Transcript of a public meeting between Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and Grandfather Semu Huaute, Chumash Medicine Man, at Berkeley Hillel Foundation, Berkeley, California, Wednesday, June 29, 1983 (18 Tammuz, 5743).  Recorded (by special permission of the organizer) and transcribed by Reuven Goldfarb.

Oren [organizer of the event]:  I'd like to thank you all for coming here.  The energy in the room feels really good and really high.  And we're looking forward to a really enjoyable evening.  Is that loud enough for everybody? I don't really want to say very much--just that the two people sitting behind me here, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and Grandfather Semu Huaute, are the two people in my life who I've met who have the biggest hearts I've ever seen.  And for that, this evening has gotta be special.

I'd like to remind people that there's no tape recording or photographing during the talk.  And I'd like to encourage everybody to really enjoy themselves.  Without further ado, I'd like to introduce Grandfather Semu Huaute.

Grandfather Semu Huaute:  Thank you.  Before I get started, I would like to say a prayer in my own language.  When you hear me say, No-yektee pahk pahwill, it means, "I am praying to..." or "I am talking to...."  No-yektee pahk pahwill ny-yuti, I am speaking to the Great Spirit.  No-yektee pahk pahwill ah-lapa--I am speaking to Heaven; ah-kiwa--the stars; a-lish--the sun; anay-yi--the moon.  No-yektee pahk pahwill koti kup kup kup--I am speaking to Mother Earth, or I am praying to Mother Earth; samion--the ocean; hu-up--the stones; nuy--the fire.  No-yektee pahk pahwill makh-khiwakh--I am speaking to the Golden Eagle, the ruler of the upper sky; acquit--the hawk, the ruler of the lower sky.  No-yektee pahk pahwill hoos--I am speaking to the Bear, the king of the mammals; kinu--the firewolf.  Ku'aki l'no l'no mayuti, hay-yano, hay-yano, hay-yano.  The beginning is the end and the end is the beginning; hay-yano, hay-yano, hay-yano--forever, forever, forever.  Ho!

It is a great honor for me [that] for the first time, I think, in the history here, where we have a Medicine Man--an Indian Medicine Man--and a rabbi, who I've only met twice, but to me it is an honor to be able to be here--because I believe, that if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have much of an audience.  [Laughter.  Shlomo embraces him.  Everyone goes, "Awww...."]  I should've been a politician.  [More laughter]

I will have to tell you about our ways, which are very, very old, when the Creator put us on this land.  Our ways--or our religion, if you want to call it [that]--is thousands and thousands of years B.C.--before Columbus.  [Laughter, applause.]

Anyway--but, the way we were taught is that--as I see it now--and I've been reading books and all that--all nations, or all tribal people, had a lawgiver or an interpreter of the laws.  We had one, too, according to the legends of my people.  They say that in very, very ancient times, the interpreter came over to interpret the laws to us.  And he came from the stars, and he came on something that could fly.  And he gave us the law or interpretation.  And he said, "The laws have been set--the hoop, the balance.  And as long as you live within the laws of Nature, which are the Divine laws of the Creator, you will live in Paradise.  Mother Earth will give you everything--food, shelter, clothing, and medicine.  And remember--you do not own this Paradise.  You are only the caretaker and the guardian of this Paradise.  Remember, you do not own anything.  Because the day you are born, you begin to die.  It is only a matter of time.  So your body also is only loaned to you.  So never accumulate too much.  Take only what you need, and leave the rest for your brother the bear, the elk, the deer, the wolf, for they were created also, like you and I.  The trees are your brothers; they create oxygen for you.  Everything is balance, so do not break the balance.  Take only what you need.  Beware, because if you take too much, you will deprive other [of] God's creatures of an equal share."  And that to us is a crime.

So I was raised this way, to be able to share--to take care of the old ones--and I am glad of that because now I'm an old one, and I have a lot of friends that care for me.  And I'm still going.  I'm down to the sunset of life, but we must remember that we all will be, someday.  We'll meet with our Creator, and it is what we do now--not to threaten anybody--but to think, that we're all brothers and sisters--that we were all created equal.  For we must know, that [as] the old ones told me once, a blind man does not know how to discriminate.  He would be glad to see anyone.  The diamond has no value to a blind man; a piece of bread would.

So, this is the way I was raised.  It took me 35 years as an apprentice to be able to say, "I know something."  And I'm learning every day.  But, the thing is, what we need is happiness, to forget when we get together and do not criticize anybody.  Remember, we are the living dead and that someday we will meet our maker--and it's good to be alive--to be young, to be old.  As we get older we lose strength, but maybe we gain a little wisdom.  We were pretty wild when we were young.  And the country was very wild then, but it was beautiful.

So forget who you are for a moment, and look around and look at all these people here, these beautiful people, and all the happiness that can happen when you become one, like the heartbeat of the drum.  But we all have the same heartbeat, where we forget our differences, and we can join hands, and really let our hair down, and enjoy ourselves, and be able to say, "I do not hate anybody; at this moment I have no ego, I am just here.  And I am going to be myself, right now.  Whether I am tall or short, that was the wish of the Great Spirit--or the Great Mystery, or whoever you might call [it].  We all have different ways to approach this mountain, to reach the mountaintop.  There's many trails--some go one way, some go the other way--but in the end, they always end up on the top.  We might think different because of our environment or the legends that were told to our people that were just as ancient as [those of] many people here.

