;.cInput of SA1, R. Shlomo 12/6/81, Another Place, R Nachman on joy
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doc=sh_onjoy
R. SHLOMO CARLEBACH:  THE TORAH OF THE LITTLE PIECE OF HAM
.h2, HAON021494:sh_onjoy, --, R. Shlomo On Joy, 12/6th/81

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Input (by sa) of xerox typescript=SA1:  Talk on Joy, with particular referenceto the teachings of R. Nachman.  Talk given Sunday December 6, 1981; AnotherPlace Farm, Greenville, NH USA; lst-edit transcription by sba.
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Primary topic:
    R. Nachman on Joy
Secondary topics:
  Retail vs. wholesale sin  (The torah of The Little Piece of Ham)
  The Redonske Rebbe
       Spiritual resistance in the Holocaust

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"The only counteraction for anger is if you're filled with joy..."
{Quote from R. Nachman?}

R. Nachman says the very frist thing when you decide to become aservant of G-d, from that every instant on, you have to be filledwith joy, because G-d cannot stand sadness.  (There's [an] insightin this ... Sometimes I hate myself for it, but it's true, I
can't stand schleppers, sad people hanging me ... [when they'areasking for help, if] they could only say the same thing with joy,no problem.)

The Rovshitzer {Hassid Rebbe, R.    of Robshitz} says, don't kidyourself, sad people will not be let into paradise; becauseparadise is no place for sad people.

Retail sin & wholesale sin:  The torah of the Little Piece of Ham

Ther is "retail sin" and "wholesale sin".
A "retail sin" is, like, let's assume I was coming here, and I wastoo hungry, and let's assume there was a piece of ham lying there,and nobody was looking, who'll know that I took it {0a}, runningup to my room, eating a little ham ... Let's assume it was aterrible sin; it was a little retail sin.

[But] when I'm sad, that's not a retail sin, it's a wholesale sin. It's affecting my whole being.

 ... [If I eat] a little piece of ham and I come down, and Emmy 
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[Rainwater, co-host of the seminar, with Medicine Story{Wampanough Tribe, Martha's Vinyard, in Massachusetts'territory recently occupied by the USA}]
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didn't notice that I stole it, nothing happens.  [But if] I walkdown sad, every person that looks at me gets the creeps.  I changethe vibrations of the world. {1} It's not merely a wholesale, it'sa world [sin] ... And who am I to commit a sin against humanity,against the whole world.

So again, the moment you go into the service of G-d, the momentyou decide to become a perfect human being, at that moment it hasto be clear to you that the greatest sin in the world is to besad.  And he [R. Nachman] says, hold on with your last strength tobe happy.  You have to feel like you're drowning in the ocean, andyou have just one piece of wood to hold onto, and the name of thatpeice of wood is joy.  You have to fight with your very life. Because if you're not filled with joy, you're absolutely drowning.

Ok:  how do you So {transcript sic} you say, "Look, I'm sorry I'msad; what should I do.  The answer, one of the answers is likethis:

Mostly sad people are sad because [they believe that] everythingis bad; everything is black.  Everyone hates me, I hate everyone,everybody is rotten, everybody is ugly.  {1a}  So, R. Nachmannsays, can you possibly find one person in the world who is not sougly.  (You must have once met someone you loved.)  You thinkyou're terrible?  [Ok, let's assume] it's true.  But maybe, oneday in your life -- you see, if a person is sad, you can't argue[with them] because they're too stupid to argue with; you can'ttell them they're not ugly; they'll tell you, I know I'm ugly, I'mnot stupid.  [So you say, ok] it's true, I'm convinced.  
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{Cf. R. Nachman's tale of the Prince who thought he was ananimal; so the wise man cures him by pretending he too is ananimal, and getting the prince to be a self-improving animal,until he evolves back into a Prince.}
  
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But ... was their ever one day in your life when you werebeautiful?  Was there one moment when you soul was shining?  Ifyou got one moment in our life -- it's unbelievable; a goodmoment; so jump out of your skin with joy, that G-d gave you onehappy moment.  And maybe G-d was ready to give you another happymoment.  So R. Nachamn says, if you see a person who is sad ---

R. Nachmann says, basically, you shouldn't tell stupid, dirtyjokes, but to make a sad person happy, you can tell any joke inthe world.  (Some people overdo it, but anyway --)  Just to get alittle laughter out of it.

