Sid Roth welcomes Aviad Cohen

SID: Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world, where it’s naturally supernatural. Come on now, give me a break. A traditional Jewish man; Q Magazine calls him “the world’s most kosher MC”; traditional Jewish background… What are you doing singing about Jesus?

AVIAD: That’s what we’re supposed to Jew.

SID: Ok. You know what he said, “That’s what we’re supposed to do.” This is what I thought I heard him say: “This is what we’re supposed to Jew.” This is what we’re supposed to be as Jews. Let’s take a look at this song.

§ music §

§ J-E-S-U-S Yeah, He’s the King who’s best §

§ Y-E-S-H-U-A This is how we do §

§ J-E-S-U-S Yeah, He’s the King who’s best §

§ Y-E-S-H-U-A This is how we do §

§ This is how we do, come on §

§ I know you wanna rock with the One they call God’s Son, yeah §

§ Little do some know that Jesus is for everyone §

§ (He’s for everyone) §

§ His real name is Yeshua and He’s the world’s Messiah §

§ (the world’s Messiah) §

§ So if you’re down with King, then baby show Him as your Fire §

§ (everybody in the house sing) §

§ J-E-S-U-S Yeah, He’s the King who’s best §

§ Y-E-S-H-U-A This is how we do §

§ J-E-S-U-S Yeah, He’s the King who’s best… §

SID: We’re here with Aviad Cohen. Aviad, we just heard you sing that song. Such a Jewish background. What does “Aviad” mean?

AVIAD: “Aviad” actually means “Everlasting Father.” If you look actually in the Old Covenant, in the Tanach, you’ll find that it’s one of the five names of Messiah.

SID: Ok, well that’s a nice heritage to live up to. Tell me a bit about your Jewish upbringing. Are both your parents Jewish, as the rabbis hope you’ll say no.

AVIAD: Of course. My father is from Israel. I was actually born in Israel. And my mom, her parents were in the Holocaust from Poland. So, that’s what I am.

SID: But you moved to the States, to Brooklyn, Little Israel. And when you moved to Little Israel, tell me a bit about your Jewish upbringing.

AVIAD: My family sent me to the Jewish private schools for a “higher” education.

SID: Before you had the experience we’re going to get to, if someone had said to you “Who is God?”, what would your answer have been back then?

AVIAD: I have no clue, I have no clue

SID: With all your yeshiva training?

AVIAD: All I would tell you is “I’m a Jew, and I’m supposed to believe in God.”

SID: Ok. So you got a nice college education, you want to be a star, so you have to go out to Hollywood. You go to Hollywood, you get involved in making videos and things. Did you work for anyone famous?

AVIAD: I was a director’s assistant on Christina Aguilara’s music videos.

SID: I don’t know if I’d brag on that one, but you did work for someone famous

AVIAD: Different people, there was other people. I’m not going to mention any names.

SID: Ok. But then you get this bright idea, “I want to do something for my people.” Tell me about that.

AVIAD: Well, I just wanted to give something back to the kids, that I never really had growing up. I just really didn’t see anyone creating any Jewish media that I could relate to. And so, I decided… Actually, I’ll tell you, I really think God sent… During that time, there was this whole, 50 Cent, he’s a rapper, so I was like “It would be funny if there was a 50 Shekel.” Little did I know, two weeks later I end up becoming 50 Shekel. I wrote a song called “In The Shul” instead of “In The Club.” And some people hear about it…

SID: You were written up in a number of famous publications, which ones were talking about you?

AVIAD: Esquire voted me #1 for best Jewish rap lyrics. There was Q Magazine, New York Post, New York Magazine, Wall Street Journal, I was on ESPN2 Television, I was on Germany’s…

SID: Ok, so you get this fame, but why’d you move back to New York from LA?

AVIAD: It’s like, if I’m this Jewish role model, shouldn’t I actually be finding out what it is to be Jewish? So I headed into the orthodox scene, and people welcomed me into that community, and I appreciate it. It was an interesting experience.

SID: What was life like? You went to Torah studies? What’d you do at these Torah studies?

AVIAD: Oh yeah, it was interesting. I went to Torah studies, but what caught my attention… Do you want to know?

SID: Yeah, I really do. What was her name?

AVIAD: Who?

SID: I’m teasing you!

AVIAD: Oh. That’s funny. That’s funny, but this is serious here. Check this. So we go to Torah study, like we’re sitting here talking, and we’re sitting around, the rabbi is sitting, we had the Talmud, the students. So the Tanach, every week we’re going to study parts of, so the Tanach was open. On top of it was a Mishna…

SID: So the Tanach is the Jewish scriptures, the Mishna are writings about the Jewish scriptures.

AVIAD: No, no, yeah, the scribes, these other people, the rabbis wrote all these other words. Because the Bible is the word of God – it’s the word of God. “That’s the word that I, God, wrote.”

SID: Ok, so you have these other books. How about kabbalah?

AVIAD: Kabbalah, yeah, absolutely. And I was wondering to myself, I was like “So God’s word is on the bottom, all these other words are on top. And everyone is trying to debate over things like it’s a law case. Can we just read the Word?” And the concept of prayer, by the way, praying together – no. I never saw that. But we’ll get to that. But it was just very convoluted, nothing made sense to me, and I was trying to learn.

SID: By the way, kabbalah is Jewish mysticism. It isn’t Jewish, it is new age, and it’s an abomination according to Moses in the Torah. Deuteronomy the 18th chapter. So you’re looking at all these books on top of the scriptures. If you had walked up to the rabbi at that time and said “Rabbi, what do you think about Jesus?”, what would he have said?

AVIAD: I did actually.

SID: And?

AVIAD: That’s actually, like later on.

SID: What did he say?

AVIAD: This was, well, that was actually outside, it was during Shabbat, and he wanted me to come. I was going to the temple and then he saw me, I saw him and his crew. He was like “Come over for Shabbat.” By that time I was already jaded from a few things, because I was getting more into religion, and I didn’t really feel like that’s what it was about. I wanted God. But he asked me to go to his house for Shabbat, and I’m like “I don’t want to go.” Then I’m like “What about Jesus?” And he just pushed me. He’s like “What are you talking about?”, and he pushed me. It was not a nice push.

SID: He wasn’t pretty happy about Jesus, but guess what? You are going to be amazed at how a movie, done by a Catholic producer, resulted in Aviad knowing the King of the Jews. Don’t go away, we’ll be right back.