=============================================================== schh0406 Excerpts from teachings of R. Shlomo Carlebach Input (sa) from the notes and Notebook (June '04) of Hatzkele Sasson, Moshav Meor Modi'in Hand-copied by him from his collection of RSC Teachings -- all in transcript, as far as I know All headed, of course, Bs"" tz All verbatim quotes, as far as I know I have made practically no changes in HH's presentation; except that he often uses (lower-case) i , rather than upper-case I , for the lst-personson singular pronoun. Now then: I think it would be good for this to be published, in whole or part. I would like to see it translated into other languages: maybe Polish, German, Dutch. I would also like to see it published by Omega Press. Note that many of the quotes are in quite simple English. Ziv Ritchie, of Kiryat Araba, Israel, has published a slightly editted version in English, under the title 'Ecstacies for the Soul'. I've not looked at that yet. I'd say that Hatzkele Sasson has made a substantial contribution to the creation of this document, by his discerning selectivity of topics, by knowing where to start and stop the exerpt, and especially by showing how RSC's teachings, some of them, can be presenting in semi-poetic form, and be more clearly revealed in that form. So in short: I'd say that Hatzkele Sasson is entitled to a significant share, maybe 1/4, of the NET profits from any publication (we should all live so long, in bodily vigour and joy, to see money made from our teachers' teachings). As noted elsewhere: I make no claims upon any RSC material that I have worked on; but acknowlege that others maybe will assert or have asserted such claims upon some or all RSC material. Now then: one more caveat: I think these teachings are on a high level, higher than where I'm at anyhow. But at one point I wrote: I'm not sure how useful these mini-sayings are. One loses the context, and so most of the meaning. And they'er endowed in isolation with an aura of shlock mysticism -- Peter Pauper Press Pieties [N.B.: Cute phrase, but in fact Peter Pauper Press publishes good solid stuff, for all that it's in short easy-to- read paragraphs. ] Agnieska quoted a Polish saying, "it doesn't have legs". Which is like the original version of the Jewish Treasury of Folklore 'Oy kreplach' story, that R. Zalman tells in Fragments for a Future Scroll: what looks like a great complex kabala metaphysical who-knows-what, is finally seen, after complete visualization, to be merely a recipe for making kreplach.} ----------------------------------------------------------------- Heading: "Taken from Transcriptons Summer '73 Rebbe Shlomo Carlebach zl'b "What is the deepest depths of me? What is my real connection to G_d? Not the things I did . My real deep connection to G_d is all the things I want to do." {Note (sa): RSC's teachings are all oral, so the transriber can fairly pick a written form. Hitherto we've all used a standard prose form. HH is the first I know of to write them down as poetry. It works quite well here.} "What does it mean to honor myself? I means to want, to wait to be better." "What are people doing all the time? They are thinking I have to run to make a few rubles, right? How low can you think? You think you're here for a few rubles? If you thimk you're here for a few rubles, you're definitely not here, right? Your only chance to be really here is if you know hyou're here because G_d created you, and you have to do something in this world very deep and very holy. But if you run around all day long to make a few rubles and who knows what you're talking about and thinking about, then you're completely out." Let's put it this way. A person who can kill, you know what that means? Not the person who is killed, the person who kills isn't really here. Because he is not part of G_d's existence. Because if he would be part of G_d's existence, how can you kill, right? How can you do something to destroy the world?" "The Messiah can only come for people who want the utmost right the utmost utmost. If I'm happy with a little utmost, you know, a little bit holiness .... [3-dots manuscript] "If I walk around depressed and angry and disgusted, # can't reach me you know." [1] "You know, one thing, you know. Mt. Sinai is still here G_d is still talking And it's happening right this minute." "If you serve G_d like somebody else then you wouldn't have been born, they did already." {Note (sa): HH manuscript line reads simply: 'can't reach me you know' I assume that the implied first word is a reference to the Divine NAME } [END THESE 2 SHEETS OF EXCERPTS] ============================================================== NOTEBOOK: {Note (sa): I have added the numbering of these remarks, to facilitate an eventual archival reference to Source-texts. The topical references to each remark are by HH; I think they impose an unnecesary level of ordering. As far as I know, all excerpts are verbatim quotes. In almost every case, HH encloses the RSC excerpt in "quotes"; and does not do so for his titles. Hatzekele (Yehetzkel) Sasson, Moshav Meor Modi'in, 73122 Israel, selected and excerpted these remarks from his collection of transcriptions of teachings by R. Shlomo Carlebach. He also put them in this broken-line semi-poetical form. That's a 'dealer's choice', since the teachings are all given in oral form by R. Shlomo, later transcribed, and as far as know most transcriptions not reviewed by RSC. This semi-poetic form works very well for HH's selection; I'm amazed that I'd never thought of doing so in my transcriptions. I do not presently know the sources of these transcriptions. I reckon that most ain't yet been input, at least in any docs included in my collection of input RSC transcripts.