Life’s rhythms are such that much will be missed when and if the bass bleeds into the silent beats, aka the space between the notes. Starts and stops, drum fills and not, guitar romps that go on and on—in some respects, as a humanities professor said to me a lifetime ago, the need for constant noise results from the fear of being alone, of contemplating the state of one’s life. Silence seeds reflection, reflection feeds growth; to look back is to look forward, in a sense, just as facing the pain of a broken heart helps heal it. But not all are prepared—or equipped—to deal with such things. They drown out their internal maelstroms with external sound, whether from a TV, radio or, increasingly, any of the many streaming services.
Religion and the faithful, however, offer much insight into navigating this thing we call life; one need not be a believer to learn from them. Rabbi Menachem Mendel, a prominent 18th-century figure within Hasidic Judaism, is remembered for his wisdom, for example. Among his teachings: “There is nothing so whole as a broken heart” and “there is no light like that which comes from great darkness.” The aphorisms may sound at odds with themselves, but as singer-songwriter Levi Robin—who embraced Hasidic Judaism after coming if age in a non-observant Jewish household in Southern California—observes, “I’ve seen that when I allow myself to take on the bitter and broken, letting the walls of my heart break in humble surrender, then the bitter turns to sweet, and the brokenness turns into fertile soil, in which ‘those who sow in tears will reap in joy.’”
“Whole as a Broken Heart,” his latest single, resulted from a chance meeting with producer Yoel Kreisler, aka Fraymes, following a 2023 concert. The two instantly hit it off; their meeting of the minds continued when they entered the studio, where they worked fast to keep stagnation at bay. The song’s arrangement echoes the ebbs and flows of conversation, while stacks of harmonies add an ethereal quality. Robin’s lyrics embrace the wisdom espoused by Mendel and other philosophers. It’s quite cool.
The Old Grey Cat 