Mood Mix with Moshe Auslander

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist MOSHE AUSLANDER has starred with the Thank You Hashem crew on the popular singles “Shuvu Banim,” “Melech HaOlam,” and “Rebbi I Want to Learn,” and has just released his first full album, The Holiest Yid in the World. Moshe lives in Monsey, where he is a third-grade rebbi and camp director by day, spreading inspiration through his music at night.

HOW I GOT STARTED

I feel like Hashem schlepped me along this path. Before Covid, I was part of a group who got hired to sing over Shabbos at bar mitzvahs and other events. For me, there was something that felt a little stiff about singing on demand, these zemiros now, this song after the main course. But Covid shut everything down, aside from a few Zoom kumzitzes. After that, the gigs just started coming. At one small kumzitz, I was singing my song “Shuvu Banim,” and someone recorded it and told me he was sending it to the TYH chevreh. I never thought they’d take any notice, though, but soon afterward, one of the Blumstein brothers, who was a rebbi in the Waterbury yeshivah where I gave a kumzitz, invited me to a family bris in Monsey, where I live. I’m a rebbi, but it just so happened that the bris was on a Friday, and Friday is the only day my teaching schedule starts at 11 a.m. When I came in to the bris, someone started singing my song. I was taken aback, but later that day Elimelech Blumstein left me a voice note: They wanted to produce my song.

MY MOST MEMORABLE PERFORMANCE

I’ll never forget the first time I performed at Camp HASC. The energy and dedication of the people there, plus seeing the power of what music can really do, made that experience beyond words. Music really is beyond words. It comes from the neshamah and touches the neshamah. WHAT I NEVER MISS SINGING ON A FRIDAY NIGHT

I don’t have any constants. It’s important to me to sing what my kids want to sing so we can sing together, but more than that, every Shabbos is different and has a different feel. There’s Shabbos Chazon and there’s Shabbos Nachamu and there’s Shabbos Bereishis…. Even my Kiddush melody can be different each week, reflecting the energy of that particular Shabbos.

WHAT MAKES A SONG “FARBRENGABLE”

Number one, it has to be real and genuine. It’s not about being “cute” — whatever is genuinely felt really resonates today. Case in point is “Rebbi I Want to Learn,” a song that came from my kishkes. I was that boy, and I’m now a rebbi and farbreng with a lot of bochurim, and so many of them have told me that they see themselves in that song as well.