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A first reaction video: a Hebrew prayer shot in the Israeli desert.

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Executive producer: C.Y. Lee

To quote this piece: Oryahh, “A first reaction video: a Hebrew prayer shot in the Israeli desert,” We Them Media, https://wethem.xyz/watch/a-first-reaction-video-a-hebrew-prayer-shot-in-the-israeli-desert. Each transcript line links to its second.

Maceo’s first reaction video, and the song is entirely in Hebrew. He reacts to a music video from Oryahh, whom he met earlier that year through a friend, and whom he saw working on music in the evenings in a studio in Jerusalem: “it was just like kind of surreal to me, you know, to go into this foreign environment and see this dude working.” This is Oryahh’s first music video.

Maceo does not speak Hebrew, so he reacts to what he can see and hear: the voice (“All I hear is his beautiful voice”), a fire lit in the woods after dark that “feels symbolic,” like “the beginning of something,” and the tefillin Oryahh puts on to pray. He says he is impressed by how professional the video looks.

He closes by talking about what he learned of Oryahh’s path back to faith, calls him versatile, with hip-hop as well as more prayer-adjacent music, and says he is excited to see what he does next.

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Transcribed from the original audio and corrected for names. Search every transcript

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0:02A: What’s up everybody, welcome to my first reaction video. Today I’m going to be reacting to this guy, Oryah Yosef. I connected with him earlier this year with my boy Drew. He was out in Israel, um, he was studying at Ace Yeshiva with, uh, with Yosef, who goes by Oryah as his stage name. Um, and I was super inspired hearing about his journey in this music stuff, seeing his grind, seeing him working on music in the evenings right there in the yeshiva, like in a studio. super dope. You know, I know a lot of people that put a lot of time and energy into their music, and it was just like kind of surreal to me, you know, to go into this foreign environment and see this dude working in Jerusalem.

0:02A: And so I’m excited to be featuring him here in my first, uh, my first video, you know, reaction video. I’m excited for you all to be able to tune in and get with me and get with him. So let’s jump right into it. You know, I’m not -- this whole song, you might as well know, is in Hebrew. I don’t speak Hebrew. So I can’t really react too much to what he’s saying, but super excited to see my brother out here, you know, posting content. Um, definitely staying with him, definitely excited for him, definitely, you know, want to make sure you all can tune in. Um, if you, uh, yeah, if you like it, you know, make sure you like the video and go, you know, subscribe to his channel.

0:02A: He’s the guy. Let’s go, let’s jump right into it. He’s been doing music for a minute too. This is his first music video though, so it would it. Okay, sexy ass, we see you. You hear that voice? Yeah, you hear that voice. He sounds extraordinary. Okay, keep going, keep going, bro. I hope you’re not worried about getting that shirt dirty sitting in dirt like this.

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1:59B: Okay.

2:04A: Okay, got the wood. What’s the wood for? Got a pallet. Oh, he’s breaking it. What do you think? It’s symbolic. Okay, this is -- I mean, it’s interesting, right? He was out in the woods, it got dark, he was looking at the views. Now he’s sitting down, it’s like more like contemplative, and he’s lighting a fire. I feel like it’s like this is the beginning of his career type stuff, you know, focused on himself, focused on cultivating his brand. To me, this feels symbolic. You know, like this is the beginning of something. He’s about to watch. You know, the fire he started with his career and with his life. You know, young man out there age. But you know, this is. I mean, it’s not bigger than faith for sure. Everything you know, I’m sure for him is with God in mind, with God’s strength. So super dope to see this. Super dope to see this. Really proud. This is high quality too. Like this guy’s professional. Man, I wish I spoke Hebrew so I can know what he was saying though. All I hear is his beautiful voice.

3:18B: ואם לא תעשה למענם, תעשה צבורי למענך. הוא מברא היום חורם, הוא רצה כמו שאני רם. הוא לך תחיל ליבם, וגם תקשיב אוזניך. יא שמיים יונה לך.

4:03A: Okay, pulled out his tefillin. I got familiar with this when I was in, uh, out there in Jerusalem with them. Now I’m not too sure on what this means. I just know what it’s called, but I know you do your prayers and you rock. People put this on, I believe I saw, when they’re at the wall there in Jerusalem. Uh, it’s cool he’s got that involved here in the video. I know he’s really a man but lives by his faith. Um, and what I learned about him when I was there, uh, and not even when I was there, I said I saw an article posted about him like this past week actually talking about how he grew up born and raised out in Florida.

4:03A: He got adopted by an Orthodox family when he was just a baby, I’m pretty sure. And so that’s really how he developed his relationship to faith. But then he went, like, and he was in like a, I think like a Jewish day school, I’m pretty sure, through like almost high school, like into middle school. And I think he was in like a public school from there on out. And it really kind of like changed his relationship, I think, to the cultures, the religion. I think he had like locks for a minute. Uh, when he was in, in high school, by the end of high school.

4:03A: I think then, you know, he experienced death in the family, um, and that really like -- it didn’t set him back per se, you know, but it really impacted him. Um, and I believe that’s when he really returned to faith. Um, and so it’s cool, you know, to see a young man return to faith, his relationship to faith over time. Um, cool to see, you know, now he’s here in Israel, you know, making music that pertains to the faith, to his community, people that have held him down. Um, and I’m really excited, you know, keep seeing where he’s going and stuff like that. Like, this is super dope.

4:03A: Um, he does hip-hop stuff, he does this stuff, this like more prayer-adjacent music. You know, he’s versatile, um, he’s empowered. And I’m really -- you know, for me, it seems like this guy’s really focused on making an impact. So I’m excited to see what this guy does next. Definitely stay tuned, y’all. Thanks for tuning into my first reaction video. Hope you guys enjoyed it. And yeah, I’m gonna keep them coming. Peace and love. Peace and love. All right, let me see how I end this.

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