=rg1103.* Note (sa): =rg1103.* is my retitle of the following transcription by RG='Reuven Goldfarb' , which he distributed to the RSC mailing list, which I've downloaded as *.txt and combined, here, as =rg1103. RG stipulates that all copy-rights and all other rights are reserved to the family of R. Shlomo Carlebach. I've set a LL of 74 chars, which seems to be what RG used, and which I hope carries through EinseinWriter's T.EXE convert to ASCII ("text" in the laborious linguistics of Redmont mystics, no wonder they backed Bush may they all be open-source'd and sauced.) P.S.: I think I previously transcribed this tape, and have put it on my Website. Again, "I make no claims to any RSC material I have worked on, but acknowlege that others may wish to assert such claims." Again, I point out a halachic opinion that, as best's I recollect hearing that someone said says: "The [physical] property of a rabbi belongs to his descendents, but his teachings belong to all Israel." And again: Anyone who hopes to get rich from the teachings of R. Shlomo Carlebach should better sell herring in a chamsin. sa, Campra, 4 Nov '04 -- 20 Cheshvan -- 21 Ramadan -- Only 3 years and 364 more days of the reign of George Bush Jr., we should all live so long. ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 10:17:31 +0300 From: Reuven & Yehudit Goldfarb Subject: "German, Polish, and Jewish Intercultural Healing" Dear Chevra, I've finished transcribing and copy-editing two cassette tape recordings of Shlomo teaching at the University of Florida in Gainesville on Sunday, February 2, 1986 (23 Shevat, 5746), the week of Parashat Mishpatim. As usual, I will send it out to the list in modest size segments so as not to overburden readers. Anyone who would like to receive it all, at once, as attached files, need only drop me a line. Each file is a Microsoft Word 97-98 document, 152k in length, generated on my MAC, and sent through Eudora. I will add receive it as regular e-mail only should state their preference. The tapes' titles are "Reconciliation with God" and "German, Polish, and Jewish Intercultural Healing." Here is the first excerpt. Reuven Goldfarb Voiceover: The following is an excerpt from Reb Shlomo Carlebach's visit to the German Civilization class at the University of Florida. The talk is entitled, "German, Polish, and Jewish Intercultural Healing." [February 2. 1986] [Shlomo plays and sings for a couple of minutes. Near the beginning, he says, "Join me," and after a while, "Open your hearts and sing."] Okay, Shalom, my beautiful friends. Good morning. Thank you so much for inviting me. You see, I don't know exactly--I don't know exactly what you think I want to tell you. And I don't know myself what I want to tell you. But we gotta start somewhere. Do you know the difference between a layman walking into a hospital and a doctor? Very simple. A layman walks into a hospital--really sick people--walks around and says, "Ah! Disgusting--Ach! All those sick people. I don't want to stay here. Terrible." And the more sick they get, the more disgusted this person is. They walk out and say, "Nah, I don't like this hospital. Not for me." A doctor walks in--his eyes are glowing, right? "Hey--what a challenge!" And the more sick they get, the more he says, "I gotta stay here. I gotta cure them." You know, the question is, are you looking at the world like layman or like a doctor? If you look like a layman, you say, "What a disgusting world. Newspapers bad, everything terrible. God bless you. People hate each other, people kill each other. What a world! You know? I'm looking for another planet." If you're a doctor, you say, "What a world! Hey, what a privilege to be alive in this world, where I can do so much." So I'm telling you from the very beginning, you'll tell me that the world is terrible, right? And, I don't want to say anything bad, but, as a Jew, as anybody who was persecuted in the world, I can tell you the world is disgusting. So I can say I want to check out, right? But, thank God, there's still some doctors in the world, and I hope and I hope and I pray to be one of them. So I look at the whole scene in a different way. I look at it like a doctor. I want you to know something, that sadly enough, sadly enough, fifty years ago--I don't know why--I'm not God--the master of the world locked the doors of love between people. The doors were locked. Was no communication between people. Absolutely the doors of compassion were locked. And what you and I are witnessing--slowly, slowly--the doors are opening again. Doors are opening again-between people, between nations-and something is happening in the world. Something is happening in the world. And again, the people that are so accustomed that the gates of love are closed, when the gates of love are opening they don't feel comfortable. So they try with their last strength, you know, to prevent it. But who cares, right? Their time is over. They're bankrupt. They're bankrupt. To be continued... All rights reserved by the family of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, whose humble scribe I am, in whose merit and on behalf of whose numerous chasidim I toil. --Reuven Goldfarb, Tzfat, Galilee Elyon, 111 Cheshvan, 5765/October 26, 2004 Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 11:33:27 +0300 From: Reuven & Yehudit Goldfarb Subject: "German, Polish, and Jewish Intercultural Healing," continued --============_-1113256333==_ma============= Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Segment Two And I just want to share