} ------------------------------------------------------------------ #SChhn01 "Holy Beggars" [apparently a reference to Reb Nachman's Tale of the 7 Beggaras" - - sa] "the beggar who was blind he was blind to all the evil his eyes only saw what is holy and beautiful. he was deaf he never heard evil words, small words, words of hatred. his ears only heard the angels sing." --------------------- #SChhn2 "the most G_d__like thing in this world to know "I just want to share one more very deep thing with you. What is the most G_d__like thing in this world to know? what makes me closest to G_d? Do you think the closest to G_d is when I know what's right and what's wrong? The closest to G_d I can get is if I know the the holiness of every individual. That is the most G_d__like thing in the world. -------------------------------------------- #SChhn3a Will of G_d/Oneness of G_d "If you are really permeated wtih the oneness of G_d within you, you are one with every cockroach every human being every fly, you know.' If you have the will of G_d ... [3-dots HH] The 'will_of_G_d people' say to you, "Listen, I am doing G_d's will you are not, wow, you've gotta go to Hell" you know? Whatever it is, it can be any religion in the world but the will_of_G_d_people, they're the ones who destroy the world. And it is the oneness_of_G_d_people, they're the ones who rebuild the world." ------------------------- #SChhn3b "will of G_d" #2 "The people who are on the the 'will_of_G_d' Path Know absolutely nothing about G_d" {Comment (sa): This remark must be understood in context. RSC is here addressing the problem of an excessively severe interpretation of halacha ('halacha'=, loosely, 'Jewish religious law').} ---------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn4 "Everybody knows that your relationship to G_d is the way you relate to people, right? And you relate to people the way you relate to G_d." ---------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn5 Every person "Every person is a revelation of G_d which has never been here before. Every person is a G_d revelation. Unbelieveable! Because every person has something of G_d which nobody ever had. I have something that Avraham didn't have that Moses doesn't have." --------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn6 TuB'Shvat "Tu B'Shvat is the Rosh HaShana of the trees, of nature Tu B'Shavat is of growing, because you can be holy but if you are not growing you are also dead. Tu 'Shvat is the New Year of growing. If you are the same holiness all your life long you are still dead. You can do everyting right, put on T'fillen every day, keep every ShaBaT, you are dead. So Tu B'Shvat is growing." {Note (sa): Tu b'Shvat, the 15th of the month of Shvat, is the midwinter full_moon semi_festival. In the land of of Israel it is when the trees begin to blossom, starting with the white blossoms on the almond trees. Tu b'shvat is 4 months after the start of the 'rainy season'.} ----------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn7 Good Words "When you speak good words to someone, then those words really create other words. You see, everything which is real, which is on the level of G_d keeps on creating. If you give someone a good thought, right away he has two holy thoughts. If you do a good deed to someone, he feels like doing two good deeds. Everything continues." -------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn8 Joy/Sadness "All the trials and test of life you can only go through when you're happy when you're joyous. When you're sad you can be the holiest creature in the world, the moment you're sad you don't have the strength for the slightest test in life. OY!" "I want you to know one thing Every falling down is only because you didn't trust G_d enough. And because you didn't trust you didn't believe you were so sad you didn't have strength to do anything." ---------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn9 When G_d told us, "I am G_D" "Now listen something very strong. Wehn G_d told us: 'I AM THE L_RD YOUR G_D' [1] it was in singular not plural. Cause, really, no one can teach me about GJ_d. When it comes to knowing G_d, you know, I cn read books about, everything in the world, someone can teach me. When it comes to the one thing, knowing there is one G_d it is just G_d and me. Very very strong you know. The strongest thing is that nobody can teach me, that's the saddeset thing in the world, you know, nobody can teach me." [1] The "First Commandment"; Genesis (YiTRO) 20:2: ANoKhI '' AeLoCheI_Kha --------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn10 Miser/Anti__G_d "Remember I told you the Maharal says a miser is not a sinner A mister is a anti__G_d Listen, if I do a little bit sinning on the side I'm bad but I'm not a anti__G_d A miser is anti__G_d because G_d is giving, and he is not giving." -------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn11 "I want you to know the most rarest thing. You know, Yom Kippur, it says, G_d says, I am with you in your deflilement. Wherever you are G_d is with you." ---------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn12 G_d's Payment "But let me tell you the most rare thing. How do you think G_d pays me for good deeds? Think G_d looks up in the Yellow Pasges, how much you get? It is the most individual thing in the world. It can not be written down. Every Jew has to put on T'fillen, every Jew has to keep Shabbos, everybody has to do ... [3-dots HH] --But the paying! Do you know what the paying is? The paying is the utmost G_d__revelation just to you. And this is on Shabbos." --------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn13 