My people have suffered and have almost--as we say--[been] wiped out.  We've been through a lot of things like other races, but there's still some of us that are holding on, that are still carrying the traditions that we can pass on to some of our young ones.  And they're coming back now.  They want to know.  They want to learn the language--they want to learn the prayers to the Great Spirit--to be alive again and to regain their identity.  We have suffered for two hundred years or more till we've been destroyed completely--we've lost everything, but some of these people here, tribal people, lost everything, but they have regained--they kept the faith, and they stayed with it.  And now they are beginning to get strong, after almost two thousand years.

Since we learned to read, we have been able to find out that other people have been discriminated against, and men tried to wipe them out, but they're here because they had the strength. 

The only difference between us and these other tribal peoples is that our tribes had different languages, and we could not communicate.  And when you don't understand somebody's language--you kind of distrust these people.  That's why we didn't have the unity that some of these other tribal people had.  But they kept the faith, and I'm trying to keep the faith in my own way. 

I don't know everything because a lot of it was lost.  But I still know many things that were taught to me.  We had nothing written down:  we had to learn by repeating, repeating, repeating, word for word, till finally they said, "Now you know this prayer.  You will not change it."  We will not change it.  Only that if we were to translate, and we would lose the meaning.  So these prayers in the ancient language were medicine prayers of every tribe and different from any other dialects.  [It is] only [through] the people that have studied the medicine, as you call it, as we call it, that we know the ancient language and the ancient prayers.

And we always did laugh with ourselves.  When we are alone, we are not stoic; only when we'd meet strangers that we distrusted, then we would become stoic.  But aside from that, we have a weird sense of humor.  And, uh, we always laugh at the people like, for instance, we read in the paper that they found out that by some rocks that were carved that the Russians were here first, and then the other ones say, no, the Irish were here first, and the Chinese were here first, and they're all making discoveries that they were here first.  Well, we Indians can prove that we were here first because we had reservations.  Anyway, that has something to do with our sense of humor.  Well, I'll tell you, it's corny all right, but then we always had the corn first.

We find out, that people came over, and they said, "We discovered America," "We discovered the Pacific Ocean," "We discovered Mount Shasta," and I don't know how--we always knew they were there.  From way back, they'd come over and they'd say, "I've just discovered Mount Shasta."  And the Indians thought, "Boy, this guy--there's something wrong with him--we knew it was there all the time."

So we have a different version of history.  Of how till 1979--after two hundred years--Congress passed a law that we have religious freedom, and that our rituals and marriages and all that could be recognized--after two hundred years! So now we can have marriages--ceremonial marriages--the old way.  I know of the ceremonial wedding of our people, the name-giving, and now they're legal--after two hundred years.

When we were born, we had to have a European name, and it depend[ed] who the people [were that] we were working for, 'cause at that time, it was a must, here in the missions of California, that you had to be baptized.  But you couldn't keep your own name.  You had to have a, at that time, Spanish name--or, later on, an English name.  We couldn't have our Indian name.

So as we grew up, and we got wise, we['d] say, "Well, I want my Indian name back."  Had to go through the mission records to prove that I was born, and then they asked me--I had to have somebody (this is three years ago)--I had to have somebody that knew my father, and he died so long ago.  And then they wanted some letters that were at least four years old that had been written to my father and mother, who had died fifty years ago or sixty years ago.  I finally found an Indian that was ninety-six years old that time--he's ninety-nine now--that knew my father, that knew me, that had to sign to say, "Yeah, he was born!" [Laughter]

And then to change my name I had to go to Superior Court to get my Indian name:  Semu Huaute--Brave, Wise Like Owl, Semu Huaute.  And sometimes when I am introduced, being as the word is misspelled, because people didn't know how to spell it--they put a long "e" in instead of an "a"--so "Say-mu" is my name, which means Brave, but a lot of people introduce me as "See-mu," which is something that you do when you go to the bathroom.  So I have to correct my friends every once in a while.  I haven't got that far yet.

As I grew up there [were] no Indian schools here and we lived by the Santa Clara River and we lived in camps.  We couldn't live in town because they wouldn't rent us a house, till finally, there was one house available.  Nobody would rent the house, 'cause there was a junkyard in back and on both sides, and then, across the street, across the alley from us, Jewish people lived there, so nobody would rent the house, so they rented it to us Indians. 

Being as I was on that side of the town, I had to go to a all-white school.  My only friend was Benny--Benny Cohen.  We were both ten years old.  And we went to school and we were the minority race.  And there [were] Catholic Irish and Anglo-Saxon Protestants.  And when we got out of school we had to really run across the orchards to get across the tracks to where we lived.  And I don't want to insult anybody, but the reason they'd throw rocks at me was because I was a heathen.  And they'd throw rocks at Benny because he had killed Jesus Christ.  That's how sad it was.

So we run across the tracks and the rocks are flying and they're yelling, "He killed Jesus Christ," and I didn't know, so I told him, as we were running, I said, "Benny, whadya kill him for?" He kept on going, and he said, "I don't even know the guy!" [Laughter] So it was a little rough to be growing up.

And actually, I was not an American citizen until 1935, I think.  That's when they said that we're not aliens any more, that we could be citizens.  But believe it or not, the Navajos didn't get the franchise until 1947--and they were drafted, and when they tried to get their [GI] benefits, they were told that they can't get them because they're not a citizen.  And this is true!

