נשלח: פרייטאג מערץ 17, 2017 4:52 pm
דאס פאלגענדע צירקולירט ארום די גרופעס.
▪The Last Song▪
I've been keeping this story to myself for almost twenty years. Well, not entirely to myself - I did share it with people close to me, but this is the first time I'm passing it along to someone who will make it so well known.
It has a historical dimension, and it will answer questions that have been hanging silently in the air for the past twenty years or more. It may also raise some new questions.
⚜⚜⚜
It was the month of Cheshvan in the year 5755 (October 1994). I was in New York at the time on business, staying at the Avenue Plaza Hotel in Brooklyn. I ate lunch each day with a different businessman, and we negotiated our deals over a pleasant meal.
On 16 Cheshvan 5755, l was sitting over a business lunch with a chareidi man by the name of Yossel W.
Yossel did, and still does, business on a broad scale and with considerable success. He is also a sincerely frum man, meticulous about Halachah and strict with himself about all religious matters.Just as he won't tolerate laxness in himself little tolerance for it in others, either, and he is deeply disturbed by the permissive attitude that prevails these days.
As we sat there eating our meal and discussing business, suddenly someone walked into the restaurant, a man whose face was familiar to everyone sitting there.In fact, his face was known to every religious Jew in the world.
His name was Reb Shlomo Carlebach. His guitar was slung over his back.
He started going from table to table, greeting everyone warmly and shaking their hands. Some of the diners starting talking with him, and he lingered at their tables for a few moments of conversation, so it took about twenty minutes before he got to our table, which was in the middle of the restaurant.
He extended his hand to me, and I gave him a friendly handshake.
He extended his hand to my colleague, and his hand was left dangling in midair.
"Reb Yossel," I said, thinking he hadn't noticed.
"What?" Yossel asked me, as if he had no idea what I wanted from him.
"This is Reb Shlomo Carlebach," l said.
"I know it's Reb Shlomo Carlebach," he answered.
"I'd like to shake hands with you," said Reb Shlomo.
"Very nice that you want to shake hands," said Yossel in a loud voice. "But I don't want to!"
A few forks fell from people's hands, and the waiters stood frozen.
Reb Shlomo looked very embarrassed. "Reb Yid, he said in his soft voice, "all I want to do is shake your hand. Why do you refuse me?"
"Because I'm opposed to you and your derech. I don't want to be in your dalet amos!" Yossel shouted.
The restaurant was packed with people, and there was nobody there who wasn't aware of the drama they were witnessing. No one was eating; the waiters stopped serving.Everyone was just watching.
l was more embarrassed than I've ever been in my life. I knew Yossel to be a very frum and censorious person, but this situation was just impossible for me.
"I don't ask you to agree with me, and I'm even willing to listen to your views," said Reb Shlomo, "but Reb Yid, l'm just asking you to take my hand. I'm not asking, I'm begging you."
Surely after words like those, anyone would relent, but Reb Yossel was adamant. "I don't give my hand to posh'im," he said.
l was afraid there was going to be a big fight, but Reb Shlomo looked at him gently and said, "You know, Reb Yid, when we daven Ne'ilah we say, 'אתה נותן יד לפושעים' - You give Your hand to rebellious sinners. What will be next year on Yom Kippur? Maybe you won't be comfortable asking Hashem to give you His hand?"
That was a brilliant answer, but Yossel had a comeback: "You're quoting only part of it. It goes on to say, 'וימינך פשוטה לקבל שובים' - Only if a person does teshuvah is Hashem willing to stretch His hand out to him not to a person who is stubbornly rebellious."
By this time, half the people in the restaurant had gathered around our table.
Reb Shlomo listened, thought a bit, and said, "So what will it take to get you to shake hands with me?
"When you do teshuvah, then I'll shake your hand!"
"And suppose I promise to do teshuvah? "
Now Reb Yossel was losing ground, but he recovered his position quickly. "What good is a promise? Who will guarantee that you'll keep your promise?"
Reb Shlomo thought that over. He looked very serious. Then he took his guitar case off his shoulder, took the instrument out, and started strumming it in his typical way while speaking to Reb Yossel:
"A Yid wants others to shake his hand, even if he's not a tzaddik, even if he's strayed far, and even if he's got a lot of klippos... he still wants Hashem to stretch His hand out to him."
And then he sang in an improvised melody: "אתה נותן יד לפושעים וימינך פשוטה לקבל שובים"
Again he spoke to Reb Yossel: "It's so hard to do teshuvah. How can a Yid who has sinned do teshuvah sheleimah? The solution is found in the same line from Ne'ilah." And he sang: "תלמדינו השם אלקינו להתוודות לפניך על כל עוונותינו למען נחדל מעושק ידינו"... (And you have taught us, Hashem our God, to confess all our sins before You, so that our hands might cease from abuse...)
