The holy Shabbos, the most longed for day, is the day which gives us the strength to begin again. Three things are called chemda, which means longing and wanting in an absolute, crazy way (holy craziness): Shabbos, the Torah, and Israel. A true Jew is possessed by this holy, incurable craziness.

A Shabbos Test. If you want to know how much you like a person, see if you can sit with the person without doing anything. Shabbos is therefore given to you. Do nothing and show your love for Hashem.

The Mitzvah of Shabbos is Shabbos: When Shabbos comes I am yearning to serve G-d in the most infinite way. During the week, my finite and infinite self are apart. On Shabbos my finite and infinite self are brought together by Shabbos — the Mitzvah of Shabbos is Shabbos itself. The Yid HaKodesh said: “Some people eat fish on Shabbos and some eat Shabbos on Shabbos”.

The Preciousness of Shabbos: The Socheshever Rebbe, the son-in-law of the Kotzker Rebbe, said: “Imagine if I stop keeping Shabbos; I stop not because I don’t like the value Shabbos has, but because it is no longer precious to me. So, when I do tshuvah I am to learn the preciousness of Judaism.” Anything that is given to you by G-d you don’t receive, unless you know how precious it is. I can be married, but if I don’t know how precious it is, it will be nothing.

“You can keep every Shabbos to the letter of the law, but unless Shabbos reaches the deepest and highest place in your heart. you haven’t kept Shabbos.”

Shabbos Shalom: There are some moments when I have to feel perfect, complete (shaleim). Six days a week I work like a dog and can’t have that feeling. On Shabbos I receive a divinely inspired feeling of serenity, peacefulness, completeness — Shabbos Shalom — because of its holiness one feels perfection. This day will give you the strength to ‘fix’ yourself during the week. You will know what to ‘fix’ because you will have just experienced a period of time when you had a complete soul.

Shabbos is back in Paradise. Paradise is a place where everything is good, everything is holy, everything is beautiful. Paradise is a place where suddenly it’s clear to me that I can fix all my mistakes. And even more so, everything I thought was a mistake, every street I thought was the wrong street was the only way to get there.

When G-d drove Adam from Paradise, he retained part of his soul to remain there. On Shabbos, G-d releases that part and gives it back to man. This is our extra soul of Shabbos. On this day we are given the opportunity to return to Paradise. The question is asked, where would Adam have gone on Shabbos if he had not been driven out of Paradise? G-d would have taken him to Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of High, which has not yet been revealed to us. Paradise is a place I know from before; Jerusalem above, I have never experienced. Now, I must be satisfied with Paradise on Shabbos; in the future we hope to be brought to Jerusalem of High.

According to our holy tradition, on the Sabbath you have to be in a higher place than during the week. Everybody knows that G-d created Adam and Eve on Friday, before the Sabbath, on the sixth day of creation. And according to our tradition, on that very same day they ate of the forbidden fruit. and in just one second before sunset they were driven out from Paradise.

But then, on the Sabbath, G-d took them back into Paradise. So even if the world is driven out from Paradise during the other six days of the week, on Shabbos the whole world has a chance to go back to Paradise.

Shabbos has two faces. There is keeping the Shabbos holy, the thirty-nine laws of Shabbos, the withdrawing from the world, a non-power kind of like. But then there is the bliss of Shabbos, the inside of Shabbos, which is a gift from Heaven. The bliss of Shabbos is even deeper than Paradise. It’s a secret between G-d and me, between me and the people I love so much. Shabbos is peace because peace is secrets, secrets of the depths, of the deepest depths. Secrets are the deepest G-d revelation. A true Shabbos person is someone who walks the streets of the world and every human being he sees, he shares a secret with. But with those he loves it’s the secret of all secrets.

On Shabbos we say, “Shabbos hi milzok, refuah krovah livoh.” Shabbos is the deepest healing in the world. Our holy rabbis teach us that a doctor can only heal a foot or hand; they cannot replace it with a new one. But Shabbos, on a spiritual level, gives us back our hands and feet. Not only this, Shabbos gives us new minds, new eyes and new ears, gevalt!

