Troi Smith delivers packages for a living. This week, the package came to him.
Hasidic singer Hershy Weinberger has tracked down Smith, the non-Jewish FedEx driver whose video of himself belting out Weinberger's Yiddish songs on his route went viral, and the two sang together in a parking lot reunion that Weinberger shared online.
Weinberger had asked his followers for help finding the driver, who he said had been "caught having way too good of a time jamming to RTVT." Once he found him, he wrote, "there was no way we were going to put off meeting him."
So Weinberger arrived with fellow musicians Naftali Schnitzler and Yanky Steinmetz, plus a keyboard, to thank Smith for spreading positivity. Smith said he had only found out that morning that he was internet famous.
"You spread so much light and positivity and happiness," Weinberger told him.
Then came the obvious question: does Smith actually understand the Yiddish lyrics he sings with such enthusiasm?
Not all of them, he admitted. Pressed on what he does know, he cheerfully conceded, "None of them." But the gist, he said, comes through. "They tell me what it's about, and that it's positive."
That was good enough for Weinberger. "How about we sing some RTVT?" he asked.
"I'm down," Smith said.
A keyboardist set up in the back of an SUV, and a parking lot somewhere in New Jersey briefly became a Hasidic music venue, with Smith dancing alongside the singers.
Before parting, Weinberger handed Smith a 24Six music player, loaded with Jewish music, so he will never run out of songs for his route. "We know you love Jewish music and you learn a lot of Jewish music," Weinberger said. "This is a special gift."