But now we're citizens, and I think that we voted for the wrong guy [Reagan] --I don't know--but maybe we didn't.

Anyway, this is the way that I grew up, like always singing my songs, learning from the people.  During vacation they'd send me to the elders, and I would work, of course--we had to work--and they would teach us in the evening.  Beautiful times, to sit around the campfire and listen to the wisdom of my people--and it was inter-tribal sometimes.

It was beautiful growing up, when the land was still part of paradise, it was filled with a lot of beautiful things.  The rivers used to flow.  I saw the salmon come up the Ventura River, and all the rivers that were, down to San Diego, the salmon would come up.

But then, game wardens--they wouldn't let us fish because, they said, it would destroy the fish.  Three years later they dammed the river and dried it up.  I don't know what happened to the fish, to this day.

So it's always been tough going, but yet, I don't know how to hate.  I never learned somewheres, I never could learn to hate.  I would fight if I had to, but I never hated, even after that.  I guess it was my ego, but I'd go to the river, and I'd think about the fight, and after a while I would just feel sorry for these people because they didn't like me.

Now that's ego, but it [eliminated] that feeling, after a while, and after they got to know me, then we could play ball and something, but I would never bat.  I didn't like to bat because the very first time that I went to bat they hit me in the head.  The second time they hit me in the ribs, so I figured that they were telling me something.

But aside from that, I am happy to be here.  I am honored by you people coming over, and I am very glad that I met this wonderful man, that is very well-known, all over, and I will take him in my heart, and in my mind I will carry his image.  And I know that we will meet again, and maybe, when we meet again, we'll have a bigger crowd.  [Audience laughs--the Grandfather does, too.] I don't know--maybe we are tribal after all.

So I came from Seattle--I had to do the ritual for the burial for Grandpa Franks from the Snoqualmie who died at 104 years old, and I had to go there because I knew the tradition.  And I came back and then came over here, and now, with great anticipation, because I wanted to talk to the people.  And later on, if you wish to ask me any questions, I'll be glad to answer.

But kind of be careful what you ask me because sometimes I give a lot of wrong answers--in my way of thinking--but I am glad to be here.  And I hope that you know that I have a lot of love for all people, regardless of who they may be.

I have a place up in the desert where I live, and, of course, you have to have a four-wheel drive to get across the sand, but I will give you cards, and you can write to me or in any way--because some day I'm gonna have a healing center, the way the Chumash people had--and we will welcome anybody to come to heal themselves.

With a little help here and a little help there maybe we can always learn to know each other and to know that I love you and I'm glad that you're here.   I feel very honored.  Ko-kay-eno ko-kay.  Hay-yano, hay-yano hay-yano--forever, forever, forever.

Now I'll sing one of my chants before I sit down.  Ahoo, ahoo, nesh-esh rash-ro/ahoo, ahoo, nesh-esh ro/ah-ny esh-esh-ro/ah-ny esh-esh ro/Ahoo, ahoo-ah, nesh-esh rash-ro/ahoo-ah hoo-ah, nesh-esh rash-ro/ahoo-ah hoo-ah esh-esh rash-ro/ahoo-ah, hoo-ah esh, esh-ro/ah-ny-ah esh-esh-ro.... [Sings entire chant again, signals its conclusion, and the audience applauds, long and hard.]

We have different way--among us Indians, when somebody makes a long speech and they give him a lot of good clapping and ho-ho-ho, that means they're glad that he quit.  [Audience laughs]  So I know that doesn't mean this here--I hope! [More laughter.]  Anyway, thank you very much for your kindness and your attention.  Ho! [Audience:  Ho!]

[Shlomo tunes his guitar and plays his melody for "Shomer Yisrael," at first gently, then stronger, then much stronger.  After the fourth repetition, he cries, "Pour out your hearts!"  He plays the melody a total of six times, and draws out the ending the final time.   Then he plays and sings "Because of my brothers and friends," accompanied by Aryeh Trupin on clarinet.  The brief set is followed by applause.]

Shlomo:  My sweetest brothers and sisters--it's absolutely the holiest, holiest honor to be in the same room with such a holy grandfather, so special.  I wish we had more grandfathers like our holy brother--maybe the grandchildren would be just a little bit better.  Anyway--
 
So you know, there's a statement in the Talmud that God is close to those who are persecuted.  So at one time there was one great rabbi, and some people were really overdoing it, and his first reaction was that you should persecute them, but then he said to himself, "No, it's not worth it.  'Cause as long as they persecute me, God is on my side.  The moment I start persecuting them, who knows? It's not worth it."

I can only say one thing--that God is definitely on the side of our holy, holy Indian brother, so holy and so deep and holding on, really, with all their holy, godly strength to their holy tradition.  Just want to bless my holy brother here that some day, some day, people like you should sit in Washington and the world should know that it's your land! [Cheers, applause.]

You know, friends--thank you! I have to tell you something, like, uh, personal.  It so happened that when we left Germany--thank God! You know--with all the terrible things that America is doing--they didn't let too many Jews in, but a few, and I was one of the few. 

It so happens that I am never voting--as much as I'm a citizen--because I need the passport to go all kinds of places.  But for not voting I have two reasons.  First of all, I really don't think that America is my country because I'm a Jew, and Israel is my country.  But the truth is, I really believe that this country belongs to the Indians.  [Applause builds.]  And there is no other way.

