of what happened . I'm inviting you to come , bring your guitar and come .
Ellie levin's coming , and so it's going to be uh , you're invited to come and sing a few of your songs and give the , the people , some physics and some people , some , some amazing , amazing on October 7th .
I'll send it to you guys yeah , it'll be great .
We're going to post it . I don't know if we're going to do it live . We're getting there . It's becoming really nice .
I'm working on selling it out .
It's not for sale , it's free people are invited , and it's a crowd that should know you . It's a crowd that should hear you .
It's a crowd that should hear you , they're going to love you , love you and adore you I love people that love me .
Work begets work . I'll tell you one thing , listen to me , mr Manager Work begets work . You work , and that brings more work . So I'm inviting you to come there and we'll figure all the details out with you too . And thank you to our sponsors . Wow , our sponsors of the past two sessions are amazing .
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And uh , thank you , seth , and happy new year , seth wait , I just want to say for a and h .
Um , his a and h hat traveled all over america this summer on my husband's head my father's in the golf course every day with it .
And then we have Weitz and Luxembourg , the law firm that not only does well , they do good . Super philanthropic . Arthur Luxembourg is super fan of the podcast . And Randy , his wife , who actually listens to it and reports to him what's happening here . And Mendy , I cannot thank you enough for coming on the podcast . I wish you had slacha rabba .
I wish you'd touch all the nashamas , or jewish nashamas . Let them know how sweet and zeus yiddish music is you really sing . You know , they say because they were a russian piece , and if you ever hear that expression when you sing .
He sings like there's a raisin in his mouth because it comes out so so sweet and um continued amazing success with you and your manager , perriel thank you thank you . I am on tour or we have shows . Everything's on modilifecom . We are in , uh , we are in zurich , um , we are in the palladium in london .
We are in hartford , buffalo , austin , houston , um many , many more cities . La . Tickets are on sale now . Uh , we sold out two shows in south florida . We added another one . Be the friend that brings the friends to the comedy show , bring laughter to people's lives . That is Moshiach Energy . And again , everything's available on modilifecom .
Thank you all very , very much . Happy , healthy , amazing New Year with Moshiach Energy .