ONVERSATIONS

ITH

USIC

RTISTS

An Interview withLevi Ben-Shmuel

By Milton Craft

Levi Ben-Shmuel is an accomplished singer-songwriter, writer, speaker, and co-host of Transitions RadioMagazine. His career and his passion for truth was a long time in the making. At a young age, he knew that therewas more to life than what he observed growing up in Long Island. While in college at SUNY Buffalo in 1976,Levi realized that what society and family wanted for his life was not the same as what he wanted. He felt a deepyearning to touch and live in harmony with what he knew to be an unseen spiritual force, or God. This harmony began to dominate his thoughts and actions. In 1981 after graduating, he decided to move back to Israel to beginexploring his Judaism faith. He wanted to learn more about the faith he was born into and decided to study Orthodox Judaism while living inIsrael. After returning to the states, a friend mentioned to Levi an advertisement for a Kabbalah lecture at a localsynagogue. Attending that lecture changed his life. For the first time, he heard someone speak about Judaism interms of energy, divine light, and how he could connect to God without getting bogged down in rituals that madelittle sense.Levi was privileged each week for close to 4 years to study under the guidance of the master teacher, HadassahBen-Yishai. He learned to use Kabbalah’s Tree of Life to help strip away the blocks that prevented him fromhaving his own direct connection. It also set him on the path of moving into his life’s work with the understandingthat service for the good of the whole is a sure path to true freedom.Levi has made music a part of his life’s work and mission. His new CD,

Take a New Road,

joyfully connects people of all faiths, beliefs, and cultures to the freedom of being that comes from opening the heart to the divinelove that lives in each of us. The songs tell an inspirational story of faith, yearning, commitment, finding andcelebrating divine love. At times the songs rock out, and at times they move into a peaceful, meditative space.There is something for everyone in this finely crafted album.I got a chance to do a Q&A session with Levi where we talked about his music and his new album. I thought Iwould share this Q&A with each of you.

About Levi

Website is: http://www.levibenshmuel.comCD Baby page: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/nomad4all

The Inﬁnite Field Magazine page 86

Q&A

Milton

: What is spirituality to you and how does it help you to achieve your purpose through your music?

Levi:

The definition of spirituality has evolved over the years for me and it probably will continue to evolve but at this point the core of it is “having anintimate relationship with the Divine”. Let me explain what I mean. MyKabbalah teacher, Kabbalah is the Jewish mystical path, when I was living inIsrael in Jerusalem, I had the great fortune of being connected to an amazingteacher. She taught that the core of spiritual life is living what she called “ADivine romance with God” and when I heard that; something clicked insideof me that was what I wanted after all the years of searching and doing allkinds of things writing in the world of spirituality trying different paths. Thatreally touched me and I knew deep inside that is what I want. I want my lifeto be based on the core relationship which is my relationship with the divine.

Milton:

What is Sulam Chi: Prayer in Motion?

Levi:

Sulam Chi: Prayer in Motion is an integration of Tai Chi and Kabbalah. Sulam in Hebrew means

latter

. Soyou could translate Sulam Chi as latter of Chi. Chi being the light force, the vital energy out of the douse systemand how that came about is I created that with a friend of mine Michael Kagan who was a student of my Kabbalahteacher Sulam in Jerusalem, and he had the inspiration to take the energy of Kabbalah’s tree of life, there are 10distinct imagination so for God’s energy that are mapped to different body parts. He wanted to create a Kabbalahistmovement form that embodied these energies. He came to me knowing that I am a Tai Chi instructor. I have been practicing Tai Chi for almost 25 years. This was back in 1999. I intuited through my own connection to the divine,movements that mapped these energies through the tree of life. So we created Sulam Chi. It’s a very short formwhich you can do in 4 minutes. It’s a very simple way to embody divine energy within your being. I am workingon a DVD of this.

Milton:

So, how long have you been a musician?

Levi:

I started writing songs in the spring of 2000, so I came to this much later in life. My parents forced guitar lessons on me when I was growing up. They bought me this cheap guitar that I hated. They hired an instructor, avery nice lady. As a child, I learned the basic of music. Through the years always having a guitar, I fooled aroundwith it but nothing serious. But in the spring of 2000, I was living in Jerusalem. My Kabbalah teacher gave me themessage that I needed to write songs of praise and worship to God. And that struck me as funny at the time for tworeasons. One, I had never written a song before. Two, I was tone deaf up until that point. I couldn’t sing. It turnedout we were doing a piece of work together and I went through a very profound transformation. One of the resultsof that transformation was I was able to hear in a different way that allowed me to sing on key. Low and behold Isat down on Saturday in my apartment and picked up my guitar. I say, 'OK God, you want a song to come throughlet it come through.' Within minutes a song came through. The song is on my CD it is called “ Feel Me”. I wasabsolutely shocked that I could be a vessel for music that was inspired by spirituality.