Widower’s Request From Yossi Green for His Son’s Chuppah

By Sruly Meyer for COLlive.com

Renowned composer of Jewish music Yossi Green was recently contacted by R’ Yitzy Leshinsky, a father who was getting ready to marry off his oldest son.

With deep emotion, Leshinsky related to him that his wife Michal Leshinsky had passed in 2016 at the age of 38 after a battle with cancer. The daughter of veteran Flatbush Hatzolah paramedic Moti Leiser, she was known for her kindness.

Now, as the father was preparing for chuppah of the first of their 5 children, he turned to Green to request a special composition.

“He wanted me to write a song that would help him and the family somehow to sense and share her presence at this momentous event,” Green says.

Green says that “naturally, I was deeply moved and immediately contacted the well-known and immensely-talented Mrs. Miriam Handler to write lyrics for the composition that was beginning to emerge. With tremendous help from Above, the composition was done and approved.”

The song features arrangements by the dynamic arranger team from Israel – Yitzy Berry and Eli Klein.

The search for the performer who had the voice, the intensity, the sensitivity, the diction and the experience it would take to interpret a song like this, they came up with one person who would fit that role perfectly… Shlomo Simcha.

A short while later, they entered the studio for the singing and background vocals and when Shlomo Simcha was done singing, everyone gathered and listened to the recording together. There wasn’t a dry eye in the studio, those present say.

“With all the emotions of Covid that have kept loved ones apart from each other, it has a way to make us have to dig deep to stay connected to our loved ones,” Shlomo Simcha told COLlive.com. “We can appreciate the true souls of the people we were blessed to be with and this song expresses that emotion.”

AUDIO: Here With Us

LYRICS:

You’d laugh – and we couldn’t help
but laugh along with you
Your smile belied the struggle you were going through
And, despite of all the fears and years of pain you felt
Your concern was always for somebody else…

We marveled at your – unfailing, upbeat attitude
The way that you faced the world
with grace and gratitude
The Emunah that defined you – never asking “why?”
Has been our source of strength as time goes by.

And you’re here with us
Although we cannot see
You shed a tear with us
While praying that we see
The hopes you had for us turn into a reality
Your dreams for our future – come to be…

And, as you dance on high
We know you’re smiling with us
And you cheer us as we soar
We can’t see you – but you’re here with us
And will be ever more…

In the Shechina’s glow
Where everything is clear
And you know what the pain was for
You are full of joy because you’re here with us
And will be ever more.

Accepting Hashem’s decree with such tranquility
You sought to do acts of kindness with humility
And your never-ending Simcha
came from deep within
And your aura never failed to draw us in

The lives that you touched were many, and the void is great
You were so young – but left so much to emulate
And we’re grateful to have had you, and to feel the love…
That still is radiating from above.

And you’re here with us
Although we cannot see
You shed a tear with us
While praying that we see
The hopes you had for us turn into a reality
Your dreams for our future come to be…

And, as you dance on high
We know you’re smiling with us
And you cheer us as we soar
We can’t see you, but you’re here with us
And will be ever more…

In the Shechina’s glow
Where everything is clear
And you know what the pain was for
You are full of joy because you’re here with us
And will be ever more.