The Cantor from America: "All My Life I Dreamed of Everything Except Being a Kollel Scholar"

"All my life I dreamed of everything except being a kollel scholar, but cantorial singing and piyutim led me to the kollel," says Yishai Ben Chaim (44), a well-known cantor and singer in Israel and abroad. Ben Chaim began his life in the national-religious sector. At enlistment age, he joined the IDF and served in a highly classified unit. After his discharge, he started to realize his musical and poetic talents, and unexpectedly found himself studying Torah in a kollel, up to this day.

I know music has the power to open the heart and emotions, but to the extent that you decided to leave everything and become a kollel scholar?

"You're right, music has sublime powers to change a person, cause him to repent, and elevate him to great heights. As the Vilna Gaon says: 'Most of the meanings of Torah and secrets of the Levitical songs and secrets of the Tikunei Zohar cannot be known without it, and it can revive the dead with its secrets (from the introduction to the book Pe'at Hashulchan)'. Hence, one of the great foundations and tasks in the Hasidic sector is singing and playing music. But that's not what led me to the kollel; there are things greater than music."

I can't believe that as a music person you talk this way; what's greater than music to someone for whom cantorial singing and piyutim are second nature?

"There is something greater than everything, and that is the woman. A woman has the power to destroy towers and the power to build mountains, and I'll elaborate. As a 23-year-old after completing my military service, my father invited me to travel with him to South America, to Mexico, to stay there during the High Holidays. My father is a known singer, and therefore it was natural that he would want to teach me the secrets of the profession in real time. On our way to Mexico, we had a stopover in New York for a few days. During our stay there, I was offered a match, a good girl from the Bukharian community. I said to myself, 'Maybe it was ordained from heaven that we stop in New York, so the match could emerge from there?' During the meetings, I realized that the girl offered was much more religious than I was, as at that time, I wasn't really devout. But you can't give up on such quality just because of being overly religious, so I continued with the match and meetings. After several meetings when the match seemed nearly final, the girl imposed a very difficult requirement on me: 'I want you to go to the kollel and study Torah after the wedding,' she told me, plain and simple. Like Rachel, the wife of Rabbi Akiva. I'm not like Rabbi Akiva, but she probably is like Rachel, and maybe that's enough."

What do you do with such a demand to leave the cantorial journey around the world and settle in a kollel?

"My great fortune was that it fell during the High Holidays season. I told the girl to let me pass this uplifting period, I would ask the Master of the Universe to guide me in the right path for me, and then it would be much easier for me to decide."

The Match for the Kollel

If you're studying in a kollel today, can I infer that you decided to continue with the match?

"No, you cannot draw that conclusion because the girl I met had a demand that I be in the kollel only for two years; she just wanted me to absorb a bit of the Torah's essence, infuse the home with spirituality, and then go out to provide for the home. But today, twenty-one years later, I'm still in the kollel, at least in the afternoons."

Well, don't keep me in suspense, did the match succeed or not?

"Surely the match succeeded, beyond expectations. I agreed to her strict demand, and the two years she wanted me in the kollel extended to over twenty years. But make no mistake, you can't take cantorial singing and piyutim away from someone for whom it's a part. Therefore, I continue to fly to America and embellish with piyutim in the synagogues of the Bukharian and Halabi communities in New York."

Is the kollel on the plane? How do you combine the two?

"The kollel I study at is called 'Midrash Shmuel' in the Bukharim neighborhood in Jerusalem, where I am daily. The flights and everything else are only during the holiday seasons. The kollel is with me, and between singing piyutim, I slip in to the precious Jews a novel interpretation or a law. Along the way, it's also a holiday visit to my wife's family living in America."

How did you manage to last so long in the kollel, while also not giving up on your unique capabilities in cantorial music?

"As I said earlier, everything depends on the woman. Secondly, I was privileged to have a personal accompaniment from Rabbi Reuven Elbaz, the head of Yeshivat Ohr HaChaim, who has been guiding me ever since I was in the army. Every step, however small, in my life, I consult with him, and when you listen to the voice of great Sages of Israel, you never lose."

And Lead Us Not Into Temptation

A very big test, isn't it?

"As someone who performs on stages, I'll reveal to you that there are bigger tests. It was during a Bar Mitzvah Shabbat I was invited to in Afula. I arrived for the Shacharit prayer on Shabbat morning and immediately understood I was dealing with a secular family. The prayer was filled with numerous special songs, cantorial singing, and piyutim. After the prayer, we went down to Kiddush in the dining room, and there I saw waiting for me a full orchestra of musicians, in the middle of Shabbat day, and I was supposed to be the lead singer. At that moment, I wanted to swallow myself into the ground, I told myself, 'Just now, you turn and run away,' but in a split second, someone noticed and immediately ordered all the musicians to stop. I stayed at the Bar Mitzvah and performed special cantorial singing and piyutim until the point where the Bar Mitzvah boy was supposed to give a speech, and suddenly they brought him a microphone, because not everyone could hear, and at the same time all the cameras started to come out. I didn't say much, I stood up and left. It's a very big test to be one and only, in front of an audience that doesn't understand what you're talking about."

Finally, tell me what excites you most in cantorial singing?

"What excites me the most is standing before a crowd of 300 people on the great and terrible Yom Kippur night and singing the piece 'Lecha Eli', trembling with fear, as I stand before Hashem, representing a crowd of hundreds. It's a heavy responsibility, an immense and touching joy."

When I heard Ben Chaim's piyutim on his disc called 'Adon Haslichot', I understood what excitement he was talking about.