“V’Af Hu” Chazanus With Aryeh Leib Hurwitz and Moti Boyer

Listen to Aryeh Leib Hurwitz and Moti Boyer in a magnificent duet of “V’af Hu Haya Miskaven” Of the Avoda of the Kohen Godol on Yom Kippur.

The Yomim Noraim are full of beautiful melodies, starting from the first night of Selichos, throughout Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, which starts off with Kol Nidrei followed by the sweetest of melodies Yaaleh, Ki hinei Kachomer, and so on and on until the very last blow of the shofar after Neilah!

Almost every song is about praising the almighty, asking for forgiveness, asking for our needs to be taken care of and bringing the ultimate redemption.

There are some exceptions however, namely in the Avoda.

The Avoda is about the service and routine of the holiest man, the Kohen Gadol, in the holiest place, the Beis Hamikdash, on the holiest day of Yom Kippur.

Some aspects of the Avoda are spiritual and others technical. But that’s the genius of Yossele Rosenblatt, more than a century later we’re still singing his compositions such as V’af Hu. Not a prayer, not a tefillah, an Avoda! The steps taken to physically serve hashem in song.

The beautiful shul we filmed in is the 100+ year old Sefardische Shul in Boro Park. The very Shul that Yossele Rosenblatt himself was the chazan, they even have the wooden board he’d stand on while davening, he was a short man and that gave him some inches to work with.

It was an honor and a pleasure to film this video shoot in the sanctuary that heard Yossele’s golden voice, performing this very song. Together with my dear friend Chazan מוטי בויאר Moti Boyer, who in my opinion sounds quite like Rosenblatt himself.

What do you think? Listen and let me know in the comments!

I hope you enjoy, and appreciate the orchestral and choral accompaniment of this tremendous cantorial masterpiece.

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