Every song starts with a story, an experience, a person. This one started with a Shabbos last January.
I was asked to lead singing and perform at the Ohel Sarala Shabbaton; all I knew about this movement were the basics:
Singles in shiduchim daven and donate for the couples, couples daven for the singles, and lots of shidduchim happen.
When I faced a sea of hundreds of faces at that Erev Shabbos, I was more than overwhelmed. I was asked to be Motzi the room at hadlakos neiros but couldn't fathom how I could offer a bracha on behalf of a space filled with the immeasurable power of so many fierce tefilos.
Six months later, I was asked to lead the kumzitz at the Ohel Sarala 40-Day Nishmas “Journey to Amukah” event. I joined along in saying Nishmas for forty days with the members of Ohel Sarala. If I was going to lead a Nishmas kumzitz, it felt right.
After several days of saying Nishmas, I realized I wanted to come to this event with a song written for these special young women. I needed it to be my gift to this unique group on a unique night. When I stumbled on this story in Rabbi Sruli Besser’s Nishmas book, I was so taken by it that half a song showed up by itself. Though I had been saying them every Shabbos for years, the words "umibaladecha ein lanu melech" suddenly took on a whole new life for me.
On June 14, mid-song, the music went nearly silent as over 1800 young women sang the words to this chorus, words they already knew but words they now could feel and embody.
A few weeks later, hundreds of ohel Sarala girls in Belgium chanted umibaladecha with me, almost as if they had come in knowing the song. Their song.
As we approach Elul, a unique time when we can ask our Only Father to draw us close and activate his mercy, the words umibaladecha ein lanu melech elah atah take on a deeper significance. I hope this song can enable us to access that connection in our tefillah that we all deserve to feel and merit great yeshuosfor all those waiting.
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