Shabbos is the strongest vitamin because its nutrients are those which can heal the soul. On Shabbos, new energy is coming down from Heaven. But the energy and its spiritual nutrients refuses to be received in dirty vessels. There are many ways we can do the cleansing and purification on our own. But for those of us who can’t do even that, so for one second before Shabbos purity and holiness also descend into the world. Happy are those who can receive it and fill their heart with it.

Shabbos is the highest energy center in the world. It’s not a day when you’re not doing anything. Shabbos is the day when your soul is at the most, most high. What’s the most precious possession of a human being? According to Rebbe Nachman, it’s our thoughts, what we can imagine with our minds and hearts.

On Shabbos our thoughts have to be so high, so heavenly that we can talk to G-d. And not only to G-d, but people, too! Because if you can’t feel close to someone standing next to you, to someone you can see with your eyes, then how can you feel close to someone you can’t see? And the more you look at people with great love, the more you can see G-d in everyone. But whether we look at people with great love or not, whether our thoughts are heavenly or not, on Shabbos something happens to the world — the world becomes infinite again.

Shabbos is different from all other holidays. The Gemara explains that if there were no Jews in the world, there would be no Jewish holidays. But Shabbos will always exist, even if there be no Jew to observe it, because on Shabbos something happens to the world, G-d opens the gates, and something so holy comes from heaven down to us, and all we have to do is pick it up.

The Zohar HaQodesh asks, how did Noah have the strength to resist a world that was rotten to the core? When everyone around him seemed perverted and crazy, Noah and his family held out alone, right? Where did he get the strength from?

Well, the name “Noah” is the same as the Hebrew word for “rest”. The Zohar HaQodesh says that Noah wanted to serve G- d, Noah wanted to keep Shabbos. Since nobody else picked up the power that came down from heaven, Noah and his family could take it all! And that’s how he had the strength to resist the world. He had the power of the world in his bones.

So, every Shabbos, imagine if you would pick up from the world the power of heaven. Imagine how much strength you would get, how much holiness you could put in your bones.

According to the great Kabbalists, water was never created; it always was just there. In the Book of Genesis it never says that G-d created water. Water has the power of “Beyond Creation”, the power to wash you clean and make everything grow. Our rabbis teach us that in order to really feel the blessing of Shabbos you have first to immerse in the mikveh.

The Lights of Shabbos: The lights that our Mother Sarah lit were burning from Friday to Friday. When I kindle a light in the week, anyone can blow it out. However, Friday night, the lighting of the candles is performed with such spiritual strength, that their glow lasts from Friday to Friday. According to our logic, the light of Shabbos, G-d’s light, is so infinitely powerful what can the candle add? But this is one of the fixings of Eve’s eating of the tree of Knowledge. Because it isn’t true that the candle is insignificant. According to the Tree of Life every candle makes the light more infinite and more deep. G-d’s light is like a Picasso, it is so beyond beautiful that it can’t reach inside my soul. But a painting of my own sweetest Dari has the light of the little candle of Shabbos that mamash tears my heart apart.

Shabbos comes and Shabbos is everywhere. You can’t walk out on Shabbos. But this is only on the Outside. Kabbalos Shabbos, we are making ourselves into vessels to receive Shabbos into the deepest most Inside depths of our soul.

Friday night is the fixing of jealousy. Jealousy comes from thinking that someone can take your place or your portion. And in the deepest depths it’s my own emptiness, my own incapability to retain what G-d is giving me. But Friday night, when my heart becomes so full, so overflowing full, like the wine from the Kiddush, jealousy is wiped out from my heart, and hopefully, eventually, from the heart of mankind.

The feast of Friday night is the ultimate fixing of the Tree of Knowledge. We are mamash transforming it into the Tree of Life. The Holy Ba’al Shem says that whoever is up Friday night celebrating Shabbos will not leave this world without completing the fixing which he came down in this for.

Shabbos morning is the fixing of grabbing. Because what G-d gives me I don’t have to steal and I don’t even have to take; it’s given to me. A slave takes, a king receives.

The third meal of Shabbos is the fixing of self-esteem, of honor, of giving up hope. The third meal is like the World to Come, when the world will be filled with G-d’s glory, with the glory of every human being, when the honor of a child is enough to fill the whole universe with the deepest of G-d’s honor.

