Shlomo Carlebach

Let me ask you, sweetest friends, how did King David conquer Jerusalem? Everybody knows that Jerusalem belongs to King David — it’s his personal property, did you know that? Ir Dovid — Sukkos Dovid hanofales. Why is Jerusalem King David’s own property? The answer is very simple. Everybody knew that — you know, the seven nations who occupied all of Israel — and then the Chiti Yevusi [Hittites, Jebusites] — they were such strong warriors, and they were living on that hill where Jerusalem is, and you couldn’t get close. You know, they were waiting for two hundred, for three hundred years in Israel after Y’hoshua, and nobody conquered Jerusalem. And do you know? Everybody knows — Hoshanah Rabbah, the seventh day of Sukkos, is the day of King David — right? If you remember. Why is this day, the seventh day of Sukkos — you know what happened on that Hoshanah Rabbah? King David decided, “I am going to take Yerushalayim all by myself.” One man — all by himself. Because really, if you trust God — does it matter to God if one man is going or if a thousand people are going? It’s the same thing, right? Hoshanah Rabbah, King David walked up to Yerushalayim, and he conquered the whole city, right? That’s a king, right? The king is not somebody who says, “Listen folks, let’s go. I want you to be killed, and I am sitting in my office, and I’m directing traffic.” Right? For that you don’t have to be Dovid HaMelekh, right?

So you see, I want you to know that two people who carried the burden of all of Israel on their shoulders — already: Yosef and Yehudah. You see, Yosef says, “Okay, you can go home.” So all the brothers say, “No, we’ll all be slaves instead of Binyomin.” Yehudah stands up, and he says, “I want to be the slave.” That means two people stood up, and they said, “We want to do it for all of you.” This is two kings, right? This is a king!

And maybe some of you know, according to the tradition, it’s called, “Ma’an malka? Rabbonim.” “Who are the great kings? Our teachers.” Why is it? Why is a real holy teacher supposed to be a king? (Always a king, hopefully.) It’s not someone who puts it on you, right? A real holy king is someone who says, “I’ll do it for you. I’ll take it off you.” L’chaim, l’chaim. [drinks some more milk].

So you see? Let me ask you something else. Why did Joseph tell the dream to his brothers? He couldn’t control himself? Why, he was a yenta — or was he in analysis, and one of his brothers was a psychiatrist, you know? I mean, what was going on there? The answer is very simple. You know, Joseph knew one thing. If I am supposed to be the slave — if I wanna do it — the saddest thing in the world is I have to separate myself a little bit from my brothers. You know? I have to go by myself, right?
So Joseph knew one thing: the moment I tell this dream to my brothers, they’ll be angry at me. But can you imagine? — I have to tell you one more thing, which is so beautiful and so heartbreaking. Let me ask you — what happened at that moment when the brothers saw Joseph? Were they laughing? Were they smiling at each other, you know, we’re finally getting rid of this disgusting Joseph? Without getting involved — because I have to daven Mincha — for whatever reason they decided they have to sell him as a slave, what do you think was going on at that moment? [Long pause.]

I want you to know something. Imagine you’d be up in heaven, right? Can you imagine if someone would have recorded the crying of the Jews when we went into exile? When the Holy Temple was destroyed when we went into exile? Can you just imagine it? Can you imagine the sounds of the crying? It does not compare to the crying of the holy tribes.
And here I want to share with you something which is so holy, that I just have to tell you, and I think if some of you remember — maybe Adina [Elana Friedman] remembers it. Okay, there are these two kings in the world. Joseph is the King of all the Tzaddikim, Joseph is the King of all the people who never did wrong in their life — and Yehudah is the King of all the people who went wrong — everything they did in their life is wrong. And they have the strength to fix it, right?

You see, Yosef is the one who gives you the strength not to do wrong, to keep yourself going all the time, and Yehudah is the one who gives you strength to fix it. And we need both, right? Those two kings [are] the pillars of all of Israel.