R. Nachaman says something which [has been] proven today -- you'renot doing G-d a favor when you're happy, you're doing yourself afavor because (sad enough, this is the sad truth) sickness onlycomes upon you when you're sad. {2}  If you're completely filledwith joy, sickness has no admisssion -- not a phsyical, or mental,or any sickness in the world cannot reach you -- and even if, G-dforbid, it reaches you, it is so much on the outskirts of yourbeing, that it takes no time to heal it.

But if you're sad then when sickness, G-d forbid, falls upon you,it takes over your whole being.

He also says, you are not sad because you're so sick, you're sickbecause you're so sad.  If you were happy, you would not be sick. It's no use walking around saying I'm sad because I'm so sick,you're getting sicker because you're so sad.

R. Nachman says ... can you stop being clever for one hours? You're sad because logically, cleverly, you have a right to besad.  You're right.  So be a fool for one hour.  Be G-d's fool forone hour.  Have you ever seen Fools?  They'are always happy.  Andthis is not stupid, they have something holy.  In kabalistic termsit's called shushtich? kadoshe -- the foolishenss of holiness, theholy fool.

Then he says -- the deepest depths -- you think, when you are sad,you really have a little perspective on your life?  You are sadbecause [you think that your] life is not in order.  Do you reallyknow what's going on with you?  R. Nachman says, I promise whenyou are sad, you can't even think straigt.  But if you are filledwith joy, then you can really put aside on e hour and really thinkclearly, what am I doing with my life.

Leet me say something even deeper -- this is really very strong: G-d refuses to send messages to a sad person. G-d is readly to letyou know what to do, but if you walk around with a long nose, G-dis not interested in talking to you.  But if you are filled withjoy, G-d lets you know what to do.

Then he [R. Nachmann] says one more thing.  The most importantthing in the world is to pour out your heart before G-d.  Talk toG-d's ___________.  When you're sad, there's such a wall baetweenyou and G-d, you can't pour out your heart before G-d's[Presence?].  But if you're filled with joy --

Wehn someone is sad, you cannot relate to that person, they're sointo their sadness they make 2 million walls around them, and youwant to tell the, "It's ok, I'm with you, I love you, I care foryou," -- it doesn't reach them because they've put of millions ofwalls.  And the same between them and G-d.  G-d can't reach them. But if you're filled with joy --

You know, I want to tell you something unbelieveable, withoutsounding sad.  There were some peple in concentration camps inAuchwitz -- ____________ [Chaddische mensche?] -- who walkedaround filled with joy.  And would you believe, someone told me,thee were two Chaddische _______ in his bunk or bunker, inAuchwitz, who would literally dance all through Friday night -- --Yitzkor maukushe?? -- shomer Shabbos {defending the Sabbath}. That is -- strong.


The Redonske Rebbe (Reb Shlomo, Redonske)

One of the greatest Rebbes in the world before World War II -- theRedonske Rebbe, one of the holiest masters in Redonsk, a city onthe [Polish side of the ] border of Germany -- after the FirstWorld War, Poland was so poor that a lot of them moved to Germany,to Berlin.  And he was afraid that a lot of them would stopkeeping Shabbos.  So he said to them, ________ go to Germany underone condition -- that I become a partner in 10% of your business. I promise you you'll get rich -- the the most unbelievable thinghappended; all those people who were his partners become multimulti-millionaires.  It sounds like a joke.  Do you know that theRedonske Rebbe owned half of Berlin in apartment houses?  Do youknow what he did with his money?  He had a Yeshiva of 30,000children.  And he, with his own money, with the money he made fromthose apartment houses, supported 30,000 kids.  And they weremamash, his children, he supported them, he took care of them ...And the saddest thing is, that from all those 30,000 chldren,there are only five left.

