Are You Still Singing Dveykus?

Four decades later, those classics have stuck

Rabbi Label Sharfman is the founder and dean of Bnot Torah Institute, better known as “Sharfman’s” in Jerusalem, and Abie Rotenberg is — well, he’s Abie Rotenberg. But back in the 1970s, they were chavrusas in the beis medrash of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim in Forest Hills.

Label Sharfman had sung on the wildly popular Rabbis’ Sons albums — also conceived at Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim by Rabbi Baruch Chait — a few years before. One afternoon in Elul, Abie mentioned that he had composed a few songs, and asked Label if he would be interested in working together to produce an album. Despite a conspicuous lack of expertise and experience — Label had sung on the Rabbis’ Sons, but had nothing to do with production — the young pair was determined to inspire people with genuine Jewish music.

“Our vision was to produce real Jewish music, not bubblegum music,” Rabbi Sharfman remembers.

Rabbi Sharfman appropriately conceived the album name Dveykus LaHashem, which was shortened to the more catchy Dveykus — which, four decades later, would still capture the spirit of those yeshivah days. The Rosh Yeshivah didn’t mind the boys’ musical pursuits, as long as they stuck to their sedorim.