Y__K__V__K "Yod is chochma Hay is bina Vav is my emotions and Hay is my actions. You are always two people yod kay and vav kay are not together. My mind is somewhere here, and what I do and what I feel is somewhwere else. So when I do something for the sake of G_d then I am putting yod kay and vav kay together." -------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn14 Death/Life "What does a dead person live from? What MA'AMER does he live from? He lives from the MA'AMER AYEH (where) Because the dead person is watiing to be resurrected. He is mamish crying where is G_d'" -------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn15 "Why did G_d takes us to Mount Sinai?" "Wh did G_d take us to Mt. Sinai? If you think that the world can exist without Mt. Sinai (then) Mt. Sinai has no meaning. Because G-d only does what is necessary. If the world can be good witout G_d talking to us, then G_d doesn't have to talk to us. But we have to see that until we hear from G_d Himself, "Don't kill", we can kill. Until I hear from G_d Himself, 'I am the L_rd your G_d', I don't believe in G_d. And until I hear from G_d Himself 'keep the Shabbos holy', I don't know what ShaBaT is" --------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn16 Place of G_d (1) "You have to realize, what is the whole thing? When you ask, 'where is G_d', you ask where is G_d's glory that means you don't know where G_d's place is. And then G_d reveals a place for you And this is the holy Beit HaMikdash, the holy tabernacle. So the same before MaShIaCH is coming We will ask where is G_d? Where is G_d's palce? Where is the place of his glory? It will be such a strong asking, until, so to speak, G_d will have to build the Holy Temple." ------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn17 Who/What Some people walk up to you and ask, what are you? And some people ask you who are you' The person who asks what are you, hates you But the person who asks who are you, loves you. But also, some people ask G_d what are you? And He doesn't answer. But if someone asks G_d who are you' He always answers." ----------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn18 The place of G_d in the world "If you really fell down to the lowest, and you really think G_d can't be there because I am too far gone, then you actually have a chance to reach the highest. Like before MaShIaCH (MeShiach), when it looks like G_d is completely absent, then we have to break through then we really find the place of G_d in the world. because obviosly we didn't find G_d's place yet really, because otherwise the Holy Temple would not have been destroyed. It must have only been a temporary residence." "Becuase only when you have absolutely no place in the world and you really ask where G_d is, then G_d can talk to you again." ------------------------------------------------------------------ #SChhn19 'The most important thing' #2 "The most important thing today that every person has to do is to cleanse their hearts from anger. Anger, yeah? It takes 1000 years to get rid of anger. And whenever we begin to get rid of the anger, we're already 5000 years too late. but we can't wait any longer. and the only way of getting rid of anger, is when you fill your heart with a lot of joy. Our holy Rabbis teach us that [1] a person who sad is dead. And if you commit suicide, you do it only once, right? But if you are sad you commit suicide every second." [1] {Note (sa): HH sic, 'rabbis'; but I'd think: 'rebbes'.} ------------------------------------------------------------ #SChhn20 Happy with what you're Doing "What does it mean to be happy with what you're doing? Everyone says I'm happy with what I'm doing. What means happy. Happy means if I'll never do any thing again, and if I'd only be born and hang around this world 80 years just for this one thing, I would do it; that's called 'I'm happy with this one thing'. And if you can be on the level with every mitzva you're doing you're only the level, to feel if I wold onlly be born for this one morning to put on T'fillin if I was just born for this one Shabbos would have been enough, that's called JOY." {Note (sa): I think better line-breaks: if I was just born for this one Shabbos would have been enough, } ---------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn21 Face "I want to say something very deep. The world needs a face, right? People need faces. The world neesda a face so bad. The world has no face anymore. And the name of that face is peace, right" If you know what peace is peace is that I love you so much that I give you back your face. So when I give you back your face, I can honor you and then there is peace between us. You know, a lot of people love each other, but they don't honor each other, give each other faces. So the world needs desperately people who have a face." ------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn22 Great Morning "You know my darling friends, let me tell you somethng. A lot of peole tell us how to correct the yesterdays, But we need holy, holy teachers to teach us to prepare ourselves for the Great Morning." {Note (sa): Cf. a Negro Spiritual, "In that great getting-up morning (fare the well)"} Cause this is what the world needs a Great Morning. Everybody talks what we did wrong yesterday but so few people tell us how we can do better tomorrow." ----------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn23 Children/Gan Eden "and sadly enough, a lot of hasidim today have kosher meat, & glatt, and chovav Yisroel -- it's very holy -- but any Jew who hits children as far as I'm concerned I don't want to sit next to them in Gan Eden. Can you imagine? -- a yiddele hitting children, what kind of Gan Eden he'll sit there?" {Comment (sa): The only time I heard R. Shlomo get angry was when it was told to him than someone was hitting his children. R. Shlomo spoke very strongly against it; it was in the Bet Knesset, I suppose Shabat Shaharit. My mother once said: You can't hit a child; they can't understand it.