It's crazy, you know.  But I'll tell you something--you know what the real truth is? The real truth is that the whole world belongs to God--that's all there is to it.  And it's time that we should be above who is who, what is what, what belongs to whom.  It's the greatest, greatest privilege to be alive, to walk on the earth which God created, to be under the sky which God created, and some day, some day, some day--

You know, Reb Nachman says, the world always thinks there are nations.  The whole thing is an illusion.  There are no nations; there are people.  And where do you start peace? You can't make peace between nations.  You can make peace between people.  So let it start right here, with us, my friends.

I have to share something with you unbelievable that--I don't know how it will turn you on; it turned me on.  I had the great privilege, exactly two weeks ago:  I played in Germany, in Hanover, for ten thousand young people.  Can you imagine? The Protestant Church had a big convention, and for the first time in their history, I, a Jewboy, was invited to sing.  And I played for ten thousand--now, listen to this! Just sharing it with you fast.

[There] is this huge stage in the middle of the city, and before me the Bishop spoke--and I don't want to say anything bad--there were thousands; nobody paid attention; everybody was drinking beer, and I thought to myself, "I'm supposed to be the next--oy gevaldt!" I thought, "I'm quittin', I'm just disappearing."

And really, let's face it, what can I tell them? But, you know--I don't know.  I knew one thing, like my holy brother here, you're not permitted to quit, ever.  I got on stage, and here there's thousands of kids sitting, drinking beer, and it didn't look like they really cared too much.  Anyway, I yelled from the depths of my heart, I say, "My most precious brothers and sisters, I'm bringing you a message of love and peace from the Holy City--Jerusalem."  And I don't know what happened--it was a miracle from God.  Thousands of kids got up and streamed to the stage.  It was just unbelievable! And we started singing and dancing.  And I said, "You know something? Fifty years ago, our forefathers did not dance together--but we do! What a world! There is one God! The world is getting better!"

And I just want to say to my holy brother, to console you a little bit:  a hundred years ago, a man like you would not have been here with so many beautiful friends, but today you're here, and we all love you the most, and we give you the most strength--and the world is getting better! The world is getting better, every second! Even if some not such good people are still running the show.  But the world--the world is not politics.  The world is the little man on the street, the world is the little thief, the world is the little prostitute standing on a street corner, waiting to make a few dollars.  Life itself!

And the world is getting so much better.  The world is getting better every second, every second.  There has never been so much longing for people to meet each other, to know each other, to love each other, to open their hearts to each other, and you know, I always say that Berkeley may be geographically as far from Jerusalem as you can get, but in Heaven it's the city right next to Jerusalem--no question about that! [Laughter, applause, more music and dancing.  End of Side I.A.]

[Side I.B.] [Joyous singing and dancing] Shlomo:  You know, my sweetest friends, I have a strong feeling.  How often are we in the presence of a real holy man? It's so special.  I think we should surround our holy grandfather here with great love.  Can we all get together and make a strong circle of love? 'Cause we need him so much to show us the way, not to give up and to believe in God in such a deep and holy way.  Can you all come much closer?  

The Grandfather:  The only thing I have to say is that we're here because it was willed.  I say that it wasn't by chance that I met this wonderful man and that Oren, a wonderful man also, would get us together so that we could come together on the land that used to belong to us.  And you're here now.  You are the future, the children.  And all we need now is for people to understand this.  That would help a lot of our young ones who are--the worst thing that can happen to an Indian is alcohol.  We never had it, and we never had the necessary enzymes to break it down.  And our people fall on the way.

But there's many of us who have gone through all this--through wars and everything--and come out and still have the faith that someday we could all get together because if you look far enough, some of you will know that you were tribal just like we were, and that we were deprived of where the Great Spirit put us.  But now that you're here, let's all be like one big tribe, one people, human beings that will always have respect for one another and their ways; that we will not criticize our brothers and sisters; that if we hear something bad about someone never repeat it.  Remember:  the word is, "People are saying," or they say, "I heard this--"  Do not pay any attention.  Judge the person with what he says.  If he's chopping people down, at least stay away from him, but never repeat anything evil or bad about other people, regardless of who it be.  Maybe their misfortune was that they were starving.  Maybe they did have to go out in the land and sell themselves.  But it's not their fault, remember.  Remember--that we all have our faults.  Let's not pass them on to somebody else.  Let's not say anything bad about anybody.  If you do that, you'll have a wonderful day, for you won't listen to anything that's bad about anyone--even if you know they're bad--don't pass it on.  Keep it to yourself.  And I know that in that way, we can stop a lot of disunity among us.

A lot of people make up their minds because--they don't know this person, but somebody else told him that he was a bad person.  Maybe he is a wonderful person.  Maybe he'd be a wonderful brother or a wonderful sister.  Just remember that. 

And I know that someday we will get together, like here, in a bigger place--bigger, more people, and we will be like this, where nobody has any ego at this moment.  Everybody is the same.  And I'd glad that I'm here.  Oy vey! [Great laughter.]  Thank you.  [Audience replies:  Thank you!]

Audience member:  They're having a gathering at Mr. Shasta this week, people gathering around July.

Shlomo:  Grandfather, do you want to tell them?

Grandfather:  No, I don't know about it.  I live way down in Southern California.

Audience member:  Well, there's gonna be--apparently there's a lot of Indian people [who] are partly responsible for putting it on.

