;.l1,6,60,66,1,0,12,72,193,2,17,42,127,12,0,



          Pargod August 1986 Jerusalem


      You know my beautiful friends, this month is the monththat we saw the destruction of the Temple, we see it everyday, we see it a thousand times, a million times. And we alsosee that, it's unbelievable, every second the Messiah'scoming, every second. Every second something beautiful ishappening, and the world's getting so much better.
      I want to share with you a fast story. You know,  ifyou were to ask me, what's the most important thing wehave?...I'm sure everybody will answer something else. AndI'm sure you all are right, because everything is the mostimportant thing in the world. But yet, what is the mostimportant thing in the world? 
     OK friends, I'll make it very short. In the WarsawGhetto there was one rebbe, the heilige Reb Klonimus Kalman.
And it would be too far-reaching to tell you the whole story.But the special thing about him was, that he wrote a book,and obviously,  he knew prophetically that he won't make it.He put this manuscript under one of the stones in the WarsawGhetto and it was found after the war. Anyway, his specialtywas, that he had a yeshiva,  not of young people; ofchildren...children. And he was accostomed to say,  that myfollowers eat on Yom Kippur. You know why, they are not BarMitzvah yet. And you know,  imagine, a great rabbi comes tohim, or an old man, and a little boy or girl of five, hewould say to the older man, you'll make it without me... thischild needs me. With older people he would spend fiveminutes; with children, all night. He had thousands of kids,he was their father, their mother, their best friend. And thesaddest thing in the world is,  that after the war, there wasnobody left. My whole life I was hoping and dreaming, I'dlove to see one of those people who learned by him. 
     OK, here's where the story begins, it's very short. Afew years ago, I walked down in Tel Aviv on the Yarkon, andthere I see a hunchback. A street cleaner. And you know,sometimes we all are little prophets, ... our heart tell's ussomething. I had a feeling this person was special. ....hewas a real hunchback. That means, his face was very  veryhandsome, but every part of his body was misfigured andbroken. And I said to him, "Hey, Shalom lecha adoni, myfriend". And he answered me back in a very heavy Polish-Yiddish-Hebrew. He says, "aleichem shoolem". Aah, a Yiddelefrom Poland. So I said to him in Yiddish, "mein zeisse Yid,   my sweet Yiddele, where are you from?". He says, "I'm from 
Peshineschte". Peshineschte! Gevalt!  I said, "Did you eversee Reb Klonimus Kalman?". He said, "What do you mean if Isaw him, I was a student in his yeshiva, from the age of fiveuntil I was eleven. I was in Aushwitz for five years. ..and Iwant you to know, when I came to Auschwitz and I was eleven,they thought I was seventeen, I was so strong. And they beatme up so much all the time, I never healed. So that's the wayI look. I have nobody in the whole world, really nobody".
	I said to him, "You know something, my whole life... mywhole life, I'm waiting to meet you, to meet one of thestudents of Reb Klonimus Kalman. Would you be so kind andgive me over one of his teachings". 
     He kept on sweeping the street. 
     "You mean to tell me", he says, "after five years inAuschwitz, you think I remember the teachings". I said, "Yes.The heilige Reb Klonimus Kalman; his words penetrate youforever". 
	He stopped sweeping. He looked at me and he said, "Doyou really want to know?". He touched me so deeply with hiswords, and you know, you shouldn't swear all the time,  but Idid. I said to him, "I swear to you, and I mean it with allmy heart, and I promise you. Whatever you'll tell me, I'lltell all over the world ".
	You know, he was a real Chasidische Yid, so he put thebroom on a house and went to wash his hands. And friends, Iwant you to know, his tears were as big as the smoke inAuschwitz. 
     And this is what he said, all of you give me the softestsweetest harmony. (Reb Shlomo strums his guitar and sings therest of the story.) 
	"I want you to know... I want you to know... I want  youto know. There'll never be a Shabbos like by my holy master,by my heilige rebbe. There'll never be     ۙ  like by my rebbe. Can you imagine, by my rebbe,hundreds,  hundreds,  sometimes thousands,  of young peopledancing Boi Be'Shalom; the holy rebbe in the middle, what asight, not until  Mashiach is coming. Can you imagine, theRebbe's making Kiddush. Can you imagine the rebbe sittingwith hundreds,  hundreds of children,  with so much holiness.But now," he says," pay attention. I want you to know, therebbe was giving over teachings between the fish and thesoup, between the soup and the meat, between the meat and thedesert. But after every teaching",  and here I need yourharmony, "when he would end the teaching he would say,  `Kinderlach, teirre kinderlach, teire kinderlach, my mostprecious children, gedenkst shon, remember, die greste sachin die velt ist, tun emetzin a tova. Children, preciouschildren, just remember, the greatest thing in the world isto do somebody else  a favor'. I want you to know, he said itall the time. Kinderlach, gedenkst shon, gedenkst shon, diegreste sach in die velt ist tun emetzin a tova. The greatestthing in the world is, you hear friends, the greatest thingin the world  is to do somebody else a favor. 
	He said, I want you to know, when I came to Auschwitz, Iknew my whole family was killed, I wanted to kill myself. Andeach time I was just about to kill myself, suddenly I heardthe rebbe's voice, and the rebbe says to me, Gedenkst shon,remember, the greatest thing in the world is to do somebodyelse a favor. He said, Do you know how many favors you can doin Auschwitz late at night. People dieing, people crying,nobody has the strength even to listen to their storiesanymore. I would be up all night.  A few weeks later I wantedto kill myself again, always in the last moment I'd hear myrebbe's  voice. Now I'm here in Tel Aviv, but believe me, I'mall alone, I have nobody. There are moments when I decide tocommit suicide. I'm going down to the ocean and the water isreaching my nose, suddenly I hear my rebbe's voice,Kinderlach, gedenkst shon, remember, the greste sach in thevelt ist, the greatest thing in the world is, tun emetzin atova, to do somebody  a favor. I just can't permit myself, Ican't commit suicide. I'm running back to the streets. Do youknow how many favors you can do on the street?
     Now listen to me friends, and give me harmony. This wasbefore Rosh Hashana. After Succos I came back to Israel. Thefirst morning I went back to the Yarkon. And I asked thepeople on that street corner, where's the hunchback? Theysaid, the hunchback, don't you know, he died on the secondday of Succos. Listen to me my beautiful friends, when theMessiah comes, when the Moshiach is coming, when all the holypeople will come back to the world, and the holy hunchback,the holy street cleaner will come back. You know my friends,the street cleaner will clean the streets of the world. Doyou know how he will clean the world? He will go from onecorner of the world to the other and he will say, "Yiddelach,gedenkst shon, the greatest thing in the world is to dosomebody else a favor". 