R' Chanan & Aharona Gans: She was a Monk. He Was a Rockstar. Today the Are Frum in Baltimore.
5/16/20261 hr 35 min
Chanan Gans was a Jewish teen touring America in a rock band, immersed in the world of music, freedom, and self-discovery. At the very same time, Aharona was traveling through Thailand and India, living among monks and searching for spirituality, truth, and deeper meaning. Thousands of miles apart, both were on their own journey to find purpose and God. Then came a mysterious dream, an unexpected coincidence in Israel, and a meeting that changed everything. Today, Chanan and Aharona are Chassidish, raising a family in Baltimore and sharing the incredible story of how two wandering Jewish souls found faith...
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First 90 secondsChanan Gans· Guest0:00
I was in a band, which was actually pretty popular at the time. Band was called Revel 8, and, um, we'd gotten picked up by a manager, John Greenberg, w- had Nickelback and other platinum bands. And so we were really in a hot spot, playing the hottest clubs. And again, I just felt like what does it all mean if you can't find happiness?
Aharona Gans· Guest0:18
I spent an entire month with a monk in the jungle in Thailand not speaking. No speaking, no reading, no writing, no listening to music. It was 18 hours a day of meditation.
Chanan Gans· Guest0:32
And what was interesting is that I was, like, I was carrying a kippah at this point. I would, like, put it on. I had long dreadlocks. I would, like, stick it on top of the dreads. Um, but then I would see somebody I knew, I would, like, put it in my pocket 'cause I was embarrassed. And it amazed me, 'cause I was, like, so cool in California, and then I felt like, "Why am I so afraid of my identity?" Like, this is weird.
Yaakov Langer· Host0:52
They were each born Jewish. He didn't feel connected in his frum home, so he went exploring elsewhere. She grew up secular but was desperate to find the truth. She was a Buddhist monk in the mountains of Thailand. He was in a rock band playing heavy metal music. Through their search for purpose, they found each other and fell in love. This is a story of how Hashem orchestrated two people together, and how they together built a Jewish family. This episode is in loving memory of Shem David Ben Yaakov Shlama and Miriam Sorbas Yaakov Moshe. And thank you to this week's sponsors, Will Solis, Bikben, To Live or To Cry, the book, and Arsamech's incredible program, maybe for you. Here we go. So I was