Shir Yaakov Informations

Sam Benjamin "Shir Yaakov" Feinstein-Feit (born February 27, 1978) is an American liturgist, singer-songwriter, composer, and prayer leader. He is a co-founder of the Kol Zimrah minyan and musical director at Romemu, the largest Jewish Renewal community in New York. As a musician, he has recorded three full-length albums and has performed with the groups Darshan and The Epichorus.

Feit was raised in Manhattan by a secular Jewish family. He attended the Abraham Joshua Heschel School beginning in third grade when his mother got a job there. His family were members of the B'nai Jeshurun synagogue. As a child, Feit took piano and guitar lessons and taught himself music, including transcription and composition. In high school, he was influenced musically by Nirvana's Kurt Cobain.

After graduating high school, Feit worked in photography, graphic and web design. He started becoming more religious in his early 20s, influenced by Sefer Yetzirah and the works of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the founder of the Jewish Renewal movement.

Feit moved to Jerusalem's Nachlaot neighborhood in 2005 to study in yeshiva. There, Feit and his friends created an informal band called Lev Yerushalayim, with whom he would beatbox and freestyle rap at late-night concerts outside Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo.

Feit began his music career with the EP Shir (2008), followed by his debut album Zeh (2009). He has since released two more solo albums, Az (2010) and Lah (2015).

In 2008, while working at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Feit met the Jewish rapper Eprhyme. After playing their respective music for each other, Eprhyme invited Feit to sing on his debut album Waywordwonderwill, and the two later formed the duo Darshan. Their debut EP Lishmah was released in 2010, followed by a full-length album, Deeper and Higher, in 2015.

Feit has collaborated with the multifaith world music band The Epichorus, singing on their 2012 debut album One Bead.

Feit is one of the founding members of Kol Zimrah, an independent minyan and chavurah on the Upper West Side. He has also founded and worked with the Jewish Renewal congregations Kol Hai and Romemu, and has served as a ritual consultant at Eden Village Camp and visiting faculty at the Academy for Jewish Religion.

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