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The Redonske Rebbe:  Spiritual resistance in the depths of the Holocaust
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But I don't want to tell you the sad thing, I just want you toknow that when he and his son came to Auchwitz, they changed thewhole camp, because they were so filled with life, and joy.  Whenpeople came home at night they were beaten, and wounded, and sadand they [the Rebbe and his son] would say, 'Listen, this is notthe way -- you're helping them [the Nazis], right?  They want youto be sad, they want you to be broken.  So you're doing everythingthey want you to do.  Don't you have a little characer?  Let's dowhat they don't want us to do.  They least thing is, they don't usto be happy, right?'

All night long, they were teaching and saying Torahs, and the nextday, when a Nazi beat up a Jew, they [the other prisoners] wouldsay to him, 'You remmember what the Rebbe said last night'.  Itwould give them strength.  And sad enough, for four weeks, whilethey were there, I heard also from people who were there -- it'sunbelievable, especially the Shabbos -- it was like paradise.  Butwhen the Germans saw that they had taken over the camp with joy,they took the Rebbe out, and his son, and shot them.

Just now they {{which publishing house??}} are reprinting histeachings.  The Redonske Rebbe, he was also called Reb ShlomoRedonske.

(R. Nachman's Teachings, cont.: "The feet know"

One of R. Nachman's strongest teachings is that you can fool yourhead, yo can fool your hands, but you cannot fool your feet.  Soif I say, `do you notice how happy I am? -- unbelievable -- I'msinging with joy' -- how do I know that I'm not fooling myself. The answer is very simple.  If someone says, "Ok, you want todance?" and I say, "Really, I'm too tired," then [I'm] lying;[I'm] not happy.  I'm saying to myself, 'You know, I'm absolutelyas rich as Rothchild," I look at my feet -- no reaction.  I say tomyself, 'You know, I'm so beautiful -- '

Sometime you go to a wedding and you can't get up to dance,because there's absolutely no love in the air.  Your feet pick itup.  [Other times] you go to a wedding and you absolutely can'tstop dancing.  In your head, you don't know the difference --__________.  Always know.  So R. Nachman says, if you want to testyour joy, watch your feet. {3}

In Hebrew, one of the thee major holidays {hagim, biblical harvestfestivals -- Shavuot?} is simply called shalosh regalim, the threefeet {but also 'three festivals'?}, because when you are happy,it's not the head, or the hands, but the feet.  (The fourth footwould be when the Messiach is coming; right now the wagon is stillriding on three -- )

(R. Nachman, cont: Mitvot as invitations) 

Now suppose I say, I kow all this, but I still can't get ittogether.  -- R. Nachaman says, you must know, whever you do agood deed, at that moment they're not opening the gates in heavenfor you to do a good deed, at that very instant they are alsoopening gates for you to be happy.  Beacuse how can you dosomething for G-d without joy?  So since G-d wants you to do it,`He' also opens gates for you to be happy.
    
So if you're sad, and hearbroken, and someone calls you up andsays, can you do me a favor, and you answer, right now I'm too sadto do you a favor -- crazy -- right now G-d was opening gates ofjoy for you because you had the chance to do somebody a favor, atthat moment G-d would have opened all the gates of joy for you. So R. Nachman says, if you can't get it together, find one personand do them, mamash {Heb. intensitive; 'indeed, or 'forsooth';used by R. Shlomo like salt}, a favor, and at that moment all thegates of heaven are open.
           
