“They’ve filled a musical void,” explained Daphne Weisser, a staff member of Manhattan Day School and a co-organizer of the concert. “They’ve armed Jews of all ages and denominations with a Chanukah song that’s fun and trendy, yet earnest and kosher. It helps defend us against the annual barrage of catchy Christmas tunes.”

While the official numbers haven’t come out, the song peaked at #70 on the iTunes chart, which is largely unseen of this side of Matisyahu.

“It definitely pays the rent,” Lewis said. Two weeks ago, he said, there wasn’t any notion of the Maccabeats turning into a full-time occupation. “Now, who knows? If this popularity is going to continue, we have to ask: Is this what we want to do.”

During the show, there was a quiet exodus after “Candlelight” as most kids had school the next day and the single was what many had come for. Outside the building a father rocked his child to sleep humming the bars of the song.

“The 14 men who comprise the Maccabeats fashioned their harmonies out of a desire to tell their sacred story,” Richard Joel, president of Yeshiva University, wrote in an op-ed for The New York Jewish Week. “People are looking for pride, and in this group they see young men who are cool and wholesome, who take life seriously but don’t take themselves seriously, who convey fun but also pride in their values, in their story and in their comfort as Jews and Americans.

The band is planning a new album and their last CD, “Voices from the Heights,” has been reprinted twice. The group is playing on Dec. 26 at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College and is performing over the weekend of Feb. 6 at the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst.

Dr. Yaakov Shalev, Immanuel’s father, had a decidedly different message he wanted to convey about his son’s success.

“Tell them he’s single,” Shalev told a reporter. “And he has a sister.”