Love Song (Love Song)
I want the heart of the stone an idol,
I want to love a girl,
I want the heart of the stone an idol,
I want to love a girl,
It is a great part of the land,
My heart misses
I want a stone in the heart of an idol.
Want to love a girl.
Yitzchak our father loved Rebekah's mother,
Our father Isaac loved our mother Rebecca,
Jacob our father had a love for his mother Rachel,
Our father Jacob loved our mother Rachel,
I also want to live, a Jewish informant.
Also wants to love a Jewish girl.
The first man had a heart for his mother, Eve,
The first man loved Mother Eve,
David Pe'er, daughter of Sheva, sang with great love,
David to Batsheva, singing with so much love,
I also want to live, a Jewish informant.
Also wants to love a Jewish girl.
A good Jew,
A Jewish home,
How is it that you have such a heart?
In which they love each other so much,
With your real children.
With sweet and enlightening children.
With love without a lesson,
With love to no end,
And a pure open,
And with an open door,
For every Jewish child in particular.
For every Jewish soul.
A real cultural storm has been raging for two months in the ultra-Orthodox sector, around the character of the singer and creator Mendel Rata (Roth).
Anyone who already knows him, whether in person or through social networks or the ultra-Orthodox media, knows that breaking conventions is no stranger to him, to say the least.
He dared, contrary to popular belief, to perform with a guitar, which earned him the derogatory nicknames "Hippie" and "Carlebachie" on the one hand, and gave an opening to many young people to play, perform and express themselves on the other.
He expressed readiness and even spoke in favor of marking Independence Day, and encouraged closeness between the secular and ultra-Orthodox camp.
As part of the reform required in his opinion in the Beit Midrash, and the need to combine Torah, Hasidism, music and love, he also argued that order should be made in the yeshiva world, that continuous study of 12 hours or more is not suitable for everyone.
He said anxious parents should show their children love directly, or in other words - hug and kiss each other in front of their eyes.
And if all this is not enough, he even argued that the ultra-Orthodox public should adopt the Internet, with adjustments required of course.
Not that he has been waiting for any approval - for years he has been spreading his subversive songs and messages on social media.
The message "you do not have to go with eight clothes in the summer, and wearing colorful is also beautiful", for example, which was distributed on several channels at the same time, including the popular Instagram page "Dos Celebs", received both "sane voice" and "someone wakes us up" and At least compliments, like "downloads follow because you do not stop giving this psyche what."
This time the sin of Rata, the son of a well-known rebbe, one of the faithful in Ashdod, and himself a follower who zealously wears all Hassidic clothing, is the one who dared, for the first time ever in the sector, to publish an ultra-Orthodox love song - and more in Yiddish.
In late April, Rata posted a short clip from the studio recordings on social media, and the storm began.
is it possible?
Talking about love with such openness?
And more in a song that is distributed to many?
He did not shy away from the reactions and published the full song.
Soon the song went viral, and the flood of reactions it received, both positive and negative, became a flood.
As usual, the criticism did not stop him, not even for a moment.
He is currently working on two new songs in Yiddish, each of which will try to shatter another taboo in ultra-Orthodox society.
The first, about ultra-Orthodox parents who threw their son out of the house because he owned a smartphone, which is considered allotted in the ultra-Orthodox sector.
The second, which is expected to come out immediately after him, answers to the name 'How Will Zein is not in a Yiddish festival' ('I want to be at a Jewish festival').
He is openly anti-establishment and calls on every ultra-Orthodox listener to find God alone.
"One who breaks frames"
I met Rata (30), a seventh-year-old in a family of 15 children, at his home in Ashdod.
He opens the door wearing a long Hassidic suit with woolen tassels dangling from it, and a Hassidic hat on his head, adorned with two long wigs.
Only when we enter his room does he take off his hat.
He has been divorced for seven years, after a brief period of marriage that lasted four months.
Meanwhile, until he finds love, he lives with his father the Rebbe. His personal journey between marriage and divorce and beyond, led him to write the song.
"I'm one who breaks frames," he declares at the beginning of the conversation, "and therefore, even the ultra-Orthodox sites, which are more open than the rest of the established ultra-Orthodox media, find it difficult to give me a stage, and I understand them, even though I think site workers themselves .
Meanwhile, in addition to the songs he puts out and gets tens and even hundreds of thousands of views (very nice numbers in the sector), he runs popular Instagram and ticketing accounts, and uses many tools that almost only ultra-Orthodox use: the "status" on WhatsApp, for which he is the equivalent of Instagram history.
In each of these channels, every video he puts out reaches tens of thousands of views.
"And in every status or ticketing video, I break another convention. No one can know what I'm going to break tomorrow, so there are those who fear me."
Not what you thought.
From the ticking,
The story of his life is complex.
A conflict in the stork yard led to the boycott of Rata and his family from the community in which they grew up.
"That was when I was 15," he recalls.
"It happens in all kinds of Hasidism, that there is politics, and it happened to us too. There was very ugly politics, and the Rebbe's grandparents kept my father away, who was the son closest to him, and that also included keeping us away and boycotting us.