(`Greet everyone with a smiling face': the mitzva of good vibes)

He says one more thing.  This is the deepest depths -- forgetabout doing somebody a favor.  Do you know, when you are happy,how much life you give to the people around you?  Do you know howmuch death you give people when you are sad?  He says, do you havea right to kill the people next you?
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[Interjection from participant unaccustomed to hyperbole: "Boy, if that's not a guilt complex."]
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So he says, do you know what you are doing when you're filled withjoy?  You're absolutley emanating life.  And he says, I want youto know, the greatest thing in the world is to give life tosomebody else.  What's the most G-d--like thing in the world? It's giving life to people, giving life to the world.  
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{As-it-is-said, we are forbidden to emulate the Divine Attribute of din{severity, rigor,} but enjoined to emulate the Divine Attribute of hesed{loving-kindness, grace, magnanimity}}.  
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So the moment you're filled with joy, you are absolutely on a G-dlevel, on the highest level.

(The mitzva of being a good listener)

Most people have so much pain inside, not only they have nobody totell it to, they don't even have words for it.  Because mostpeople are filled with pain.  R. Nachman says, they have so muchpain, and they don't have words for it, but it is written on theirfaces.  When you walk around with joy, and you make that personsmile, you erase a little bit of that pain which has no words.

And when you erase that pain which has no words, eventually theyopen up and they tell you their problem.  That's ok.  The momentit hurts, it's already like, in the upper spheres.  Because it wasso deep, they couldn't get it out.  But when you are filled withjoy, you have given them a little life, and they can bear it.
                                 
(Protecting children with joy)

Then he says, the greatest way of guarding your children, thatthey should always be alive, they should always be happy, theyshould always be well, is if parents are always happy, their joy____.  What they really need is for their parents to be filledwith joy.  And the joy of the the parents is like a little wallaround the babies.

(Infinite moments)

One more thing.  What is really called joy?  How much joy do youneed in order to say, I am happy?

When I meet a girl I love the most, I don't have to say, 'Ok, whatshall we do' -- as if meeting her were not enough, there has to bea little addeded attraction -- a little movie, a little dancing --I'm completely filled, I'm completely elated, that's it.  Maybewe'll go to the movie also, but who cares?  So R. Nachman says,joy is, that this movment fills me so much, that I don't needanything in the world, I don't need anything else.
                  
(The enhancement of mitzvot with joy)

And he says, you know what it means to do a mitzvah, to do a gooddeed, to do somebody a favor?  That this doing somebody a favorfills your heart so much that you could live on this joy. Sometimes someone asks you, "do me a favor," and it's so heavy youdo it, but it was not done with joy.  And imagine if you do itwith so much joy that just this one deed could keep me goingforever.  You know how much life there is in that favor?  How muchholiness?

Then he says one [thing] more:  you need a lot of chutzpah 
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{Yiddish, indispensable term designating survival technique for spiritualpeople incarnated in a rough-and-tumble, hurly-burly material world; whatturtles don't do}, 
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you need a lot of audacity, to make it in this lifetime.  and youdon't have this audacity unless you're filled with joy.

     Mazeltov.  Let's sing one more sweet song, brothers.

END TRANSCRIPTION.
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Postscript (sa):  Another Place Farm, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, servedas a sort of eclectic New Age conference center.  IT  is, or was, in GreenvilleN.H.  Greenville N.H. is in the southern New Hampshire hills.  This seminar hadthe usual bunch of aging hippies, plus a nice young yuppie couple fromBrookline with a nice new car, followers of the Bostoner Rebbe.

The day R. Shlomo was to return to Boston there was a bad ice-storm; most ofthe roads, especially in the country, were not yet sanded, and driving wasconsidered inadvisable; or more precisely, idiotic.
A nice young hippy with a nice old car, and presmably nice old tires, offeredto drive R. Shlomo to Boston to keep his schedule; and R. Shlomo accepted.
Considering myself, as usual, the superego of hippiedom, I hustled the yuppiesto offer R. Shlomo a ride.  If I recall, I'd noticed that they had radialtires.  
Of course they were glad to, delaying their departure accordingly.  I conveyedthe offer to R. Shlomo, but he said, as I recall, "No, I've got to go withhim."  I wondered why.
 