} ------------------------------------------------------------ #SChhn24 ShViTI ?TShARI? -- You shall keep both Shabbos's "What are the two ShaBaT's? So the Holy Beis Yacov says there is one ShaBaT before creation, and one ShaBaT after creation. At the end of the ShaBaT before creation G_d decided to create the world. Six days of work, creation, right? And then ShaBaT. The ShaBaT before creation is on the level that G_d gives you without asking. And the ShaBaT after creation is on the level of prayer. That means you can't work for it, right? When do i pray? I can't do it I don't know how to do it. I tried and tried for six days I'm at the end I'm begining to pray. That's ShaBaT That's the 2nd ShaBaT." --------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn25a Shabbos/great Shabbos "What am I waiting for? But every minute of Shabbos I'm waiting for this Shabbos to become the Great Shabbos." ------------------------------------------------------ #SChhn25b Shala Shodus -- 3rd meal of Shabbos "You know what the 3rd meal of ShaBaT is? It's very dark. A different kind of darkness. You know friends, there's a kind of darkness when you're afraid of the person sitting next to you. And there is a kind of holy darkness that if someone's sitting next to you, you give them your hand. Don't even ask who it is. Holy kind of darkness. Depends, darkness which is full ..." [3-dots HH] --------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn26 Double Shabbos So why is ShaBaT double? If there is only joy, then there is only joy. If only sadness, only sadness. But the doubleness of ShaBaT is that all those things I did with sadness, They are full of joy, also. All the things I did in darkness are full of light also. This is the doubleness of ShaBaT. ---------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn27 Peace of Shabbos The whole idea of peace is not to lie. Listen to this, Shabbos is called ShaBaT ShaLOM Shabbos is a day of peace Shabbos also everybody knows is a day of truth Because the Gemmorah says even the lowest creature can not lie on Shabbus. That means there is a peace during the week, a lie-ing peace. The peace of Shabbos is I'm not lying at all. OY!" ----------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn28 Redemption "The beautiful thing is that when we come out of exile the exile was also deep. We are not coming out of exile and leaving the exile behind. The real redemption is that the exile was redemption. This is really deep stuff." ---------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn29 (Untitled): "How do you know if somebody loves you? In their presence you become just a little bit more than you were before." "When you love somebody very much, you can mamash see their Neshama." [ NeShaMaH ]. "You know, what does it mean to love sombdoy? To love somebody is to believe that your empty space is also filled with you -- right?" "Let's say I tell someone, 'I love you.' Words, right. But if I love you infinitely, then these are infinite words." ----------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn30 'How do you know if somebody loves you?' You know something very deep? The truth is, listen to this, this is also very true. A lot of times sometimes, people ask me, how do you know if somebody loves you? Very simple. If, in their presence you're really there. If in their presence suddenly ?it's? not that you happen to be here, you're REALLY here. That means they're giving you for that moment this holy G_d__existence, that means they really love you, right." ---------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn31 (Untitled) "Then Rebbe Nachman says something that is just so beautiful -- 'Blessings are dreams, blessings are dreams.' If someone loves you very much, they make those dreams become real." How do you know if you love somebody very much. If they love you ver much? Listen to this: "When you love somebody very much, what is the acid test? If you really love somebody -- are you ready to change for that person, even for just a moment?" "When are you really what you are? Only if you can be anything for somebody you love." ----------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn32 Love "The Ribbono shel Olam makes us love each otehr so much that behind all the brokenness, behind all that we go through we recognize each other we see how beautiful we are." "How do you know if you really love somebody? Really really really, from the deepest depths? Very simple! IF you think that all there is to the person is what you see you don't really love them. The 1st sign of loving somebody -- knowing 'Ah, you're so much deeper ... [3-dots HH] so much more beautiful than I can ever, ever see with my eyes. So much deeper!" ---------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn33 How much you Love "You know, I'll tell you something very deep. If you want to know how much you love each other, you won't know when you love each other. People can only know how much we love each other when we hate each other. [1] How close are you when you're far. How much are you praying when you can't open your mouth. {Comment (sa): Sounds like heresy to me. And I'd want to see confirmation that RSC said it. I asked HH and he seemed to indicate that it was verbatim, but also seemed to give another version, that went something like, 'we only know how close we are to each other [and/or 'to G_d'] when we're far (from each other)'} ================================================================ #SChhn34a Meshiach Vision "I want to make it so clear that, unless you are ready to cross the Red Sea for every Jew in the world, you can not have a Meshiach vision." ---------------------------------------- #SChhn34a Beautiful G_d/Jews "If someone want to know how beatiful G_d is he must know how beautiful Jews are." {Comment (sa): This remark is, of course, presumably directed to a Jewish audience.