"Ribono shel Olam," said Reb Shlomo, "all my life I went down into the mud, into the garbage piles, to collect gems for you, to shake hands with pure, good neshamos who only wanted simple, genuine love, who only wanted to be judged favorably, and I found many, many gems for You, but I got soiled with mud... and now I meet a clean, righteous Yid who lives in a higher sphere, and he's willing to shake my hand, he just wants me to clean up first. And I, who got dirty in order to shake hands with Yidden, will I not get washed in order to shake hands with Yidden? So I tell You now, Ribono shel olam, that just as I got dirty, so will I now accept upon myself to do complete teshuuah, just as it says in Ne'ilah, "להתוודות... על כל עוונותינו".
Reb Shlomo then began reciting the Viduy word by word, including Al Cheit, and many of the onlookers joined him, some of them crying openly. The atmosphere in the restaurant was like Ne'ilah on Yom Kippur, and as the Viduy ended, Reb Yossel put his head in his hands and cried harder than any one. The moment Reb Shlomo finished, Reb Yossel got up and embraced him. They hugged each other for a long moment, and there wasn't a dry eye in the place.
Reb Shlomo glanced at his watch and said he was late for his flight. He began making his way to the exit, but not before shaking hands with all the men in the restaurant. Some of them hugged him warmly, and then he left without having eaten, pensive and alone with his guitar.
If I ended the story right here, it would still be one of the most touching stories you've heard. But the story doesn't end here.
⚜⚜⚜
Three hours later, I phoned Reb Yossel and said, "Did you hear the news?"
"No, what news?" he asked.
"Reb Shlomo Carlebach left the restaurant, caught his flight, and just when they were landing, he had a heart attack and passed away!"
"What?!!" I heard Reb Yossel yell in alarm. He said nothing more, he just cried bitter, desperate sobs. I'd never heard anyone so shocked and upset, and really, I'd never heard of such a tragic sequence of events before.
Of all the many people who were touched by Reb Shlomo's passing, perhaps only Reb Yossel never got over the trauma.
He went and poured out his heart to rabbanim about it, and they all tried to reassure him that rather than feel guilty, he should feel privileged that he was the shaliach who brought Reb Shlomo to do teshuvah sheleimah just hours before his death and to leave this world pure as an angel.
According to Rav Yisrael Meir Lau, who traveled on the same flight as Reb Shlomo, the last song Carlebach played in his life was the pasuk from Eichah, "Chasdei Hashem ki lo tamu, ki lo chalu rachamav" - For Hashem's kindnesses never cease, for His mercies never end."
As is well-known, the rabbanim of his time permitted singing Reb Shlomo's compositions even though they were strong in their criticism of him. Apparently he was a Jew with a special neshamah, and the fact that he was given the opportunity to do teshuvah sheleimah with Viduy shortly before his sudden death is proof of that.
If people wondered how could be that his songs entered every Jewish home and never left, even Reb Shlomo himself was such a controversial character, this story is an answer to that question.
I'd like to point out that the Amshenover Rebbe, ztz"lo, as well as the current Rebbe, shlita, always welcomed Reb Shlomo Carlebach. When the current Rebbe married off his daughter, Reb Shlomo suddenly arrived, and he stepped up to the stage to sing. There were some there who wanted to make him come down, but the Rebbe physically blocked their way and said, "Let him sing." Already then, the Rebbes could see that this was a unique neshamah.
Carlebach would sometimes say with a bittersweet smile, "My biggest successes are when I lift someone out of the trash heap, and he rises to a level where he calls me a sheigetz."
⚜⚜⚜
I once heard another story from the journalist Binyamin Rabinowitz that testifies to Reb Shlomos incredible capacity for bowing his head before every Jew.
"My father ztz"l," said Rabinowitz, "was in charge of the Chamber of the Holocaust at Kever David HaMelech during the period before the Six Day War. Reb Shlomo would come there regularly, and he became good friends with my father. One time he showed up with a group of people who weren't dressed appropriately for a holy place. He came up to my father and greeted him, but my father didn't answer and evaded him. Reb Shlomo went after him, asking, 'What did I do?' and then my father slapped him hard and protested about what he'd seen. And not only did Reb Shlomo not get angry, but he actually bowed his head and apologized from the depth of his heart. It was then that Carlebach became like part of our family and developed a deep love for my father."
⚜⚜⚜
That was Reb Shlomo.
He died penniless, because he gave all his money to charity. His followers had to collect donations to take care of the funeral arrangements. He is buried on Har HaMenuchos, but his singing still echoes in the heart of every Jew around the world.
