Baruch Chait

Baruch Chait was born to Esther{{cite news |last1=Fendel |first1=Hillel |title=Rabbi Moshe Chait Passes Away |url=https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/132653 |access-date=15 June 2023 |work=Arutz Sheva |date=30 July 2009}} and Moshe Chait, a rabbi and future rosh yeshiva (dean) of Yeshivath Chafetz Chaim of Jerusalem.{{cite news |last1=Schiller |first1=Ariella |title=Back at the Wheel |url=https://mishpacha.com/back-at-the-wheel/ |access-date=15 June 2023 |work=Mishpacha |date=27 December 2022}} He studied under Henoch Leibowitz, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim of Forest Hills, New York.{{cite news |last1=Goldstein |first1=Riki |title=Yaakov Brown Invites Rabbi Baruch Chait |url=https://mishpacha.com/yaakov-brown-invites-rabbi-baruch-chait/ |access-date=15 June 2023 |work=Mishpacha |date=14 September 2021}} As a youth counselor, Chait was involved with various summer camps in New York's Catskill Mountains, including Torah Vodaas, Camp Munk and Sdei Chemed. There, he learned to use music as an alternative means to educational growth.

Having been influenced by Shlomo Carlebach, at the age of 16 or 17 Chait began composing Jewish religious melodies. Later, in 1975, Chait would go on to collaborate with Carlebach and Abie Rotenberg on an album, Ani Maamin ({{Literal translation|I Believe}}).

In 1967, Chait co-founded a band called The Rabbis' Sons along with Label Sharfman, Itzy Weinberger and Michael Zheutlin{{emdash}}all of the bandmates being sons of rabbis. The band's debut album, Hal'lu, featured some of Chait's first compositions, including Rabos Machshovos ({{Literal translation|Many Are The Thoughts}}) and Mi Ho-ish ({{Literal translation|Who Is The Man}}), which he adapted from The Book of Psalms. The progressive sound that the band produced received a somewhat lukewarm response from Leibowitz due to its folk roots (the band's instruments consisted mostly of guitars, a relatively new innovation for Jewish music of the time) but Chait's father approved. Chait later founded Kol Salonika. He has since composed hundreds of Jewish religious songs that have wide popularity and appeal, publishing dozens of records.{{cite web|url=http://www.connectionsmag.co.il/article.php?id=152 |title=Music - The Rabbi's Sons |last=Solomon |first=Lenny |publisher=Connections Magazine |accessdate=2009-10-30 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721135340/http://www.connectionsmag.co.il/article.php?id=152 |archivedate=July 21, 2011 }} He wrote Kol Ha'Olam Kulo while performing for Israel Defense Forces soldiers during the Yom Kippur War.{{cite news |last1=Tucker |first1=Nati |title=Baruch Chait: Broadening the Narrow Bridge |url=https://www.haaretz.com/2010-09-06/ty-article/baruch-chait-broadening-the-narrow-bridge/0000017f-ef00-ddba-a37f-ef6e51d60000 |access-date=15 June 2023 |work=Haaretz |date=6 September 2010}} The song quickly became an Israeli standard, having been covered by Ofra Haza. On February 27, 2022, Chait was inducted with the inaugural class of the Jewish Music Hall of Fame.

In 1987, Chait founded Maarava Machon Rubin,{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/tickling-the-religious-funny-bone-1.123505 |title=Tickling the Religious Funny Bone |date=25 May 2004|author=Tamar Rotem |newspaper=Haaretz |accessdate=16 January 2014}} a yeshiva high school in Matityahu, West Bank. The school combines religious and secular studies at a level allowing completion of matriculation exams. The school caters to the Haredi sector, and this fact initially brought Chait, who described himself as a "small man", into conflict with ostensibly greater Haredi leaders who normally oppose such innovation in Jewish education. However, he has since secured the private blessing of a number of leading rabbis in this endeavour.

Chait has written a number of children's educational books on Jewish topics, together with illustrators Gadi Pollack and Yoni Gerstein. Many of his books go under the name of the HaLamdan HaKattan (small scholar) series.

Some of his books include:

• The 39 Avoth Melacha of Shabbath
• The Ehrenhaus Middos Series:
• The Incredible Voyage to Good Middos
• The Lost Treasure of Tikun Hamiddos Island
• The Terrifying Trap of the Bad Middos Pirates
• Shadow Pirates — The Wheel Is in Your Hands (2022)
• The Katz Haggadah : The Art of Faith and Redemption
• My Friends - The Alef Beis
• Torah Town
• The Desert Diary: The Historic Journey of a Nation with Divine Faith Through a Wilderness to the Promised Land
• Ha'achadim Ve'ha'asafim (Hebrew)

Chait is a resident of the Har Nof neighbourhood of Jerusalem.

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• {{WorldCat|id=lccn-n87862699|name=Books and albums by Baruch Chait in libraries}}

{{Contemporary Jewish religious music}}

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Category:1946 births

Category:20th-century Israeli rabbis

Category:21st-century rabbis in Jerusalem

Category:Composers from Jerusalem

Category:Educators from Jerusalem

Category:Haredi rabbis in Israel

Category:Hasidic entertainers

Category:Jewish songwriters

Category:Jewish Israeli musicians

Category:Rosh yeshivas

Category:Writers from Jerusalem

Category:Living people