Interview with Simcha Leiner: Getting Up When Your Down

and I was so burnt out I had no left in me I had no I I was done I was completely done um and as a result of that like I didn't know how I was going to continue and when the Live Events were getting back into it I would have to go out and just you know go back to my very energetic jumping around self That I Used to Be hi everybody it's Arya fingerer and welcome back to the Jewish and joyful podcast this we got to sit with one of the top singers in the Jewish music world Simer he spoke about being Jewish and joyful and he spoke about the connection between happiness and music and growing through music and more topics so hope you enjoy this interview we have many more incredible guests and content coming soon so please follow subscribe for more our podcast is available on all streaming platforms like to thank our mura for the Revolutionary project that changed in the world the Hebrew English mura and to receive brief inspiration and beautiful ADV sh Shava stable subscribe to par knowledge by emailing parled gmail.com we visit Parish knowledge.com more information please see the show notes and now let's get straight into the interview we're going to ask the first question what does Jewish and joyful mean to you so let's get started enjoy the six interview with Sim liner okay how are you Sim please tell us what is Jewish and joyful mean to you Jewish and joyful well I think those are two very separate things but uh when you put the two together you get the next level of Joyful Joyful could be both Jewish and it could be both mundane things but when you take something joyful and make it Jewish then you elevate it to a point where it's actually has a purpose to help you be a better Jew and once the connection to music achieving happiness and growth through music um music is really part of our Lives even from you know the beginning of Jewish history times of the bkash music was a major um contributing factor to Aida and I feel like uh they had more music in their Fila than than we have today so even going back you know over 2,000 years we see that music has been a source of emotion and the same way emotion can be powerful during be something special to you know ignite a feeling in you that uh can help you become close to Hashem the same way that uh and music can move someone in a serious note obviously the same way it can be applied to put someone in a good mood keep them happy make them happy in a time when they're not but you know what sometimes when you're not in the best of moods listening to a sad song is just as important listening to something emotional could be just as powerful as uh trying to you know get yourself into a good mood and become happy so I really think that everyone should know the power of music and use it to uh hopefully become a better you my whole life is is is the story of making people happy with with Jewish music you know there's a very uh common feeling that anyone that uh does this for a living does this full-time um will tell you that there are moments when you get you know p and you're doing your third show in one day and all the people standing you know the crowd sitting in the crowd they're like ready to go they're waited all afternoon for this they're waited all you know for this night uh show to start and as you uh are about to get out there you're exhausted you have no interest you're traveling all day this the third time you're about to sing the same songs in one day and you say how how how you gonna you know how you gonna feel anything and then you put that feeling aside and you remember what your tasket is and you remember what you're here for for and what you're doing and the person that usually ends up becoming the most joyful and the most happy out of it is me basically anyone that tells you that you don't have anyone that that does this full-time does this you know for a living um and tells you that this doesn't happen is not telling you the truth because uh this is part of the part of your TK is is is overcoming these type of challenges and and uh reflecting off the crowd when there's a time that you're going through something hard you have a challenge or something give a motivation inspiration to help you get through that time cuz you're going into a crowd let's say you had a hard night or something how do you deal with that emotion right that's a good question every time is a every time is a little bit different and you have to uh find that person in the crowd that's that's getting an amazing amount of joy out of what you're doing and and use that to uh turn that into a mirror who is the happiest person that you know yeah who's the happiest person that I know um a good question but I I could probably selfishly say that I'm probably the happiest person I know I happen to uh to be very grateful and I have a lot of AAR to the things around me not just to the people around me you know like I I always say when I sing a song like a Karama or ribono or you know the a song like home for my last album that people really enjoy people you know request them and ask to hear it sung I I have a car typ to those songs because without them you know I don't know if I would be on the stage that I'm singing that song on so I I think that kind of mindset is very very helpful in just being a happy person and uh being a joyful person 100% yeah but 100% you could be motive to things not just people during Co so obviously for people like singers it was the an instant shutdown for our line of work our parasa um we couldn't do anything that involves a crowd and that's what we uh live our lives you know based around so for most singers that just became a time to just you know bunker down and wait for things to pass on by and uh you know just take it easy or something like that and I'm not sure why but I don't do well with sitting in one place for too long so instead I set up my garage to be a like a mobile video studio and every single night we had thousands of people this went on for weeks for weeks every uh month of shabas I would publish a schedule of what I planned on doing the next week to the extent that by the time Co was sort of over you know to to the extent that people were starting to get back together you know and and be outside I had already you know done hundreds of live shows online and released special things in honor of you know people s being home I did HAL ones I did C shabas on Fridays everything you can imagine and I was so burnt out I had no purose left in me had no I I was done I was completely done um and I was as a result of that like I didn't know how I was going to continue and when the Live Events were getting back into it I would have to go out and just you know go back to my very energetic jumping around self that I used to be um and in the beginning it was very hard until every single night the amount of people that would come over to me and say like we could not manage if not for something every single day to look forward to and every single day my kids would know that if they do X Y and Z if they attend their school conference call if they all this stuff they know that they're going to be able to watch the live stream that you were doing and all around the world I have people from South Africa Mexico Brazil Israel France Russia like everywhere they knew that they would be able to log in at night and that was like all I needed to hear to uh like completely be ready to hit the ground running again once uh we were out there that uh that's my job this is my this is what I'm here for yeah I have an album mem coming out it's Miss gonna be a album um a project relax style you know an hour and a half long all live Jewish music as Jewish as it comes beautiful songs songs that you know songs that you don't know um but even if you're not getting married or even if you are married it's still going to be an album that you want to listen to and I uh look forward to getting your reaction to it yes and just end off how would you explain the real power of music the true power of music the the first thing that happens when a baby is born is their uh their heartbeat beats on their own right that's they're they're finally disconnected from the of you know life that they had before that and they're on their own and the first thing that indicates you know that a baby is on their own is the heartbeat right and the heartbeat is inborn time time that every single person has now anytime someone's nervous what happens their heartbeat picks up their Rhythm their speed gets you know when someone has anxiety it's all over the place it's they're not they their heartbeat is getting faster is getting slower when someone's having a very calm experience their heartbeat calms down slows down this is rhythm this is the foundation the fundamentals of all music music revolves around Tempo it revolves around the Rhythm like a heartbeat so when you begin to appreciate that music is essentially the same thing as your lifeblood it's essentially the same thing as what keeps you alive then you can appreciate how powerful music is and that's why you know if someone wants to needs to pick me up they put on something upbeat a fast-paced music it it their body starts to be picked up with it and this is just the from a purely physical you know perspective the influence that you have to understand then that you know music has from a r level is a whole different world but just from understanding the beer bone basic you know basics of music just think of it as the same way your body has a rhythm the same way music has a rhythm and uh put the two together can really change your life amazing all right thank you so much for coming on Pleasure hope you all enjoyed this week's episode with some kiner please remember to check out our mission breu the Revolutionary project that Chang of the world and para knowledge receive Torah thought stories and inspiration ly paraa if you like to sponsor or dedicate an episode please call 646 3972 320 we are having some more incredible guests and content coming stay tuned follow subscribe for more on podast is available on all streaming platforms and you can also join our email list by emailing par knowledge gmail.com so thank you for listening and have an amazing day Jewish and joyful Jewish and joyful even when you pop a string you still got to do [Music] your