with you very fast. Like Rabbi [Jerry] Friedman says, it's fifty years later. Let's start from Germany. I want you to know that in Germany, the Protestant Church, every two years, they have something which is called "Day of the Church," Kirchentacht. They speak German, all the students here? Yeah? Real? Good. My German isn't as good anymore as it was supposed to be but pretty good. Okay, Kirchentacht. And miraculously, it's a whole long story, but it's not important. A few years ago, for the first time-you know, they had the Kirchentacht for maybe six, seven hundred years. I was invited. The first time-not to be believed-a Jew, humble Jew like me, was invited. And, um, I didn't even know myself what I'm letting myself into. And, uh, it's in Hanover, and they have a lot of things going on simultaneously. It's on the marketplace, and the big stage, and uh, I would say about 10,000 people are there, mostly young people between the age of, say, 18 and 30. And the Jewish community was supposed to supply me with a band, but somehow-stupidly-they forgot. Okay, I'm just coming from America. In the morning I check into a hotel just to sleep a few hours. I'm supposed to start 6 o'clock; I'm getting there 5:30. Whew! I already regretted that I said yes. The Bishop is talking, and forgive me, not one person pays attention to him. He's talking for fire and for water, and there are about 10,000 young people sitting there drinking beer, telling each other dirty jokes, laughing loud, and, nebich, the poor Bishop is standing there talking, talking, and oy vey. Really, I felt bad for the Bishop, but what can I do? I felt even worse for myself! (Laughs) I realized in a few minutes brother me has to go on stage and it'll be the biggest joke in the world, 'cause I'm supposed to play for two hours, from 6 to 8. I mean, this is a joke, right? You know, it's a marketplace, and the band doesn't show up. I'm with a little guitar, and I play very bad-and what am I gonna do with them? And you know what bothered me the most? If it's just me-but they didn't invite me for me. They invited me, a Jew. I'm representing the whole Jewish people. What a desecration of God's name. Oy vey! Gevaldt. A few times in my life I really prayed, to tell you the truth. This was one of those times. I'm getting on stage, and I want you to know, I still shiver when I tell you it. I got on stage, and I said in German, "My sweetest brothers and sisters-bruder und shvester- I came to bring you regards from the Holy City, Jerusalem."* I want you to know, I didn't expect it. They got up-like bitten by a snake-thousands of kids, rushing to the stage. Thousands of kids. I started singing-I'm telling you something-it was like after Messiah had come! It was like after the Messiah had come. I want you to know there were moments when I couldn't even move my hand because they were crowding me so much. With one heart and with one soul. And there were maybe two more Jews in the audience; the rest were all non-Jewish brothers and sisters. And just open your hearts. And, you know, you don't sing all the time, you don't talk all the time. There's a few moments of silence. And suddenly like, at the end-they were all standing on their feet; there was nobody that was sitting. It was just awesome. A young man-you know-waves. I say, "My sweetest brother, what do you want to tell me?" It was heavy. You have to open your hearts. He says, "My grandfather killed your grandfather." It's heavy, right? So there was silence, like-it 's too gruesome. So I held out my hand, and I said, "Brother, can you imagine how much the world became better in 50 years? That your grandfather killed my grandfather, and you and I are the best friends in the world? What a world-what a world. I said, "Brother, you better come here." So then the closeness got even stronger-was awesome, I'm telling you, was awesome. So I was telling them stories-what I was most interested in telling them-Okay, they know the Germans killed six million, but they don't know who they were! They don't know what Jews are all about! Told them stories about our great rabbis, our great people. It was awesome-awesome. And then at the end we were dancing, and, you know, by the end, everybody was standing on their toes, holding out their hands because you could see they wanted to reach Heaven. I'm sure they did reach Heaven. I said to them, "You know something? I hope your hands will reach the most desperate person in the world-because there is hope-there is unbelievable hope for the world-not to be believed. You know, there was a rock band was supposed to go on after me, and this is not to brag, but I'm telling you stories. The rock band went on a quarter after 11 because every person there was kissing and hugging me. Everybody says, you know? "Where can we learn more?" And the rock band just couldn't get on stage, you know? Just imagine 10,000 kids on stage, on a small stage, you know? You can't throw them off, right? Anyway, I want you to know, Sammy and I, my manager, we were in Poland, and I was-the whole time I wanted to go to Poland-and I have to-anyway, after a few years, thank God, last January, we were going to Poland. And I don't have to tell you, I get calls from everyone, you know, who is who in Judaism, and they tell me, "Don't go to Poland-it's the darkest place in the world-and they're all anti-Semites, it's just so bad, and so terrible, and I mean, just forget it-and I mean, I think you're even endangering your life-" Anyway, I want you to know, it was like after the Messiah had come. It was so beautiful! And I could look at all those young people in the audience, and I could just close my eyes and imagine what their grandfather did-maybe to my uncle, maybe to my cousin, I don't know. But you know what it was? I was so glad that I have the privilege of kissing the grandson or the granddaughter of someone who did so much harm to the world. What a privilege! What a privilege! *The transcriber recalls that when Reb Shlomo told this story in Berkeley, he quoted himself as saying, "My sweetest brothers and sisters, I am bringing you a message of love and peace from the Holy City of Yerushalayim!"