Now listen to this — and remind me to come back to it, because we have to daven Mincha. I just want to tell you this. Okay, the brothers decide — basically it was Yehudah’s decision — we have to sell him as a slave. Because they say like this: “We don’t know if he is a Tzaddik or not. We don’t know who he is. We give him a chance. If he goes to Egypt, and he remains a Jew, and he remains holy, he’s one of us.” Right? “If gets lost, then he wasn’t for real.” Right? Okay, they’re picking up Yosef from the pit, and they’re telling him, “Yosef, this is our decision. If you are real, if you are one of the holy tribes — ” You see, without getting involved, you know, they thought he is not one of the twelve tribes. Because if you’re one of the twelve tribes, how can you separate yourself from your brothers? How can you separate yourself from your brothers, right? And they didn’t know that he’s only separating himself because he wants to take off the burden of being a slave [from them]. But anyway, that’s what it was.

They said, “If you’re one of us, you’ll make it. But if you get lost — so you get lost.” I want you to visualize — it’s the deepest, deepest depths. But again, it’s so holy, it’s awesome even to think of it. How do you think the brothers said good-bye to Yosef? How do you think the brothers said good-bye to Yosef, right? Because deep down, can you imagine how much — how much love do you think was between the brothers and the house of Jacob? Unbearable, right? It was so deep and so holy, we have no concept, right?

Let me ask you, do you think, really, without knowing the depths, do you think there was jealousy between Rachel and Leah? Remind me to talk about it later. There [were] never two sisters in the world who loved each other more than Rachel and Leah, right? The deepest love, like Moshe and Aharon, right? Because everybody knows, Moshe and Aharon fixed the sin of Cain among men, and Rachel and Leah fixing jealousy between women and hatred between women until Mashiach is coming, right? The two pillars — Moshe and Aaron, Rochel and Leah.

Okay, the brothers saying good-bye to Yosef. Okay, so Yehudah, who’s the king, right? He says to Yosef, “Okay, we’re selling you as a slave, and you’ll have to prove yourself, if you remain a Tzaddik or not.” So you know what Yosef says to Yehudah? He says to Yehudah, “My holy brother, please bless me I should make it.” Right? “Bless me to be a Tzaddik.” Now listen to this unbelievable thing: Yehudah blessed Yosef to be a Tzaddik. And you know why Yosef remained a Tzaddik? Because of the blessing of Yehudah, right?
What do you think Yehudah says to Yosef? ‘Cause he’s selling his brother as a slave, as much as he knows “I have to do it,” so Yehudah says to Yosef, “Please bless me I should do t’shuva.” Right? So Yosef blessed Yehudah to do t’shuva, right? And Yehudah blessed Yosef to be a Tzaddik. Right? It’s mind-blowing. Mind-blowing is not the word, right? So the two pillars of Yiddishkeit, the Tzaddik and the Ba’al T’shuvah — they blessed each other. It’s unbelievable! Yosef is only a Tzaddik because of the blessing of Yehudah, and Yehudah is a Tzaddik because of the blessing of Yosef.

