SAN DIEGO — Chag Sameach! Happy Holiday! This week’s Lag BaOmer was a day on fire. This is historically the day to signal triumph over oppression, and to drive away a deadly plague. A Lag BaOmer Kumzits, a Yiddish loanword, is a traditional musical gathering, usually by a campfire, meaning come (kum) sit (zit). So come sit, and enjoy Moshav Band’s Lag BaOmer Facebook watch party:
The Moshav Band Facebook watch party is an apt way to share in the celebration and spirit of the Lag BaOmer holiday. The Moshav Band consists of two moshavniks from moshav Mevo Modei’im. Yehuda (vocals, percussion) and Duvid (vocals, guitar) who relate a story in the first minute of their broadcast of a fire that broke out last year during Lag BaOmer at their moshav home, leaving family, friends, and neighbors without a roof over their head. The artists share of their perspective that fire can be used for good and bad, just like anything else, and it can symbolize either destruction or rejuvenation/regeneration. They dedicate their recent song ‘One Step At A Time’ to their moshavniks brethren who are on the way back home, still in the process of rebuilding the moshav after the devastation from the fire.
Lag BaOmer ties the band to where they grew up, a reminder of the cataclysmic event, and the long road back to reestablish the community. It’s a melodious song, and while Duvid begins the sung part, both bandmates soon harmonize, and their harmony, rhythm, and musicality are inviting the listener in to share in their intimate home studio space. The lyrics are instructional, “The crash of the waves coming over us…I can receive anything you’re dealing,” and “One step at a time through the dark night.”
“Abba Shimon,” a song in honor of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, is characterized by Yehuda as “bringing down the deepest secrets,” in reference to the holiness attributed to Rabbi Shimon. Mount Meron is the destination site for the Lag BaOmer pilgrimage, though this year the gathering was, for the most part, a virtual happening. Yehuda and Duvid have previously made the pilgrimage to Mount Meron, and they briefly share their firsthand account of the intense celebratory experience, before jumping into the song, which is a driving, pulsating ditty, a freewheeling simcha song.
The entire concert is an extraordinary jam, with side notes by the bandmates that seem to bring the listeners into the conversation, musical discussions, and musical numbers that cover the gamut of Jewish life, touching on Lag BaOmer, Elijah the Prophet, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and the mundane and of the everyday life. A guest speaker rounds off the concert, as the discussion turns to embracing spiritual love, and spiritual light. Take a listen, skip around, or stay tuned from A to Z, there is much to be thankful for when the Moshav Band goes out to you, so celebrate with their music during this period of Counting of the Omer.
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Omer Zalmonowitz is a writer, musician, and teacher living in Southern California. An enthusiast of all things woodsy and montane. He says his greatest achievement to date is having fallen in love with the world over and over again.