Ultra Orthodox Rabbis Sing Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” on the Streets of Jerusalem

Just when you thought you’ve seen it all, we give you this: Aryeh and Gil Gat, two once fair­ly-sec­u­lar broth­ers-turned-ultra ortho­dox rab­bis, play­ing Pink Floy­d’s “Wish You Were Here” on the streets of Jerusalem. Intrigued? Ready for more? Watch them play Dire Straits “Sul­tans of Swing,” Clap­ton’s “Tears in Heav­en,” The Bea­t­les’ “Come Togeth­er,” The Eagles’ “Hotel Cal­i­for­nia,” and Floy­d’s “Shine On You Crazy Dia­mond.”

If you live in Israel, the broth­ers prob­a­bly won’t be strangers to you. In 2013, they became stars on the top-rat­ed TV tal­ent show Ris­ing Star. And, defy­ing stereo­types about the ultra ortho­dox, they proved that rock and ortho­dox reli­gion can go togeth­er. For Aryeh, “the pow­er of music is above every­thing.” For Gil, it’s “holy, it’s God’s work, because it cre­ates love and con­nec­tion.” Watch them play Simon and Gar­funkel’s “Sound of Silence” and let me know if you dis­agree.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Pak­istani Musi­cians Play a Delight­ful Ver­sion of Dave Brubeck’s Jazz Clas­sic, “Take Five”

Hear Lost Record­ing of Pink Floyd Play­ing with Jazz Vio­lin­ist Stéphane Grap­pel­li on “Wish You Were Here”

Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour Sings Shakespeare’s Son­net 18