And you know, I want you to know something. L’chaim [sips]. You know — [someone stifles a sneeze] God bless you. [And again] God bless you. What’s the holiness of the holy wall? You know what’s so strange? It’s a broken wall. And yet, you can see with an unclear prophecy the holy Temple, right? When you stand there, you see, mamesh, the Beis HaMikdash, right? But again, if you would see the Beis HaMikdash clear, it wouldn’t be so deep. Because behind all the brokenness — like on a dream level — you see the Beis HaMikdash — therefore, it’s so holy. Right?
I have to tell you just one more beautiful thing. When was the day that the wife of Potiphera mamesh really made it strong with Yosef — she says, [either] you do it, or I take you to prison. Which day was that? Everybody knows, it was Rosh HaShanah. But listen to this unbelievable thing. It was in the morning ’cause everybody — it was a whole big thing — it was a little thing in their pagan temple — and Yosef stayed home. Okay, I want to — [responding to someone's importunity] I’ll daven in a minute — I want to share this with you. [Hebrew quotation] — it says, “he saw his father’s face.” [Sotah 36b] What — he saw his father eating breakfast? They [had been] living together. He saw his father waking up? What moment did he see? Which moment was revealed to Yosef?  Which moment he saw his father? So the answer is very simple. He saw his father blowing the shofar.
You know, friends, I don’t know if you have ever seen mamash Tzaddikim. I had the privilege of seeing the Lubavitcher Rebbe, I saw the Bobover Rebbe, I saw mamesh Tzaddikim the way they looked before they blow the shofar, right? When you remember that, it’s something else, right? So I want you to know, Joseph went into prison on Rosh HaShanah, and everybody knows, he came out on Rosh HaShanah. L’chaim, l’chaim [he drinks again].
You know, the Ropshitzer says the portions of the winter wear heavy furs — you know? It’s all covered up. It’s all covered up. And it’s such a privilege — you know, it’s very crazy. Before Mashiach is coming, in our generation, really, we have such holy books; it’s getting more and more open to us, and it’s really more and more accessible to us — the deepest depths of the Torah, right? Let’s say twenty years ago, nobody was sitting in Santa Rosa talking about Yehudah and Yosef, right? L’chaim.
[This the end of Part Two. May the tears that we shed over the Joseph story be transformed into drops of rain to moisten the parched land of Israel, fill her rivers, lakes, and streams, her reservoirs and aquifers. — RG]

From the series, Reb Shlomo at Congregation Beth Ami, 4676 Mayette Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95405 . Sunday, November 30, 1980 (22 Kislev, 5741), Parashat Miketz. (Two days before Chanukah, the week of Parashat Miketz.)
Recorded and transcribed by Reuven Goldfarb.
Transcription dedicated to the complete refuah of Yitzchak ben Leah — Jerry Strauss, Shlomo’s great friend and supporter — who organized the concert and learning at which these teachings were given over.
Copyright held by the estate of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.

Shlomo Carlebach

Can you imagine?, Today everyone is selling the deepest secrets of instruments of destruction! Back then, they would rather die than let these powerful musical instruments wind up in the wrong hands.

But my sweetest friends, worse than losing the musical instruments is that we lost the melodies. The Prophets, when they gave their prophecies, didn’t stand on a soapbox and give a little speech! They sang their message to the people. Yes, we still have a musical chant for the basic words of the Torah and the Prophets, but it’s not the same. Every word of Torah was sung, every psalm and prophecy was sung. When we lost the Holy Temple, we lost the melody to the Holy Torah! We lost its deepest inner meaning.

The saddest thing today, friends, is that we have an older generation that knows all the words. They know every word, and they guard every word, and they teach every word. But, they don’t know the melody! They don’t know the inside of the inside of the words.

Today, a whole new generation of young people seems to be so far away from Judaism. But are they? They’re moving to a different beat. They hear a heavenly melody. They’re dancing a new dance. But, they don’t know the words!

If we could just get the guardians of the tradition to listen to the new melody, and if we could just get these inspired young people to learn some of the words, then, like it says in Psalms, we could ‘sing a new song to God!’ We could really fix the whole world.

Transcribed by Rabbi David Zeller zt
Berekeley, 1967

It would’t be so terrible if God answered the next day. I want you to know something so deep: sometimes you have an awakening in your heart, and you want so much to do something good, but at that time, on that day, it doesn’t work. Sadly enough, the next morning you wake up and you don’t want it anymore.

I have seen so many young people who mamash wanted to be on fire, or wanted to go to a Yeshiva or to maybe go to Yerushalayim, wanting to do something for the whole world, but on that day, it was impossible. The next day came and their luck turned.

So, “Master of the World, if You answer me, I am begging you, answer me the same day.” I can assure you too, I have seen thousands, thousands, who could have been the highest yidden in the world.

