Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's Reflections on Russia, 1991
The importance of teaching those who are downtrodden the Torah from Heaven
You know, there are certain things that you can talk about even if they do not touch your heart. I can still talk about kosher meat, even if it does not touch my heart. I can talk about the weather, about politics. But when it comes to the Yidden, it's a different story – it touches your heart. Eretz Yisrael is another example – just mentioning it stirs something deep within us.
But there is something that touches the deepest deepest depths of us.
You know that after the Six Million something happened, Baruch Hashem. Somehow we, Jewish people, saw a little bit of the redemption. Our relationship to the non-Jewish world changed... Because of Eretz Yisrael the world maybe recognizes us a little. Not so much yet, but a little bit.
But the saddest thing in the world is that the Russian Jews were carrying the burden for all of us Jews. For seventy years they were kept in the lowest hell. I was in Russia in 1971, and I thought to myself: "Why am I living in America? Why do I have such a good life, and these people here have to suffer so much?"
We are living in an unbelievable generation. Beside the generation of the destruction of the Temple there was never a generation that saw so much destruction. On the other hand, there was never a generation from the destruction of the Temple that saw so many miracles. We came back to the Holy Land. And now we see that the Russian Jews are also coming back, after that everybody had given up hope for them, everybody who was "normal".
For two thousand years we Jews were in exile; so many times we were persecuted for being Jewish. The Russian Jews were not persecuted for being Jewish but because they were connected to the Holy Land. The persecution of the Russian Jews was mostly motivated by the fact that they were connected to Eretz Israel. And obviously, before Mashiach is coming, one Yid works not only for himself: every Jew is for all of Israel.
So, while the rest of the Jews were building Israel, the other half of the Jews were persecuted for being connected to Israel. And the greatest miracle happened: G-d opened the gates.
But you see, it is so sad that while they are in Russia they are so connected to Israel and when they come they are a little disappointed. This is because they cannot understand, they cannot fathom how you can be so connected to this land. They see streets, they see cafe shops, they see simple Yidden. The only thing they don't know is that their connection was not only to the Israel below but also to the Israel above. And what we need for the Russian Jews is to bring them a message from Israel above, and here my story begins.
Israel is sending out a lot of messengers to the Russian Jews, showing them pictures of Dizengoff and of Ben-Yehuda, how beautiful the land is, the Hilton, the Sheraton.
Baruch Hashem, the consciousness of our chevre is a little more refined. So the greatest miracle happened and in August '89 my humble self with an unbelievable Chassidic rock band, Jerry Katz from Los Angeles, all the chevre, we went to Russia to bring them regards. Sure we brought them regards from the Holy Land, the way it is. But even more so, we brought them regards from the Holy Land above, from the Beis Hamikdash above. And even deeper, I had the privilege of telling them of their own abode. Remember, the Zohar Hakodesh says: "Ele toldot Noach Noach", twice Noach: Noach above and Noach below.
Now mostly of us are completely disconnected from our own above. The most unbelievable thing about the Russian Jews is that they dream about a Jewish above. And it is also unbelievable that they hold on to it so much. You know, if a Russian Jew is still a Jew, it is not because of chicken soup, cholent, or even anything they hear, any Torahs; it is something deeper than all of this.
And I only know that when we came there, for those two hours that we were singing together, it was mamash the Beis Hamikdash above. It was Israel above, and the Yidden above, their own above.
I'll tell you one thing, for instance. When we were in Russia we told everyone to come to synagogue. One of our friends from one of the cities, without mentioning names, was never in a synagogue before. So he came Friday night to the synagogue with hundreds of Jews like him. Then, the last night before I left... it was endless. In Moscow I had this beautiful apartment, as wide as a whole floor. Somebody knocks on my door about three thirty: "I see you are not asleep." "Gevalt, how could I be asleep brother?". So he comes in. He says: "I'll tell you something. Since I was Shabbos with you and after the concerts I have such a longing to learn Torah, such a thirst." But then he said: "I realize that I'm so old (maybe he is forty years old), I don't know if I ever make it. But I'm up all night praying that my daughter should make it. I want my daughter to know every word of the Torah".
Let me ask you something in all honesty. How many Yidden in America or anywhere else are waking up in the middle of the night praying that their daughters should know every word of the Torah? They are cute and sweet, but are they waking up? I doubt it very much. But this Yiddele... What a Yiddele, what a dream.
Now I can only tell you friends that the concerts were not from this world. I remember the first concert in Leningrad, it was suddenly like a tornado. The kids got up to dance, I could not believe what I saw, I could not believe what I heard. And I met so many beautiful people, and also so many non-Jews. Some of them would come to me after the concert and say: "We are so proud of the Jews". Every day in Russia was as intense as a hundred lifetimes.
Communism is based on fear, on people not talking to each other, not trusting each other, Communism is based on loneliness. Officially Communism is that everybody must share what he has with everybody else. We know that it is not true. A husband does not talk to his wife, parents to children. The loneliness is awesome. Baruch Hashem, the loneliness is not so bad anymore, but you can still smell the loneliness in the air. The people that sit next to each other during a concert are still a little bit afraid to talk to each other.
