New York, 5748.

Transcribed by Louise Temple Barrett
for Connections Magazine

Copyright (C) 1988 Inner Foundation
Reprinted with permission
Not for commercial redistribution without consent of
copyright holder and the Estate of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach

Reb Shlomo speaking:

"GEULA SHLEIMA": THE FIXING OF FEAR

     It says at the beginning of Parshe Beshalah, "Vayehi
b'Shalah ... sadly it was that Pharaoh let the Jewish people
go. The commentaries ask "Why sadly?" The Ishbitzer
says, there are moments when you have the opportunity to
get everything in the world and the saddest thing is when at
that moment you limit yourself to one thing.

     That night when G-d brought us out of Egypt, we had
everything in our hands to bring redemption. At that
moment we could have done thousands of of more things, but we
were just happy to get out. The moment when the Gates are
open, don't limit yourself to something small.. It's heartbreaking --
why did we limit ourselves to something small?
We could have eliminated everything at that moment and
fixed everything. We always take less at the wrong time.
What will happen when Meschiach comes? What's hatred
about - ever between nations? Hatred comes from my missing
something that isn't mine, something I didn't take.

     When G-d took us out of Egypt you know what was
wrong- we were still afraid of Pharaoh. When we left
Auschwitz we still were afraid of Nazis. Engraved fear.
The miracle at the Red Sea is that G-d took fear from
us, for a moment we were free. Fear paralyzes us. The
less fear, the more free we are, the more you can grow. Our
Torah says that the lowest person in the world, when he
crossed the Red Sea had higher vision than Ezekiel the Prophet.
We were ready for the highest. For one moment, all of Israel
and Moshe had the same vision. Why don't we have the
same vision as Moshe all the time? It's fear. By the end of
Pesach we reach the level of infinite Prophecy and infinite
riches. The Egyptians brought all their gold and silver with
them and the ocean spat it out If I'm absolutely free inside,
I'm not afraid of anything.

     There's high oneness and lower oneness. The high oneness is
like on Rosh Hashanah when I fall down before G-d. There
is only G-d, I don't exist. Low oneness is -- there's you and
then there's me ... Why is a seed disintegrating before it becomes
something? What's left is the deepest depths, a vessel for
everything. When we stood at the Red Sea, at that very moment
we were in a state of the deepest disintegration. On the one side
Egyptians, on another side the Sea and on the third
side, wild animals. At that moment we were at the deepest
place of recognition and it was the children who saw
G-d first when they crossed the Red Sea. We were disintegrating,
but obviously not yet enough. We were still afraid of Pharaoh, we
were still afraid to be prophets. What's the first sign that
someone's a slave? No self-confidence. Fear. Why isn't Mosiach
coming? We're still a little afraid of it. Reb Nachman says
that you can't taste the hidden light of the world
unless you first get rid of fear, because fear paralyzes
mentally and physically. At the Red Sea we learned not
to be afraid to trust G-d in the deepest way.

  We are so afraid of loving people. The only ones who aren't
afraid are our children. Seder night is the fixing Fear. How do
we do it? We make children the center.  On the first day of Pesach
a sin offering is brought to ask G-d to forgive us for not
bringing Moschiach sooner. We might have, but we were
afraid to.

     At the crossing of the Red Sea, all of Israel went to
Mikvah for the first time ever. It was just before Mount
Sinai our conversion. --therefore we all wnet to the Mikveh.
The end of Pesach is the highest Mikvah in the world. Most
people don't keep Shabbos, don't keep Yom Tov because they're
afraid to. Even when they keep it, it's not done on the level of
"Kriyas Yam Suf", the crossing of the Red Sea. Only after
we cross the Red Sea can we receive the gift of a Shabbos,
a Yom Tov without limits. Shabbos and Yom Tov are gifts
from the inside, inside, inside of heaven.

The way to fight evil is by becoming infinitely holy. When we
get out of Egypt, Pharaoh is still there. There is still evil left
in the world. If I know that there is still evil left in the
world how can I sing? But when we crossed over the Red Sea, there
was no evil in our world, so now we could sing. In order to sing you
must be free. Okay. The slaves from Africa used to sing to tell
you that no matter how much you tried to enslave them, they were
still free. Singing comes from the world of freedom. When you
sing, you are telling evil, you don't have dominion over me...

