By Sruly Meyer – COLlive
When Jewish music star Yoni Z is asked what was the date of the accident in Italy? He answers, without missing a beat, May 24th, 2022. Clearly, this date is forever etched in his mind.
With his second album just released on Lag BaOmer last year, Yoni was set to visit Israel to promote the new album. Interviews were lined up, concerts scheduled and flights booked. After years of non-stop work, Yoni wanted to take a one-day break, a day that would later turn into a year.
Yoni made a planned pitstop in Rome on his way to Israel. While riding a motorbike, something he had done many times before in other countries, there was a pothole at the bottom of a hill he could not see. Just yards away from the famed Roman coliseum, Yoni hit the sinkhole and the force sent him forward 15 feet in the air. When he landed, Yoni could feel the bones break, in specific, 7 different areas of bone broke.
Yoni couldn’t walk. The only thing unaffected was his left arm. He spent the next 10 days in the hospital until he was medically allowed to be transported.
Speaking to COLlive.com this week, Yoni says: “I want to say thank you to Rabbi Menachem Lazar of the Chabad Piazza Bologna in Rome.” The original public hospital where Yoni was taken, was not equipped or at the level needed. Yoni credits Rabbi Lazar for saving his life after he helped him be transferred to a private clinic.
After arriving at the clinic, scans were taken and sent to 3 specialists in Israel to determine what could be done. Yoni says the doctors all asked the same question, how old was the patient? Hearing that he was only 30, the doctors agreed that Yoni could avoid surgery if he put in an intense year of therapy.
Yoni told COLlive.com that the night before he left for Israel via Rome, he wrote a letter to the Rebbe‘s Ohel in New York. In the letter, he mistakingly asked for “success in Rome” instead of writing in Israel. “After seeing what I wrote, I thought maybe I should change it, but decided to leave it,” he reveals.
Little did he know that this request for blessing would actually come to fruition, as Yoni did in fact, need a bracha for success in Rome.
Yoni arrived back in Suffern, New York right before Shavuos last year. He shoulder was shattered and he was wheelchair-bound. With his arm broken, he could not even put on Tefilin. He laid flat for another 7 weeks until taking his first step.
During this time, Yoni had to cancel his appearances at concerts, interviews, weddings, focusing only on his recovery. After working on this new album for 2 years, and 3 years since his debut album, Yoni had to stop. The energetic singer was forced to take a break.
He says that not being able to promote a new album was very hard. When people asked him if he would write any music about this accident, “all I could think about was getting my body to move naturally and be healthy.”
At some point, after starting physical therapy, which lasted this entire past year, Yoni started to see the recovery actually happen. “I told myself that I would only write and sing about the accident if I can share a lesson from it.”
To be able to see the good in anything, and to see a silver lining, Yoni could track a path from the point of his accident, a low point, to now, a high point, knowing he was able to recover, and come through something hard and come out stronger on the other side.
“The most valuable lesson I took from this was, when the accident happened, it was almost 14 years since I had started singing,” he says. “I was always running, always chasing, always trying to reach a certain point of success, but I never stopped for a moment and appreciated the journey.”
Yoni continues, “It’s like riding a train through the Swiss Alps just to get to your destination without actually enjoying what you are seeing along the way.”
When asked what this taught him, Yoni answers: “It’s not about the destination. In fact, I don’t even know if there is a destination. It’s about the journey, and the moments along the way. I’ve learned to look at things in real time, and to start living in the moment.”
Yoni pauses again, eager to show Hakaras Hatov. “I want to thank everyone who wrote to me, and visited me, and everyone who has been with me along this journey. I’m so thankful that Hashem stopped me, and put the brakes on me,it gave me a chance to see what’s happening around me. Now that I’m back on my feet, and I can jump and run, and be on stage and dance, I take every moment as a gift.”
The Energizer Bunny, as he is nicknamed, is back and you can expect lots more music to follow, and of course a third album. In the meantime, Yoni reminds us, “It’s not only about what’s happening next. It’s also about what’s happening now.”
After releasing two holiday songs, one for Purim and Chanukah, and then a beautiful song for children of special needs, this is his first original new music since that accident.
A year later, on the eve of the anniversary, Yoni held a Seudas Hoda’ah and is releasing a brand new single titled ‘Hakol Letova’ speaking about the highs and lows of the year that passed and how ultimately, everything Hashem does is for the best, in this sure-to-be summer anthem.
When asked time and time again if he would write about the events that occurred, Yoni responded, “I would only write a song about this if it brought Simcha and smiles to people’s faces, as I remain forever in their debt for Davening so much for me and learning to never take anything in life for granted.”
VIDEO: YONI Z – HAKOL LETOVA
Written and Composed by Yoni Z
Arranged and mixed by Yoni Z and Jason Goldglancz
Additional lyrics by Aryella Korn and Yael Guenoun
Vocals recorded, engineered at Jason Goldglancz studios, Woodmere NY
Mastered by Shua Sorcher
Graphic Design: Yossi Zigelboum
Special thanks to Shloimy Zaltzman
Lyrics:
עברה שנה קצת לא פשוטה
תקופות של תקווה וגם דאגה
היו לי רגעים
זה מסלול החיים
אבל קול שקט בלב לחש לי מבפנים
כל העולם הוא גשר צר
ויודעים שהעיקר לא לפחד כלל
אז זכור ת׳אמונה
מה דעביד רחמנה
כי כל מה שקורה ׳גם זו לטובה׳!
ואוו! שכח מכל הפחד
ואוו! קח ת׳כל בנחת
ואוו! אז בא נשיר ביחד
הכל הכל לטובה
ואוו! שכח מכל הפחד
ואוו! קח ת׳כל בנחת
ואוו! אז בא נשיר ביחד
הכל הכל לטובה!
צועד קדימה
כי בך בטחתי
בוחר באמונה
כי בחיים לא שכחתי
שאתה תמיד איתי בכל פסיעותי
מבוקר ועד ערב אתה נר לרגלי
יש מעלי אבא ששומע
מחזיק אותי חזק ולא עוזב לרגע
ולפעמים כשזה נראה שכלום לא הולך
מה שלא אבין היום אני יבין בהמשך
ואוו! שכח מכל הפחד
ואוו! קח ת׳כל בנחת
ואוו! אז בא נשיר ביחד
הכל הכל לטובה
אוו! שכח מכל הפחד
ואוו! קח ת׳כל בנחת
ואוו! אז בא נשיר ביחד
הכל הכל לטובה!
Everything has it’s rhyme and reason
You just gotta believe it
Count the blessings in your life…
ואוו! שכח מכל הפחד
ואוו! קח ת׳כל בנחת
ואוו! אז בא נשיר ביחד
הכל הכל לטובה
אוו! שכח מכל הפחד
ואוו! קח ת׳כל בנחת
ואוו! אז בא נשיר ביחד
כל מה שקורה הכל לטובה!
ואוו! שכח מכל הפחד
ואוו! קח ת׳כל בנחת
ואוו! אז בא נשיר ביחד
הכל הכל לטובה
אוו! שכח מכל הפחד
ואוו! קח ת׳כל בנחת
ואוו! אז בא נשיר ביחד
הכל הכל לטובה!
Continued hatzlocha!!
Yoni, keep brightening and healing the world!