Avraham Avinu Was Metal
Before there were guitars, there was a man who made the heavens tremble.
He didn’t play metal; he was the metal.
The boy lay under the sky and watched the sun go down.
He saw it blaze in glory and then vanish, leaving darkness behind.
He thought, “That can’t be God.”
Then the moon rose, cold and silver.
He watched it fade too. “That can’t be God either.”
Somewhere between the fire of day and the silence of night, the first Jew was born.
Avraham Avinu was raised in a furnace of lies.
He grew up in an idol shop, literally.
His father sold false gods.
When Avraham learned the truth, he broke them all.
He didn’t find Hashem in yeshiva or from a mentor.
He found Him through rebellion.
He found Him through smashing the easy answers and staring into the void, refusing to worship it.
That’s Metal.
Metal is not performative in and of itself. although one must perform it.
It is the name we called ourselves.
We few guys listened to 92.3 KRock on contraband radios in the van on the way to yeshiva in high school.
Rock, grunge, progressive rock, heavy metal, classic rock, death metal, what have you.
Metal is what happens when heat meets will and doesn’t melt.
When every test refines the man who won’t break.
It is only the electric guitars, bass, and drums that can truly elicit the essence of what it means to be metal.
Sometimes other instruments can be thrown in, but it is only those that form the bases. that are tools to mine the holy sound of metal.
It is why modern Jewish music never really glommed onto the genre of metal.
Only one who is worthy can shepherd the sound of metal.
It is only one who has the metal that can play the metal.
Jewish music today is a series of pandering, placating people pleasers, trying to squeeze what they can out of a tiny, saturated frum market. There is no metal in that world.
Metallish was the first and last true Jewish metal band.
Sorry, not sorry if this offends you, but it’s true.
The Midrash says the world stood on one side, and Avraham stood on the other.
That’s the sound of distortion, the sound of every string pulled so tight it hums.
It’s the sound of one man screaming against an empire, not for himself but for truth.
Nimrod threw him into the fire.
The fire bowed.
We talk about his ten tests like chapters in a story, but they’re really one drumbeat, each louder than the last.
Until the final one, the Akeidah, when silence became the ultimate note.
When a man who has given everything gives even his future.
And still trusts Hashem.
That’s the heaviest riff in history.
Avraham Avinu wasn’t soft.
He didn’t look for comfort.
He looked for Hashem eerywhere, even in the furnace.
When he found Him, he walked into every next blaze without flinching.
Every Jew alive today is iron drawn from that same forge.
We were never meant to sound gentle.
Not wild, but also not gentle.
We were meant to scream Hashem’s truth into the world.
to take the blows and hold fast to the line.
We were meant to live metal.
To be unbending, believing, burning, and ever bending to Hashem’s designs.
It takes mettle to be Metal.
To be just like the first man who heard Hashem call and answered, Hineni.
I have two songs for you about Avraham.
Yes, they are AI.
Sadly, I do not have a metal band at my beck and call.
The first song is about little Avraham’s journey finding Hashem and an atypical learning of that Midrash.
Child of Fire
The second song is from the perspective of Nimrod and how he perceived the phenomenon of Avraham in the fiery furnace.
Lord of Flame
Enjoy!