But at our concerts, miracles were happening: people just woke up. Somebody showed me pictures taken during the concerts: the faces of people had changed, and they were dancing with one another!
It was not that Moshe Rabbenu brought the Torah down from heaven all at once, he began the process of bringing down the Torah, and every day we keep bringing down more and more Torah. And the Russian Jews are bringing down some unbelievable Torah's for the world. And the sad thing is that we go there and we are shlepping some old Torah's which we heard from our Zeides. It is very holy, but it is not what we need. I still do not know what they need, but it is sure that they need something very, very special. I just hope and pray that it will come down to us, that we will be privileged to hear those Torah's!
You see, basically it is the same thing in Israel. The young people in Israel know already the oisgekvetchde Torahs that we are telling them. Imagine, G-d forbid, that somebody has cancer. He goes into the drugstore and he asks: "Do you have something against cancer?" "We have Tylenol". It does not go, right?
The old Bobover Rebbe said a Torah like this: Imagine that somebody from the 12th century would be resurrected (when Mashiach comes the people from all generation are coming back to life) and he would get up from his grave. Then he hears that there is a war. G-d forbids, and he says: "Trust me, I'll win the war." How is he going to win the war? He says: "Do you know the way I fence? Unbelievable, I can fence off a hundred people."
They say to him: "Today, Are you crazy? These are not the weapons of today. Today we have more sophisticated weapons. You push a button and you kill two million at one zetz."
So the holy Bobover Rebbe says, all the rabbis in every generation give us weapons to fight evil. But the weapons which they had eight hundred years ago are very cute but they are not what we need today.
So we need new Torah's. And I just hope that the Russians who are coming here will open gates for all the Jews of Israel. And also, talking about today, I cannot imagine that G-d brings the Russian Jews here only, G-d forbids- to make themselves experience another war. They had enough hell for 70 years, enough pain!
I was in Bat Yam on Tuesday night. And I said to the Russians: "If there will be no war in Israel, it is just because of you." I'm sure it is true.
I am just hoping and praying that someone should make it possible for us to go back to Russia again. The Jewish establishment has two beautiful things. They never talk about things when they are happening, they always talk when they are over. The Six Million, when it was happening they did not do so much. Now it is a big thing, you can get a Ph.D. in Holocaust studies.
To throw in a little joke, I played in a University where there was a whole study program on the Holocaust. So, in the middle of the concert, the lady who was in charge of the program came on the stage to make an announcement. Once she is standing on the stage, she looked around and said: "Anybody here interested in signing up for the Holocaust?".
Do you know how long it took for the establishment to talk about the Russian Jews? It took them all about 20 years, and now they are talking about it, but only about those who are coming out from Russia. Even so, the majority will stay there. It'll take a long time until they all get here. There are about four million Jews in Russia; let's assume that two million will come out in the next two, five years. There will still be two million Jews with most probably half a million children.
So we have to go back. I remember those kids in Leningrad who came to say goodbye to us at the train station. Unbelievable, the crying was to high heaven. So they told me, from now on we are going every Shabbos to Shul. I didn't want to think... I got a letter, "We went back to Shul the next Shabbos, after you left, but it was not the same. Suddenly we felt like stranger." Who went up to greet them? Who went to kiss them? There are a few old Yidden who daven and then walk out.
[Here Mimi asks Shlomo a question. How did you feel saying Slichos on the train platform? (Reb Shlomo left Russia a few days before Rosh Hashana 1990 during the week of Slichot, and he led Slichot service on the train platform in Leningrad)]
Unbelievable! As far as I am concerned the highest Slichot on the planet were on Monday night in Moscow. We announced at eleven o'clock that we were going to say Slichot on this new Jewish center, and we thought that there won't be more than ten people. Hundreds of people came, with all those little kids. The service was to high heaven. I never said Slichos like this in my life. It was unbelievable.
Anyway, friends, whoever you are, if you read my words or if you hear my words pray for us that we should be able to go back fast. Also, I told you once a long story but I'll make it very simple. Once I met two girls who were waitresses in a Kosher restaurant, and before I left they told me: "What would you think of us if we were to tell you that we are the leading neo-nazis in Vienna?" And the other one added, "Not anymore, not since we met you."
The Izhbitzer says that basically every Jew has the power to turn on a whole nation. Really! Because there are seventy nations and Yaakov came with seventy Yidden. That means that, if you come with Yaakov, you can turn on a whole nation. Beside fixing Israel and fixing the Russian Jews, our generation has really to fix the world a little bit. I just bless Israel that we shouldn't have to worry so much about our own problems, we should have time to take care of the world a little bit. And the world is ready for the highest, hopefully.
I remember we were walking one time on the street, Sammy, Neila, and I, and suddenly a Yid comes up to us and says: "Are you Shlomo? I'm coming tonight to your concert. Do me a favor. When you go back to America, tell them in my name, don't send us Yarmulkes, don't send us books, send us lebedige Yidden, send us alive Jews."
