A Tribute
When Lynne and I first met Michael and Maria Frasche, it was in the home of Grant and Robin Luton in May 2017. We had travelled over to Ohio to visit our wonderful friends and to have the opportunity once again to enjoy sweet fellowship at Beth Tikkun Messianic Congregation, of which Grant is the congregational leader. We were staying with Grant and Robin in their home while we visited, and as was usual we gathered together for a Friday Shabbat meal around their table. Grant had mentioned earlier that they had invited some friends from New Jersey who would be joining us and that in particular I might enjoy talking to Michael as he was a fellow musician. Mike and Maria arrived as did their friends Dave and Peng Krug with their 3 children and a wonderful evening of conversation, fellowship and friendship took place. Michael and I never really spoke about music that evening.
Grant had invited me to teach that Shabbat; it was the feast of Shavuot. This is always a daunting task. Anyone who knows Grant’s teaching will know that the privilege it is to teach at the fellowship is also one of great responsibility. Mike and I chatted afterwards over “oneg” (lunch for the uninitiated. “Oneg” means “delight”) and it was clear that a bond was already beginning.
We arrived back in the UK and at the beginning of June I reached out to Mike. The bond was cemented!!! Immediately we were speaking about Torah, the soul, Luzzatto, Schneerson, Dessler and the importance of Mussar in the daily walk of the disciple of Yeshua.
Mike and Maria began to join MBM UK studies on a Friday evening as it was only around 3pm U.S. time. From June that year and immediately the dynamic of the group changed. We were on a journey together. Our weekly calls started to become almost daily, as Mike would be sat in his office at the plant, reading or studying something deep and, thanks to facetime, our conversations across the Atlantic Ocean were priceless in all senses of the word.
The next time we were able to meet face to face was in 2018. Beth Tikkun had arranged a trip to Israel and we had signed up as it was a perfect opportunity to catch up with all of our friends. As we travelled on the coach together and visited the sights it was clear that there was a restlessness in Mike. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be there: he and Maria loved being there, but somehow there was something missing, but then we arrived in Jerusalem! The restlessness disappeared and his countenance brightened. The night we arrived, a group of us made our way down to the Western Wall and Mike’s face just lit up. This was the reason for the trip!!! That was back in 2018 at Hanukkah.
After that trip, we were on facetime again almost every day. When would there be a chance to get together again? We spoke of when we might return to the U.S. or maybe meet up in Europe somewhere. Lynne and I had moved house in early 2019 and were recovering from the rigours of that and getting our lives back in shape. It was not going to be that year. And then late 2019, COVID began. 2020 came and went. We continued to speak to each other most days about what was happening in the world and again there was a calm urgency in Mike, speaking of understanding and doing the commandments; working on his soul; learning Mussar. Book recommendations continued to fly back and forth as well as growing the library.
The U.S. election came and went. Life became busier, but we still talked at least 2, 3, 4 times a week. Mike’s New Jersey voice echoing through the house.
And then, on the 30th July 2021 Mike sent a photo of himself lying on a hospital bed with an oxygen mask over his face. What happened?! Pneumonia!! Is this you earlier? Or now? Are you back home? The answer came back. Now!
Mike’s last word to me was “Now!” – He passed into the next world on the 2nd August 2021
So, what is the legacy of Michael Frasche?
Husband, Father, Friend, Musician, Percussionist, Drummer, Composer, Engineer, Torah Scholar, Teacher, Dangermouse aficionado? – Yes, all of those things!
But it is so much more than that!
Mike taught me that whatever you do, you can’t do it in half measures. You have to be fully committed. As I read the pages of the books that we shared in conversation, I hear the wisdom, questions and laughter of a friend who in the flesh I met only twice in 4 years. MBM UK Family will be very different without Mike. But his legacy? Now!! Now is the time to work on your soul! Now is the time, “Get Wisdom, Get Understanding”! Mike had been learning musical composition and as he understood the mathematical structure of music it also gave him renewed insight into Torah. In one of our conversations, he said something along these lines, I don’t remember the exact words, but it went something like this:
“Someone can be listening to a piece of music, say, “The Magic Flute” by Mozart, which is brilliant. And yet someone can be sitting next to them and just not get it. I can look at the structure of music and recognise an augmented 4th or an Ionian scale, but if I don’t listen to the whole piece, then it becomes meaningless. Torah is the same. If we don’t do this thing as a whole and only examine pieces of it, we might appreciate some of its intricacies, but we won’t appreciate the composition or the brilliance of the composer. We all have to play our part even, if it is only one cymbal, or a single beat of the timpani.”
But when do I have to play that part? Now!
Goodbye Michael, my very good friend, our very good friend. Thank you for all you left with us! See you on the other side!!
MBM UK Family 