Shalom Aleichem to Avishai Eshel’s Popular Dance Song

This lively dance version of Shalom Aleichem is performed to the tune of the Israeli hit song, “Rak Rotzim Lirkod” (“Just Want to Dance”) by Avishai Eshel. Eshel’s unique style blends modern Israeli pop with Hasidic and Mizrahi influences. His original song is about the festival-like nature of the annual pilgrimage of tens of thousands of Jews, many of them Breslov Hasidim, to Uman in the Ukraine every Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) to pray at the grave of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. As is common in Sephardic and Mizrahi custom, this version of Shalom Aleichem includes a fifth stanza, “B’shivtachem l’shalom.”