24 Sep THE POWER OF MUSIC LIVING A JEWISH AND JOYFUL LIFE WITH YAAKOV SHWEKEY

Aryeh: Music has the power to uplift, to
inspire, to elevate, and to transform a
person. In the times of the Holy Temple,
in the Beis Hamikdash, the Leviim were
engrossed in music. They used to always
play and connect to Hashem Beshira
u’vezimra, with joyous songs. With music,
you’ll be able to reach the most loftiest
levels, spiritual levels. That’s the power
and the greatness of music. But like other
things, if used in the wrong way, it could be
detrimental to a person. It could be terrible
for a person. It could ruin the person.
An idea I heard from my father is that
medicine if used correctly, could be greatly
beneficial to the person. Medicine, if used
the right way, could greatly benefit a
person. But if medicine is used in the wrong
way, it could kill a person. We can compare
it to music. Music, if done and used the
right way, could spiritually uplift someone.
It could give someone the power to move
on. There are so many countless stories
of people who got inspired by music and
how they got a new outlook on life. Or how
music brought people back to Yiddishkeit.

Similarly, Shir, the Hebrew word for music,
has the same letters as yashar, which
means upright. This is teaching us that if
you want to listen to music, if you want
to connect to music, you have to do it
upright. Because if you don’t, it could be
terrible for you. It could be terrible for
your neshamah. It could destroy a person.
It could destroy a soul. We have to realize
the power of music and how great music
is. And since it’s so great, we have to be so
careful.
With Hashem’s help very, very soon we
should merit to see Moshiach, in our
days. And we’ll all sing together with the
Leviyim, beshira u’vzimrah, in the holy
Beis Hamikdash.
Welcome Yaakov, please tell us a bit about
yourself and your background.
Yaakov: Thank you for having me on! I
have a pretty diverse background. The
Sephardic side is my father. My mother’s
the Ashkenaz side. My mother was born
in the DP camps in Germany, so, I have
opposite backgrounds from both sides. I

use it in music. the Sephardic side of music,
the Israeli side of music, and also Hasidic,
and also regular music.
Aryeh: We are talking about being Jewish
and joyful. From a music perspective, what
would you say is the connection between
happiness and music, and growing
through music?
Yaakov: The tool of music and the gift of
music to the world is so incredible. The
Vilna Gaon writes that if there wasn’t
Torah, he would be dealing with music all
day long. The Beis Hamikdash was full of
music. David HaMelech, King David, who
wrote the Tehillim that we say till today, is
filled with songs.
The Gemara says that Dovid used to get up
on Chatzois and sing. The Chasam Sofer
said that he was willing to give one-third
of his olam haba to know how to sing.
Why? Because singing and music is an
expression of the soul. The Lubavitcher
Rebbe said it’s the pen of the soul, and you
want to express that. Baruch Hashem, we
recently came out with a brand-new song,
Guf Uneshama. It’s the Guf Uneshama, it’s
your Neshama that wants to express and
connect. Of course, you have to take care
of your guf (soul) in this world, but the
main song within is from the Neshama,
and the Neshama wants to sing.
Singing is an expression of spirituality. Our
natural thirst is to connect to the Creator,

and of course, Torah is the way, but the gift
of music is there as a conduit for us to get
a lot closer.
Aryeh: Unfortunately, a lot of people use
music to disconnect. What advice would

you give to someone listening to non-
Jewish music and could you explain how

bad it is for the Neshama? A lot of people
don’t realize the negative effects of it right
away.
Yaakov: Well, I can tell you I that I have
countless stories of people who have come
over to me over the years and said, thank
you for your music… You should know that
they told me the one thing that changed
their life is once they heard and connected
to the music, they wanted to stop listening
to non-Jewish music, and the music that
has steered them the wrong way. That’s
how much music makes an impression on
the soul. People don’t realize this. It says
it all over in seforim, whatever you hear,
whatever you see, makes a huge impression
on you, even though you may not realize it.
They say a beautiful thing, they ask, why
don’t you make a bracha on music? You
make a bracha on b’samim, you should
make a bracha on music. So, they answer,
music bypasses all the Guf and goes right
to the neshama. Music goes straight to
the soul. You don’t make a bracha on
something that bypasses the physical, and
it goes straight, straight through, and it hits
the soul.

