The coronavirus epidemic can have some surprising effects, such as finding Avraham Fried – who almost always returns to his family in the United States every weekend – in Israel together with his family for a whole month. In between engagements, he paid a visit to Arutz Sheva’s studio in Jerusalem.
Fried held an interview in Hebrew and a special in depth English interview with Hadassah Chen which will be broadcast soon.
Fried refers to the “dark days” of the coronavirus that are now back, if not in full force, with restrictions on public gatherings, but he thanks the Creator for continuing to send him opportunities to perform, whether via Zoom or some other technological means.
“In the small synagogue where I pray, a very beloved rabbi passed away, along with several others who prayed there,” he relates, “and I took it very hard. This is serious business. We have to take care and be very wise about how we handle this.”
He recalls one particular performance, a very unusual one: “I was at Camp Simcha for children with cancer, and the people in the audience were sitting in their cars. I was on the stage with the band, just like at a regular concert, but instead of applause, people were honking on their horns.”
Fried has only recently resumed performing at large events. During the entire period when this wasn’t possible, he had to accustom himself to performing over Zoom. “Think about what it’s like to sing in front of the camera,” he says. “There’s no audience to give you the right atmosphere, the energy, the ecstasy. It’s really hard to get that special high, the joy of singing and people responding.”
One question we simply had to ask him was about the sensation it made when Fried partnered with secular singer Aviv Geffen, after Geffen made his astonishing public apology to the haredi public for his past prejudices against them, motivated, he said, by the obvious anti-haredi prejudice in the media during the first waves of the coronavirus, vilifying an entire population. Did Fried think that Aviv Geffen was genuine about his remorse, or was it all a publicity gimmick?
“After I watched the clip of him actually crying as he apologized for all the wrong things he’d said, his tears convinced me that he was serious,” he replies.
“These days, I meet up with him at almost every performance, and even if it actually was a gimmick, then it worked,” he adds with a smile. “Even if he wasn’t genuine then – and I think he was – he certainly is now. I can feel it. A few days ago, we were together in the street, and there he was again – he turned to the people around him and said, ‘I’m sorry!’ and everyone was clapping. It comes from his heart. He put on a kippah to sing ‘Mi Ha’ish.’ Anyone who knows him can tell you it has to be the times of Mashiach (the Messiah - ed.) for him to have made such a turnaround.”
Fried also discussed his performances in the Jewish month of Elul, the last days of the year before Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year). “Elul always takes me back to what the [Lubavitcher] Rebbe told me, the mission he gave me for these days, many years ago. I wrote to the Rebbe asking him about my performances that were scheduled for the month of Elul, and he replied: ‘You’re certainly going to tell people, wherever you go, about the King in the field.’ He was referring to what the Admor Hazaken [the first Lubavitcher Rebbe] said, that during the entire year, the King – that is, G-d – is in His palace, and it takes a lot of effort to get an audience with him, but when the month of Elul arrives, G-d wants us to crown Him as King again on Rosh Hashanah, so He goes out into the fields to give people a chance to approach Him. Elul is a time when we can approach G-d much more easily, and make requests of Him.”
“That’s why Elul is the happiest month of the year for me,” he adds. “The King is available and I have a mission to remind people at every performance that the King is right here with us in the field. There are singers who sing better than me, and others who dance better than me, but when I sing, my soul connects with the soul of the audience, and my mission is to connect them with what I’m feeling in my soul.”