Shalos Seudos, the Third Meal before you say goodbye to Shabbos, is the deepest of all. It’s when you say goodbye to the One you love that it’s clear to you how much He means to you, Our holy rabbis teach us that all day Shabbos is just Shabbos. The Third Meal is Shabbos and Yom Kippur. It’s a must for everyone to spend the last hour of Shabbos in the deepest emotion.

After saying goodbye to Shabbos, we make ourselves a little concert and partake in the Feast of King David who lives forever. The Feast of King David gives us the strength to keep Shabbos alive until the next Shabbos comes.

Shabbos is the deepest healing in the world. Our holy rabbis teach us that a doctor can only heal a foot or a hand; he cannot give you a new one. But Shabbos, on the spiritual level, gives you back your hands and your feet. It gives you new brains, new eyes, new ears — what a gevalt, Shabbos.

Friday night is the time of seeing, of discovering the unbelievable beauty and sweetness of the world of the Torah, of people, and above all, those I love the most. Shabbos morning is a time of tasting. It’s even deeper than seeing. Most people love each other. But tasting each other’s soul, each other’s depths — that is Shabbos morning. The third meal, and, finally, Havdalah, is smelling, inhaling the fragrance, the beauty which is beyond seeing and tasting, the kind of depth which only my soul can fathom. Happy are those who walk the streets of the world with the fragrance of Shabbos.

G-d created the world in six days and on Shabbos He rested. What a sad translation! On Shabbos G-d gave the world a soul. On Shabbos G-d created a world of souls, of depth, of tasting that which is most real.

Shabbos invites all those who need new energy, all those who have been broken by the world of the six days, who need the world of Shabbos to make their brokenness whole again.

Shabbos invites all those who have so far only felt the pain of life and are crying for the joy, the bliss, the unbelievable heavenliness of being alive in a world created by G-d.

Shabbos invites all those who are tired of walking slowly, who only cover a spiritual inch per lifetime on their journeys. Shabbos invites all those who have traveled through the valleys of sadness, of waiting and waiting all the time. Shabbos is to get to the top of the mountain in one second, and there discover even higher mountains that we may have never ever seen before.

Shabbos invites all those who know, who experienced so much sweetness, so much holiness in life, but it’s clear to them this cannot be all G-d wants to give them. Isn’t G-d infinite? Isn’t life infinite? Shabbos is the name of G-d.

Will you accept the invitation of Shabbos?

Selections prepared for Connections in 5749 and for Congregation Kehillat Jacob, in 5751.

Not for commercial redistribution without consent of copyright holder and the Estate of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach

Shlomo and Neshamah Carlebach

But you know the way G-d, when we deal with G-d? G-d nebich gives me a little piece of cake, a little bit [shtain?] dinner. So I come to G-d with the holiest. I say, “U-v’nai Yerushalayim — can you please rebuild Jerusalem? Can you please bring the Messiah?” [Does G-d say,] “What is this Chutzpah?” You know? “I mean, really, because I gave you a little bagel, therefore you bother me right away about Yerushalayim?”

But now listen to the other side. I want you to open your hearts. Remember I told you I met this girl yesterday — can’t say on Shabbos — it was Shabbos — last night I went out, I met this girl. And she was very sweet, she was smiling. And we walked into this coffee shop, and I said, “Can I take you out for coffee?” She says, “Why not?” You know? We’re going in there, and I say to her, “Um…uh, you wanna give me the sugar, you know, for the coffee?” She says, “Okay.” And I say to her, “Listen, you know, you’re so beautiful. Maybe you can give me some more sugar. Would you like to marry me?” You know?

Now listen to this very careful. If she doesn’t love me, you know? “Listen, what kind of chutzpah is this?” You know? “I didn’t know you five minutes ago.” Right? “Okay, you’re taking me out for coffee, and I give you sugar, therefore? Chutzpah!” Right? If she loves me, do you know what she’ll say? “You couldn’t have asked at a better moment,” right?