The non-jews out there have billions of
people. They aren’t worried about that.
They don’t care about the effects of music.
For them it’s a business, and they want
you to hear what’s a hook song. You know,
in our industry a lot of times people say,
let’s make a hit song, and I always say
it’s not about a hit song, it’s about your
inspiration, and you speaking it to the
world. If it becomes popular, it becomes
popular, that’s great.
Our goals should be how to express what
inspires us. Everybody has a different song
to say, you know, there’s so many beautiful
neshamas out there that know how to sing,
and everybody has their taste, and their
way, and Hashem wants a world where we
all sing in unison different types of songs.

I’ll never forget, I was in Manhattan years
ago, I think it was a Hasc concert, and I
stayed overnight there because it was very
late. In the morning, I went to the Safra
Synagogue in Manhattan, and someone
came over to me, right after davening
with his tefillin on. He says, you know, I’m
so happy that I see you, I never thought I
was going to meet you, He said I’m from,
Paris, and the reason I’m wearing tefillin
is because of your music. He said that he
grew up in a non-religious house, and
somebody got him my music, and he was
able to connect through the music, and it
made me change everything. I told him,
that I was so happy that I was able to stay
overnight and come to hear that.
It doesn’t get old, it’s not only me, I’m
sure Carlbach and many others had so
many beautiful stories, because of Jewish
music. If you do it for the right reason, and
you’re singing the right messages, when
you explain to them what V’hi Sha’amda
means, and when you explain to them, you
know, what, what, what, you know, Shema
Yisrael means, and now Guf Uneshama,
and now everything that you’re doing, it,
and then you put it into music, the gift of
music is something that is so great. I see it
with special children, special children are
known to be very, very high in Neshamas,
my wife has the special children center.
When I sing there each one of them lights

up. As soon as you start a niggun, they
start going wild, because it’s all Neshama,
they are all Neshama, and you can see
it that no matter what challenges they
have, everything goes out the window
when a song starts. It’s a very big gift, it’s
a great gift. Obviously it’s there to enhance
Yiddishkeit, and it’s there too uplift us.
Especially in our generation, where we
have a lot of things going on. We have a
lot of sadness now because of the war and
the general challenging things in our lives.
The journey of life takes you on a road
sometimes, where the niggun you sing is,
is an expression of hope, an expression of
sadness for things that are happening, and
people that are being lost at a young age,
but at the end of the day, Hashem wants
us to be b’simcha. Hashem wants us to be
happy.
B’simcha is the same letters as Machshova.

Machshova and b’simcha are the same
letters, because to have joy, and to have
happiness, it all starts in the mind, and
if you think happy, and if you listen to a
song, and get into the song it can change
you.
I’ll tell you what to do – somebody sent
out a text before Shabbos to me, that if
you explain to people the words of the
niggun, if you explain to people the, the
meaning of the song, and then you sing it,
the neshama has a much higher reach to
where it’s going to reach.

Aryeh: Rav Pam said that the city of
happiness is in the state of mind.
Yaakov: That’s exactly what it is. As we said
it’s proven in the letters. It’s great that you
have this podcast, because people can
listen, and people could connect through
here and understand that joy is everything,
everything about Judaism is joy.

