Age: 60 • Residence: Ramat Gan
• Marital status: married. Father of seven
• Singer, actor and screenwriter. Winner of two Ophir awards (“Life according to Agfa”, “Hauspizin”). On September 22, he will hold a festive evening for Rosh Hashanah with his theatrical musical show “Tashlich”, with special guests at Zappa Amphi Shoni
Where do we catch you?
“On the way back from visiting my son Israel, a boy with Down syndrome, 22 years old, who is in the wonderful place, an integration workshop in the hills, a community for people with disabilities. Once a week I go to visit him. I found him today in a good, healthy and vital mood and we played basketball and soccer and he cracks me up It’s one of my biggest relaxing moments of the week.”
How and where do you drink your coffee?
“Mostly at home. Black coffee without sugar with dates. Unfortunately, I’m a coffee lover, not to mention an addict, and I have a war with this thing. I’m also very fond of coffee shops and like to meet in coffee shops, but less so in the month of Elul.”
Who would you like to have a beer with?
“There is a Jew who would not sit over a beer, but I would very much like to sit with him, get strength from him and ask him questions about his things that I am learning, and that is Rabbi Natan Manmirov, the distinguished student of Rabbi Nachman of Breslav. He had a high intellectual spiritual level and on the other hand also a high practical level So his character always fascinated me. With Rabbi Nachman I would not have dared to even think.”
what are you working on now
“On the big and festive show of ‘Tashlich’ on September 22 at Shawnee Amphitheatre (Rand unfolds his personal story through stations in his life and sings songs that correspond with his story, including ‘Meshik’ by Shalom Hanoch, ‘Up to the next pleasure’ by the witches, ‘Sparks’ by Berry Sakharof” and more – MNS). My dream has always been to combine the interest of the game that is ingrained in me and the music that is strongly ingrained in me, and in this show I think we succeeded in doing that. I am also in rehearsals for a feature that we will start shooting soon, ‘The Comedian’ who is the equivalent of the Shakespearean clown. He can say things that no one else can. I wrote the script around the world of weddings and I will act, together with my co-creator Gidi Der, who will direct and produce.”
what is your scratch
“A complex emotional relationship with two charming and annoying chihuahua dogs. In no scenario did I see myself with a dog or a cat and here I have not one but two and more chihuahuas.”
What is the best advice you received?
“My father received this advice 45 years ago from the rabbi of Sedigura, but it had an effect on me. He consulted him about what to do with me because I began to question him. The rabbi told him that he knows he loves all his children, but he should love me more. This is the advice that allowed me My way because the door was open all the time and allowed me not to burn all the ties behind me.”
How do you like to spend your Friday afternoon?
“It starts with psychological treatment early in the morning, then shopping, then preparations and cooking for Shabbat together with my wife Tsuf (Tsufit Grant). On Friday I am preparing and according to my intention and effort, the result of the Shabbat rest is the same, that’s why I am very careful.”
What superpower would you like to have?
“Compassion. I would like without limit and without measure, and that is the greatest superpower in the world.”
Under what circumstances do you lie?
“The world is made up of lies. And if I lie, I mostly lie for the sake of peace, which is meant to appease. Lots of people approach me with their creations, so how do you tell a person without lying? You don’t say, ‘Brother, you’re a genius,’ but find the good points So that he can continue.”
Who do you think is the sexiest person?
“The answer is clear, but I’m an ultra-orthodox person and we don’t talk about such things in private.”
what do you miss
“To my parents and their home. My mother passed away in my father’s seven days and I miss them and it hurts me that there were years when I was not weaned from this home, which was a source of Torah, culture, joyful love, emotional intelligence and compassion. I had wonderful parents and there were years when, due to personal reasons, I could not To exhaust the relationship with them and I miss it very much.”
Where would you most like to live?
“Where am I, living in Ramat Gan. And I have childhood dreams that won’t come true: I see myself living for a week in an anonymous village that God knows is calm until I run away. I always have dreams of anonymity, of disappearing, of escaping, so I see myself there, But it’s like people who are sick of nature but can’t be there for more than fifteen minutes.”
What do you like to spend your money on?
“My relationship with money is complex. Two things that have never interested me: money and food. So about gifts for the people I love and perfecting my creative conditions: a good computer, a notebook, a pencil. It’s important to me to spend money on things through which my children will promote their independence : studies, driver’s license, etc.”
What would you like to change about yourself?
“The dishonest control that guilt has on me. Finding the right balance so that it doesn’t control me.”
What do you feel guilty about?
“I am the recipient of every emotion of guilt. The psychological root of it is related to the death of a brother that I experienced at a young age, and its expression is – everyone who comes is welcome. This thing drives me in an extreme and unhealthy way. Guilt is a deceptive emotion because there are things that we deserve to be They are guilty, and getting rid of feelings of guilt is completely psychopathic on the one hand, but it is clear to me that this thing is not regulated enough by me on the other hand.”
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
“That after everything I’ve been through, I didn’t lose the ability to love and I didn’t lose the ability to believe in people, and I even managed to maintain some innocence. I have no reason to be innocent and this is a great achievement that I associate both with the house I came from and with a certain safeguarding of the deposit I received, that is About my soul. It’s not obvious that I’m not bitter and suspicious. The mask of my life was supposed to fortify me in a defensive position, but my heart is open – and that’s an achievement.”
what scares you
“Regarding the work, I am concerned with relevance and irrelevance. In my ability to be fresh, reinvent myself, run between genres and not come back and do the same thing. My fear of creative petrification, that’s what concerns me a little more now. When I go up to the office, it’s important for me to have an accelerated pulse, and when new things happen to me and I have such a surge, it makes me happy, and when it doesn’t, it scares me.”
What makes you happy?
“The fact that I’m in love with my wife is sweet, and I really didn’t think I’d ever get to be in love like a boy again. With what she gives me, in the very special bond that exists between us, I find myself on the edge of the happy Rand. It used to be a taboo for me, I thought: what’s the difference between happiness and creativity , after all, the whole piece depends on agony and scratches and I’m happy to find out that it’s really not like that.”
What do you miss most in life?
“My children. I would like to be involved in the lives of all my children, and for them to be more involved in mine.”
What do you consider your most valuable asset?
“My intuition is to pick up situations and people. I get into a taxi with a driver for an hour’s ride and I get into a real relationship with him. I’m terribly curious, ask a few questions and very quickly connect and take in the situation.”
Who are the artists that have influenced you the most?
“Peace be upon you, because even though he had a razor-sharp scalpel, he also had a great love for his characters, Meir Ariel, Aviv Gadj, Assaf Talmudi, SH Agnon and Rana Yerushalmi.”
If you weren’t an actor and creator what would you be doing?
“I always say I have no idea. But if I had no choice then I think I might have been a psychologist. A therapist.”