Okay, this is the story. I had the privilege of hearing this story from the holy Modzhitzer Rebbe, zt“l. Of all the Rebbes, he was a Rebbe for the longest time. Finally, he came to Tel Aviv and he passed away. A Rebbe doesn’t pass away; it means he’s not visible in this world any more. He became Rebbe when he was 17 years old, and I think he passed away when he was 92 or 93. He came to New York, nebach he was sick, and it was too much for him. He wanted to have a little farbrengen Friday night. I had the privilege of being there that Friday night. Right after the davening, this is how he told the story. He said, “I heard this from my father, who heard it from his father, who heard it from his heiligeh Tateh‘s heiligeh Tateh, Rebbe Yisroel. Rebbe Yisroel heard it from his Tateh, the heiligeh Rav Yankev, who heard it from his father, the heiligeh Rhizhyner.”

In the year 1490 there was a big gathering of all the congregations of all the yidden in Spain, near Barcelona. You know, the yidden were at the peak – since the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, yidden hadn’t had it so good. They all had the biggest positions in the government, and they were all rich, so they where talking to each other, asking, “What can we do to make yiddishkeit stronger?”

So one of them said, “You know how rich we are? We are so rich! Let’s send a message to Istanbul that we want to buy the land of Israel back from the Turks. Of course, whatever price they want, we will pay, and we will build the Beis Hamikdash! We’ll go back!! We’ll return to the Holy Land!”

After he said that, there was so much simcha! Gevaldt, they were going to build the Beis Hamikdash again. Do you know what they did? First of all they appointed three outstanding people. In those days, to go from Spain to Istanbul and back would take a year. They decided that those three people would go talk to the Pasha in Turkey, and they gave them a year to come back. In the meantime, they decided, they would mamash opened new yeshivas for Kohanim to learn Kedoshim, for Levi’im to study music, and their simcha was up to the high heavens, ad hashamayim. Then they decided that the next year, on Rosh Chodesh Elul in the year 1491, they will all meet again.

The time came for the simcha, every body came, all the Kohanim knew the laws of Zevachim – sacrifices, the Leviim knew b’shira v’zimra. So they all get together, the door opens, and the three delegates come in. “We got a great price! We are buying the Holy Land!” Pssssshh! Not to be believed! The simcha was gevaldt. Suddenly a yid gets up and he says, “Who gave us the right to buy the holy land? The Ribono shel Olam drove us out from the holy land, so we don’t have the right to go back unless we have a sign from heaven! So the people said to him, “Are you crazy or what? Do you need a bigger sign? We have the money! The Pasha wants to sell it to us, and we want to go!”

So, sadly enough, do you know what poison is? There were already two parties, one said, “White,” and one said, “No! That’s red!”

They decided to wait another year, until Rosh Chodesh Elul, 1492, and everybody knows that on Tisha b‘Av that year they where driven out of Spain. Do you know what the problem is? Ki Va Moed. When the time comes, Don’t wait, Don’t wait…

Transcribed by Benyomin (Benjie) Steinberg, Tel Aviv

Photo

Reb Shlomo and the Rebbe of Modzitz, Rebbe Shmuel Eliyahu Taub (1905-1984)

Rebbe Shmuel Eliyahu

Rebbe Shmuel Eliyahu was born in Lublin, Poland on 9 February 1905. In 1935, Rebbe Shaul Yedidya Elazar and his son Rabbi Shmuel went on a pilgrimage to the then British Mandate of Palestine. While they were there R. Shmuel fell in love with the Land of Israel and asked his father if he could stay there. His father agreed and within a year Rabbi Shmuel’s wife and their child came over to Israel. After his father’s death in 1947 he succeeded his father as the Modzitzer Rebbe, to be known later as the Imrei Eish (“Words of Fire”). He continued the traditions of Modzitz both as a composer and Torah scholar. He died on 6 May 1984 (4 Iyar 5784), when he was succeeded by his only son, Rebbe Yisrael Dan Taub. His teachings have been recently published in a sefer under the title Imrei Eish.