Music that expresses a crying heart.
Hanan Ben Ari in concert (Photo: Tamar Hanan)
It is difficult to put a finger on the exact point of Hanan Ben Ari's "explosion", perhaps because in his short (for now) career, there have already been many peaks and peaks.
Already in his debut single "From Mech Ad Ali" you could recognize his special talent, and the uncompromising depth that combines pop and funk with Jewish soul music.
Later came "Haim Ha'inno Tutit" which became an interrupted radio hit.
Too big a hit.
One that can cage artists.
The kind of hit that can end careers for singers.
He responded to success through his music.
"Wikipedia" was a kind of answer song to "Strawberries".
The authenticity has drained from him.
He became a pop star for everything in the Israeli mainstream, but it was still not the peak.
"The Champion of the World", "If You Want" and of course "Amen for the Children" will come later, as well as an impressive residency in Caesarea, a musical and even a performance in front of the President of the United States.
Sometime between the many explosions, he started performing a relatively small song called "Ella Bi" at concerts.
It started with just a piano, and deep and quiet words about faith - self and in general - about the wounds we carry with us during the journey of life, the questions and dealing with fears, anger and self-pity.
The quiet and simple song developed during Ben Ari's singing into a kind of kicking rock ballad.
It's a song about dancing with God, but despite the cap on Ben Ari's head, it's not necessarily a religious song.
One could easily imagine the "Jews" carrying it out.
After a year or so in which he played the ballad to his audience - he recorded it, and turned it into something completely different.
The same words, but instead of music expressing a crying heart, the final arrangement made it a celebration of life.
Not sure which version is better, but it's just a good song.
The music producer Tomer Biran took Ben Ari's ballad and dressed it up with drum machines, a string orchestra that meets electronic instruments and a lot of richness that combines East and West.
The words are deep and ask to be listened to, but the music demands to be danced.
It could have been the big hit of the era, in which a polarized country is looking for some common dance that will remind us how addicted we are to the blame game, and how much time we waste on arguments and fears.
Ben Ari was supposed to release it last February, but because he recognized the inner dance in it, he decided to postpone the release of the song because of the wave of attacks that took place at the time.
Now, after another tumultuous election campaign, the song has finally been released, and received a relatively cool reception, and for a surprising reason: actually many fans from Ben Ari's "home" crowd rejected the song.
It is very likely that some did not like the "questions" that arise from the song, and certainly not the self-questions that he raised in them.
Others complained about the line "Dancing with God" as if it contained some kind of blasphemy - but the real uproar came from the song's "provocative" music video.
The reason - the clip shows 53 extras who hear the song for the first time and react to it by dancing.
The concept is cute, and the performance - directed by Eitan Cohen, Tomer Biran and Alon Seifert - works excellently.
So what bothered so many people anyway?
Some of the participants in the clip are, heaven forbid, women.
You know, like your mother.
In short, a woman.
In the right-wing and sectoral media, there were big headlines against the music video.
The Serog website, Channel 7 and Channel 14 all treated the matter with exaggeration, and gave a platform for reactions on social networks as if they were the living words of God.
Ironic, given the circumstances.
The headline on Channel 7, "Featuring Dancing Women: Uproar Around Hanan Ben Ari's New Clip", will seem particularly puzzling to the average secular reader, and may even make him think the worst of all about Ben Ari.
One can imagine that the clip features women in thongs rubbing against a striptease pole while they pour sticky maple syrup on each other.
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Dances that express humanity.
Joy but not ecstasy.
One of the women who dances in the music video for "Ella Bi" by Hanan Ben Ari (photo: screenshot, YouTube)
It is important to note that this is not some hip-hop clip that comes to us from Compton, but spontaneous and refined dances by women dressed in the utmost modesty.
There is no "sexy" moment or even suggestive of sexuality in the clip.
The dances there are humanity.
Joy but not ecstasy.
Of course, all this does not matter, if you follow the Halacha - women are not allowed to dance in front of men.
Actually, that's not accurate.
Also according to Judaism, women are allowed to dance as much as they want.
The Jewish sources are full of stories about women going out in dances.
The ban is actually on men, there is no nice way to say it - but the Halacha treats them as uncontrollable horny men, and forbids them to watch dancing women.
The ruling is apparently based on the verse "And you shall not turn after your heart and after your eyes" according to Bambar.
The meaning is clear: what the eye does not see, the heart does not desire.
And here is Hanan ben Ari, trying to challenge the outdated convention and asking everyone to dance with God without distinguishing between gender, race, sex and even religion.
The song was indeed written by a believing Jew, but who determined that only Jews can connect to the universal message in it?
Anyone who has been to Hanan Ben Ari's concert knows that he is a sinner and a big mistake in this sense, because at every concert there are men, women and often children and toddlers standing and dancing.
If making people dance is a sin - then Hanan ben Ari is an infidel.
On the other hand, if someone really believes that the Creator of the world opposes art that causes great happiness for the soul and refines the soul - he has missed the whole point of Judaism.
Is that what you are so afraid of?
A woman dancing in Hanan Ben Ari's music video (photo: screenshot, YouTube)
It's hard not to compare this case with the "uproar" sparked by Assi Cohen's performance at the Tel Aviv Opera House last week.
So, Cohen met an adult crowd that doesn't shy away from his lovers (no, despite the narrative chosen by the network, it really had nothing to do with veganism), and chose to stop his show.
This time those who try to damage Ben Ari's art are his natural audience.
His habitat, so to speak.
When such a silencing attempt comes from within the home, it is certainly more painful, and certainly harder to ignore.
I wonder what will happen now.
Will Ben Ari lower his head in the face of criticism, learn the lesson and follow the path of the generation's tzaddiki in talkbacks - or will he continue on his unique path, with the truth leading his career.
At a time when even the great "secular" artists like Aviv Gefen cower in front of the knights of conservative-primitive morality and wink to the right, it will be hard to blame Hanan Ben Ari if this is the last time we see women dancing in music videos.
On the other hand, precisely in this period when the fundamentalist darkness is trying to take over the Israeli discourse through art, one can only hope that cultural heroes will arise from the right and fight the darkness.
Here is a beautiful idea of coexistence for this nation: Hanan Ben Ari performs together with Chava Elberstein in a duet Yoram Teharlev's great song, "Dancing Women".
Yes, I know the halachic problem with women's singing, of course, but even if there is a drop of sadness in the heart, the feet still keep the rhythm.
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Israeli music
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