Psytrance Music Bridges the Divide Between Secular and Religious Jews in Israel
Shahar Zirkin had been driving in circles on a dark, wooded road outside Haifa, until finally, he spotted a piece of toilet paper strung delicately among the branches of a tree. He turned left, driving slowly, looking for more toilet paper “signs” until he could hear thick, subbass frequencies, punctuated with synthesized audio effects in the distance. To the untrained ear, it might have sounded like the soundtrack to an intergalactic space journey; to Zirkin, a DJ-cum-biochemist and founder of Israel’s annual Doof music festival, it was the familiar sound of psytrance—a subgenre of electronic music. As he approached, the beats reverberated through the woods from the underground, neon-lit party, reminiscent of festivals in the Negev desert or in forests up north, or even on the Indian beaches of Goa.
Meanwhile in Jerusalem, Elior Yitzhaky pulled up behind the bustling Mahane Yehuda Market, attracting stares and smiles as he and his cohort of young men hopped out of their van, handpainted with 1970s-inspired swirling rainbows and flowers, and began dancing in the middle of the busy street. The boys’ loose hanging peyos bounced around beneath their large white yarmulkes, crocheted with the Hebrew letters for Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman. The mantra is unique to the Na Nach sect of Breslov Hasidim, evoking the name of their rebbe, Nachman of Breslov, who was buried in Uman, Ukraine. A high-tempo electronic melody aptly titled “Happiness” blared through speakers attached to the van’s roof—fitting, given the group’s raison d’être is to spread joy. According to Nachman, the greatest mitzvah is to be happy. At every stoplight, Yitzhaky and the Na Nachs threw open the doors to the van, rushing outside to dance in the streets. As the lights turned green again, they scurried back to their seats and continued on with the joyride.