“Lishmah” record release party at Union Hall, Brooklyn, NY

Shir Yaakov — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:23:53 +0000

At the Limmud UK Gala

Shir Yaakov — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:03:24 +0000

Eprhyme and Shir Yaakov here, reporting from England where Darshan has just participated in the biggest Limmud conference ever! About 2,500 people from all over the world, and across the denominational spectrum converged on the University of Warwick for an unbelievable week of learning, laughing and living as if our connections were more important than our differences. Quite refreshing, considering that most of the time we humans seem to remain fixated on what separates us, at the expense of the underlying theological basis of our Jewish faith — namely that all is truly One.

We were quite busy at the conference, doing everything from a Friday Night Fabrengen to a Melavah Malkah to a large, plugged-in on-stage performance to mystical text and Torah study to teaching five year-olds how to beat box.

We also had the blessing to meet and mingle with some amazing lights of the Jewish world — filmmaker Pearl Gluck, Israeli pop icon Kobi Oz, mystical mench Rabbi Simon Jacobson, radical non-dual polymath Jay Michaelson, arts & culture maven Joel Stanley, Jewish rockers Naomi Less and Glenn Grossman… not to forget David “The Hoff” Hoffman.

Thank G!D, Darshan was extremely well received — from the youths and teenagers to the elders and scholars of the conference. It seemed like everyone had a different angle that they viewed Darshan through that enabled them to appreciate what we were doing. Some people liked to be heavily involved in our sessions through chanting and singing along; others enjoyed the acoustic and contemplative performances where they were really able to listen to the lyrics and take it all in; still others (mostly the youngsters) were ecstatic over the big loud large scale performance/dance party set… which by the way was capped off with about 10-15 new Darshan fans who had already memorized some of our lyrics coming up on stage and singing with us… truly a heavenly choir!

We finished off the week with a slot in the Closing Gala Event (thank you Cool Jew Lisa Klug) where we played an acoustic version of our new and unrecorded Darshan song “Raysheet” with the ancient Hebrew and contemporary English lyrics projected above us in a beautiful auditorium, in front of over 1,100 captivated Yids.

All in all, Limmud UK was an amazing experience, truly mind-expanding and heart-opening; one of those rare slices of the human drama that leaves us feeling hopeful and amazed by human promise and potential. Thank you England and thank you Limmud! G!D Bless….

The “Lishmah” EP

Shir Yaakov — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:19:37 +0000

The title of Darshan’s first EP — Lishmah — comes from a profound Judaic concept. Commonly understood as meaning “for it’s own sake”, the term lishmah is usually applied to the proper state of mind for Torah study. Not for fame, money, or power — but merely for the simple joy of doing. It is in this spirit that Darshan’s first album was created Lishmah, purely for the simple of joy and fulfillment of Being what we are Doing.

Darshan is Eden 'Eprhyme' Pearlstein and Shir Yaakov » 2010

“Lishmah” record release party at Union Hall, Brooklyn, NY

At the Limmud UK Gala

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The “Lishmah” EP