Excerpt from an interview about the “Thank You Hashem” song and hype:
… Thank You Hashem is not a chiddush; it’s not a new thing and it’s certainly not something that I or my friends created. Before my son was born, I went to Tzfat with a couple of friends. We overheard someone say “relax, Thank You Hashem” and it hit us like a speeding train.
At that point in our lives, we were searching for a more meaningful connection. We didn’t have the relationship with Hashem that we so desperately desired. Those words just hit a spot I can’t explain to you. With just 10 minutes until Shabbos, we jumped up and ran to the Mikvah, and had an incredible Shabbos! We started saying “Thank You Hashem” as a “just a saying”, but it became a “thing that means everything to us.” We came back to America and all of our friends started saying “Thank you Hashem.” The night that my son Elimelech was born, we were sitting in the backyard with some friends and we were feeling very thankful towards the almighty. We wrote the hit song “Thank You Hashem.” We released a simple version at Elimelech’s bris with Moishy Storch. A couple of weeks later, Joey Newcomb heard the song and he really liked it. He told me that he was putting out an album and asked if I would mind if he could include our song. I told him it would be my pleasure. Together, we released the song featuring Moshe Stroch and produced by Doni Gross.
Then with what we Jews like to refer to it as Hashgacha Pratis, TYH took on a life of its own.
The words taught a Diaspora Hebrew about prayer:
… A friend of mine came to me and said, “Aryeh, I want you to know something. I’m a pessimist by nature and when you told me about the Thank You Hashem campaign I said, “Oh no – here goes Aryeh with another ridiculous thing, but I kept my mouth shut, I thought it was a dumb idea…
Then I went to Eretz Yisroel this past Succos. I am forty years old and I went to the Kotel and wrote a Kvittel to Hashem for the first time!” I said, “Wow! What happened?” He said, “I’ll tell you the truth. The first time I went to Eretz Yisroel, I was a young boy. I sat by the kotel and I was just learning how to write and I didn’t know how to start off my letter. I couldn’t write ‘Dear Hashem.’ It’s not appropriate – He’s Hashem! I can’t say ‘Shalom Aleichem’ because you can’t say hello to Hashem. So I never wrote anything. But this time, because of “your dumb idea” Thank You Hashem, I’m able to have a conversation with Hashem. Can you imagine, at the age of 40, I have finally written a kvittel! So I wrote, ‘Dear Hashem, Thank you for my family and my health and my kids and parnasa. I really need help with ABC. Yours truly, Reuven.’ I needed that Chiddush of being able to just have a conversation with Hashem.” You need that connection to be able to have a conversation with Hashem.
And all from the “Sicha Kalah” of an Eretz Yisrael Jew.
See the rest here…