Grandfather:  There are so many of them in different places that are coming together--and some day we will be together, but to me it would be a long trip, and I live about 350 miles south of here.  And I've been pretty busy, and I can't stand it anymore--so I have to go home to the desert and rest.  There's no electricity, there's no phones, and it's pretty hard to get to me. 

Audience member:  You could just go to Shasta directly.

Grandfather:  No, I don't want to--I want to rest.  I've just been to Seattle, I've been all over for a burial for a man that's a hundred and four years old that went home, and I had to do that and meet with all the people, so I'm pretty tired.  My birthday is on the 8th of August.

Shlomo:  Hey, Mazel tov!
 
Audience member:  You're a hundred and four? [Laughter]

Grandfather:  No, I'm just a puppy--I'm only 75. [Laughter]

Audience member.  I was born on August 7th.

Grandfather:  Yeah.

Audience member:  Around Hiroshima Day.

Grandfather:  But age don't make any difference, as long as you keep a clear mind and a clean heart, you can grow to be old gracefully.  I don't crave to be younger or anything--I know that I'm good-looking and all that so I [Laughter] don't have to worry.  Okay, thank you, everyone.  I love you all.

[Break]

Part II

Shlomo:  Okay, my sweetest friends--I would love, love, in honor of my holy grandfather, to give you over a little holy teaching from my tradition about joy, about simcha.  Could you all sit down right where you are? And let's get close to each other.

And let me have the privilege of just translating --Okay, my sweetest friends, I have also some very good news, but I need some real silence. Where are Jerry and Linda? Oh, here you are! You know, I had the great, great privilege of--basically Jerry and Linda are married for a long time, but they never had a Jewish ceremony.  And God blessed them with two children, and then they moved into a new house, and they felt the need of having a holy ceremony, and it was just so beautiful--

And tonight is their third night, and according to our holy tradition, the third night is the most important night.

You know what it is--the first night it's new.  The second night it's not so new any more.  The third night it's gettin' old, right? So the third night needs some very special blessing--they should never grow old to each other.  They should always be new--not as new as it was--even more new.  [310-330 gap]

So Jerry and Linda, could you come here and join us here? Did you bring some matzah? Yeah?

Linda:  Rice crackers.

Shlomo:  What?

Linda:  Rice crackers!

Shlomo:  Can't hear you.  What?

Helpful person:  Rice crackers. 

Shlomo:  Good.  Listen, as long as they crack, you know? [Huge laughter]
Okay, I tell you what, I hope you have some, some holy--uh--uh--servants--who'll give it--give it to Judy and to Reuven and to the people.  You, King and Queen, you should sit here, somewhere.  And wine you have, yeh? You have a little wine?

Listen, holy grandfather, you don't mind that I will--we will give them blessings, and I hope you will give them a blessing also.  It will be very, very beautiful.  [Somebody produces something here.]  Unbelievable! Saved my life.  Good, mamash, thank you so much.  [Everything is set up now, and Shlomo can begin.]

What's the problem with the world?--Okay, everybody can say something else--and it's all true.  The problem with the world is that people think, if someone is really, really happy, it's not normal.  [Laughter] Because, imagine if a person walks around, and he is absolutely blissed-out, you begin to doubt if they're normal--and maybe he really isn't--but who cares, right?

The truth is, our holy master Rebbe Nachman says, "You cannot live without joy." Yeah, you can exist--but live? You cannot serve God without joy, you can't do anything without joy.

Now listen to me, sweetest fr--I'm trying to find it on the page--oh! Okay, now listen to me.  This is very very beautiful.  You know, one of our holy rabbis wrote a book (the first Lubavitcher Rebbe) called Tanya.  It's one of the deepest kabbalistic boks.  It has 52 little chapters.  And in those days, it was a custom that when a rabbi comes out with a book, he asks other rabbis to give him permission [to publish it].  So he sent his holy book to the Rebbe Reb Zusia, one of our Holy Masters, and asked him to give him permission to print it, and the Rebbe Reb Zusia says, "I can't believe that you can take such a great God into such a little book."

Now listen to this.  I want you to open your hearts, friends.  How can I, a little human being, take the great God into my heart? Well, the answer is very simple.  When I'm absolutely filled with joy, I'm infinite.  When I'm filled with joy, I have no boundaries, right? I'm infinite.  When I'm infinite, I'm a vessel for the infinite God.

Friends, I want you to know--and I told maybe some of you a thousand times and to myself two million times--the world thinks that we can make peace and then we'll get happy.  The answer is just the other way around.  There'll never be peace unless we're happy.

Now listen to this--the most simple example.  Listen, [imagine, it's the wedding of my youngest daughter.  And suddenly I turn, and I see my greatest enemy standing in the doorway.  I go up to him, and I say, "What took you so long?"] [320-337 gap] And I'm taking my greatest enemy, and we get on the table and we dance together.  You know why? Because a heart which is filled with joy has no place for--hatred doesn't belong there--it just doesn't go in! You try--it doesn't go.  It doesn't go.

I remember one time I met someone in Germany a few years ago--they told me that their grandfather was one of the closest friends of--I don't want to say his name.  Because they were very good friends.  And those two girls told me, you know, our grandfather--so I asked them, "So what do you want me to do? You want me to hate you, right? But I can't.  It just doesn't go in.  It doesn't go in."

