Alex Clare - Eli Beer - Zusha: Video of Woodmere Melaveh Malka

Eliav and his Rebbetzin Ruchie Frei brought together some of the deepest musical brothers for a Melaveh Malka at his home after Shabbos 12/27/2014. It was so beautiful.

Eli Beer (http://www.elibeer.com/)created the musical gravity around which the evening revolved and the unique sound of Zusha (http://www.zusha.com/) (Elisha Mendl Mlotek [precussion], Zachariah “Juke” Goldshmiedt [guitar] & Shlomo Ari Gaisin [vocals]) brought everyone to a very deep place. 

We also merited to have a very special guest as well, Alex Clare (http://alexclare.com/), who was in New York after the tail end of his current U.S. tour but before the beginning of the European leg of the tour. He shared beautiful Torah and stories from a recent tour, as well as his own music. It goes without saying that he has a deep soul and it was a pleasure to sing with him.

And as if that weren't enough, Rav Moshe Weinberger, a rebbe to everyone present, came for a good portion of the Melaveh Malka. 

I created a full-length video of the whole Melaveh Malka, as well as separate videos for each artist. The full length video is first below, and then the separate videos for each of the artists are below that. Enjoy and share!

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to "follow" me on Twitter.

New Maccabeats Chanukah Song/Video: Burn - Classic Maccabeats Videos also Included

The video above is the newest Maccabeats Chanukah video to raise funds for the Miracle Match bone marrow donation organization. Love those "Greek" guys' cameos every year. They even give a hat tip to the fact that Thanksgiving falls on Chanukah this year (eye roll). ;-) And l'hashlamas hainyan, enjoy two other classic Maccabeats Chanukah videos below (wish I could show you our video of our son spontaneously singing Candlelight at his sister's bas mitzva when he was about 5 - sooo cute):

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to "follow" me on Twitter.

Beautiful TV Spot on Students' Gratitude to Rabbi Doniel Estreicher from Atlanta - Link to Evan & Jarod Song About Him Too

See above for a beautiful video showing how students from Yeshiva High School in Atlanta nominated Rabbi Doniel Estreicher, who learned in Telse, out of their great love for him. B"H, I was zoche to meet Rabbi E a few times and stay with him for Shabbos eighteen or nineteen years ago when I lived back in Dixie. HT Jew in the City.

 

Musical duo Evan and Jaron who attended Yeshiva Atlanta and were students of Rabbi E years ago also wrote a song honoring him called "He Shines" (lyrics here). A video of two guys singing that is below:

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to "follow" me on Twitter.

Three-Part Interview with Shlomo Carlebach & Music - If the Establishment Doesn't Invite You, That's When You Do It the Best of the Best

The three videos below contain a fairly in-depth interview with Shlomo Carlebach which I hadn't seen before. Great questions and answers! HT The Stollel. Click here for another long multi-part interview which I posted earlier.

 

 

 

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to "follow" me on Twitter.

Video Shiur - Does Thinking About the Akeida Stop You from Sleeping? - Rabbi Joey Rosenfeld

Definitely worth seeing this shiur by deep young talmid chacham Rabbi Joey Rosenfeld, who it's always a pleasure to see at Rav Moshe Weinberger's shiurim. HT UofPurim. In it, Rabbi Rosenfeld quotes the Ishbitizer, Rav Kook, Dylan, Kierkegaard and Derrida

One interesting and central point in the shiur is that the point of the test was that that Avraham wasn't directly commanded to slaughter Yitzchak, but it was a "favor" or "request" asked from Hashem of Avraham. This is in contrast to the generally understood way of looking at the Akeida as Hashem's unequivocal command, as noted by Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein in Cross-Currents recently.



Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to "follow" me on Twitter.

