I am laying on my back in my crib looking up at something mildly interesting hanging from somewhere above, it is spinning a tiny bit in the breeze, it is daytime. I am sad, and I can feel the pain of a nation, the pain of the Jews as it is manifested in 1973, the Yom Kippur war, Munich, terrorism, the after shocks of the holocaust. I can feel everything, and it hurts, more than I can express even now, when I can talk and write, but then at six months it was only raw, deep emotional pain. There is hardly a day's break from it, except on that day as I lay back in my crib; I heard something amazing, I felt a great light come into the room, I heard the strains of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's song "Adir Hu" playing and I remember feeling all of a sudden a rush of positive feelings, hope, joy, resoluteness, and above all a sense of gentle but very real strength. It is my earliest memory.
In the same time period, so I'm told, when my parents would go to learn and be with Reb Shlomo in Migdal, they would put me down in the middle of the dancing and singing at Reb Shlomo's home. I don't remember it but apparently I was so elated at being surrounded by people singing and dancing to Reb Shlomo's music, that I would stop crying, which as I'm told was quite novel for me at that age.
So the music soothed my broken heart, and it still does. But what spurs me to action is the awesome contrast that exists in reality. It is this contrast between the great and awful darkness that plagues our world and the great and Holy light of music that stirs me to bring the beauty of Jewish music forward for the world to see.
My path which started with Reb Shlomo's incredible music, has led me to many other gardens of radiance. From the melodies of great Rebbes long past, to my own humble melodies, I have learned and continue to learn what a truly noble heritage Jewish music is. I strive beyond anything else to bring the truth of that heritage to life and realization in this world.