Because now listen to me, my most beautiful friends.  Why are we sad? Because we always walk around thinking that things are wrong.  Why do I think that things are wrong? Because I have a feeling that I am running the world, right? And since things are not the way I think they should be, that means they're wrong, right?

But let's face it--I'm not the master of the world! If it's clear to you there is one God--if it's clear to you that there is one God that takes care of everything --if it's clear to you that one God is taking care of the most lonely leaf driven by the wind--so what are you kvetching about? [Laughter]

There's a medresh that there was a storm, everybody was very, very, very worried.  And there was a little boy sitting on the dock, sunning himself in the sun.  And here the storm of the ship is going up and down.  People say, "Aren't you afraid?" And he says, "No, because my father is the captain."

Okay, so hear what Reb Nachman says.  Listen, my sweetest friends, I want to share this with you in the deepest way.  Every light needs a vessel.  God's great light, to shine into us, needs a vessel.  The name of that vessel is joy.  There is no other vessel.  God's infinite light needs an infinite vessel.  Now listen to this--and this is the deepest depths.  The truth is there is a light which is beyond vessels.  It's even beyond a vessel.  I want you to know something very, very, very deep.  You know, when you kiss somebody, you close your eyes.  And this is automatic--I watched my children. And everything that children are doing without being taught--that means it comes from heaven; it wasn't taught.

Listen to me, sweetest friends.  There is a light beyond vessels.  You know, when you love somebody very much, not only [do] you have vessels for this great love, it's even deeper than that, beyond everything.  And here I want you to know something.  As long as joy has vessels, I have it and you don't have it.  But if my joy is beyond vessels, I can walk on Fifth Avenue, and I don't know--anybody who meets you wants to dance, right? Because it's, it's [384-403 gap]...silence for one minute.  I need utmost a little bit silence, a little bit attention.  

Okay, so if you are--first of all, you open your heart and you are filled with joy.  That means that God's great light has a vessel [for] joy.  But then you work your way up, and suddenly that vessel itself is bursting, right? [407-413 gap] I mean it's still a little bit logic, right? Telling the story, the boy says, "God is my captain, God will take care of everything."  It means you're still interested a little bit in vessels.  Beyond vessels, I don't know anything.  [415-417 gap]...in vessels...she's terrible; say, no, she's very beautiful; says, no, she's ugly; say, no, she's beautiful; she's terrible; no, she's good--because I love her within vessels.  If I love her beyond vessels, and you tell me she's the most terrible girl in the world, really, who cares? I just love her.  She's terrible? Mazel tov.  She's terrible.  She's ugly? Good.  Who cares? WHO CARES? 

You know, there is--the low level is that I believe in God so much that everything is good.  But then it's a higher level--I really don't care.  I do, and I don't.  'Cause if there is one God, what else do I need? What do I need? And here Reb Nachman moves into one third thing that I want to share with you.

You know, the way I look at God is the way I look at people.  And the way I look at people, that's the way I look at God.  If I walk around thinking the world is terrible, and God is not doing such a good job, right? That's the way I look at people, and mostly, a little bit, at myself.  God's doesn't do anything for the world, I'm not doing anything for the world, nobody's doing anything for the world.  You know what the first thing is? It has to be clear to me--not that there is one God.  God's doing so much for the world! I'M doing so much for the world.  Every human being is making the world more beautiful!

But now here Reb Nachman says one thing.  If I really, really, am filled with joy, then the smallest thing which I see in another human being--something good and holy--blows my mind.  It blows my mind.  Because I'm so much in tune with goodness--with holiness.  It's one thing to be good and one thing to have a taste of goodness.  It's one thing to be happy and another thing to taste joy.  A lot of people don't mind dancing a little bit, hopping around a little bit--do you taste your own joy? Have you ever been at weddings?--Not Yitzchak and Leah's wedding--but other weddings? And there's a little bit happiness--but do you know where the happiness is? On their nose, on their head, on their ears...their tongue is still bitter.  

And listen to this, sweetest friends--people who never taste joy can't help saying bad things about other people.  'Cause their tongue is still filled with evil, right? If you taste joy with your tongue [slurps], it's good, right? If I ever have a decent meal, I'm not going to eat something terrible, right? Do you know how good it tastes to say good things about another human being? Tastes so good.  Do you know how good it tastes to give some courage to another human being? Not that it's good and sweet and holy--it TASTES so good! Gevaldt, does it taste good.  

You know my most beautiful friends, when people get married, they drink wine--do you know what this means? It's not enough to be married.  Do you taste the marriage? It's not enough to love each other.  Do you taste it with your tongue? Do you taste it? And here I want you to know the sweetest thing in the world.  You know when you kiss somebody, you know what that means? I have a taste in your soul.  I have a taste in your holiness.  I have a taste in your sweetness, in your Godliness.  And I just want to bless my friends Yitzchak and Leah--I want to bless you that the taste of the wine from your holy wedding should remain with you--and whenever you kiss your children, you should say, "Ah, this is really something! Ah, this kissing tastes good."

Jerry:  Bless you back.

Shlomo:  Bless each other, friends.  You know, friends, really.  I was learning something so deep last week.  You know what one of the greatest blessings is? To be above everything.  One holy rebbe said, what we really want is not for God to give us everything we need.  We want God to lift us up while he's giving it to us.  