Know that G-d is Everywhere and Ask "Where is G-d?" - Shlomo Katz Kumzitz and Question to Lubavitcher Rebbe

 



Check out this beautiful audio (above) of a Kumzitz by Reb Shlomo Katz given at JLIC at Queens College back in March of this year. What he said from Rebbe Nachman about knowing that Hashem is everywhere, in everything, and always asking "Where are You G-d?" reminded me of this beautiful story below about a man's departure from the derech and how he found his way back after the Lubavitcher Rebbe, zy"a, gave him some time. I recommend seeing/listening to both! HT Menashe Fleischer for the second video! 



 

 



Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to "follow" me on Twitter.

Video Illustration of Hero Story Cycle and How this applies to Us

 

 

This video explains the "hero" story cycle. It appears in movies, books, and stories. People love to hear these stories told again and again in different ways. As the creator of this video points out, these stories resonate because we recognize that the stories reflect our own lives. I wrote about this in two of my first 6 blog posts here and here.  On one hand, we like reading/watching/hearing these stories because by vicariously living the hero's quest, we fulfill the need to be victorious over evil and absolve ourselves of the need to do it in real life, with our own inner "monsters." On the other hand, we can use these stories as a reminder that it's time to stop hearing about others overcoming great odds and becoming greater and do it in our own lives.

 

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to "follow" me on Twitter.

Video Mashal Illustrating that One Must Destory in Order to Build - The Seed and the Tree

 

 

This is a great video by Rabbi Shais Taub and Sruli Broocker illustrating the concept of (i) yerida l'tzorech aliya, descent for the purpose of ascent (ii) stira al m'nas livnos, destroying/disassembling in order to build; (iii) the nahar dinor, the river of fire, through which tzadikim must pass in the world above to ascend from lower Gan Eden to upper Gan Eden; and (iv) many other fundamental concepts underlying the structure of the world and life. Big thumbs up!!! HT Jew in the City.

 

I wrote about the concept underlying this video as well here, here, and here. Enjoy!

 

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to "follow" me on Twitter.

Video of Singing/Dancing after Slichos 2013 at Aish Kodesh, Woodmere, NY

Above is a video taken by Reb Sandy Herskowitz of the end of kadish and the singing/dancing following Slichos last night at Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, NY. I apologize but I think there might be a couple of snippets missing after I reassembled several clips. My fault, not the video taker's. Enjoy!

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to "follow" me on Twitter.

Rabbi Dov Lipman Interview Asks Almost Every Tough Question People Discuss Re Chareidi Draft

It would be very worthwhile to see this 43 minute interview between Rabbi Daniel Korobkin (Ner Yisroel musmach and Rav in Toronto) and Rabbi Dov Lipman (also Ner Yisroel musmach and MK in the Yesh Atid party). Rabbi Korobkin gives Rabbi Lipman a platform to address his very strident critics by bringing up almost every serious cricicism/question people generally direct at him. Very enlightening. With regarding to the last question in the interview (how he understands what the current coalition is doing with regard to drafting chareidim to the IDF/sherut ulami and secular studies in yeshiva ketana) notwithstanding the opposition to such policies by almost all of the gedoleim in E"Y, he quasi-sidesteps the question. Nevertheless, the interview is extremely enlightening in getting to know the must-talked-about Rabbi Lipman much better. HT Rabbi Yakov Horowitz.

 

 

[Update 8/1/13]: You can click here to see my follow up comments on this interview and the comments on this post.

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to "follow" me on Twitter.

Temple Institute's Videos Showing Children Ready to Rebuild Beis Hamikdash

See below for two videos by the Temple Insititute depicting children ready and willing to recognize that the time has come to actually rebuild the Beis Hamikdash. Because actually doing so would start a war, what is the take-away point of the videos? It could just be to awaken a tshuka, longing, to rebuild it, even if we cannot physically do so now. Also, even if it awakens a desire that can't yet come to fruition until Moshiach comes, there is something to be said for at least wanting to do so anyway out of a feeling of "ahava mekalkeles es hashura," loosly translated as "love is not bound by logic." Any other thoughts?

 

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to "follow" me on Twitter.

