=sc700708 R. Shlomo Carlebach , 7/8/70 (July 8, I presume. Trust the USA to screw up the simplest things, like the date. 8 Jul 70 would do.) Heading: Shlomo 7/8/70 -- Cassette of Marvin Bernice I have a note, HH31, which was what I assigned this typesript when I inventoried the HH (Hatzkele & Hadassah Sasson) collection; and then a notation 'Apparently =B5', the B-Series being what I assigned to part of the Witt Collection. That is: this same doc is named B5 in the Witt Collection, and HH#31 in the HH Collection; and called =sc700708 in my Input. 'Marvin Bernice' is Marvin & Bernie Koussoy, formerly of San Francisco, where they were core members of the House of Love & Prayer; now living on Moshav Mevo Modi'in. This transcription includes many instances of 3-dots... for which I blame Herb Caen, who described his daily column in the San Francisco Chronicle, ca. 1961, as "3-dot journalism" -- 3-dots is usually used to signify ellipsis, that is, that the present version has, in the places indicated by 3-dots ... elided some text from the original. But for Herb Caen it was merely an affectation, designed to convey the impression of a gentleman of leisure. I reckon that in this transcript, and in almost all other RSC transcripts except the ones I did, it merely conveys a pause in RSC's speaking. But I don't know. ================================================================= OK. Yesterday we began studying the psalms ... [3-dots typescript]. Ok. The first passage says 'Happy is the person (!) who doew not walk in the council of the wicked, and on the way of the sinners he doesn't stop and he doesn't sit together with people, ---- scornful people, who tear everybody down but he really on the contary, he really wants to study. {b5-1} OK. Now we were studying it very strong yeseterday, just want to review it very fast. There are three kinds of evil in the world, three kinds of evil people. One is called power, the other is called pleasure, and the other is called destruction. And now listen very ery deep: What is the greatest power in the world? What is the gretest power in the world? what is the greatest power in the world ... [3-dots typescript] If you know what do with it. If you don't know what to do with it ... [3-dots typesript] Anyway, money is the greatest power, strongest thing, and if you got the most dollars, the whole world is jumping. Then there is pleasure. So the Talumd says like this: The person who is looking for pleasure, you cannot say he is wicked, you know. He is not a wicked person, you know. Nebach, whe wants to have a good time. Now , what can you do with him, its not wicked. It's just not so good, right? Wicked ... [3-dots orig.] wicked is something else. Wicked is something, a person who tells you, "Man, if you got a dollar in your hand, you got the world in your hand!" {b5-2} The question is, what you do you need the dollar for? Do you need that much money, lying around in the bank, lying around in the bank and ...[3-dots orig] I wouldn't touch it because I'm too cheap right? What do you do with it? It's for power, right? Because if I have a milion dollars lying in the bank I'm not doing anything with it but the moment I have a mililon dolalrs in the bank, I feel the power, right. Then there is a little sinner man, you know, a little sinner. He's a cute little sinner, wants to have a good time. {b5-3} You see the thing about this, the sinner is really not, he's really not bad, he is not bad, [END TYPESCRIPT p1] [START TYPESCRIPT P2] he's a sweet little man, he's looking for pleasure. The only thing is, nobody ever told him that the glass of beer is not the greatest pleasure, but studying is a greatest pleasure, doing someone a favor is a greater pleasrue, not doing greater good deeds; a bigger mitzvah. It's a greater pleasure. Somene, nebach, thinks he's going to a French Restaurant and he pays for one little plate of sout [sic: sout; a type of soup served in London in the 19th century] twenty five dollars and he has pleasure. Friday night, a piece of challa is more pleasure {b5-4} [Transcriber notes: Time out to turn cassette over ] {I assume that means: Some text-loss on tape-flip (sa)} ... [3-dots, transcript] Friday night, you're blindfolded. You don't see the people, but you can taste from the challah. If they really have Shabbos ... on the table. but if ther is no Shabbos in the house, iot's just, they happened, they bought the challs from ... [3-dots transcript] the A and P. {b5-5} It doesn't taste so good. You know friends, I was privileged to taste challah from Bobov Friday night, with the Bobover Rebbe. So sometimes there, let's say, especially in the Succah, there were times Friday night when there were really so many people, really didn't have enough challah for everybody. So you you get one crumb. But this one crumb can carry you a whole life, a whole lifetime. So this little pleasure man is not bad, he just needs someone to give him a little shabbostikah challah, right? But then comes the end of the world, destruction. Who is the most destrictive person in the world? The real anti__G_d? The real anti_G-d is someone who tears people down. That's the end of the world. This is absolutely the end of the world. Here G_d created a person, right. G_d made something out of him. And this person tears him down. The is absolutely the utmost of the ... [3-dots, typescript] -- not even wicked, it's just the end. {b5-6} You see, the person who's looking for power, at least he's a human being. He's looking for values. Maybe you explain to him that there are higher values. Or maybe can explain to him, why don't you take the money and instead of using it on [END TYPESCRIPT PAGE 2] [START TYPESCRIPT PAGE 3] people, on misusing people, why don't you do something with it? But the person who's tearing everything down, whatever you'll tell him he'll tear down. He has no values, he's completely destructive, completely anti. Anti-being. And yesterday we learned someting even deeper. This is from the Ibn Ezra, which is one of the greatest ... [3- dots typescript] I wonder how mahy of you heard of Ibn Ezra? He lived about ...[3- dots typesrpt] a little bit after Maimonides. He was ... [3_dots typescript] the biggest poor shlepper in the world. Really poor. whatever, he was the biggest schlemazel in the world, nebach, as much as he was one of the greatest, greatest, philosophers in the world ... [3_dots typescript] You know, he said, this is his famous classic saying. He says, If I would become a hatmaker ... [3-dots typesript] -- because whatever he started went wrong. Imagine, he would open a herring store, suddenly there was a thing, people don't eat herring anymore. Or let's say he would open a milk store. There would be next day in the newspapers, milk is not good, you know, someting like this. So his famous saying is if he would open a hat store he could swear that next mornig all the babies would be born with heads, you know? Have no head, I'm sorry, can't buy a hat. {b5-7} {b5-7} {Commment (sa): Excuses excuses. But it would have made a great line for Star Wars.} Anyway, so he says something even deeper ... [3_dots typescript] and this, really, you have to ... [3_dots typescript] -- have to tear your hearts apart in order to get the message: Let's say, if I take a person and I tear this person down, what am I tearing down? I'm tearing his ears? his nose? If a take a person who's standing here and I say he is ... [3_dots typescript] ach! He is still standing. He is still five foot eight. What am I tearing down? His soul. I am tearding down his soul -- you knwo what that means?! Where do I have the audacity to enter? Meand [sic, 'Meand'; I can't guess what that's a typo for] I am really entering like ... [3_dots typescript] -- even where G_d trembles! And I have the chutzpah, I'm tearing down someone's soul? This is not just destruction like war, you know, destruction of someone's body -- that's also destruction. But this doesn't compare yet. The greatest destruction of the world is to say something evil about another person. This is the end of the world. There's a ___________ [blank in transcription; presumably the transcriber could't catch a few words] in the [END TYPESCRIPT PAGE 3] [START TYPESCRIPT PAGE 4] talmud, the talmud says that G_d can forgive everything in the world, but G_d will not forgive you if you say something bad about another person. {b5-8} And you know something? Because this is the most evil thing in the world, it's the hardest thing not to do. You know, listen, it's very easy for me, let's say for instance, OK, you know money you can get out of a little bit, OK, you don't have so much money. [To paraphrase: It is easier to forgo money than to forgo loshon hora.] Pleasure you can maybe somehow a little bit, try not to have ... [3_dots typescript] try not to run after pleasusre so much. But it comes