Soul Music: A Black Jew’s Spiritual Journey

Yosef Oryahh was adopted at birth by an Orthodox Jewish couple who had been married for years without children. Following Jewish law, he was converted as a baby, pending his choosing to be a Jew when he reached Bar Mitzvah age. Yosef’s parents sent him, their only child, to a religious school in Boca Raton, Florida, where he studied in Hebrew and English. With long payot (side curls) and tzitzits (ritual fringes) dangling from his waist, Yosef looked like all the other boys in his class, except for his skin color. He never experienced any prejudice. He was one of the kids in a community that worked to emphasis the soul over the body.

Yosef wearing the coat of many colors with his mother (R) and grandmother.

When Yosef was 13, his parents divorced, and his father disappeared. Yosef’s devoted mother Sarah Chaya sold her jewelry to pay for his tuition to an Orthodox middle school. But by the time Yosef was ready to start high school, Sarah Chaya had nothing left to sell. She reluctantly sent him to the local public high school.

Yosef’s first day of public school was the first time he experienced prejudice—not because he was black (half the school was black), but because he was Jewish. The other kids had never seen a person with a kippah, peyot, and tzitzits. They taunted him, asking if he had horns under his yarmulke.

By the time he graduated high school, his kippah was off and his dreadlocks were down past his shoulders.

At first, Yosef’s culture shock was total. He had gone to an all-boys’ school. Now he was in class with both boys and girls, dressed in ways no one dressed in his community, with strange haircuts and tattoos. Peer pressure gradually had its influence. By the time he graduated high school, his kippah was off and his dreadlocks were down past his shoulders.

Yosef started working in the music industry. His goal was to become a major artist. He went to school for audio engineering and began producing music for high profile celebrities. He was living in a world infused with drugs and big money. As Yosef later described it, “God was not on the radar.” His only connection to his Judaism was that he still attended synagogue on Shabbat night, and he continued to live with his mother.

His World Crumbled

Yosef’s world crumbled when he was 22 years old. His beloved mother suddenly died. At that stage, Yosef did not know how to deal with life, but he did know how to deal with death, according to Jewish law and custom. He tore his shirt in mourning, said kaddish over his mother’s grave, and returned to the home they shared in order to sit shiva.

Sarah Chaya had a reputation as a kind and giving woman in the community. Poor herself, she ran clothing drives for the more impoverished, and discreetly distributed funds she collected for the needy. Yosef, sitting shiva alone as Sarah Chaya’s only living relative, found himself surrounded by masses of people from the community who had come to console him. Day and night they came—long-ago classmates from his elementary and middle school, neighbors, the local Orthodox rabbi, people from the community whom he hadn’t seen since he had eschewed religious observance. Meanwhile, none of his high school friends nor new friends in the music scene reached out to console him.

The Cohen family, members of the community who had no personal connection to Yosef, took the extraordinary step of inviting him to live with them.

Yosef, bereft, was now completely alone in the world. The Cohen family, members of the community who had no personal connection to Yosef, took the extraordinary step of inviting him to live with them. On the seventh day of shiva, as is customary, Yosef, accompanied by a minyan of men, went to say Kaddish at his mother’s grave. Afterwards, he could not bear to go back to the empty house, now devoid of the only person on earth who loved him. The Cohens escorted him back into the house, helped him pack up his things, and took him home with them to live.

Yosef as a little boy

“They bought me shirts and pants,” remembers Yosef. “They taught me how to cook. They paid for my medical insurance and car insurance.”

Not just a single family, but the entire community reached out to take care of this newly orphaned Jew. “The support system in the Jewish world is incomparable,” declares Yosef. “I saw how big the support system was for me, including the rabbi of the community, Rabbi Efrem Goldberg, who was always there for me to talk to. So many Jews from the community cared about me. They checked on me too many times a day. That doesn’t exist anywhere else.”

Rabbi Efrem Goldberg and Yosef

Since high school, Yosef had been swept away from Jewish observance by the attraction of the secular world and the glamour of the music industry. Now, he took a deep look at the Torah-observant community and at their lived values. “I wanted to figure out why some of these people who barely knew me were willing to do such selfless things for me.” He decided to dig back into his Jewish roots. “I couldn’t just take all of that and say, ‘Thanks, goodbye.’ Their caring really went into my soul.”

Yosef started studying Jewish texts again. He went to synagogue three times a day to say Kaddish for his mother. God became a priority in his life again.

Songs from His Soul

Amidst his grief, Yosef started to compose songs—a different genre of songs. Before his mother’s death, Yosef was working in hip hop. He composed songs about money and romance. Now he looks back and considers those songs “full of emptiness.” His new songs are about acceptance of what one goes through in life. He looks back on his own life and tries to create a deeper level of consciousness for everyone.

“This might not be the best situation in terms of my emotions,” Yosef shares, “but God put me here, so that is the best situation. Now the songs that I make are more than just a song. The songs are about overcoming everything, turning a challenge into a gift. I’ve gotten messages from my listeners that my songs have changed their life.”

Nissan Black, the famous Orthodox rapper, befriended Yosef. They learned Torah together and toured together.

Yosef on the rooftop of Aish

Then, in October, 2022, at the suggestion of the Cohen family, Yosef came to Aish in Jerusalem to further his Jewish studies. The Boca Raton community banded together to give him the financial means that enabled him to take this important step in his spiritual journey. Living in view of the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest place, the source of all inspiration in the world, opened up a new flow of musical creativity for Yosef. In his first six months at Aish, Yosef composed 30 songs, in Hebrew and English.

This week, in preparation for the High Holiday season, he released his debut music video, “Yah, Shema.”. It’s a heartfelt plea to God, in Hebrew, to hear us and answer us.

“I do this for my mother, for myself, and for the Jewish people,” declares Yosef. “I have something to share with the world.”