Now listen to this, sweetest friends. If you don’t love a person after doing one favor, you say, “Really, I mean, really, take off, such chutzpah!” You know? “I just did you a favor — that’s it! Don’t talk to me for another year.” If you love somebody very much, it’s the other way around! If you do them one favor, you can’t wait till you do them another favor, right? ‘Cause it’s so beautiful to do somebody a favor, right? When you love somebody — Listen, my Neshameleh, when she’ll ask me, let’s say in the morning, she’ll say, “Daddy, give me apple juice.” Ten minutes later, she’ll say, “Give me this juice.” I’ll say “Chutzpah — I just — “? I’ll say, “I’m so glad, gevalt!” I’m jumping out of my skin, right? Can you imagine, ten minutes later, she’ll say, “Take me to Israel.” So I’ll blow my mind, my Neshama wants to go to Israel! Right?

So I want you to know, bentching is — bentching is, mamesh, that we are so close to G-d, we have just a little taste how much He loves us, that I can eat one bagel, and ask, “U-v’nai Yerushalayim. Please, Rabayna shel olam, bring the Messiah. Fix the whole world.”

But again, you have to realize — and here I just want to tell you this one very important thing. This is one of the top Torahs of Reb Nachman. You know, most of us think always of life in terms of, “What am I doing with my life? How much money do I make? What’s my future? What’s my past?” This is cute, right? It’s the outside of it. Inside — life itself is so deep, right? [Long pause]

Chevra, I don’t know what to say. Mamesh, my head doesn’t work.

Anonymous helpful person: Reb Nachman. Top Torah.

Reb Shlomo: Ah, it’s a gevalt! Thank you very much.

Same person: You’re welcome.

[Shlomo continues] Reb Nachman says, at that moment, when you put food in your mouth, if you want to you can receive life on the highest level. Listen, I can take a bite off an apple and receive eternal life, right? Or I can just receive the apple. It’s up to you.

So the story is that — all Breslov Chasidim were big shleppers, you know? Most of them. So Reb Nosson, the greatest pupil of Reb Nachman, was once invited by Reb Nachman’s grandson, who was very wealthy. He didn’t feel right to go there, but he was invited. The whole day he was crying inside, “Gevalt, my rebbe was so holy, and here this one is into money and everything.” So he says, “I came to the house,” and he regretted that he went. He wasn’t accustomed to this kind of riches. And then he comes to the food. And he says, “Oy vey.” You know? “With this kind of golden plates and golden spoons, you’re not gonna — who knows? Forget it!” But then he says, “Reb Nachman’s grandson walked in, and he made a motzi,” and he says, “the way he put the food in his mouth, I swear to you, I haven’t seen it since Reb Nachman.” Mamesh, the utmost — you know? With the utmost readiness to receive life on the highest level.

Gevalt, I’m keeling over. Yitzchak, can you start bentching? And I’ll just bentch fast, yeah?

Jerry: Time for you.

Shlomo: Yeah, but I want to answer back, yeah?

Yitzchak: Okay, say Rabbosai n’varech. [Shlomo leads the call and response at the beginning of the bentching. And the chevra begins to sing....]

Quick segue to the concert and the introduction by Rabbi Leo Abrami of Temple Beth Ami, the host congregation.

Rabbi Abrami: Now that Shlomo has brought you all here to our congregation for a lovely evening, and I would like to tell you, very briefly, that this concert and this workshop this afternoon, this gathering, would not have been possible if it had not been for the good will — and the faith — of one of our friends here — two friends — Jerry and Linda Strauss. And I would like therefore to introduce to you, Jerry Strauss. [Applause] I would like to mention also the fact that Mrs. Yudel — Serena Yudel — worked many hours this afternoon to prepare this lovely dinner we had tonight, so we want to thank Mrs. Yudel also [applause begins] and all the others for making this possible.

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

Listen friends, can we sit here for five more minutes? Let me tell you a fast, cute little story; then we’ll take a little break-aleh.

[He catches sight of Aryeh Trupin] — Hey, brother, hey, I’m overjoyed to see you. [Changes his tone] You didn’t bring your trumpet? [Aryeh plays clarinet and flute, but Shlomo didn't forget; he meant it generically.]

— I did, but I was, I was sitting so entranced —

— No, brother, I was sure you didn’t have it. How could you hold back? But, you know, I’m so glad —

Chevra, can you get a little bit closer for two more seconds? I want to tell you a sweet story. Just to warm your bones with a good story.