to talking evil, _____ [apparently transcriber is indicating here that he/she failed to transcribe a phrase ] a person will always be running after that. It is the greatest pleasure in the world to tear somone down because this is the most destructive force in the world. And the greatest force in the world is to take someone who, nebach, is hungry and has nothing and feels rejected and lift this person up. The is the greatst G_d--like thing you can do. This is the great G_d__like thing. And listen to this. The gemorra says to receive guests is more [important] than to talk to G_d. Remember Abraham? G_d was talking to Abraham and in the middle he saw three little pagasnss. He thought they were pagans, but they were angels. But he thought they were pagans. He thought they were three little pagans and it was a hot day. And he was thinking they were hungry ahn dthirsty. So he says to G_d, "You know, G_d, YOU have time. But the three people who are starving they don't have time." I don't want to go into it now beause some of you remember when we learend the portion of the week. The was the acid test by Abraham. G_d wanted to see before he announced to him that he'll have his son Issac'l, Abraham, are you really my man? Did you get the message? There are a lot of people who ae ready to talk to G_d. Why not? The Pope is ready to talk to G_d. The question, is are you ready to tell G_d, G_d, YOU have time, but the poor man has no time. This is the test. This is the strongest test of Avraham. But anyway, he told [END TYPESCRIPT PAGE 4] G_d, you know G_d, you can wait now ... [3-DOTS typescript] But you knwo what the Zohar Kodesh says? The Zohar Kodesh says, this is very very very deep. OK, G_d created the world. He created people. Let's take children. They're born in the world But you know what the story is? Unitl someone comes to you and tells you "I love you" you are still a stranger in the world. You feel like a stranger. You're not really here yet. Zohar Kodesh says, Do you know what it means to take a stranger and invite him into your house and into your heart, really, you know, I love you. This is ... [3-dots typeddript] the Zohar Koshesh (says) that means I'm giving this person even more existence than G_d gave him. G_d sent him into this world and he is here. But this is not real existence yet. The real, real existence of a person has to be given by another person. And ... [3_dots typescript] -- I don't want to go into it now, it's very deep. But if some of you knwo a little bit about Hassidus -- You know about the Baal Shem Tov -- the whole thing about the Baal Them Tov is that we have to give the world existence. Waht happens if I ... [3_dots typescript] --- if I drink a Coca Cola and I make a Brocha over it? What am I doing with the bracha? OK, "Blssed be the LORD who created the word with his word." {b5-9} {b5-9} {Comment (sa): Over foods containing artifical ingredients one should rather say: "who hath given unto the Byzantines ingenuity to make strange devices" [after Yeats, "Sailing to Bzyantium"] } And I drink the Coca-Cola. What am I doing to the coca-cola. I'm giving it existence. Because so far the coca-cola was like nothing. Or imagine I say hello tto a little dog. What am I doing to the dog. I'm giving him existence. He was like a little stranger walking around in the world You know what someone said? The old hassidim were-- maybe some you remember -- the old hassidim were sitting together and they talked to each other and one of the says what did the Baal Sheem Tov really teach us ... [3_dots typescript] -- what did he really teach us. So one of the old Hassidim said, "You know what the Ball Shem Tov taught us? He says, "We all knew that G_d is there, right? There is one G_d. But the Baal Shem Tov taught he REALLY is there." You know that that means? Even _____ [blank underline in typescript; indicating failure to transcribe a few words, I assume] G_d needs us to give HIM existence. {b5-10} Greatest thing in the world. G_d is there, but until I really say he's here, he's not really here, sadly enough. Ok now listen to this, very fast. Ashrei is ... [3_dots typescript] Ashrai means real, you know, the world doesn't know what happiness means, right? They \\ [END TYPESCRIPT PAGE 5] This is all I have of that typescript from HH. Obviously there was more; I'll check =inv0494a: ================================================================= My Inventory for #B5 