Shuli, Where are You?

NOT JUST ROCK & ROLL During musician Shuli Rand’s sellout concerts on stages in Tel Aviv and Caesarea he quotes to secular audiences from the chassidic masters opening Jewish hearts to a world of thought so distant from their own lives but their legacy as well.

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conic Israeli entertainer Shuli Rand might have thought he was leaving the Torah world to become an actor but when he returned as a Breslover chassid he realized the detour was just another leg in the ongoing journey to a higher place. Although his reeling financial woes have become public property in the Israeli media of late that hasn’t stopped the Breslov baal teshuvah and creator and star of the emunah-inspired film Ushpizin from tapping into his own wellsprings of faith to weather this latest storm.

For Rand 54 it’s actually been a harrowing summer of storms — he was evicted from his house lost both of his parents within a week and then as a flip side to all that trauma and angst he became the first chareidi figure to win the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for Israeli Culture.

Even if you don’t follow Israeli stage entertainment you might know Shuli Rand from his Nekudah Tovah album a self-released collection of original personal-journey songs based on teachings of Chazal and Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. The album went gold just months after its release in 2008 featuring such popular compositions as “Ben Melech” — about a man thinking he’s conquered his eternal nemesis the yetzer hara (and realizing he hasn’t) and “Ayeka” (“Where Are You”) — about a troubled man looking for his Creator (“It’s the question we ask when looking for Hashem but it’s also the question Hashem asks us: Where are you?” Rand tells Mishpacha).