Motzi Shabbos, Warsaw, Poland, January 1989
" ... Good evening! You know, friends, there are certain dreams that you permit yourself to dream. And then there are certain things that you are afraid to dream about. I want you to know, I dreamt about playing all over the world. But I was a little bit afraid of dreaming about playing in Warsaw...
... You know, the most important thing that you and I have to do in our life is to bring peace and more love to the people. ...Let every human being know that they are created by G-d. Let every human being know that they are only here to make the world more beautiful. ...
... You know, my beautiful friends, our religion, so to speak, has four wheels. Our wagon has four wheels. One wheel is our father Abraham who taught us how to love G-d, and to love the world. Then our father Issac taught us that your life has to be so deep that whatever you believe in, you have to be ready to die a thousand times. But the third wheel is our father Jacob, and he taught us how beautiful it is to be a servant of God, how beautiful the world is. And then comes King David. King David taught us, 'Don't ever stop singing! Don't ever, ever, ever give up!" And according to our holy tradition, Saturday night is the time of King David. And this is one of the things you and I have to teach the world very badly. Because most people give up on the dream of ever having peace in the world...
According to our holy tradition, whenever you are about to give up, some messenger comes from heaven to let you know, don't give up. And the name of this holy messenger is Eliayu haNavi -- the prophet Elijah. And according to our tradition, Saturday night is also the night of Elijah the Prophet. He comes to everyone and whispers in our ear, 'Don't give up'
Everybody heard of the Holy Baal Shem Tov. About 200 years ago, one of his greatest pupils, Reb Nachum of Chernobyl, decided to lend him money for a poor bride. One night the Baal Shem Tov says to him, 'I need 10,000 rubles for poor brides. I want you to go to Roy*, in Poland, and there are a lot of rich people and you collect 10,000 rubles.'
I have to tell you several things. He went abroad for two weeks and didn't collect a penny. So what can you do? You give up. He went to the outskirts of the city. He sat down under a tree. And he was crying so much. He was angry at G-d. He said, "Master of the World, if I would {have tried to} collect money for myself, I would {could?} understand, but to collect money for you children -- {blank in transcript }
G-d, from now on, I'll never collect money for someone else's kids.
While he's crying, suddenly he sees police walking with a little prisoner. Was the prisoner obviously a Jew {sic; blank in transcript} the police had trouble holding him because he was dancing all the time. And he was singing (R. Shlomo continues with a melody.) And he was filled with joy. So Reb Nachum said, 'Gevaldt, I'm a free person and I'm crying {gap in transcript} and he's dancing. So he asked him, 'Who are you?' He {the prisoner} rolls his eyes and he says, "I am Moshe the ganev, I am Moshe the thief! I am the most famous thief in Lodz. How come you don't know me? Reb Nachum says, 'You know I'm so sorry, I'm a stranger, I didn't have the privilege yet of meeting you.' He says to him, "If you are such an important thief, how come the police caught you?' He says, 'Don't worry if I'm with the police sometimes.' And he says to him, 'Moishela, when you come out of prison, will you become a decent person and stop stealing? Moishala looked at him, crying from the depths of his soul, 'Don't you know? You are not permitted ever to give up what you have to do!'
So Moishale the ganev went off with the police and Reb Nachum danced back to the city of {blank}. He collected 10,000 rubles, and then he came back to the holy Baal Shem Tov, and he put the money in his holy hand. The Baal Shem Tov says to him, 'How does Eliayhu haNavi look when he's dancing between two policemen?'
I would like to sing one song which is not {blank in transcript}. It is the song of Reb Levi Yitschak of Berditchiv. And from all our holy masters, who was the one who loved people the most. He didn't believe that any person in the world was bad. He just believed that maybe they make mistakes sometimes, but everyone was just so holy.
... You know my beautiful friends, I'd like to sing with you, maybe for us Jews, the oldest melody in the world. Because the Holy Baal Shem Tov says the way we are chanting the prayers on the High Holidays, this is the way we were singing in the Holy Temple. And in the Holy Temple, there were songs. {gap in transcript, but may not indicate omission from tape.} And maybe some of you know that in the Temple there were 150,000 Levis, 50,000 instruments and 100,000 voices. {Source? Talmud?} And until the Meshiach comes, there will never be such music again. So I need all of you to sing with me, in the words of the {gap in transcript}. Give hope to those, the only hope. Fill the Holy Land with joy, and every city with bliss. And let all of us know that salvation {original word?} is so near. ... {Transcriber notes: "R. Shlomo sings a prayer." The Birkat ha Cohanim? }
You know what the Talmud says? One day the whole world will be the Holy Land. One day every city will be Jerusalem. One day every house will be a Holy Temple. And one day every human being will be a High Priest. {jw73n1}
You know, my beautiful friends, to build Rockefeller Center or a big building takes a long time. To build a Holy Temple takes no time. It just takes one minute of loving each other, of {gap in transcript} -- probably a poor recording, since there was apparently a very large, predominantly non-Jewish crowd at this talk, which was not in their native language -- now I know that `Salima' (not her given name) Alexander (could she not be Jewish -- as in the Alexanderer Rebbe) -- w.j. Cebuil 13/1, 42-600, Tarnowski Gory, Poland) -- did some of the translations for R. Shlomo, and so she may have an original tape.
to each other. I would like to sing a song that we sang before, and I {gap}. Because the Holy Temple of G-d, you cannot only build it with your head, you have to use your hand.
And I bless you friends when you go home, that your house will be the Holy temple again and just remember, all of us, that every child is a High Priest. ...
You know, beautiful friends, everyone needs a face, every person needs a face, every country needs a face, every idea needs a face. There's not much left of the face anymore. So this is a prayer: please God give us back our face. You know little children, when they are born, why are they so beautiful? They have a face, and then when they get older, they unface them. You know sometimes, when I talk to my little children, I'm ashamed. Because they never face them ... {eo} my face is much {gap} ... You know what's so beautiful about a face? ... (Song: barrchenu Avinu kulanu ki=-echad, kulanu ki-echad be'or panecha -- 'Blessed be our Father, all of us, as one, all of us one in the Light of YOUR Face.'.
I don't know so much about Polish music, sadly enough. But I think there are also {word missing from xerox} marches from Poland, right? So if you permit me to play one of my marches ...
You know, my friends, my whole family comes from Poland. And I spoke with some of you that my holy great great grandfather about 400 years ago, was the Chief Rabbi of Krakow.
... I composed a little lullaby for my children ... it says, 'there are angels before you, behind you, surrounding you, but above you there is one G-d. And I'd like to sing it for my children, your children, because it is clear to me that I don't know if we adults will ever make peace in the world, but our children will.
... Listen to me, my sisters and brothers. I'm sure, I'm sure, I'm sure that you and I are here, I'm sure that maybe our great, great, great grandparents were neighbors and they were best friends. {gap} ... sadly enough there was a period when our grandparents were not {gap} So for tonight, let's be best friends. My beautiful friends, I want to thank all of you for coming.