is as follows: inv0494a -- INVENTORY OF R. SHLOMO MATERIALS, Rev. 4/25/94 Update of inv0194 SERIES B. XEROX TYPESCRIPTS from the good old days 6/90: All but B22 returned from ZF to HS, both Meor Modi'in DUPLICATE COLLECTION J. WITT BOX #5 4/94 *B5 5 7/8/70 "Cassette of Maxim Bernice" SERIES HH: INVENTORY OF TRANSCRIPTS HELD BY HASKALA SASSON, MEOR MODI'IN, 4/90 HH31 5 xt 7/8/70 "Cassette of Marvin Bernice" apparaently = B5, above So in short: Although the original typescript transcript obviously continued past page 5, we have it only through page 5. ================================================================== MY NOTES TO THIS RSC TRANSCRIPT FOOLLOW: CAVEAT TABBYCAT: Anyone seriously interested in the teachings of RSC does not necessarily have any reason to read these notes (except the sample transliteration in Note {b5-1}. ================================================================= COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY: NOTES (sa) to =sc700708 {b5-1} {Comment (sa): Oy: Politically correct yeshiva bochers "walk upon England's mountains green" [poor Bill Blake]} I mean, what we got us here is basically: Ashrei: AShReI YIShvI BeIT_eKha Happy, who sit (in) YOUR House 'OD Y_HaLLU_Kha seLaH more will praise YOU [Emphatic affirmative close] AShReI Ha_'aM Sh_KaKhaH LO Happy the people [nation] whose lot is thus AShReI Ha_'aM Happy the people [nation] Ok, I have the wrong Psalm; but I got to demonstrate my transcription system.} {b5-2} {Comment (sa): As_it_is_said (USA folk-song): "Don't let your deal go down / 'till your last dollar be gone". And Cf. Reb Nachman's tale of the man who found a diamond ring, and took ship for England, and was treated like a prince, and one day the diamond ring was swept overboard, but he kept on acting as_if, and so just before they docked and he would have had to go to jail for not paying his bill, the Captain, who maybe was the one who should have gone to jail, said, I owe this Port money, so please let me sign my cargo over to you." So Reb Nachman says maybe something like this: The Yiddele was supposed to have enough money to carry out his makom -- to do what he was destined to do on earth -- so as long as he kept faith in that aspect of the truth, he could have money -- finding a diamond ring, and if that didn't work out, being given a shipload of wheat.} {b5-3} {Comment (sa): In another version, which I think I input, the sinner is a rather pure soul who comes close to Yom Kippur and realizes he doesn't have any sins to repent. So he goes out to do an avera, so he can daven Yom Kippur with proper kavanah. He's not strong enough to be a highwayman and rob a stagecoach -- maybe demand "a pinch of snuff or you lives" -- heck, if he tried to lift a bullrush he'd need both hands -- so he decides to commit the sin of fornication, like the Bishop is always saying not to do. So finally he finds this still-zaftig widow woman and plies her with great tales of how he is a visting merchant sea-captain who just came ashore and is traveling incognito to find etc. etc. and so he deceives the lady and has his will etc. etc. and when he leaves, he confesses his sin to her and says he isn't really a merchant prince who walked inland on 7-League boots that he got from a giant for a pot of gold, he's really just an overage yeshiva bocher from the next shtetl, and she says, I knew all the time, you didn't even remember to tuck in your tiztzit, and he says, can you ever forgive me, and she says, but I am very greatful to you; you can not imagine how lonely and sad I have been since my husband died. So then the hosid is very sad, because it seems he didn't do an avera, he did a mitzva, maybe a bigger mitzva than he had ever done before, in making a sad women feel happy and feel beautiful, so he is sad because he still doesn't have an avera to repent in shul on Yom Kippur. Well, that wasn't even close to the way R. Shlomo told it, but --- } {b5-4} {Comment (sa): And also, this is the story of Jesus and the miracle of the loaves and fishes; or all those Hosids who are so happy with a little scrap from the Rebbe's table; or even R. Shlomo's story of the two hosids who motzi shabbos go to see a Rebbe, who is very poor, and he says I'm sorry, all I have for havadalah is a bit of left-over coffe; and the one hosid says to the other, than drop of coffee will carry me through the whole week (or: through the week whole).