Once in the 70s R. Zalman Schacter demanded of the universe that it explain wasR. Shlomo -- who has been recognized since his student days, if not before, asone of the most learned traditional Jewish figueres of his time, and could havehad almost any yeshiva post for the asking  -- always had to shlep around,lugging heavy bags of bags with the help of whatever hippie hangers-on appearedin time.  But R. Zalman may never have heard R. Shlomo hailed as a Prince ofTorah by 5000 Sephardim in Jerusalem on Mimouma the "8th day Festival" ofPassover.  (R. Shlomo's remarks that day, as I recall it recounted bay a bandmember from Meor Modi'in, probably Ben-Zion Solomon, was: "On a day like today,I wish I were Sephardi.  But what can one do.")  
I've never know R. Shlomo to turn away anyone, man or woman, Jewish or nonJewish; and scarcely ever known him to speak to anyone with less that thegreatest possible warmth, courtesy, and respect.  (Ok:  ocassionally he can bea bit short with nudniks.)
R. Shlomo, like R. Zalman, has schmicha from Lubavitch; and Lubavitch has takenupon itself the role of non-judgementally inviting all Jews, however nonobservant, to enjoy increased practice, however briefly and minimally, oftraditional Judaism.
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{That's not a plug for Habad; but they have done much good.}

So I suppose at every nice warm party somebody has to keep going outside to invite in the folks shivering inthe shadows, who, with or without fault of their own, couldn't manage to look respectable enough to getinvited.  And some of them obviously should have been invited, and some of them have virtues so veiled thateven a grandmother couldn't recognize them -- in Jewish tradition, the Messiah may appear as the mostloathsome beggar imaginable; but you don't always know which is which; and anyhow, when you put up a notrespasisng sign the folks who would have been welcome stay outside, and the mamzerim walk right in andshake hands, or at least interrelate with the canapes.

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Well, sometimes the more you try to fix something that's not right but maybejust needs a large hit of faith -- like a love affair -- the more you bollox itup.  For whatever reason, that icy morning, with the sun sometimes shiningbrightly, instead of one person driving R. Shlomo, an entire caravan, with justabout everyone in the place, developed.  More cars were added as more peoplediscovered it was imperative that they come; a car was added to accommodate thehound-dog of one of the hippies, lest the former be disconsolate.  I hustledthe yuppies to stay with the caravan until we got to the cleared main highwaysof Massachusetts, about 50 miles away.  They did, dutifully pulling off withthe rest of us at every appropriate rest stop, gasoline station, and DoggyDiner, where I suppose I bought and tried to press hot coffee on at least thedriver of R. Shlomo' vehicle.  Eventually we got to the cleared highway and theBostoner yuppies waved goodbye and pealed out for Brookline; and so "all's wellthat ends well".

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ARCHIVAL INFORMATION:

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Input (by sa) of xerox typescript=SA1:  Talk on Joy, with particular referenceto the teachings of R. Nachman.  Talk given Sunday December 6, 1981; AnotherPlace Farm, Greenville, NH USA; lst-edit transcription by sba.

N.B.:  The original transcription was not verbatim; it was editted by thetranscriber.  No further edit has been made on this input, except back toward amore verbatim record.  The original tape is not now available to the inputter;there's a slight chance that it might be in storage.
[   ]  brackets indicate words added by transcriber for syntactic
       clarity
_____  Blank line indicates words incomprehensible to transcriber
(    ) Mysterious symbol, the intended use of which in this document is nowlost in the the mists of time.  Might indicate paraphrases; but might just bestylistic over-editing indicating the typists notion of logical progression;i.e., a remark deemed parenthetical.
Transcriber notes that "I have tried not to omit any substantive reamrks ... ingeneral, I have not rearranged the order of remarks.
{    }  braces demarkate interjections by inputter
ALL COPY-RIGHT TO ALL MATERIAL BY R. SHLOMO, HOWEVER PARAPHRASED, HELD BY R.SHLOMO UNLESS EXPLICITLY ASSIGNED BY HIM TO ANOTHER
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The transcriber/inputter releases whatever surplus-value rights he might be supposed to have regarding thismaterial, including the right to re-edit/re-write  as appropriate, to R. Joshua Witt, Jerusalem.

