Themes of unity, elevation, joy and redemption will reverberate throughout a Lag BaOmer program featuring spiritual rags to riches rap sensation Nissim Black as Yeshiva Temimei Darech of Tsfat steps up again to bring out the essence of the annual commemorative celebration yet to a larger audience.
The so-called “One Flame Festival,” planned for the eve of Lag BaOmer, Thursday, May 15, will be the 6th in a series of such musical programs produced by the yeshiva, meaningfully held each year on the highest point in Tsfat known as the Citadel or Metzuda in Hebrew.
Considering the prevailing world backdrop against which this year’s event will be taking place, coupled with its growing renown and only light restrictions on returnees to the annual celebration nearby at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, zt”l, in Meron, founder and director of the yeshiva, Rabbi Shalom Pasternak, is expecting a spike in attendance over past years.
“After five amazing years, One Flame has created a national reputation, drawing Jews from the full spectrum of Israel who anticipate the event each year,” said Pasternak, Rosh Yeshiva of the prominent 16-year-old largely baalei teshuva institution for English-speaking men. “One way or the other, we are shooting to reinvigorate throngs and throngs of Jews streaming to us from all directions, including Meron, in the midst of yet another tough year.”
The crowd can also look forward to the yeshiva’s own Kabbalah Dream Orchestra directed by Pasternak, a seasoned jazz musician himself, with Matisyahu’s son, young Laivy Miller, a rising talent with a growing Israeli following, lined up as guest performer. An appearance by Tsfat Mayor (and big fan of Chabad), Yossi Kakon is also anticipated, with an art show featuring local talent rounding out the program. Families of hostages have also been invited to attend for free and speak in another of the event’s aims to bolster and support.
Black, a 38-year-old convert originally from Seattle, went from Muslim beginnings to devout Christian to observant Jew of the Chassidic order, living now in Jerusalem with wife, Adina, and their seven children. Having risen from drug culture surroundings in his childhood home to the pinnacle of spiritual heights, he couldn’t be more suited for the job of uplifting a crowd.
His every soul-stirring song is a work of hope and faith often accented with redemptive themes, bearing influences from the Lubavitcher Rebbe through Rebbe Nachman to Sephardic mystical tradition rolled into the catchy cadence of hip hop rap.
The well-known singer, songwriter and prolific record producer, nonetheless, was not too proud or famous to pitch in with promotion.
“I, Nissim Black, am coming to Tsfat on May 15th, which happens to be on Lag BaOmer and we are going to have a concert unlike you have ever had before in your life,” said an animated Black in a recorded video. “I am looking forward to spending an amazing evening with all of you.”
All befitting of a day that marks the yom hilula (yartzeit of a Tzaddik) of the Rashbi, on the 18th of Iyar, coinciding with the day in history when a plague ceased that had killed 24,000 students of the great 2nd century Talmudic sage Rabbi Akiva. Celebrations are held on the holy day globally for both reasons as the mourning customs associated with the annual Omer count are suspended.
Rabbi Shimon was a pupil of Rabbi Akiva and a great Talmudic sage in his own right as well as being the author of the Zohar, the most prominent of Kabbalistic works. The set of distinctions places him in the uppermost echelon of Jewish luminaries, giving the day much of its trademark shine.
The Lag BaOmer festivities will continue the next day at 11 a.m., erev Shabbos, with a Hachnosas Sefer Torah — completing the filling in of its final letters started on the concert grounds — at the venerated Tzemach Tzedek Beit Knesset, 28 Chasam Sofer St. Tsfat, where the yeshiva got its start in 2009.
From there, a procession with the Torah will commence amidst great fanfare commingled with the Chabad House of the Old City of Tsfat’s annual children’s parade. The procession will wend its way to the yeshiva, 120 Jerusalem St., that will be the final berth place of the scroll, with the customary hakafos (circle dances with the Torah) preceded by verses common to the occasion.
To add to the excitement, a wedding ceremony of local residents, Yaakov and Ruthie (to be) Richman, will then be held at the yeshiva with the celebratory seudah to take place on Shabbos.
The sefer Torah was dedicated to the yeshiva in honor of the deceased Reb Dovid Goldstein, A”H, by his wife Mrs. Rena Goldstein of Tsfat, both ardent supporters of the yeshiva, with Goldstein having been connected as a Chabad Chassid all the way back to the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe. Goldstein’s yartzeit not coincidentally comes the day before Lag BaOmer on the 17th of Iyar.
Learn more and buy tickets at www.oneflamefestival.com. Festivities are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 15th erev Lag BaOmer.
–Yehuda Sugar