} {b5-5} {Note (sa): "The A&P" is "The Great Atlantic and Pacific Trading Company", a chain of what then seemed like supermarkets. There was one in Cambridge in the late 40's. They would sell and grind coffee for you at the check-out counter. Chopped Sirloin, the highest grade of hamburger, was then maybe as much as 99›/lb. A pretty good cut of steak might be as much as $1.39/lb.} {b5-6} {Comment (sa): Well, I did that for some time at New Buffalo, in the early 70's. I thought I was keeping the place clean of free- loaders and the like. Yelled myself into laryngitis once. And into a nervous breakdown once, I think largely because nobody would stand by me, tho they all agreed. That's quite another story. But you should know that, I reckon, every community has an Achilles' Heel -- that is every system of ethos has a point at which it cannot defend itself. There came a crew, maybe in large part backwash from the Vietnam War ("the chickens will come home to roost" said Malcolm ) and we turned all our moral guns on them, but they were invulnerable, because they had no morality. Everyone else we had chased away, all the varities of Flower Children, shared our -- shucks, middle-class morality. I think we were all religious there, however we conceptualized it. (And Susie said -- Susan Lee Harrison, zl'b -- "That atheist chick rode my horse!" Well, here's another story: As I've elsewhere told: Leslie Sherover, who then called herself 'Yesha', once came to New Buffalo, this was maybe summer '69, riding down from Colorado with the Lower East Side UAW,MF Chapter of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), that chapter having at that time been, quite possibly, on the lam. Leslie that day re-introduced herself to me, very politely (we had been classmates at Oberlin College, starting in '58, when, as freshpersons, we were obliged, in order for the MidWest to teach us riff-raff from the Bowery and such (ie, BoWash) the rudiments of 'Gracious Living' (as defined amongst the MidWest cornfields), we were obliged to take our meals in one of the ladies' _____(or maybe they were girls then; ladies being, or having been, only at Radcliffe ) __________(Ah, for the good old days, when men were men and women were girls.) residence halls. Leslie had, to my eye, a sort of pre-Raphealite beauty, though I suppose she carried it quite unaware; the Sherover's were down-to- earth, personally as well as ideologically. Ricky (z'lb) -- Erica Reed, named after John Reed, I assume -- took the sort of incredibly American common-denominator humanistic political stance that only the CP-USA (in its united front phase, of course) seems to have achieved. Leslie seemed to be with a more aesthetic group, which included Henry Shapiro, who seemed a level above the rest of us. She eventually got an M.A. in Art History, I think, from McGill, and last I heard is in Oakland, as a midwife, apparently a rather good one. The (SDS Lower East Side UAW,M-F)'s that afternoon rode leisurely around the Commune, careful not to ride into the fields, to let the horses unwind. Leslie worn a unfastened fringed leather vest. I suppose after their ride, they stopped by the kitchen for a bit of refreshment. Susie had that day baked an extremely good cake, for the communual supper I suppose, as only she could do, filled and covered with all sorts of sweetened fruits. Susie came in to our house -- it would just one adobe room, but much work had gone into it, though it was still very rough -- and said, "That topless chick ate my cake!" } {b5-7} {Commment (sa): Excuses excuses. But it would have made a great line for Star Wars.} {b5-8} {Note (sa): Jane Billotte Gaughram, I think it was, once said to me (having had occasion, most sad to say), this was 1970, 'G_d will forgive anything except a sin against the Holy Ghost.['Ghost' of course is a now-unusable English translation of German 'geist', spirit. She was speaking from a context of Christianity (speaking through the 'meta-language' of Christianity, as Baker, Roshi , put it at a Zenith seminar, 1990.} {b5-9} {Comment (sa): Over foods containing artifical ingredients one should rather say: "who hath given unto the Byzantines ingenuity to make strange devices" [after Yeats, "Sailing to Bzyantium"] } {b5-10} {Comment (sa): PVK often quotes a Sufi mystic who entered into the Consciousness of the Most High, and said: "It was for love of you [ie, humankind] that I [the Most High] created the world."}