They asked the holy Arizal how he got to
where he is in life and how he got to such
a high level in Judaism. He said one word,
joy. Through his simcha he reached such a
high level.
Yes, there are many challenges, but if we
look at what we call the small things in
life, the fact that we wake up. We won’t
stop thanking Hashem. A little while ago,
my wife brought the mother of a hostage
taken in Gaza, and she invited her to my
house. And we took her around to schools.
She’s going through tremendous sorrow
with her son, you know, not coming out.
However, at the end of the day, she said, I
wake up and the fact that I woke up in the
morning is incredible. I thank Hashem that
I’m able to get up and express to Him how
much I owe Him.
The sefarim asks, in Modeh Ani why do
you say emunoshecha? What’s that extra
word? You say, you could just say, thank
you Hashem. Thank you. Why do you say
emunoshecha? They say emunoshecha is
your Emunah in Me. Hashem returns our
soul because he believes in us. That’s why
when asked what the hardest mitzvah was,
the Vilna Gaon said, the hardest mitzvah
is to be happy all seven days of Sukkos
because there is a mitzvah every second to
be happy. It’s a tremendous avodah to be
connected through joy. Now, is it always
easy? No, but it’s extremely important.
It’s probably the greatest ingredient in
Judaism – joy and simcha. You put on your
tefillin, do it with simcha. Do everything
with simcha. It’s probably the greatest
ingredient we have. No question about it.
A great way to inspire yourself on this topic
is to get books and seforim on simcha.
Get Gateway to Happiness by Rabbi Zelig
Pliskin. It’s phenomenal. One of the things
he says there is that he took a group of
students in Israel, and he asked them to
write something they were grateful for.
One man wrote down coffee. He says, now
think about coffee for 10 minutes and how
it got to your table. The guy had to grind
it. He had to work on the field. He had to
make the beans. They had to ship it with

and so forth. There was a whole list. The
student thought it’s going to take him 10
minutes. It took him an hour and he could
have spent another five hours on how that
coffee came to his table. And when you
think, when you use your mind, when you
use your mind to appreciate even a coffee.
Whenever I have a cup, a cup of coffee, I
don’t think for an hour. But we can take a
few seconds. If we take some time to think
about these things, how a shirt is made,
how I got this jacket, how many hours did
they spend making this jacket for me?
You could go on and on and on thinking
about how things are made and how
Hashem gave us, especially in our
generation where we so much. The poorest
guy today is richer than any Prince or King
of a hundred years ago.
But again, physicality doesn’t always
equal joy just because you have a lot. You
can have a lot of physical things, but you
must use your mind to appreciate it, to
appreciate those things. And if you use
your mind, to appreciate and understand
what we have and how it got there. And
then you listen to a song and you’re able to
express through, through a song, what it is
that you’re feeling. That’s, Hashem wants
that.

Aryeh: Who is the happiest person that
you know?
Yaakov: That’s a good question because
happiness at times is not external, you
can’t tell externally if somebody’s happy
because we said it’s in the mind. It’s very
hard to go into someone’s mind. However,
I’ll say it’s the people in the Kollel that I see
every day here in Deal.
I see guys that don’t miss a seder and they
come and learn, and they pour their hearts
out into the Torah because Torah has a way
of satiating the soul and also giving it that
joy. There’s no better joy than to connect
to the infinity, to connect to the Torah. So,
I will say the people that I see daily in my
Kollel are the happiest people I know. I do
see a lot of happiness and joy there.

Aryeh: Thank you for coming!

Yaakov: Thank you for having me! Keep it
up for Klal Israel. They need it more than
ever now with this war and everything
that’s happening now. We’ve got to work
on it. It’s reading books on Simcha and
Chizuk, that helps tremendously. We have
some special music that was just released
so that should hopefully inspire many
people. With Hashem’s help very soon, we
should dance in the Beis Hamikdash.
Aryeh: I hope you all enjoyed this interview
with Yaakov Shwekey. I hope you got more
of an understanding of the power of music
and how careful you have to be with what
you enter into your Neshama. It’s hard for

everyone, but this is not just with hearing,
it’s also with seeing. We have to be careful
with what we watch, and what we look at.
We all have challenges, we all have trials
and tribulations, and at times we do fall,
but we have to remember to get back
up. Hashem made us human. We’re not
sticks and stones. We have challenges, we
have temptations. And if we do fall, if we
realize it’s not what defines us. There are
going to be some incredible guests and
content coming soon on our podcast. We
are available on all main platforms. For
feedback or to join our email list, please
email us at jewishnjoyful@gmail.com.