Yeshiva Temimei Darech celebrates its 7th year – “and all sevenths are dear“ – of Lag BaOmer festival productions under the “One Flame” moniker, this year featuring yeshiva alumnus rap artist Ari Lesser joining a rich history of past festival performers the likes of Nissim Black, Zusha and Alex Clare who helped put the event on the map.
Against the backdrop of nearby Meron, the yeshiva set out with its first production in 2019 to give locals and others a memorable Tsfat Lag BaOmer experience to mark the day that commemorates the cessation of the plague that killed 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva and the yom hilula of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.
Through several tests and trials over the seven years driven by the credo “the show must go on,” the yeshiva persisted with production.
“Even in the middle idle of war, Covid and the years when Meron was forced to close the event down, we kept it going,” said Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Shalom Pasternak, event spearhead and participant among the talent lineup as pianist in the yeshiva’s own “Kabbalah Dream Orchestra.”
Alums, players from Tsfat’s significant musical talent pool and current students make up the balance of the band.
Lesser, award-winning spoken performance art aficionado, whose meaningful raps supporting Israel and Jews in general have filled social media channels for years, returns for the third time as headliner for the event. Lesser was an early alum who made fast headway in his Yiddishkeit at the yeshiva, founded in 2009 as the only Chabad institution in northern Israel focused largely on baalei teshuva English-speaking men.
This, the seventh in a series of the sought after Lag BaOmer event, will take place starting with Maariv and the Omer count on Lag BaOmer night, Monday May 4th in the yeshiva’s lavishly adorned environs at 120 Jerusalem St. near Tsfat’s Central Bus Station.
With sponsorship help from the city of Tsfat and Meron’s celebration being scaled back to a maximum attendance of 1,500, the yeshiva event portends to draw a significant crowd, Pasternak said. In honor of the seventh-year milestone, admission will be free, featuring a food court, art exhibit and kids’ program added to the musical menu.
Year number 7 takes on additional meaning due to the Talmudic and Midrashic concept that the seventh iteration of a series is inherently favored and brings to completion the spiritual potential of the previous six. The idea was memorialized by the Rebbe in his many references to the current generation being the dear or beloved seventh generation from the founding of Chabad by the Alter Rebbe. Learn more about the yeshiva and its programs at: https://temimeidarech.org.