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NOTES BY THE TYPIST FOR UNPIOUS FOLK OF ECLECTIC BENT
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{Can't fire the fool; ain't paid him yet.}
       
N.B.:  To set aside irony for just a moment:
The Torah survived for millenia; in copying it, they apparently counted every letter.
In recounting the teachings of R. Shlomo, one may be pulled by exoterically competing loyalties &pretentions.
In my case, pretentions to academic and eclectic perspectives compete with loyalty to Jewish tradition.
One may distinguish between R. Shlomo's teaching and his teachingS.
   (This terminlogic distinction will be useful for a moment, but it's too awkward to retain.)
In his teaching, he tries to hold open the doors to traditional Judasim for all persons from all paths andpeoples.
His teachingS, however, once one sees past their masque of popularization, remains within (orthodox) Jewishtradition.  His smicha (ordination) is from Lubavitch to which, despite a substantial dispute over the sortof approach most appropriate to contemporary times, he retains loyalty.
I am told that since his youth R. Shlomo has been distinguished for a mastery of both the hassidic and nonhassidic (mitnaged, or "Litvak") traditions.
One feels that his real home is Israel.
In Israel, although there are some who criticize his openness, he is accepted and honored by anextraordinarily wide range of peoples.  Ostensibly secular Israelis are very grateful for the respect heshows for their underlying religiosity.  Former Jewish USA hippies, some now strictly observant to the pointof intolerance, look to him.  But a large part of his following in Israel is strictly observant Israelis,some from the decreasing non-Zionist Yiddish-oriented community.  Few seem to have any awareness of the "NewAge" smorgasboard; some are apparently from the non-hasidic sector.
Obviously R. Shlomo cares deeply about Israel, and tries to be helpful within the bounds of the establishedrabbinic structure.
Traditional ultra-orthodox (and "neo-ultra-orthodox") Judaism is intellectually vast and diverse; but it is,to my mind, in some sense a closed universe of discourse.  Though it imposes no limits on questions, ininhospitable to input from other religious traditions.  (R. Zalman Schacter is unusual in that he welcomessuch input, while retaining a fundamental loyalty to traditional Judaism.)
Books published within the ultra-orthodox community usually carry endorsements from leading figures in thatcommunity; although Judaism does not recognize dogma, there's an uncomfortable analogy with the Vaticanimprimatur.
In is this context, which I have just inaccurately tried to sketch, that imposes certain obligations andproblems on those of us who dream of re-present R. Shlomo's teachings to a wider readership.
R. Joshua Witt, who in effect represents R. Shlomo in Jerusalem, has suggested to me that theseconsiderations underly the concern that R. Shlomo's teachings not be published without his explicit assentto the publication of material explicitly indicated.
R. Joshua Witt, who has studied closely and continually with R. Shlomo, accordingly adheres to an approachof inputting R. Shlomo's teachings almost entirely verbatim, and rarely interjecting edits nor comments.
So what's my excuse for such notes and unsolicited commentary?
   Here I must for now return to an ironic mode:
       (1) I'm bored; (2) It's fun.  
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Notes 1981 {updates 1994}

{1}  Cf. PVK, eg his suggestion that consicousness adheres more closely to a wave than to a paritcle model,so that the thoughts of all persons interpenetrate, as waves from all disturbances to closed fluid body, ega dish of water or lake, interpenetrate.

{2}  Cf. a suggestion by PVK that depression may triggear potentially carcinogenic activity by the pancreas.

