At every seder, we sing or recite “Vehi Sheamda,” a song about the Jewish people’s survival. In it, we are reminded of the many times in history in which others vied for our destruction. It’s a song that, like many texts from the Passover seder, has taken on new meanings this year.
That’s probably the reason why Y-Studs, the a cappella group out of Yeshiva University, decided to take a bit of an untraditional route for their Passover parody this year – singing these words from the haggadah to the tune popularized by Yonathan Razel in 2008. And they didn’t do it alone — the group brought on Daniel Wais, a survivor of the October 7 massacre, to sing along with them.
Wais, who lived on kibbutz Be’eri along with three of his siblings, lost both of his parents, and the video is dedicated to them and is also being used to raise money for the kibbutz that lost so many of its members. The video shows the group and Wais, an accomplished singer and songwriter who released his first album in September of last year, singing the song, but also features videos of the hostages reuniting with their families, the March for Israel in Washington and soldiers in moments of prayer and celebration, as well as videos of them coming home to the field and reuniting with their loved ones.
Daniel’s father, Shmuel, known as Shmulik Wais, the passionate car mechanic of the kibbutz, was killed on October 7, but his mother, Judith, a nurse by training who worked with the children of the kibbutz and who was battling breast cancer, was taken into Gaza. Her body was recovered by the IDF in November by the Shifa Hospital in Gaza. In December, Wais returned to his kibbutz to sing his father’s favorite song amidst the ruins.
This video and song is such a beautiful tribute to Judith, Shmuel, and the rest of the fallen from Be’eri and beyond.
