Fine-Tuned

MUSIC TO HIS EARS For Greenberger glitter and glitz are anathema — he’s happiest in the beis medrash where the holy sources provide the most eloquent expression of his own soul’s yearnings (Photos: Shlomi Cohen)

M eshulam Greenberger is not your typical publicity-savvy chassidic music professional and chances are you’ve never even heard of him. He doesn’t do weddings or promotional videos will only sing at Torah events and he has no internet access so he can’t even watch himself in clips others have made and posted. But even if the name isn’t familiar certainly his music is. He’s written hundreds of niggunim and who doesn’t know the new “Kad Yasvun ” the fast-beat “Nodeh Lecha ” the Purim classic “Im Al Hamelech Tov ” Avraham Fried’s “Ein Kelokeinu ” and the hartzig ode to King David’s chesed “Dovid Hamelech Alav Hashalom”?

Greenberger a 35-year-old Yerushalmi avreich and chassid of the Dushinsky court says that being disengaged from the industry hype is actually an advantage for him — it keeps him focused on what’s really important and protects him from the entrapments of ego and self-aggrandizement. “I was once approached by a wealthy chassid who ordered some music for a private affair. He told me that I was advancing much too slowly in terms of technology upgrade. I told him halevai that I could advance even slower. True it’s hard to survive in the music world without being in the ‘mix.’ Nevertheless I prefer to stay where I am now. The last thing I want is to become a ‘star.’ ”

It’s not surprising that few have heard of Meshulam Greenberger. He’s soft-spoken and self-effacing shunning fame and publicity. Obviously uncomfortable with a reporter’s prying questions and the ongoing click of the camera which seemed to make him shrink into himself it wasn’t easy to convince him to agree to an interview — his first in mainstream Jewish media.