-RG All rights reserved by the family of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, whose humble scribe I am, in whose merit and on behalf of whose numerous chasidim I toil. -Reuven Goldfarb, Tzfat, Galilee Elyon, 12 Cheshvan, 5765/October 27, 2004 Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 19:25:14 +0300 From: Reuven & Yehudit Goldfarb Subject: "German, Polish, and Jewish Intercultural Healing," III Segment Three I want you to know, friends, God is opening gates between nations which He hasn't opened in maybe in the history of the world. God is opening gates between religions. It didn't happen in the history of the world, right? [Someone sneezes] God bless you, darling. I want to share with you a medresh. Medresh is commentaries on the Bible, which is--and if I'll sing it, it'll take too long. I don't know if you're in the mood for harmonizing, but I'll tell you what it says. I want you to know that Cain never wanted to kill Abel. It's clear to us because Cain and Abel were the first two brothers on the planet, and nobody had ever died yet. Cain didn't know when you hit someone with a stone they die. Sadly enough, we know it because we watch television, right? But they didn't have a television then, and nobody had even died yet. Was Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, right? So Cain is angry at Abel; he took a stone and threw it on his head. And if you remember, Cain had the idea of bringing a sacrifice to God, but he only brought things which he didn't need. Then Abel picked it up from him, and he brought the best he had. So God accepted the sacrifice of Abel but not of Cain. So Cain was very jealous and angry--he's killing [Abel]. And just remember that God spoke to him after he did it. God doesn't talk to murderers. And listen to what the medresh says--it's awesome. Abel fell to the ground, and Cain did not know there is such a thing as dying--yet. Mamash, he sees his brother lying there. Gevaldt, did he regret that he threw a stone at him. You know, when you're angry, after you do it, the anger's over, right? He fell to the ground, and he began crying. He says, "Abel, you're my only brother. Please open your eyes. Please forgive me. Please open your eyes." And he was crying so much--and I want you to know, there was so much more connection between animals and human beings [than] we have today. The medresh says all the animals of the whole world came. They were also crying. They were crying. The first person dead in the world-they were crying for three days. And only on the third day they realized--he won't open his eyes. So here's the medresh--unbelievable. On the great day--let it be today; let it be tomorrow at the latest--all the Cains of the world will be lying next to the Abels they killed. They will fall down next to them, and they will say, "Please open your eyes. I swear I didn't want to kill you. I was just so angry at you." And they will cry and cry for three days. And a great miracle will happen--Abel will open his eyes. Abel will come back. And Abel and Cain will begin to dance. What a day. What a day. You know what it is? Maybe some people hope that one day Abel will get back to life, and he will kill Cain. Okay, that's a different outlook. Thank God I'm not sharing it, and I hope you're not either. I just hope that one day the six million will open their eyes again. They have to open their eyes. There is no other way. Can you imagine all the people who were killed in Siberia? Awesome. Awesome, awesome. Awesome, right? But you see what it is? You and I have the privilege of hastening--of hastening that day when Abel will open his eyes again. (To be continued...) All rights reserved by the family of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, whose humble scribe I am, in whose merit and on behalf of whose numerous chasidim I toil. --Reuven Goldfarb, Tzfat, Galilee Elyon, 144 Cheshvan, 5765/October 28, 2004 Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 01:46:31 +0300 From: Reuven Goldfarb Subject: "German, Polish, and Jewish Intercultural Healing" IV Segment Four (last part) I want you to know something very deep, friends. There are two things which we are taught in Heaven before we are born. Have you even seen a baby when it's born? There is a therapist, and maybe a rabbi or priest, and they take the baby and they say, "Listen, baby, in this world, it's a custom for babies to cry. So we want you--don't overdo it, but let's rehearse a little bit, and baby, we'll teach you, you know, how to cry." You don't have to teach a baby how to cry. You know why? Because prayer is taught in Heaven. Prayer is not of this world. Crying is not of this world. Have you ever seen a mother?