Dear friends,

A month before October 7th, I moved to the U.S. from Israel with a quiet conviction that I had light to share and music to spread here. Despite having had the zechut to spend most of my life in our homeland, I felt a calling to pick up and move for a handful of years.

I never could have imagined how drastically the world would shift just weeks later. Since that day, it feels like something has awakened for us Jews in America. It has stirred a deep, soul-level communal calling.

What once felt like a far-off dream I’d hear whispered at 4am farbrengens, that “someday we’d all return to the rebuilt Beit Hamikdash” suddenly feels close – like the horizon line has inched nearer. Like the end of days is unfolding before our eyes.

May we merit to have the perspective to see beyond our (very legitimate) fear; and into the promise that’s waiting just beyond the smoke.

The album started with no plan/theme. We just knew it was going to be a collection of songs for the soul.What unfolded (through Hashem’s infinite wisdom) was a theme linking every track to one central place: the Beit Hamikdash. Not only the structure, but its essence; a house of prayer for all nations, a vessel of sacred togetherness, singing, unity, and light.

From upbeat rhythms that echo in your chest, to quiet melodies that feel like whispered tefilla in a darkened room, the album spans sounds, languages, and soul-journeys. There’s a “Holy Song” that began with Elimelech and somehow found its way to completion through a dream I had.

A song scribbled at a Jerusalem bus stop during my teenage years, which waited patiently for more than a decade to become the title-track of this album.

A reimagined, powerful MBD hit that blew open my young heart the first time I heard it and a soul-stirring take on the Besht Niggun – my favorite, and fittingly, the niggun named for the man I’m named after.

I’m deeply grateful to the friends and collaborators who lent their voices and hearts to this album: Alex Clare, Moshav Band, and of course, Mendy — the other half of my musical neshama, who produced this record with stunning artistry, heartistry, groove, and soul.

I’m not sure these are the songs for the Beit Hamikdash – that album’s still to come, and as a Levi, I’m doing my best to be ready for it. But I hope & pray that these are some of the songs that perhaps, we sing on the way there.

I hope that these are songs for the trek, for the waiting. Songs to loop in your headphones as you walk dusty roads with tear-filled eyes and stubborn hope as you keep your yearning alive.

Songs that remind us to keep building, keep believing, keep singing, with our eyes on the prize.

And maybe, when I return to our Holy land, I won’t be going back alone.

We’ll all be going together, k’ish echad b’lev echad, to the House of Prayer.

With a heart filled with deep love and gratitude,

Israel Portnoy / ישראל פורטנוי

TYH NATION