Better Together

While the song was released this past Lag B’Omer, Vizhnitz chassid and singer Yanky Daskal composed it last summer, during the week of parshas Masei, based on a vort he found in a parshah pamphlet.

“I was suddenly inspired by something I read there,” he recalls. “The Torah tells us the Jewish People stopped at many places on the journey through the desert, but emphasizes that they traveled at Hashem’s command — ‘al pi Hashem yachanu v’al pi Hashem yisa’u.’

“Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz ztz”l explains this with a mashal. There’s a person traveling, let’s say from Jerusalem to Ashdod. If you phone him and ask him where he is, he’ll tell you, ‘I’m leaving the city.’ Phone ten minutes later and he’ll say, ‘I’m at Shaar Hagai.’ Another ten minutes, and he’ll be somewhere else. But imagine he’s traveling with his wife and baby, and that the baby could speak on the phone. You call and ask him where he is, he’ll reply, ‘I’m in Ima’s arms.’ Ten minutes later, again ‘I’m in Ima’s arms.’ His geographical location is irrelevant — nothing else interests him as long as he’s in the secure embrace of his mother’s arms.

“The Yidden in the desert had that same feeling of security. They were completely surrounded by the Ananei Kavod. No matter where they were, they were in Hashem’s hands. I wanted to write a song about that absolute serenity which a person feels if he allows himself to feel that he is in HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s embrace.”