--The baby is born, and the mother says to the doctor and nurses, "I gotta have a little privacy with my baby." The mother says to the baby, "Listen to me, baby. I am your mother. Hm!" [Self-satisfied expletive] Mazel tov, right? "I'm your mother, and your father will be in soon. And I want you to love me." Why not? You know something? Is there any way, any words to describe how much a baby loves his mother? Or her mother? You can write poetry from here to the end of the days. The way a baby loves its mother--we have no vessels even to fathom it. The only sad thing is later on we send those kids to school, and we have the privilege of destroying everything which is taught to them from Heaven. Hatred is taught--because children, when they are born, they don't know that there is someone they are supposed to hate. Children don't even know there is such a thing as ugly. By children, everybody looks beautiful, right? Until I tell my baby, listen, this person-chh [grunt of enmity] is really ugly. This person? Just--this is a bad person. Don't talk to them. So you see, friends, the question is, "What do we want to bring back to the world?" And you see what's so special--we don't really have to teach the world how to love. We have to unteach them what the world has taught them. And if I can share something very deep with you, you know, we just had the holiday Passover, and the matzoh we eat is called "the bread of healing." And without--[tape skips]--and you know, with prayer sessions, and all kinds of things, and we teach people how to love God. How does it sound to you? It's like I'm teaching the mother taking the baby aside, "Listen, I'm your mother! You better love me!" Right? But you know what it is to be in exile? To be in exile is that you lose that heavenly teaching. You've lost it! And whatever you know is taught by us--even by your cutest teacher--pure slave! You're not real anymore. You know what it is for us Seder night--Pesach--to become free? That God washes off all the dirt, all the dust. You know, friends, if I would relate to God like a baby, when it's born, relating to its mother--what a relationship! What a relationship. I want you to know, according to our holy tradition--maybe yours, too--you know who is my soul mate? Did I tell you? I went to a singles bar last night; I met this girl--very beautiful. I think I like her. How does it sound to you? That's not so bad yet, right? You've heard worse. According to our holy tradition, forty days before a baby is born, there's a voice in heaven calling out: "This man should marry this woman." And our holy rabbis comment on it--I mean, what's the hurry? Forty days before you're born? I would say even--I mean, you're eighteen years old--or seventeen--they decide in heaven whom you should meet--and this [is] what all the rabbis say: Just loving a person, love of this world, doesn't keep people together. You know what means "it's called out forty days before"? It's not of this world. Husband and wife--the connection--is heavenly! They have to be taught in heaven how to love each other. So you see, friends, if you ask me personally. I want you to know--Yossi mentioned it before--I'm from Berlin. And I'm like the only, so to speak, living singer--Jewish singer--who was born in Berlin, that's also alive. So I was invited by the city of Berlin--if I can impose upon you and make it fast--It was very, very special. Very, very special. Okay, I'm arriving in Berlin, and I want you to know, television followed me for three days, day and night. And without bragging, it was shown on German television for weeks, every Sunday for one hour--for weeks! Like, every, every little thing. It was unbelievable. Okay, listen to this. The first thing they do is take me to a prison. And there, about, five or six hundred--I would say--kids between the ages of 16 and 21--thieves, dope addicts, dope dealers, prostitutes, you know, all kinds--and I'm playing for them. They wanted to see how I relate to them. Gevaldt, was it beautiful! It was so beautiful. I still remember it. And I told those kids, "You know something? You think you're in prison? We all are in prison. We all are slaves. I mean, [when] you come out of here, you'll be the ones to teach the world how to become free again." I want you to know--have you ever been in prison? I hope you never have to go to. You know, every few steps there's a door with fifteen locks. Okay, there are these five, six young people, and they walk me out. You know, security gets a bit nervous, but it was so high, they didn't dare to stop those kids. It was unbelievable, right? And they're a little--heavy criminals, some of them, right? They walk me, they open the door for me, they all walk with me. It was unbelievable. The whole time they were telling me, "Please take me with you to Jerusalem. Please take me with you." It was just--I could see those kids need adoption in the worst way, you know? Maybe they're only criminals because no one ever hugged them and kissed them properly. I want you to know, those kids walked me to the door of the prison, by the street, and nobody dared closing the doors on them. They stood by the open doors. I went to the car, and they waved. [End of tape] All rights reserved by the family of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, whose humble scribe I am, in whose merit and on behalf of whose numerous chasidim I toil. B'Ezrat HaShem, on Yom Sheni I'll send out the first part of "Reconciliation with God." Anyone who would like a complete copy of the "Intercultural Healing" transcript need only write to me at the above email address and specify whether it should be transmitted as an attachment or as regular email. --Reuven Goldfarb, Tzfat, Galilee Elyon, 166 Cheshvan, 5765/October 31, 2004