You know, friends, when I love somebody very much, and I give them the smallest thing in the world, I'm lifting their soul with it.  You know, friends, when someone loves you very much and they give you a glass of apple juice, it's just apple juice? I'm lifting your soul to the highest level.  Do you know that everything which God gives us has the power of lifting us up to the highest level.  Every moment of life God gives us is SO uplifting.  So special!

And here I just want to share with you something really fast which I am sure you know anyway.  If a person wants to test himself--am I getting closer to God? As simple as it is--are you getting closer to people? Are you getting closer to your wife, to your children? Do you love people more? And the holy Volker says, If you want to know if you love God, it's very simple.  When you see another human being, and you can control yourself, not to speak to them--then you're very far from God.  But if every human you meet--and you see--just blows your mind--gevaldt! I can't believe it--I can't believe it! Another human being, made in God's image, is walking around in the world.  Master of the world, I didn't think you could do so much--gevaldt! 

And I want to bless Yitzchak and Leah and all of us.  I want to bless you that you should blow your mind over each other every day.  I want to bless you that you should blow your mind over your children.  And above all, and above all, I want you to taste the holiness of your own children.  We are living in a world--parents think their children are good.  Some Jewish mothers think that my son is a genius. They never tasted their children.  Never tasted the depths of it.  Never tasted what their children are really all about.  

You know, friends, what we need most? We need good parents, holy parents.  We need holy fathers and holy mothers.  We need holy teachers--not only teachers who teach you what you don't know--teachers who blow your mind with how much you do know.  Because most children know everything anyway.  The holy Rizhiner says, "All children need is someone to show them the alphabet.  The words they'll get on their own."  And sometimes we are so eager teaching them words, and we take away from them all they remember from Heaven--all those holy, beautiful words.  

You know, friends--I'm sure you know it anyway--we are living in such an enlightened generation.  People know, without knowing, the deepest depths of God's teaching.  We're living in a world of the highest kabbalists in the world.  And the most sad thing is they buy a little book on Kabbalah, and--forget it! It ruins your whole insides.  Friends, I want to bless you and me that we should only read books which don't destroy that inside knowledge which we have.  We should only open books which we want to kiss after we learn from them because they're so infinite and so deep.  They give us such a deep taste [of] what God is all about.  

You know, friends, it's not enough to believe in God.  Do you know what God is all about? Do you know what God is all about? It's not enough to be good.  Do you know what good is? You see the Tree of Knowledge--of this is good and this is bad.  But you don't know what good is! They have no taste.  And, friends, I just want to bless my holy Grandfather--I know his heart is aching for all the young people of his tribes--and I want to bless the holy Grandfather--all of us.  I have to tell something to my holy friend, the Grandfather.

When I was a little boy--I don't know--I never thought I'll end up in America because I grew up in Vienna.  I was five, six, seven, eight.  I don't know why.  I don't know if you ever heard of someone who was called Karl Vy [sp?]--one of the great German writers.  And he wrote--any of you remember? And he wrote 64 volumes, and about 50 out of them are about Indians.  It's very special.  And I remember, when I was little, I was turned on most to the holy rabbis and to those holy Indian chiefs.  And my dream was--I have to meet some more holy rabbis, and I don't know why, I have to go to America, go somewhere and meet those holy Indians.  And I was always bugging my father that I just really gotta go to America to meet some holy Indians.  My father said, "Someday, someday--" you know, "khopnisht--you'll get there," you know [Laughter].  You know, like Jewish fathers say--you know, wait! But did my father ever know--or my grandfather!--that I will have the absolute holy privilege to be together with some holy medicine man.  And I promise you, my sweetest friends, that my grandfather in Heaven is smiling at this moment at me and saying, "Hey, I didn't, but you did!" 

And it's so beautiful, people to get together from different traditions.  It's so beautiful to know that there really is one God, there really is one God.  Because our holy Grandfather is proof there is one God.  Nobody helped him to keep alive.  This world offered him very little.  It was God who took care of people like that.  And all of us, you and I, are still alive--not only physically--if our consciousness is high--if we still believe that tomorrow will be more beautiful and more deep --there has to be one God.  

Okay, now, the thing is like this--if you don't mind [my] putting my tradition on you--can you give us the rice crackers fast? Then we'll say the blessing over the wine and then we gotta dance one more holy dance.

Listen, until I get the wine I'll say l'chaim here.

Woman:  It's right here.

Shlomo:  Oh, good.  Listen, I--where's Rabbi Labowitz? Oh, he disappeared.  Where's, where's Eugene? [Rabbi Labowitz signals his presence.]  Well, come here! What are you sittin' over there? Dovidl [Zeller] and, and, and, uh, uh, Neil and Patricia [Seidel], really, come here and join us for the Seven Blessings, really, let's get it together.  Because it's late, and, stupidly, I have to make a 12 o'clock flight.  

Okay, there were some holy friends here of Yitzchak and Leah who were not at the wedding--the highest priest of our generation, brother Barry Barkan--the highest priest of all our tribes--and, and little Barry [Ring] and Ezra [Berg], can you please come up and sit behind us and say the Seven Blessings? Please? Boruch'l, c'mere.  [To Jerry] And who else?

Jerry:  Ezra and Aaron.

Shlomo:  Where's Ezra and Aaron? 

Linda:  Aryeh and Juliet [Goldstein].

Shlomo:  And Aryeh and Juliet.

Jerry:  And David.