Beautiful Video Interview Between Rav Dovid Grossman and Yair Lapid

See below for an amazing video interview between Yair Lapid and Rav Dovid Grossman. B'etzem b'etzem b'etzem, this man is a Jew and has no inherent problem with Chareidim. The key is to really connect to each other. Like Rav Grossman says here, he looks beyond the artificial, external labels of Chareidi, Chiloni, Sefardi, Ashkenazi, etc. Those are not the essence of the person. That is why he can connect with every type of Jew and show them something greater about themselves. Listen to this shiur Rav Moshe Weinberger recently gave for more on this topic and how to heal what is going on in Israel now.

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to "follow" me on Twitter.

NCSY Summer Program Video with my Old Advisor from 1993!

You may want to turn down the background music but this NCSY promo video for their summer programs b/c of the Three Weeks, but this is so cool. In 1993, I went to Israel with NCSY's ISS (Israel Summer Seminar - their mostly public school, co-ed, well-supervised tour trough Israel). Their current equivalent of that program has a different name but one of my madrichim on the trip, Barry Goldfischer, is apparently still involved! You can see him at about 1:30 in this video. It's scary but that was 20 years ago this summer. Ouch I feel old. But baruch Hashem, KA"H I now have a daughter who's old enough to go on an NCSY program (though as a BY girl, she wouldn't). Yasher koach for everything NCSY!!!

 

NCSY Summer 2013 - Where the Journey Begins from NCSY on Vimeo.

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to "follow" me on Twitter.

Worthwhile Video on Preventing Child Molestation

 

Worthwhile for adult/camp counselors to watch. And if you hear of a case of someone touching a child inappropriately, make sure the matter goes immediately to the secular authorities and is not handled "internally." Anyone concerned with issues of mesira or lashon hara can read this psak by Rav Aviner, or other articles discussing the issue citing to the Tzitz Eliezer and others. Better to be machmir on the issue of sakanas nefashos of the child than the potential for "mesira" which is probably not applicable because we live in countries with proper justice systems.

It would also be worthwhile to watch these three brief videos on speaking to children about proper guideliness which will, IY"H, prevent abuse:







Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to "follow" me on Twitter.

Videos of African American Ger Tzedek's Tena'im, Chasuna, & Mitzva Tantz in Williamsburg - Beautiful!



HT to A Simple Jew for this!

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox.

New Community in Ramat Beit Shemesh for Bnei Aliya! (Update - Video Fixed)

 

Check out this video promoting the new community in Ramat Beit Shemesh. The city calls it "Ramat Hamishkafayim," but the people there who are working on developing it as a Torah/growth centered community are calling it "Ramat Haro'eh," after Rav Kook. Check out this video I just found on it.

R. Judah Mischel is involved and appears in the video. Anyone thinking of aliya, or finding a growing community in Israel for people who already live there, very worthwhile to check this out. Very exciting!

UPDATE (4/17/13): The host of this video apparantly took it down and put up a revised video in its place. This post is now updated with the new video. Kol tuv!

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox .

New Maccabeats Pesach Video - Les Mis Songs to the Pesach Story

 

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to subscribe in Google Reader.

Maccabeats New Chanukah Video Raises $80,000 for Bone Marrow Donation (Video)

The above video is a very nice news report about $80,000 raised by the Maccabeats from their latest Chanukah music video to help process bone marrow donation tests. Enjoy.

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to subscribe in Google Reader.

Maccabeats New Chanukah Video - Miracle

I'm sure most of you have seen this but here is the Maccabeats' new Chanukah video, which is a cover of Matisyahu's Chanukah song from last year. Ah freilichen Chanukah!

Incidentally, I wouldn't get exercized about Mayim Bialik wearing a yarmulka. She's Allison Jacbos' Partners in Torah chevrusa. I'm sure it's meant to be funny.



Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to subscribe in Google Reader.

"If Moses Had Facebook/Skype/Twitter/Gmail" - Aish.com Video

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to subscribe in Google Reader.