▪The Last Song▪
I've been keeping this story to myself for almost twenty years. Well, not entirely to myself - I did share it with people close to me, but this is the first time I'm passing it along to someone who will make it so well known.
It has a historical dimension, and it will answer questions that have been hanging silently in the air for the past twenty years or more. It may also raise some new questions.
⚜⚜⚜
It was the month of Cheshvan in the year 5755 (October 1994). I was in New York at the time on business, staying at the Avenue Plaza Hotel in Brooklyn. I ate lunch each day with a different businessman, and we negotiated our deals over a pleasant meal.
On 16 Cheshvan 5755, l was sitting over a business lunch with a chareidi man by the name of Yossel W.
Yossel did, and still does, business on a broad scale and with considerable success. He is also a sincerely frum man, meticulous about Halachah and strict with himself about all religious matters.Just as he won't tolerate laxness in himself little tolerance for it in others, either, and he is deeply disturbed by the permissive attitude that prevails these days.
As we sat there eating our meal and discussing business, suddenly someone walked into the restaurant, a man whose face was familiar to everyone sitting there.In fact, his face was known to every religious Jew in the world.
His name was Reb Shlomo Carlebach. His guitar was slung over his back.
He started going from table to table, greeting everyone warmly and shaking their hands. Some of the diners starting talking with him, and he lingered at their tables for a few moments of conversation, so it took about twenty minutes before he got to our table, which was in the middle of the restaurant.
He extended his hand to me, and I gave him a friendly handshake.
He extended his hand to my colleague, and his hand was left dangling in midair.
"Reb Yossel," I said, thinking he hadn't noticed.
"What?" Yossel asked me, as if he had no idea what I wanted from him.
"This is Reb Shlomo Carlebach," l said.
"I know it's Reb Shlomo Carlebach," he answered.
"I'd like to shake hands with you," said Reb Shlomo.
"Very nice that you want to shake hands," said Yossel in a loud voice. "But I don't want to!"
A few forks fell from people's hands, and the waiters stood frozen.
Reb Shlomo looked very embarrassed. "Reb Yid, he said in his soft voice, "all I want to do is shake your hand. Why do you refuse me?"
"Because I'm opposed to you and your derech. I don't want to be in your dalet amos!" Yossel shouted.
The restaurant was packed with people, and there was nobody there who wasn't aware of the drama they were witnessing. No one was eating; the waiters stopped serving.Everyone was just watching.
l was more embarrassed than I've ever been in my life. I knew Yossel to be a very frum and censorious person, but this situation was just impossible for me.
"I don't ask you to agree with me, and I'm even willing to listen to your views," said Reb Shlomo, "but Reb Yid, l'm just asking you to take my hand. I'm not asking, I'm begging you."
Surely after words like those, anyone would relent, but Reb Yossel was adamant. "I don't give my hand to posh'im," he said.
l was afraid there was going to be a big fight, but Reb Shlomo looked at him gently and said, "You know, Reb Yid, when we daven Ne'ilah we say, 'אתה נותן יד לפושעים' - You give Your hand to rebellious sinners. What will be next year on Yom Kippur? Maybe you won't be comfortable asking Hashem to give you His hand?"
That was a brilliant answer, but Yossel had a comeback: "You're quoting only part of it. It goes on to say, 'וימינך פשוטה לקבל שובים' - Only if a person does teshuvah is Hashem willing to stretch His hand out to him not to a person who is stubbornly rebellious."
By this time, half the people in the restaurant had gathered around our table.
Reb Shlomo listened, thought a bit, and said, "So what will it take to get you to shake hands with me?
"When you do teshuvah, then I'll shake your hand!"
"And suppose I promise to do teshuvah? "
Now Reb Yossel was losing ground, but he recovered his position quickly. "What good is a promise? Who will guarantee that you'll keep your promise?"
Reb Shlomo thought that over. He looked very serious. Then he took his guitar case off his shoulder, took the instrument out, and started strumming it in his typical way while speaking to Reb Yossel:
"A Yid wants others to shake his hand, even if he's not a tzaddik, even if he's strayed far, and even if he's got a lot of klippos... he still wants Hashem to stretch His hand out to him."
And then he sang in an improvised melody: "אתה נותן יד לפושעים וימינך פשוטה לקבל שובים"
Again he spoke to Reb Yossel: "It's so hard to do teshuvah. How can a Yid who has sinned do teshuvah sheleimah? The solution is found in the same line from Ne'ilah." And he sang: "תלמדינו השם אלקינו להתוודות לפניך על כל עוונותינו למען נחדל מעושק ידינו"... (And you have taught us, Hashem our God, to confess all our sins before You, so that our hands might cease from abuse...)
