From Moshe (Rabenu) to Moshe (Telem) – There is no one like Moshe…and indeed, Moshe Telem is a brand in our Israeli folk dance.  (Also see:

http://magazines.rokdim.co.il/showart.php?lang=en&artid=541)

Moshe is known all over the world as the “Dancing Farmer”, as his name (Telem) indicates – a brilliant combination of a rooted farmer who still works in the field and who has guided and led dancing for tens of thousands of dancers for over 40 years.

It’s no wonder that on his milestone 80th birthday, Moshe celebrated with hundreds of his dancers who gathered together at Kibbutz HaOgen for a folk dance celebration accompanied by the legendary Ma’abarot Orchestra (with which he recorded hundreds of folk dances that we still use in dance sessions) and of course later on with recorded music conducted by Eyal Karblenik and Moshe Oron.

We all knew, almost all the dancers, if not by their names, then at least by their faces, and we were privileged to bring back beautiful memories from the time when we danced with Moshe in the large harkadot (dance sessions) at Tel Aviv and Bar Ilan Universities, in the big marathons.

We mostly remember the Friday-Saturday Kabbalat Shabbat gatherings in Caesarea with singing and camaraderie, the dancing on the porch of the Nautical Center, facing the Mediterranean waves until dawn, the watermelons he brought from the field and were eaten before we went to bed at dawn until we woke up to the sounds of  YuZju (Yosef) Inbar’s z”l flute and continued to dance almost until the end of Shabbat.

These were beautiful days for all of us …