} ================================================================= #SChhn35a Missing "You know, there's two kinds of missing. There's the missing you feel for the friends you have met, and there's the missing you feel for the friends you haven't met yet. The missing for the friends you have met is a deeper kind of missing. The missing for the friends you haven't met yet is a HIGHER kind of missing." ----------------------- #SChhn35b "Ok, now listn to this. When are you sad? When you miss something, right? "When are you happy? When everything is there." {Comment (sa): Punch-line seems to be missing. One strength of this collection of excerpts is that the editor almost almost includes the punch-line. If vegetarians will excuse the analogy, he is as skillful as butcher.} ---------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn36 Friends "You know, there are two kinds of friends. A good friend is somebody in whose presence I'd like to be better. But then there's a true friend; In their presence I am better!" --------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn37 Secret of Living/ Secret of Dying "The story is that there is such a thing as the secret of Living and the secret of Dying. The secret of living is alway to be in touch with, and always to remember how pure I can be. And the secret of Dying is to realize how high I can reach. Dying doesn't mean that I stopped living Dying means that I reached momish that level that I can't do anymore." {[sic], HH, 'anymore'; but maybe: 'any more' I came back to Israel after the first Gulf War. At the Moshav, they had watched SCUD's flying overhead. Someone said: "We had what to do, so it was OK." Nehamma Silver was wishing a blessing upon her daughter, whose delighfully exhuberant ceramics and necklaces I should try to show on my Website www.geocities.com/sa73122 She said "She should always have what to do, because when she doesn't have what to do she gets a litte bit crazy." I said, "So do we all."} ================================================================ #SChhn38a Knowledge/Understanding "You know, there is an unbelieveable urge inside of that would like to know everything. And let me ask you -- after I know everything you think then I'll be happy? No. Because the deepest, deepest longing I have is for all the things I can not understand. -------------------------------------- #SChhn38b Longing: You know, Rebbe Nachman says a person is not what you know, a person is not what you do, a person is what you are longing for. -------------------------------------- #SChhn38c Cover-up "The greatest covering up of G_d is that I think I know." {Note (sa): Met HH at the mailbox this morning. He said , Ziv Ritchie published most of these excerpts in two booklets called Ecstacies for the Soul. But in this quote, ZvR replaced 'covering-up' with 'obfuscation'. I said: "'Obfuscation.' Means the same thing; don't mean more." HH said: I try not to use words I can't spell.} ============================================================= #SChhn39a The most important thing "When it comes to the most most important thing, you better do it yourself." ---------------- #SChhn39b Infinite/Joy "You see, infinite and joy come from the same place." {Comment (sa): Cf. PVK on 'ecstacy'} --------------------- #SChhn39c "Because can you imagine if you do something on the level of infinite how much joy there is." {Note (sa): #SChhn39c seems to follow immeidately "SChhn39b; but they are presented in HH's Notebook as seperate excerpts.} ================================================================ #SChhn40a Happy/Sad "You know, a happy person can be sad also sometimes. That's ok. but the most important thing is while you are sad don't stop being happy. OK?" {Comment (sa): Devi, at Zenith Camp 1999, once said, "A rainbow day -- smiling through tears."} -------------------------------------------- #SChhn40b {Excerpted from or duplicated in #SCHHnn19} Anger/Joy "The only way of getting rid of anger' is when you fill your heart' with a lot of joy." --------------------------------------------------------------- #SChhn41a Joy "Because you have to know that all the evil in the world, like, is focussed on dragging out the joy from your heart. Because the moment evil dragss out the joy from your heart, it's the winner; it's a bummer, right. {Note (sa): The phrase that HH puts after the semi-colon, I would have put as a new paragraph. But it's somewhat muddy.} As long as you are completely filled with joy, evil can not touch you. The moment (G_d forbid) you're not happy anymore you can do anything in the world." {Comment (sa): [sic, 'you can do anything in the world'; and presumably a typo; presumably should be 'you can't do anything in the world'. But there's a sad truth in the version as written, slip or not: Puran Blair once said (Boston SO Center, ca. 1980): 'You can hae anything, as long as you don't really want it. ' Because desire, attatchment, provokes counter-forces, mostly internal; where detatchment facilitates action, if you can still be bothered. The proof is in the corallaries: Eg, the easiest way to get a chick is to have one; and the most difficult way is to need one.