SPOTIFY: Lulay Zevi Kaufman
https://open.spotify.com/track/2nbVqzgrKLdrNR6Nh46MSS?si=F1s0IhvITVe8HQhnyOwuPg
GOOGLE PLAY: https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Zevi_Kaufman_Lulay?id=Bfss4fy2jsb6dkn6n7cwsi676u4&hl=en_US
ZEVIKAUFMAN.COM: https://www.zevikaufman.com/
Composed & English Lyrics by: Zevi Kaufman
Musical Arrangement & Piano: Al Schneider
Strings by: Eyal Shiloach & Co
Saxaphone by: Dor Asaraf
Guitars by: Avrumi Lipschitz
Special thanks to Yitzy Berry
Post Production at Cedar Studios, Jerusalem
Graphics by Yocheved Herzog of ThinkInk Creations
Lyric Video by Yossi Zweig
Marketing by Sruly Meyer
LYRICS לוּלֵ֣י ת֭וֹרָתְךָ שַׁעֲשֻׁעָ֑י אָ֝֗ז אָבַ֥דְתִּי בְעָנְיִֽי
(Translation: Were not Your teaching my delight, I would have perished in my impoverished affliction)
(English Bridge) If not for Your תורה
To keep me alive
There would be No way I could survive
If not for Your word
Your eternal decree
My troubles would soon bury me
ABOUT LULAY
As I gaze at the small flickering flame, I can't help but thinking of our journey. Our collective journey, but also my own personal journey. How appropriate that the תורה is compared to light. We can easily appreciate the power of light over darkness, of good over evil. The מפרשים on the פסוק of לולי תורתך elaborate on this essential quality of תורה to illuminate our lives. Not only in the sense of a enhanced spiritual experience, but in the sense of a guiding light, a light that provides complete direction. Lulay is the recognition that only HaShem's Torah is what gives us our identity. It's the realization that without the Gift we received at Sinai we'd be lost in the deepest spiritual poverty. Lulay is the declaration that Torah is not an "extra" , an "enhancement" of the human condition, rather it is the only tool that allows us to discover our true selves on the journey from self-expression to soul-expression, in the service of HaShem. Since the time HaShem gifted me with the inspiration to write the melody and lyrics of this song, it has been a loving tribute of dedication and revelation as to the תורה being the סם חיים ( elixer of life) that we cannot live without. This tune was an outgrowth of those words, hopefully enhancing their relatability in our generation. I wrote Lulay during a time I particularly felt a longing for the reality of the Bais Medrash, during a summer Bein HaZmanim, in NYC, Manhattan, watching many myriads of people floating through the trivialities of the rat race. It welled up within me, giving a voice to what I couldn't express properly with words alone. I thought it would be most appropriate to release this song on Chanukah, in the spirit of illumination, in honor of those completing Shas, the Daf HaYomi. The men who recognize that consistent Torah is their vitality. It is my fervent hope and prayer that through incorporation of this theme of Lulay, Klal Yisrael will be inspired to a renewed and reinvigorated appreciation for the centrality and necessity of a life permeated with Torah and an enhanced Avodas HaShem.
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