Israeli Talent Comes Together for "Eishet Chayil" Set to "You Raise Me Up"

When talented singers and musicians collaborate to produce a special rendition of a traditional Shabbat eve song, and set it to the melody of a popular English-Irish ballad, the result can be beautiful.

That's what happened when Israeli singer Ohad Moskowitz got together with The Kinderlach, a group of seven pre-teen boys from all over Israel, and Daniel Ahaviel, a British klezmer violinist who made aliyah to Israel in 1988, and sang the song Eishet Chayil at a wedding.

Eishet Chayil is usually sung at home on Friday night before the Shabbat meal is served. Traditionally, a husband sings the song to his wife, extolling her virtues, and expressing thanks for all that his wife has done for him and their family.

The version in this video bypasses the traditional melody, and instead is set to the melody of You Raise Me Up, which has an interesting history.

It was composed originally as an instrumental piece by Rolf Lovland, with parts of the melody based on Londonderry Air, an Irish tune later put to lyrics in 1910 to create the song Danny Boy, now considered an Irish classic. Lovland approached the Irish songwriter Brendan Graham to add lyrics and You Raise Me Up was the result.

It became a huge success in a version produced by David Foster and sung by Josh Groban, reaching the top of the Billboard charts in 2004. It has since been covered more than 125 times, with our favorite version the finale of the Celtic Woman concert at Slane Castle, Ireland in 2006. We've included that version at the end of this blog post. 

Enjoy and Shabbat Shalom!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)