} ---------------------------------- #SChhn41b Laughter "Remember I told you laughter is really the world to come Not joy. Joy is from today. Laughter, holy laughter." ================================================================ #SChhn42 Free "Really, and I hate to tell you, to be free, according to KOTZKE [ie, the Kotzke Rebbe] to be free means to have the guts even sometimes to do wrong if you have to. Because as long as you are tied to always do right, you might be very holy, but you are not free yet. Free means to have the chutzpah to do wrong when you have to . It takes more holiness to do wrong than it takes to do right, because you have to be on the highest highest level to know that at this point ... [3-dots HH] Let's say Aaron Hacohen made the golden calf -- it was the ho;iest thing he ever did, right? Because he knew someome else is going to do it so I want to do it first, becase Aaron was completely free. You have to have a good nose, because that's not written, this is too deep to be written down." =============================================================== #SChhn43a Peace "All the blessings of the world are like a gift of G_d, But Peace is G_d Himself." "Becasue what is peace? Peace is that you really reached the level, the One-ness of G_d." ------------------------------------ #SChhn43b Hatred "If you hae hatred then you are evil also." ------------------------------------------- #SChhn43c Light "The greatest light in the world is peace." ================================================================= #SChhn44 (Untitled) "You know, my actions can be destroyed by unholy actions. Holy words can be destroyed by unholy words. Holy yearning comes from such a place where unholy yearning doesn't reach. This is really that part of you which is indestructible." TEXT: This is really that part of you which is indestructible." {Comment (sa): Cf. the pre-Shaharit braha, "the soul which thou bestowed in me [or: hast given me] is pure ..." NiShMaH Sh_NaTaTa BI tHORaH HIA PVK has often, eg Zenith, spoken of that inner portion of the soul which can never be besmirched, which always remains pure.} "Now listen to this. I want you to know just one more sweet thing. What is the deepest filling of emptiness? What is yearning? That means that I have it or I don't have it, right. What is the most, what is strongest being or not being together -- when I'm yearning for something -- Because if I'm yearning for something that means I know about it -- I have it. But obviously I don't have it, otherwise I wouldn't be yearning for it. So yearing is the utmost of filling the empty space. =============================================================== #SChhn45 Tree Life/ Tree Knowledge "Here I want you all to know something also. As much as you believe in miracles, as much as you believe in G_d this is how much you believe in yourself. Because you always identify with G_d, right? [Margin note (my quotes): "as if [you say:]" I have limits. I have my human limits. G_d has His g_dly limitations. Everything is limited. Nothing is forever. Everything comes to an end. You know what it is? The Tree of Knowlede brings about death. You know what death means? It ends somwhere. Everything has to end somewhere. You know what the Tree of Life is? No ending, no ending. ================================================================= #SChhn46 Light "OK light is the most existing thing in the world. And the greatest, greatest light is peace. Meaning to say, the more the thing exists, the more I see the thing the more it exists, right? And the more it exists, the more it is there. Adn the more it is there the more perfect it is. And the more perfect it is, the more I am happy, Because if it is missing I am sad If it is dark then it stops existing completely and I am sad, miserable." ================================================================ #SChhn47 When you open your eyes, this is on the level of what you see. Why do you close your eyes? You close your eyes because what are longing for is not there yet. In order to see what you are longing for, you have to close your eyes. When the sun and moon are shining, they show us something which is there. What does a candle show us? Why is a a candle shimering all the time? A candle shows us all the things we are longing for. It is to awesome that the candle shines. "When the sun is shining there is not darkness. When the moon is shining it drives the darkness a little bit away. But the candle leaves the dark just as it is, it's just shining. ============================================================= #SChhn48a T'shuvah "T'shuvah is when Torah touches the deepest depths of my life ." ---------------------------------------------- #SChhn48b Heaven/Hell "If you're in Heaven and you think you deserve it, you're in Hell." ============================================================= #SChhn49a [Excuses] [HH Title: Greatest Evil] "The greatest evil in the world is excuses." -------- "There is nothing more degrading than excuses." {Comment (sa): Cf. J.L. Austin, "A Plea for Excuses" Someone said: Indians never apologize.