[Confers with Jerry Strauss about the schedule. They agree, and Jerry makes an announcement. Shlomo compliments him.]

Okay, friends, let me tell you a fast story. Maybe some of you heard me tell it already, so you’ll have to forgive me. And if you didn’t, you’ll have to forgive me I didn’t tell it faster.

You know, some of us, friends, are doing someone a favor, and the saddest thing is that you regret it after that. You know? You do somebody a favor — you did — that’s it, right? But to regret it after — what kind of gesheft is this, right? Imagine I walk down the street, and I see a poor man. And at that moment, something touches my heart, and so I give him ten dollars. Next block, I think, “Crazy! Ten dollars? Five dollars wouldn’t have been enough?”

The famous, classic UJA story about this Yiddele going on a bridge and [the bridge] begins to shuckle, and he’s afraid he’ll fall in, and he says, “G-d, I donate $100 for Israel.” Okay, suddenly the bridge is okay. Nothing. It stops shuckling. He thinks, “$100 for Israel? Fifty wouldn’t be enough?” I begins to shuckle again. He says, “G-d, I was only joking.”

But anyway, listen to this. The is a true story, a classic story. Everybody knows that the Yid HaKodesh, the Holy Jew, was the highest pupil of the Seer of Lublin. And one of the reasons he was called “Holy Jew” is that he had the same name like the Seer of Lublin, Ya’akov Yitzchak, and since you’re not permitted to call anybody by the name of your holy master — so one way or the other — but the real holy reason is that one time all the pupils of the Seer of Lublin were standing in [the] marketplace of Lublin, and suddenly a Cossack passed by, riding on a horse, and he pointed at the Yid HaKodesh; he says, “He looks like a Jew.” And he took off. So obviously it was Eliyahu HaNavi, and he told them that the Yid HaKodesh looks like a Jew.

Anyway, he was called Yid HaKodesh, and also everybody knows that if the Yid HaKodesh and the Seer of Lublin would have been always very close, they mamesh had it in their hands to bring Mashiach. So if you know, in the history of Chassidus, the saddest thing happened. Suddenly there was a whole group of people in Lublin, and they told stories to the Seer of Lublin about the Yid HaKodesh. It was like a little wall between them. So this took place at the beginning, when the other side was working for them not to bring the Messiah and to make a little anger between them.

Okay, now I want you to know, the whole time the Seer of Lublin was aware — he didn’t believe anything they tell him, but he knew maybe really the time isn’t there yet, you know? Maybe it’s because the time isn’t there.

Anyway, one Friday afternoon, the Yid HaKodesh — the Holy Jew — walks into the Seer of Lublin, and the Yid HaKodesh was so poor — his father-in-law was a baker, and you know — very, very poor. So his shirt was torn, and it was really dirty. So the Seer of Lublin says (you know — everybody knows — a Talmud Chocham — a scholar — is really not permitted to walk around dirty ’cause it’s a desecration of G-d’s name, so he said to the Yid HaKodesh, “You’re not permitted to walk around with that shirt on Shabbos.” Walks into his bedroom, takes out a beautiful shirt — and you have to realize the Seer of Lublin would not give a shirt to somebody unless he’s completely holy, right — because all the garments of my soul, of my body, are just one, right? And to wear a shirt which was worn by the Seer of Lublin — ah, your kishkes are turning over, right? I’d be afraid even just to go into the same room with the Seer of Lublin and his shirts, right?

Okay, the Yid HaKodesh takes the shirt, and he walks down the street. He wants to go to the mikveh. On the way to the mikveh, he meets Mosheleh the Shikker.

And Mosheleh the Shikker, you know, is a shrewd fellow, but mamesh his shirt is even more torn and is more dirty, so the Yid HaKodesh suddenly has a flash, “I wish Moshele the Shikker would look decent on Shabbos.” He says, “Mosheleh, you want a good shirt? I just got a gift from the Seer of Lublin. Here, I give you the shirt.” The Yid HaKodesh went to the mikveh, but in the meantime, Moshele Shikker — Moshele the drunkard — wasn’t as stupid as that. He walks back to the bar, and he says, “Friends, I have here the most unbelievable thing, which nobody ever had. I have a shirt of the Seer of Lublin. Who’s offering the most?” He auctions off the shirt for 1500 rubles, and the one who bought it was the bartender, and Monday, he went to the marketplace in Lublin — it was a real Jewish city — getting on a chair, and he says, “I have a shirt of the Seer of Lublin. How much are you offering?” And he auctioned it off for 10,000 rubles because someone had a thought, “I have no children,” chas v’shalom, “and if I wear the shirt,” you know, “G-d will help me.” 10,000 rubles.

