Jewish Rap Singer Awarded Semicha During Tzfas Concert
Rap artist Ari Lesser, after studying for rabbinic ordination for three years, received his semicha certificate from Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein in a surprise twist to a Lag Ba Omer performance at Yeshiva Temimei Darech in Tsfat Monday night.
by COLlive Editor · COLliveRap artist Ari Lesser, after studying for rabbinic ordination for three years, received his semicha certificate from Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein in a surprise twist to a Lag Ba Omer performance at Yeshiva Temimei Darech in Tsfat Monday night.
A visibly moved Lesser, known for his colorful educational raps incorporating Torah and Tehillim passages with advocacy for Israel and the Jewish people, broke into dance and the punchy “Sisa v’simcha…” niggun waving the parchment for the audience to behold.
In a dramatic lead-up to conferring the certificate, Rabbi Goldstein, whose well-known home study ordination program and halachic study seforim were vehicles for Lesser’s efforts, cited the connectivity and meaningfulness of the original Lag BaOmer story figures to modern-day rabbinic ordination.
“Lag Ba Omer is not just the day of Rabbi Shimon’s passing,” Rabbi Goldstein, adjunct faculty at the yeshiva, told a responsive crowd. “It’s the continuity of Torah Sheba’al Peh (the Oral Torah). The continuity of this yeshiva and every yeshiva in the world is literally dependent on this day and the fact that Rabbi Akiva was successful in giving semicha to five new students from whom the entire Torah spread.”
Annual Lag BaOmer celebrations worldwide mark not only the yom hilula of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on the 18th of Iyar, but also commemorate the cessation of 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva’s students dying in a plague, after which 5 luminous learners became his students, including the Rashbi.
“There is a very special yid who is with us here tonight who came from very far and also worked very hard to do his semicha,” said Goldstein. “It took over 50 tests and 40 analytical essay assignments. He successfully passed all those tests, including the oral exam. It is my great honor and privilege to present Ari Lesser, Rabbi Ari Lesser with semicha certification.”
Impact of the impromptu ceremony was heightened by the fact that Lesser was an early alum of the yeshiva that was founded in 2009 for English-speaking male baalei teshuva. Lesser made fast headway in his studies at the yeshiva under Rosh Yeshiva and yeshiva founder, Rabbi Shalom Pasternak, departed, then married and had children and engaged with the semicha program from his home in Beachwood, Ohio, around a busy schedule.
It was Lesser’s third appearance as headliner for the yeshiva’s annual Lag BaOmer One Flame Festival, this year celebrating the special 7th in the series.
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