} ---------------------------------------------------- #SChhn49b Trouble "You know, everybody has a few things which one has trouble with, right. Everybody has a little bit tourble. Everybody must have trouble, in his own underground." ============================================================== #SChhn50 "The deepst depths of life is to know it's all a gift." ================================================================= #SChhn51a Song "Nothing polishes the soul like a song." --------------------------------------------- #SChhn51b Truth "I'll tell you something very strong and true. Anything which is always, is already a lie. Cause there is no such thing as always, right. [4-dots ms. LM] Because the sign if it's true is, if it's a living thing, living is moving, right. ----------------------------- #SChhn51c Prayer 'You know, to not pray is already to be dead.' ----------------------------------- #SChhn51d Peace "The whole idea of peace is not to lie." =========================================================== #SChhn52a Secret of LIfe "The deepest secret of life is that I always have to be what I am but there are moments I have to be not what I am also." ----------------------- #SChhn52b Close to G_D "Can I ever be closer to G_d than if for one second Chas VeShalom by not being so close to G_d I am being close to another Jew?" {Comment (sa): I am not clear about the force -- nor for that matter, the spelling -- of the chas v_shalom here -- it seems to be a pious double-reverse that goes nowhere.} ============================================================= #SChhn53a [I reckon this is as good a time as any to dispense with HH's topical titles.] "If I walk around and say I'm filled with joy, but I can't stand people, that means it's not G_d's joy." -------------------------- #SChhn53b "You see [3-dots HH] you have to realize one thing .. [2-dots HH] The higher it's coming from the deeper it goes, right?" ---------------------------------------------------- #SChhn53c "This is very deep. How can you understand what's going on if you're sad?" =============================================================== #SChhn54a "I don't know if you know the way to Heaven is always via Hell." {Comment (sa): Only under Pax Romana. Cf. the story of how Shimon bar Nochai } ---------------------------- #SChhn54b "The real redemption is that the exile was redemption." [HH notes: longer version follows] ------------------------------- #SChhn54c We always think if you pray well that is the greatest prayer. Maybe the greatest prayer in the world is if you don't know how to pray and you want to pray. Maybe that is greatest prayer." {Comment (sa): Well, there are no lack of hasidic parables that make that point: like the boy with his flute before the sheep on Yom Kippur.} ================================================================ #SChhn55 "So the Torah is called the ATz HaYIM, etz chaim the Tree of LIfe because it doesn't stop. Nothing can stop the Torah, right? Nothing can People can stop, but not the Torah. There's a difference in Hebrew between ChaI and HaYIM Chai -- ChaI -- means alive and chaim ChaYIM means life. A man is alive, right? But the Torah is life, not alive, the teaching is life, you know. The teaching is life, not alive." ================================================================ #SChhn56 "What is the difference between being alive and life? very simple. If I'm alive, I am alive but I can not bring you to life. But life, anything that comes in contact with life itself, becomes alive, right? ============================================================== #SChhn57a "The sweetest thing is infinite, right? The most sour thing is finite. If I tell you something good which comes from my soul then its the infite world. If I tell you something bad ...." [4-dots HH] -------------------------------- #SChhn57b So anything that stops is not living, right? Because if its stopping that means its not really living Because if something is really living it can't stop." ========================================================== #SChhn58 "And the Torah is growing the teaching is growing like a tree it;s as strong." ============================================================= #SChhn59a "The 1st thing is, on the simplest level, if you want to be a teacher you can not be a real teacher until you have G_d's vision about this person." ----------------- #SChhn59b "You know what peace mans? I do it with all my heart, with everything I have." -------------------------- #SChhn59c "Waht is called being at peace with G_d? Peace means its always right." =============================================================== #SChhn60a "Another word to remember. Heaven is completeness and Hell is incompleteness." ------------------------------------- #SChhn60b "When someone talks to you and you're not paying attention you're putting through Hell, you know Because they are confronted with your not being there, with youf absence. This is Hell, right? {Comment (sa): Well, surely merely one of lesser hells, at worst. I mean, I meet lots of folks each day in whose absence I would be more at ease. And where is it said that one must bedeck a turkey with kavod.} But if you have the strength to be completely there you're putting them for that moment into Heaven. {Comment (sa): Well, Alev remarked to me one summer at Zenith, that she thought that what most people wanted most was to "be seen".} Completely attatched. So you realyh hae to know how to listen. So the first thing we say, SheMa Yisroel, you know, got to listen." ================================================================ #SChhn61a "If you smile below here then G_d smiles back at you from above. Semthing very holy going on between you and G_d." ----------------------------------- #SChhn61a "If after you cry you see another person do you love them" or do you hate them?" If you cry and its a living kind of cry then every person looks so beautiful to you. You thnk, I'm not so beautiful, but he or she is so beautiful, right? I'm so happy with them. But if you have this dead kind of sadness, then everybody looks ugly to you, you know. ================================================================= #SChhn62a "You know, the definition between young and old is -- those who still believe, are young; those who gave up are the old, you know." ------------ #SChhn62b "You see, if you could tell the world, it's G_d's world -- then all the wars would stop ...