I was just boycotting.
At the stork meeting, they knocked on the stage and announced that we were not allowed to speak.
They looted me.
I even got spit.
Although I did not study at this yeshiva, when we would come to our synagogue we would still suffer from such abuses.
This affair may have ended eight years ago, but it left me with a trauma that has not left me to this day.
I try to judge rightly people who were involved in the story, and I try to forgive so as not to leave things in the heart, but I still tell about it outside, because to this day there are similar things done in Hasidism in the name of Gd, and it boils me down.
This whole story made me go on a journey myself,
But despite everything you did not change anything in the Chassidic look, you did not leave completely.
"There were things that went through my mind over the years. At one time I thought of being an ultra-Orthodox, and at other times I wanted to join Breslav or Chabad. My job is to make a revolution in Hassidic society. "
At the age of 15, he recounts, he discovered the poems and books of "The Dancing Rebbe" Shlomo Carlebach, which were not exactly acceptable to the Hasidic mainstream.
"I became his ardent follower. His messages are exactly what I want to bring to the Hassidic public I live in, but in the way of Torah and Halacha. My connection to him.
I’ve always been a weird chicken within the family, and that only increased it.
Not that God forbid they did not like me, but they were afraid of my way.
They said to themselves: If it started in Carlebach, who knows how it will end, maybe Mendel will leave the religion and drop out?
And for me, too, because of this attitude, it was not easy at all. "
"It ruined all my matchmaking"
In recent years he has been recognized as an artist and musical creator.
He released a few Hassidic hits that were a success, however despite his song not speaking as much as the love song he recently released.
Why did you suddenly decide to release a love song in Yiddish?
"It has to do with my whole personal story. When I turned 20 I formed my own opinions, and also opened a subversive leaflet that was distributed in many meetings. There were several sections and columns by several writers, including my own column that included personal writing. I wrote there about love and light, words not all. This leaflet has become a hit, but when I wrote an article about yeshiva students also needing a spiritual experience beyond the academic one, and I started talking about the hippies of the 1960s (among whom Carlebach began his activities; HB), it had already exploded in yeshiva .
The Rosh Yeshiva instructed me not to distribute the leaflet anymore.
I continued to spread it in other meetings, but when I wrote another critical article, this time about how meetings do not give expression to independent thought, mind and talent, it was already the straw that broke the camel's back.
I wrote there that if I had a seat, once every few months I would take the guys to pick oranges, to meet the Creator in nature.
"After this article, the whole yeshiva staff gathered, about 20 people. They were embarrassed in other yeshivahs about such a guy studying with them. The whole staff sat in an H-shape, and they called me inside, to hear what I had to say. I have a critique of the world of yeshivot, that they do not touch the soul and inwardness of Judaism. "
From the "Moderator" clip.
Mendel Roth Rata,
The explanation did not help, and Rata was respectfully asked to stop immediately with all his activities.
"They started talking about my case in the Hassidic meetings, and it ruined all my matchmaking," he says.
"My father, the Rebbe, was under pressure to get married.
I was already an older guy in Hasidic terms, 23 years old. A matchmaking offer came from a respectable family from Jerusalem, and my family insisted that I meet her.
I met, I saw that she is really a great and good girl - just not one that suits me.
But it did not help.
My parents, who love me very much, thought I was making the mistake of my life.
Until a successful and good match arrives I give it up?
They of course did not force me, but explained to me for hours that I was making a mistake.
In the end, I collapsed and agreed, and that was a serious mistake. "
Why?
"Because getting engaged to a girl without having emotion and chemistry, and without having a mental match, is a serious mistake. I got married, and after four months I got divorced."
What infuriated him during his engagement and short marriage was the guidance he received from two well-known rebbe, who later became the trigger for publishing the song. He responded: "Rata, a woman is not a friend. And he was wrong!"
Rata, for the first time in the conversation, raises her voice.
Something hurts inside him.
"How could the Rebbe say such a sentence?
A woman should be my best friend!
The same Rebbe gave me a personal example from himself. He said that when he met his wife, they were very different in character and essence, but what interested him was only 'that she would not interfere with my work for the Lord', so she agreed. And I ask: is that normal? It's crazy! Is it guidance given to a student? A man who is engaged and feels nothing for his fiancée, he must not marry her! Everyone told me: get married and it will be okay, and at most if not - get divorced. There's a taboo on getting annulled. And I say: God forbid, let's blow it together, let's start from now on.
"Another Rebbe I went into after the wedding, also a wise man who many consult with, said to me: I do not see a chance that you will live a love life, because you need a very particular woman to suit you.
And to go out again for a match as a divorcee, the son of a rebbe and as one who needs a woman with the right kind of soul, it will be almost impossible. I asked him: So what, I will never have love? And it will give peace of mind to your soul. That answer, "Rata shouts again in the small room, almost crying," is corruption in its purity! To say to your student 'Are you not going to love?'
