Purim Countdown Continues with a Purim Poetry Slam by Ari Lesser

Ari Lesser is an American Orthodox Jewish rapper, singer, songwriter, and spoken word artist. Since 2010, he has released thirteen albums and has collaborated with artists like Gad Elbaz, Lipa Schmeltzer, Kosha Dillz, and C Lanzbom.

After graduation from the University of Oregon, Lesser worked as a musician in Los Angeles, where he became known in the "hippie jam band" scene. While working on his first album there, his financer, a Rastafarian selling Medical Marijuana, gave him a copy of Psalms.

Lesser found that he related to King David as a songwriter and started rhyming the psalms; this ultimately led him to a deeper interest in Torah and his Jewish roots, and he became a baal teshuva^. He visited Israel on a Taglit-Birthright trip that he ended up extending to ten months, during which he studied at Yeshiva Temimei Darech in Safed and Mayanot in Jerusalem.

In this Purim video, Ari raps about the Jewish people's survival against all odds as vividly demonstrated by the story of Purim.  The illustrations in the video are by H. Cowland.

Enjoy!

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.