[3-dots HH] the bad thing is, it's my land, it's your land. This is what is still in our way. So we have to do something about it. So maybe we ...[3-dots HH] again we need a strong front of peace to the [the Arabs [interjection HH]], you are not strangers, it's your country as well as mine, it's G_d's world." {Note (sa): HH remarked to me that he showed this quote to Ziv Ritchie, who declined to include it in his booklet "Peace"} ----------------- #SChhn62c "You know, people only hate when they're sad." "The only anti-hate is joy." ============================================================= #SChhn62c The past makes you sad and the future makes you angry. You look at the past and you are so sad. Waht gives me the most dobuts. My past, right. I look at myself, I look at the world, everything which happened so far Mamash, where is G_d? The doubts And what makes me angry The future makes me angry. You think, Tomorrow I'll do the same thing. And it makes you angry. ============================================================== #SChhn63a "Unless you know there is one G_d nothing will change you." --------------------------------------- #SChhn63b "swoemtimes you do not want to pray and you must really pray with all your heart. Then those words begin to shine. "And if you really are shining then on one hand you see how low you are But then, on the other hand you see how close you are." ============================================================== #SChhn64a "Even if you are straight if the other one isn't straight you can't be straight with them." -------------------------------------- #SChhn64b "It's possible to do everything right and with great fire but you forgot the most important thing, you know." "People, a lot of people do everying right but this one sweet little thing they forgot to do. And everybody has this one sweet little hting which is the most imporatant thing which they forgot G_d forbid." {Comment (sa): forbid? I'm afraid it's a personal responsibity, a test. So one can't ask heaven to forbid that you might forget, at most one can ask that Heaven forfend, fend off, the Lotus Eaters from getting their herbs into you.} =============================================================== #SChhn65 "Such a good queastion. I don't know. Listen, this is a question which has no answer until Meshiach is coming; I don't know. I'll tell you something very deep if I would know all the answers I would be G_d. And it's good there's one G_d you dont' need another god I always say with one you have so much trouble imagine we had two gods." =========================================================== LAST PAGE OF HH NOTEBOOK: ShaBuTI TiShMeRoD So the Holy Beis Yaacov says "you shall keep what are the two Shabat's there is a one ShaBaT before Creation. One ShaBaT after creation. Byu the end of the ShaBaT before creation, G_d decided to create the world. 6 days of work, creation, right? And then ShabaT (2) The Shabat after creatin is the level of pryaer The Shabat before creation is on the level that G_d gives you without asking That means you can't work for it, right. When do I pray. I can't do it. I tried and tried for 6 days. I don't know how to do it. I'm at the end. I'm beginning to pray, that ShaBaT, that the 2nd T?\\ END OF NOTEBOOK. ================================================================= THIS CONCLUDES MY INPUT OF THE HH NOTEBOOK, AND THE 2 PAGES OF SIMILAR MATERIAL; WHICH I THINK MIGHT BE SUITABLE FOR PUBLICATION. I append input of other HH material, lent to me June '04. ================================================================= 1: Written on an envelope: [On the back of the envelope:] "So I want you to know the deepst depths. You know the questions we were asking G_d before we went into exile were real deep 'kashos', tremendous kashos, deep intellectual (?) question mark, HH; probablly means, text indistinct]. About the Torah, about Meshiach. We never asked G_d, momish, 'Please do YOU know that I am here? Gevalt, Rabenu shel Olam, do you know that I'm mamash here in the ?world? [Hard for me to read handwriting -- sa]. The deepest of all questions, this is only after we went into Golus. And I want you to know, that Meshiach is the answer to this question. #Not, to all the top Torahlach. So there's one ?Rambam?: I don't know -- I know. But the deepest? Is G_d in heaven, do YOU really know that I am here. And you know something -- doesn't G_d ask us all the time, Do you really know that I am here?'" ---------- [on the front of the envelope:] I have to share one more very important thing with you. You know why people hatE each other? Because you're not serving MY ['my' emphasized] G_d the way I ['I' emphasized] think you should serve my G_d. This is only if my whole relationship to G_d is on a 'G_d' level. If my relationship to G_d is on a Father level ... [3 dots, HH's notes, probably indicates, not ellison, but merely a pause in RSC's teaching -- the rest of that thought having been alluded to by RSC, but not articulated.] You know, brothers and sisters don't hate each other. Only people who go to the #XXX who hate each other.zx [on the flap of the envelope:] The highest level of Tshuvah is when I say to G_d, "you haVe to ansWer me.. You have to answer what am I created for. Why was I created. But on the deepest depths, I don't need an answer. All I want is a little attention. The deepest prayer is, "G_d, I don't need an answer, I just want YOU to listen." [END NOTES ON ENVELOPE] -----------------------------------------------------------