{3}  That is, how do you determine that joy is authentic, a fulfillment of your real being, and not somesort of intoxication of self-delusion.  With the proliferation of cults {most recently (1994), the Cult ofProzak} and more obviously secular forms of bad faith, the question has a poignant timeliness.  {Nobodyloves a Smiley.}
{0a, 1994}  Although R. Shlomo's use of this example, as well as his frequent use of the Doggy Dinerexample, may come as no surprise to his critics, one should note that it was hypothetical:  Another PlaceFarm was ideologically vegetarian; and in event there are no grounds for assuming that R. Shlomo would knowthe difference between a ham and a Baritone French Horn.  And furthermore, the now-famous Doggy Diner chain(open on Shabbat; discount on High Holidays) does not, as far as can be ascertained, exist in thisuniverse.
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{1A, 1994}.  Note that this sketches the outlook of clinical depression, and inthat context cf. Art Green's oxymoronically-titled book, Troubled Master.  
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(I mean:  like the Prophet Muhammed, peace be unto him, said; the real jihad is the one one fights withoneself; mastery is first and foremost over one's own troubled emotions.)  
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In the few decades that I've occasionally listened to R. Shlomo, I've noticedhim getting angry at only two things:  adults hitting children (which he isinclined to regard as a summarily excommunicable offense), and Art Green's usein his study of R. Nachman of the academic convention of referring to ateacher, however distinguished, by last name without title.  R. Shlomo seemsconcerned that the academic study of hassidic teaching tends to exlude thespiritual dimension, and result in a 2-dimensional intellectuality; and thatbothering to use the stylistically awkward honorific 'Rabbi' (or Rebbe, Rav,R.) may at least warn one of that risk.

{2a}  Cf. PVK:  `You may think that you need to be loyal to your sorrow; butyour sorrow can take care of itself.'   Both PVK and R. Shlomo (Cf. Yakarnotes, 12/93?) have noted that one can be sorrowful and happy at the same time. I suppose that's what string quartets, esp. the late Beethoven quartets, areabout -- the recognition that as human beings we can, if ever we get bored withthinking, feeling and acting like animals, simultaneously hold multiple,contrary, thoughts and emotions.  I suppose that's why it's not consideredunmanly of gentlemen not to punch out everyone who insults them.
.a3

PVK often retells, as if paradigmatic, the legend of the monk who becomes ajester.  Jiri Langer (Seven Gates) recounts a similar tale of the hassidic RavNaftali, who passing a wedding party where the bride demands a jester("badchen"), passes himself off, anonymously, as such.  Norman Cousins (editor,Saturday Review, USA) wrote a rather celebrated article of how he cured himselfof a rather serious illness by laughing at, if memory serves, Marx Brothersfilms.  And indeed, the Readers' Digest, that bellweather of the Eisenhower Era and pillar of WASPdom,  had for years a feature entitled "Laughter -- the BestMedicine".  Indeed, it may be that the release of all positive emotions ishealthful; it has been noted that the elderly do better if they have pets uponwhom to express love.  And Wilhelm Reich noted that suppression of emotion, eganger expresses itself in physical 'armouring' and may lead to serious illness.
Within yoga the Rajaneesh movement, popular despite its cult-like trappingswith many young psychologists in the USA, encouraged the expression of emotion;although PVK commented, perhaps with that it mind, that 'having let the Jackout-of-the-box, it's apt to be difficult to get it back in again'; followingHIK, he has noted that impulses ought not be suppressed, but should bechanneled.  This is, of course, the Jewish notion of `circumcision', andunderlies the Jewish approach to sexual morality.  Abnormal impulses areneither denied nor condemned; but the indididual is held responsible forchannelling them, at the cost of a loss in personal pleasure, into sociallyacceptable forms.  That notion is quite prominent in the Musar movements, inChabad; and indeed may be the primary principle of Israel society, and thereason why it can offer an exceptional measure of personal freedom despitemaintaing itself as a garrison state.  

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