As the Jewish nation unites for another Shabbos Project, the music is stronger than ever.
The Simply Tsfat band. Members of the Breslov shul on the mountainside just above the steep graveyard of the city’s tzaddikim and kabbalists they knew each other from Shabbos davening
“Nothing like the ruach of a Shabbos seudah in a football field”
They’re the band who met in shul on Shabbos. At the time Yoni Lipshutz was a day trader Eliyahu Reiter a part-owner of Tzfas’s candle factory and Yonatan Zarum played in a wedding band. All members of the Breslov shul on the mountainside just above the steep graveyard of the city’s tzaddikim and kabbalists they knew each other from Shabbos davening. In 1998 Lipshutz was out of a job and a friend loaned him a violin. Reiter had sold his candle factory and was seeking another career. The two teamed up for some informal kumzitzes with Yoni’s classical violin engaging Eliyahu’s Carlebach-style acoustic guitar. The sound was a hit locally and soon they asked Yonatan Zarum who plays classical guitar with a jazz influence to make up a trio. Since then Simply Tsfat has been giving a new sound to both traditional chassidic niggunim and their own compositions — both wordless niggunim and ballads — thrown in to the mix.
Communities across the US have enjoyed the five US tours the band has made with more planned for the coming year. “We were in Atlanta for the Shabbos Project last year and in Scottsdale Arizona the year before ” says Yoni. “Both places gave off a terrific feeling of achdus as we sang and danced with the crowds at the huge communal luncheons. You can’t beat the ruach of hundreds of people from all walks of life joining for Shabbos lunch on an outdoor parking lot or football field. Just gevaldig.”
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