Mystic Light Chanukah party
Mystic Light Chanukah partyCredit: Gavriel Saks

Shlomo Katz Shlomo Katz will be the headliner at the fifth annual Mystic Lights Hanukkah celebration in Jerusalem. Also performing will be Yerachmiel Ziegler of Little Apple Studios and Gavriel Saks who will be debuting his new band Paradox Garden.

The event is sponsored by Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo. The head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Shalom Brodt, will lead the candle lighting prayers and accompanied by stories and Torah lessons. The yeshiva was founded by students of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.

Gavriel Saks spoke to Arutz Sheva's Israel Beat Jewish Music Podcast about the event. For the full interview click here.

"It will be the last night of Hanukkah and we will do a musical menorah lighting as we always do," the singer and pianist stated.

Saks has co-authored several Chanukah themed songs. One, composed with Yerachmiel Ziegler, is entitled Chasof.

"The Hebrew lyrics are from the last verse of Maoz Tzur," Saks related. "The way I feel about it, is that we celebrate the Hanukkah miracles, but the fact is the Jewish people are still in dark places and have been since the miracles first happened. So we are asking G-d to reveal his arm and his strength and show us miracles once again."

There is also an accompanying video slideshow containing historic footage. "It shows the darkness the Jews have been through," said Saks of the video. "It is in this darkness that the light will eventually shine. There is a dark background, but we are asking G-d to shine the light even brighter."

Another song the two perform together is Days of Light, a catchy, upbeat original English song.

The event will take place at the Netzach Yishai music hall in the Mei Niftoach valley in north Jerusalem. Netzach Yishai was established in honor of IDF Lt. Yishai Schachter.

The music hall is part of the effort to revitalize the area which has remained mostly vacant for decades. Also known as Lifta valley, the area contains crumbling abandoned buildings but also rolling green hills, and a spring with connects to an ancient aqueduct making it popular for hikers.

The concert will take place Saturday night December 15th at 7:30pm.

For the full interview on the Mystic Lights Hanukkah concert, plus a music mix of new, and different Hanukkah songs, download the latest episode of the Israel Beat Jewish Music Podcast by clicking here.

Ben Bresky is a music journalist living in Jerusalem. He hosts The Israel Beat Jewish Music Podcast interviewing a wide range of Jewish and Israeli musicians from Carlebach to klezmer, from hasidic to trance. For mp3 archives click here. For Facebookclick here. For Twitter click here.