The new single – ‘Healing with Prayer

Rabbi and guitarist all in one… Asaf Leibowitz
The new single – ‘Healing with Prayer’
(Tipul T’fila)
Assaf Leibowitz (41) was born in Haifa, and he is married and the father of three children. Today he is living in Hod Hasharon and defines himself as a Hasidic Jew and a musician, in that order. Leibowitz, a guitar player and composer on one hand, was assigned as a rabbi by the chief rabbinate of Israel on the other hand (He also served as an army rabbi in the Israeli military reserve forces). "The religious Jewish music and studying the Torah both arrive from one’s soul and they become a way of life," he explains the dialogue between those two seemingly controversial areas.

Assaf’s musical career started long before he became a newly religious Jew. At his youth he had studied in the Rimon School of Music and even collaborated with artists such as Aviv Geffen, who even participated in writing the lyrics to one of the songs in the album. Ever since that time, Lebowitz has moved towards the traditional Jewish lifestyle, and in the recent years he has dedicated himself to learning the Torah and spreading it, and he has also been dedicated to being a Jewish scribe (Sofer STaM). Today he combines the world of the Torah with the world of music, gives lectures on
religious subjects, and is very active in the musical venue.

In his first album which is soon due to be release, Assaf expressed his view of life as one who knows both worlds, the religious and the secular, and he is successful in finding common ground of searching for a meaning and spirituality which unify these sides and create a musical bridge between them. "It has been really difficult to choose the first song to be released to the radio out of all the songs in the album," says Assaf, "but in the end, the song, ‘Healing with Prayer’ (Tipul T’fila), even though its lyrics are strong and protesting, and they express a cry of the soul and a real plea to the Creator. It also carries and important message – the song offers the prayer, and especially a personal prayer which uses the daily language, as a solution to all the misunderstanding and false imaginings that a person goes through."

The music was written by Assaf and the lyrics were written by Assaf in cooperation with his wife Pazit. Some of the best musicians in Israel play in the album, such as
the guitarist Avi Singulada and the musical producer, Dudi Tamir. The first single that
is released on the radio is as mentioned above, ‘Healing with Prayer’ (Tipul T’fila).