"Ribono shel Olam," said Reb Shlomo, "all my life I went down into the mud, into the garbage piles, to collect gems for you, to shake hands with pure, good neshamos who only wanted simple, genuine love, who only wanted to be judged favorably, and I found many, many gems for You, but I got soiled with mud... and now I meet a clean, righteous Yid who lives in a higher sphere, and he's willing to shake my hand, he just wants me to clean up first. And I, who got dirty in order to shake hands with Yidden, will I not get washed in order to shake hands with Yidden? So I tell You now, Ribono shel olam, that just as I got dirty, so will I now accept upon myself to do complete teshuuah, just as it says in Ne'ilah, "להתוודות... על כל עוונותינו".
Reb Shlomo then began reciting the Viduy word by word, including Al Cheit, and many of the onlookers joined him, some of them crying openly. The atmosphere in the restaurant was like Ne'ilah on Yom Kippur, and as the Viduy ended, Reb Yossel put his head in his hands and cried harder than any one. The moment Reb Shlomo finished, Reb Yossel got up and embraced him. They hugged each other for a long moment, and there wasn't a dry eye in the place.
Reb Shlomo glanced at his watch and said he was late for his flight. He began making his way to the exit, but not before shaking hands with all the men in the restaurant. Some of them hugged him warmly, and then he left without having eaten, pensive and alone with his guitar.
If I ended the story right here, it would still be one of the most touching stories you've heard. But the story doesn't end here.
⚜⚜⚜
Three hours later, I phoned Reb Yossel and said, "Did you hear the news?"
"No, what news?" he asked.
"Reb Shlomo Carlebach left the restaurant, caught his flight, and just when they were landing, he had a heart attack and passed away!"
"What?!!" I heard Reb Yossel yell in alarm. He said nothing more, he just cried bitter, desperate sobs. I'd never heard anyone so shocked and upset, and really, I'd never heard of such a tragic sequence of events before.
Of all the many people who were touched by Reb Shlomo's passing, perhaps only Reb Yossel never got over the trauma.
He went and poured out his heart to rabbanim about it, and they all tried to reassure him that rather than feel guilty, he should feel privileged that he was the shaliach who brought Reb Shlomo to do teshuvah sheleimah just hours before his death and to leave this world pure as an angel.
According to Rav Yisrael Meir Lau, who traveled on the same flight as Reb Shlomo, the last song Carlebach played in his life was the pasuk from Eichah, "Chasdei Hashem ki lo tamu, ki lo chalu rachamav" - For Hashem's kindnesses never cease, for His mercies never end."
As is well-known, the rabbanim of his time permitted singing Reb Shlomo's compositions even though they were strong in their criticism of him. Apparently he was a Jew with a special neshamah, and the fact that he was given the opportunity to do teshuvah sheleimah with Viduy shortly before his sudden death is proof of that.
If people wondered how could be that his songs entered every Jewish home and never left, even Reb Shlomo himself was such a controversial character, this story is an answer to that question.
I'd like to point out that the Amshenover Rebbe, ztz"lo, as well as the current Rebbe, shlita, always welcomed Reb Shlomo Carlebach. When the current Rebbe married off his daughter, Reb Shlomo suddenly arrived, and he stepped up to the stage to sing. There were some there who wanted to make him come down, but the Rebbe physically blocked their way and said, "Let him sing." Already then, the Rebbes could see that this was a unique neshamah.
Carlebach would sometimes say with a bittersweet smile, "My biggest successes are when I lift someone out of the trash heap, and he rises to a level where he calls me a sheigetz."
⚜⚜⚜
I once heard another story from the journalist Binyamin Rabinowitz that testifies to Reb Shlomos incredible capacity for bowing his head before every Jew.
"My father ztz"l," said Rabinowitz, "was in charge of the Chamber of the Holocaust at Kever David HaMelech during the period before the Six Day War. Reb Shlomo would come there regularly, and he became good friends with my father. One time he showed up with a group of people who weren't dressed appropriately for a holy place. He came up to my father and greeted him, but my father didn't answer and evaded him. Reb Shlomo went after him, asking, 'What did I do?' and then my father slapped him hard and protested about what he'd seen. And not only did Reb Shlomo not get angry, but he actually bowed his head and apologized from the depth of his heart. It was then that Carlebach became like part of our family and developed a deep love for my father."
⚜⚜⚜
That was Reb Shlomo.
He died penniless, because he gave all his money to charity. His followers had to collect donations to take care of the funeral arrangements. He is buried on Har HaMenuchos, but his singing still echoes in the heart of every Jew around the world.