One thing was so heartbreaking, while we were in Russia walking around. They had people coming from all kinds of Jewish organizations. You know what they do? I said, "Shabbos morning aren't you coming to the synagogue?" They said: "No, we are visiting a refusenik." There's somebody in Russia that dug up the name refusenik, and they throw themselves at this one. It is cute, but we always think so small. Yeah, go to visit this refusenik, but here you have in shul hundreds of Yidden, why don't you come? Where are you? What are they?
I don't want to say anything bad, but I have to say it anyway. A lot of people come and say, We are taking care of Russian Jews. We have Yeshivas, we have everything. Right? You know, if I have four million bottles of Coca Cola and I sell twenty, even fifty, I'm bankrupt. How many Jews are there in Moscow? One hundred and fifty thousand Jews. And we have two Yeshivas, each of them with twenty kids. So anyway, I just hope and pray that someday we will get back, I just hope that G-d will open gates, that people will go back to Russia who know what to do.
I'll give you an example. Shabbos morning I was in the Shul in Leningrad, and I saw some messengers from America, who came to bring Yiddishkeit to Leningrad. So I'm coming out and there is a person who is a director in a theatre. He is standing by the door, while people are coming out from Shul. In Russia everybody brings flowers. So what do I do if somebody Friday night brings me flowers? Not that I'm so clever, but you could carry the flowers until you go to the street. You take the flowers and you say: "Thank you so much", you take them with you and you go back to the Shul, or give it to someone, without hurting their feelings.
So he's standing outside the door from the Shul and he says to me: "I went today to ten flower stores, and each time I looked at the flowers I did not think that they were beautiful enough to give to you for Shabbos. And I finally found these flowers." And the husband says to me: "You cannot imagine, My wife was talking to me the whole week about buying you flowers for Shabbos." So I'm standing there, and I'm taking the flowers, one way or another; I don't want to hurt their feelings neither I'm going to carry them into the street. And, Baruch Hashem, next to me stood one of the people who is in charge of bringing Yiddishkeit to the Russian Jews. "What's going on?" He says to this person. "Didn't you know that you are not permitted to carry flowers on Shabbos?"
He spoke also Hebrew, so I told him: "Brother, if you don't close your mouth this second, I don't want to be on your skin when you come to the other world. You are going to burn in Hell for ten years. Get off my neck." But I thought to myself, these are the people that are bringing Yiddishkeit to Russia! So insensitive. Mamash, I have no words, I have no words!
Anyway, someday the establishment will have enough guts to know whom to send. And again, in this world you have to keep Shabbos. In this world you have to do really everything, but there is a Shabbos above.
The Gemara says, if the Yiddelech would keep two Shabbos’ then Moshiach would come. Rav Mordekhai Chernobeler says: it is the Shabbos above and the Shabbos below. Shabbos below has 39 things which you are not permitted to do. It is very important. Then there is the Shabbos above. The question is where do you begin. Are you going to begin by telling people: "Don't do this, don't do that". They are not interested. Or are you going to give them a Shabbos above. Oneg Shabbos, the bliss of Shabbos, Shabbos is so good.
And I want you to know a Torah from one of the Rebbes. We are saying: Hashivenu Avinu leToratecha, Take us back to your Torah. It should say: Take us back to the Torah.
He says the same thing. There is a Torah, the way that the Torah comes down to this world. You have to be on the level to take it. But what do I do if the Torah in this world doesn't turn me on yet? I'm completely out of it. Far from Yiddishkeit. So what do I do? I say "Hashivenu Avinu le Toratecha". Turn me back to your Torah, to the way the Torah is in heaven. And then I promise you Ve karvenu malkenu le avodatecha, I'll be so close, I'll be ready to serve you. And then only ve- hachazirenu be teshuvah shelmah lefanecha, I'll even do teshuvah for buying flowers on Friday night. I'll do anything, but first give me something very high. Anyway let's hope it'll happen.
I can only tell you that the Russian Jews's thirst for Yiddishkeit, for the Yiddishkeit above, is unbelievable.
I'm walking around the Shul in Vilna, Yidden daven Maariv. I asked the Yidden, "What's going on?" They said, "We are going to daven Maariv in ten minutes." I said: "We have ten minutes. Would you like to learn something?" You should have seen their eyes! It was just so sweet, all those Yidden.
You know friends, there are two ways of drinking tea. In the world you put sugar into the tea and then you drink it. In Russia, you put a piece of sugar into your mouth and then you drink the tea. All I want to do with this talk is to give you a little piece of Russian sugar in your mouth. And from now on, whatever you drink, whatever you take in, let it have a little taste of that piece of sugar. Just remember, there are gevaldige Yidden who need you and me, who need somebody like us to go back and talk to them, to give them a real good Shabbos and Yomtov.
And always, Good Shabbos, Good Yomtov.