I wanted to blow this perception! Everyone was sure that the problem was in me, but I did not hurt her in anything, only that from the first moment we just did not practice. Why should it be like this at all? Let's look at the Torah, it says " Yaakov Avinu? This is the most beautiful and moving affair in the Bible.
You have a critique of the ultra-Orthodox matchmaking world. But perhaps the problem, if any, is only in the Hassidic sector from which you come, where a single meeting takes place?
"So first, indeed, I am talking more about the Hassidic public. But I also have a critique of the Lithuanian yeshiva world. In the yeshiva world there is no awareness of this issue at all. "Life and not about love. Although in the Lithuanian world there is more openness. There are those who watch movies and learn from it, and it is a little different. But the whole issue of love and emotion, it is not about the Haredi yeshivot, and if you do not know about life, you do not know what to look for in a relationship."
"Is there love in the ultra-Orthodox public?"
Rata composed his love-breaking love song in the room where we sit, about two months ago.
"This year I decided I felt more mature to remarry, after years of a journey within life and within myself. And because these are the feelings that pulsate in me, the lyrics of the song came to me: 'I want to love a kosher Jewish girl.' "Musicians, and I asked them if they were in favor of me putting out the song. Most of them were against, explaining to me that putting out a song like that is 'burning the club.'
The song went viral on YouTube and went viral in the WhatsApp groups of the ultra-Orthodox sector.
On the ultra-Orthodox radio channels, however, the song was not played even once, and his songs that have been played so far have been confiscated.
"I had a blog a few years ago on the website 'In the Haredi Rooms', where every week I blew up a different taboo, but there was one post that provoked the most reactions, and its title was 'Is there love in the Haredi public?'. So that the boys would know that there should be attraction and love, I realized that the way would not be through a blog, because it would not be seen in meetings. Sweet and beautiful followers, you do not need anything other than to try to correct. A song, unlike an internet blog, can reach any mp3 player of yeshiva students, and so it really happened. About the subject".
Some of the ultra-Orthodox musicians participating in the song were debating whether to publish their names.
In the end it was decided yes.
"When the initial video came out of the studio, we were surprised to find that most of the comments were in favor of the topic we opened. After the song came out, I got more than a thousand comments on WhatsApp, most of them from people I don't know at all.
"The song reached yeshivas, young men and students and became a topic in every Hassidic yeshiva, as well as in the Hassidic kollels. I made a ticking video about the reactions. People stopped and talked to me about the song. The same students asked me: How come you are not afraid that a young man from a yeshiva will talk about love? I said to them: Or the Book of Ruth, and of course all the verses in the Torah that talk about love? What am I actually revealing to that guy? Jacob our father was allowed, Solomon was allowed, and I am the one revealing about love? "I should give his wife a hug in front of his children. When I get married, every Saturday night I will give my wife a kiss on the forehead next to all the children and sing her a love song."
People can hear the song, feel they have no love and decide to divorce.
"Look, because this is not the first time I'm talking about love, people are talking to me about their lives, even though I'm not a counselor. And the hardest question I meet in life is really this. A man asks me 'I'm already married, I have seven children And I have no love, what should I do? '
This is the subject that chills me the most and shakes me the most, and I just have nothing to answer it.It's really a huge question, because even if a person has ten children, what kind of house can have children with if there is no love between father and mother?
"Anyway, I'm explicitly written over and over again that I'm only talking to single guys and not married people. I try to make a difference in the first place, not to act among someone who's already married before. "If the song raises questions, what will I do? I have to tell my truth to heal the next generation."
Did the song come with suggestions for a relationship?
"Absolutely. There were also matchmakers who approached, and also women who approached in person through Instagram or WhatsApp, but there was no one suitable. People realized through the song that I was single and looking for love, and began to gently ask what I was looking for. I am looking for someone very specific: a Yiddish-speaking girl, And I'm also looking for someone with a background that is as similar as possible to mine, one who made the move out. Imprinted in my soul.
I'm in serious trouble.
Through the network, the ultra-Orthodox have no option but to find love.
There is no dedicated app, only matchmakers, and a person who has self-awareness - has a hard time with matchmakers. "
Today, as mentioned, in addition to the songs he releases, he is also a kind of network star in the ultra-Orthodox sector, including Batiktok.
"Until a month and a half ago I did not know what Tiktok was. For me it was just a great way to reach more people. When I went in there, I saw that the amount of exposure in Tiktok is more than any other network, and I said to myself: Wow. I really want to influence many. I do not follow content. Problematic, only after my friends. On the third day of my stay in Tiktok, I released a song that I called: 'Dad, I want to keep an eye on Tiktok.' A song that describes this conflict. I am the most open, but also the most conservative. ".
If the Baal Shem Tov were alive today, do you think he would have opened an account in Tiktok?
"Many times I think it could very well be. There's a song I made a clip for in a big movie production, a song called 'Moderator,' and it's based on the words of the Baal Shem Tov. I, in fact, tried to spread things through the clip. If he was alive today and had The talent to understand the media, it is not unreasonable that he would do what I do. "
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