By Rabbi Yair Hoffman
The Midrash tells us that Hashem spends His time being mezaveg zivugim, matching people up—in short, being a shadchan. Rabbi Michoel Blaustein of Sinai Academy in Brooklyn makes the following point: Since there is an obligation to follow in Hashem’s ways, shouldn’t we all be doing this too?
“What we need,” says Rabbi Blaustein, “is a song that will inspire everyone to start making shidduchim—whether to spend ten minutes a day or one hour a week; we need to work on shidduchim for others.”
To this end, the Five Towns Jewish Times is sponsoring a songwriting contest. The prize is $500. The Five Towns Jewish Times has enlisted judges to determine the best entry. Judging will be based on two criteria:
(1) How effective they perceive the song in terms of inspiring people to involve themselves in making shidduchim.
(2) The quality of the song submitted.
The contest is open to songwriters who are 18 years of age or older on the date of song submission. Any entrant who is a minor in his or her jurisdiction of legal residence will be required to obtain and submit written permission from his or her parent or legal guardian to participate in the contest.
Employees of the Five Towns Jewish Times, their families, subsidiaries, and affiliates are not eligible.
For the purposes of the competition, a song must have lyrics and suggested music or original. All submitted lyrics must be original, unpublished (or self-published) songs that have been written or co-written by the entrant(s).
For competition purposes, an unpublished song is defined as being written and recorded and self-released by the entrant(s) and/or not co-published by a commercially active music publisher.
Co-writers are subject to the same eligibility criteria.
Writers from anywhere in the world are eligible to enter.
Please e-mail the lyrics to theshadchansong@gmail.com no later than 11:00 p.m. EDT, March 15, 2021.
