“We are incredibly fortunate to have such meaningful Jewish music that can give voice to and channel our emotions”
I enjoyed the article in the Chanukah issue, “The Maccabee in Me,” compiled by Riki Goldstein, about the songs that mean so much to listeners and Mishpacha readers, and I wanted to share my own experiences.
A few years ago, I’d driven five and a half hours to drop my daughters off at Camp Sternberg, and had already driven out of camp when I realized that my GPS wasn’t receiving a signal. I had no idea how to get back to the highway, and I was driving on deserted two-lane country roads, surrounded on both sides by dense forest. I was starting to worry as I realized that dusk was fast approaching, and that I might very well be lost and alone, driving in the Catskill mountains in the dark.
I was listening to music, and suddenly the song that came on was “Compass” by Chanale. I felt like Hashem was right there with me. I ended up stopping at a country post office and a woman pulled up next to me, with her young daughter in the passenger seat. She mailed a letter and then she very kindly led me straight to the highway entrance, where my GPS was finally able to get a signal.
When my dear son Yitzy was sick, the song “A Yid” by Chayala Neuhaus, sung by Benny Friedman, gave him a great deal of chizuk and inspired tremendous emunah and bitachon, far beyond what we could ever have expected or imagined from a young boy. After he was tragically niftar at age 13, it continues to give me strength to continue on.
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