Singer Nathan Goshen told in an interview he gave to Raz Schachnik in Yedioth Ahronoth how Maran Ha-Rabbi Kanievsky zt"l recommended to him, over 15 years ago, to change his name from Matan to Nathan.
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“Rabbi Kanievsky changed my name from Matan to Nathan,” he said. “My mother was a good friend of his wife, Rebbetzin Bat Sheva, and she asked him about my name. He told her that Nathan would be better.
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“I asked myself, do I like the name Nathan? I don’t know. I asked, do you like Matan? I said to myself, wow, no. I remember hanging up the phone and telling everyone, ‘Friends,
From this day on, Natan Goshen.
Goshen tells in an interview how he began to repent.
“I left home at the age of 15. I felt I wanted to live a different life. The approach to religion happened after my sister Hila grew stronger before me, embarked on her own process of repentance, and the books were at home. I remember her gently trying to give me a book to read, when I was a strictly secular child, and it wasn’t easy.
“One day, just as she was leaving, out of curiosity, I went to check for myself and opened the book ‘The Outpouring of the Soul’ by Rabbi Nachman. In those moments of reading, I realized that my soul needed attention.
“A little after I turned 15, I took buses from Lod to Mount Meron and wandered around there alone. It was a time of exploration, perhaps the best and most liberating of my life.
“I was a child who could be thrown anywhere, so I took naps here and there, slept with good people who agreed to host me sometimes. I felt liberated and that was the moment I decided to wear a head covering. I put on a kippah, grew wigs, I keep Shabbat, and put a tzitzit on. My process also really scared my mother. Everyone around me was waiting for it to be something else that would pass like all my crazy things. But for me it only got stronger.”.
In an interview, he told about the moment he decided to keep Shabbat: “I had difficulties with keeping Shabbat. During my time in the army, I had falls and it was very difficult for me. After I was discharged, I had a girlfriend, and one day I went to pick her up from work, on Shabbat. Right before we got home, we had a car accident. A car hit me head-on. I passed out, and when I woke up, I heard booms because they were trying to get us out of the car. The doors were bent.
“I remember my mother running to a place outside the house to see if I was okay. My girlfriend and I were slightly injured and we all cried there together. I asked my partner for forgiveness even though I wasn’t at fault for the accident, I asked my mother for forgiveness for the car, and I asked myself for forgiveness for blaming myself for everything without checking. Since then, I haven’t desecrated Shabbat anymore.”.