Shlomo:  And Dovid'l! Gevaldt, Dovid.  You didn't say any blessing yet.  Come here.

Barry Ring:  ...Shlomo.

Shlomo:  Who cares?

Barry Ring:  I like your vest.  

Shlomo:  Hey, brother.

Barry Ring:  It's very Chasidische (chuckles).  I didn't get to talk to you yet this summer.  It's really unbelievable.  [Some more joking byplay ensues; I can't make it all out.]

Shlomo:  Listen, I still want to give you s'micha.  [556-560 gap] Baruch atah adonai, eloheynu melech ha-olam boray menay m'zonos.  [Amen] [561-578 gap]

Neil:  ...Baruch atah adonai, yotzair ha-adam.  [Amen]

Ezra:  ...Baruch atah adonai, m'samayach Tzion b'vaneha.  [Amen]

Dovid:  ...Baruch atah adonai m'samayach choson v'kallah.  [Amen]

Shlomo:  Eugene? The last.

Rabbi Labovitz:  [Chants the entire Seventh Blessing in a strong voice.]

Shlomo:  Okay.  Now, my sweetest friends.  I want to tell you something from the deepest depths.  I learned it last week.  Our holy master Reb Nachman says, that not only the soul has a soul--my body has a soul also--the inside of my body, right? You know, imagine if all I used my hand [for] was just to take.  I never used my hand to give.  Reb Nachman says I can get physically sick.  My hand was crying, "Why didn't you use me for the right purposes? You know, if my ears only hear terrible things--my ears never hear something holy, physically my ears are angry at me:  "Why didn't you do something with me which I really want to?" Right? Not only my soul is angry--the inside of my body [is].  

Reb Nachman says the deepest thing.  What are hands for? Hands are for reaching.  How do you reach out to another human being, beyond giving and taking--reaching, reaching out to God in Heaven, gevaldt.  You know, there's a Zohar which is most beautiful. that Jacob, when he prayed, he was holding out his hands like this--gevaldt! He was reaching up to Heaven.  Esau, when he prayed, his hands were always down.  He didn't want to reach God--he just wanted to get something from God.  But not reaching.  Do you know, friends, the whole wedding ceremony is between the hands.  Because the deepest--you know, a lot of people love each other, but they don't reach each other.  And the deepest thing is to reach each other.  

But now, there's one more very important thing.  A lot of things are very beautiful [but] they don't move.  If you don't have inside--you know what feet are? Not only my physical feet--my inside foot--wants to move! Not to move to a new neighborhood--inside moving! Just moving! Okay friends, I want to bless the bride and the groom and all of us, we should reach out to each other that everything we want to do for the world and for God should be moving--moving, moving, moving, moving.

Okay, now I want everyone to take Yitzchak and Leah-le, and just one more strongest dance, and this dance should carry us to the great day when the whole world will dance together.  You know, friends, how far are we from the day that the whole world should reach out to each other and dance? You know how far we are? Less than one second.  It's so easy.  And the world is not doing it.  Not because it's so hard.  'Cause the world refuses to do that which is easy.  You know, if the word "peace" would take 15 years to write down, every nation would say, "Hey, we are the first ones to make peace!" But it's so easy! All it takes is one handshake and one kiss.  Who needs it, right? But friends, you and I--we are not ashamed to be simple.  You know what is the most simple thing in the world? There is one God is Heaven--you need something more simple? No "x"--no zeroes--nothing--just one God.  One God.  Okay, can we fill our hearts with the greatest joy? And I want everyone to take the bride and the groom and dance forever.  And let's see--Neil, take your guitar, and let's go! But let it be the highest dance ever!

Shlomo (to an anonymous young man who has apparently come up to him):
How ya doin'?

Anonymous young man:  Uh, uh.

Shlomo:  How ya doin', brother?

Anonymous young man:  Uh, it's kinda like I'm hungry.  They don't feed me around here.  I'm really getting ray-venous.

Shlomo:  You can take my coffee.  Talk to me when I'm finished here.  Let's dance! [The music starts.]  [Five minutes in he punctuates each bar with this proclamation] Mazel tov! Mazel tov! Mazel tov! [As the music draws to a close, he punctuates his concluding flourishes with more] Mazel tov! Mazel tov! Mazel tov! Mazel tov! My sweetest, my sweetest, most beautiful friends, I know everybody wants to hear the last, some holy blessing from the holy Grandfather, but really, I just have to say that, really I want you to give the biggest hand, the highest blessing to Oren, who really organized this evening with so much love and with so much prayers [applause].

Grandfather:  There is no good-bye.  May our trails cross many times as we travel toward the sunset of life.  And when we meet again, may there flow through my hand, as I gently touch your arm, happiness in seeing you again.  Our prayers will come.  We will send them to the Great Spirit.  The wind will take them and will whisper through the leaves of the trees, taking our prayers to the Great Spirit.  All is well.  We are happy.  We have found each other, after many years.  So I ask you to pray for me and to bless me with your thoughts.  Thank you.  [Amen] Ku'aki l'no l'no mayuti, hay-yano, hay-yano, hay-yano.  Thank you.

Shlomo:  Thank you so much.... In about a hundred years from now, we'll have another gathering--but in the meantime a few more, but in a hundred years from now, definitely!

[End of tape]

Ta'anit Esther
13 Adar, 5761
March 8, 2001
Safed, Israel



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