Word got back to the Seer of Lublin, and the Seer of Lublin, to tell you the truth, the Seer of Lublin was a bit angry — because he really gave it to him as a present, you know? Imagine someone loves me, gives me a gift, I’ll say, “Listen, I gave it away” — “I gave it to YOU,” right? I can understand both sides, right? And remind me, I want to tell you an Ishbitzer Torah on that, but I don’t want to interrupt myself.

Anyway, the Yid HaKodesh was very downhearted. He thought, “Maybe it’s really stupid. Maybe I shouldn’t have given it. Maybe I should have — I don’t know.” Anyway, he walked down to the outskirts of the city, and he was sitting there, and he was mamesh crying ’cause he knew that means another war between him and his holy master. Sitting there and crying. Suddenly, another drunkard — but this time, mamesh, Elijah the Prophet. You know, when you’re very broken, then the best thing to tell your story is to a stranger, right? So suddenly this drunkard comes up to him and sits next to him and he says, “Hey, why are you crying?” You know? Tells him the whole story.

He says to him, “Let me tell YOU a story.” He says, “I want you to know, a few hundred years ago, in a city, there was a big thief, Yankele the thief. And he mamash stole, but he was so polished that you couldn’t catch him. He mamash stole every penny out of the hands of every Jew in the city, until he was so rich, he decided to retire. Okay, he bought himself a beautiful house. Everybody knew it was stolen money, but you couldn’t pin him down. And he lasted very happily after. But you know, if you don’t continue to steal, finally your money goes out.

One day, he was left with no money — listen to that chutzpah — he comes to the Jewish community, and he says, “Folks, I’m poor. I want you to support me.” They said, “What? Until now you ate of our money, and now you have the

chutzpah to come we should give you more money?” You know? “Give us back the money you stole from us and we’ll support you.”

Meantime, this nebich, Yankele the thief, has nothing to eat. One day, a very wealthy man, who was a neighbor, passed by the house of Yankele the thief — and by that time he was already an older man. He saw him sitting by the door of his house, so broken, and so hungry, and so desperate — so he said to himself, “I don’t care,” you know? “I don’t care if it’s right or wrong. I gotta give this Yiddele something to eat for Shabbos.”

Went back to his wife, and he says, “Do me a favor. Send him a lot of lukshun kugel, a lot of cholent, and a gefilte fish so he can have enough to eat until next Shabbos. Send him a lot of food! We have enough.”

To make it very short, from that Friday on, the rich wife sent food to Yankele the thief every Friday. This went on for many years. And now, you gotta open your hearts, like from here till the end of the world.

One day there were two funerals: a big funeral — the rich man died; and a little funeral — Yankele the thief died. They both died at the same time, buried at the same time, coming up to Heaven — rich man goes first.

Okay, the rich man — and you know, there’s a huge scale. Okay, first they put on his good deeds; it didn’t take much — a little briefcase — an angel brings the good deeds, puts them on one side, that’s it. Now comes the bad side; trucks are coming, you know? The Yiddele sees there is no hope for him — you know? He’s at the end. Okay, he’s sitting there and shivering, and he knows, “In a few more seconds they’ll decree I have to go to hell, they’ll push the button, and I’ll be a barbecued rich man.”
Now listen to this — at the very last second something happened, and suddenly the high court says, “You’re going to Heaven.” The high court says, “You’re going to Heaven.” The rich man looks at the scale — the bad side is so heavy, and the good deeds is nothing — suddenly he sees — something wrong with the scale. And he asks one of the angels, “What’s going on here?” They answered him, “Don’t you understand? Your friend, Yankele the thief, stole away all your avayras, all your evil deeds.”

It’s a gevalt story, you know? What a story, you know? Mazel tov, yeah. Such a holy story, you know? Good Yontif. Peace.

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.