Copyright (C) 1977, Judaic Book Service
Reprinted with the permission of all the
Holy Beggars of the House of Love and Prayer

Not for commercial redistribution without
consent of the Estate of Reb Shlomo Carlebach

Transcribed by (Rabbi) Elana Rappaport Schachter
Rabbeinu speaking

PURITY AND HOLINESS

     What is purity, and what is holiness? First you have to know that
purity is in the heart. Simplicity. We don't say "a holy heart", we say
"a pure heart". Holiness is in the mind,'a holy mind'.

     Which comes first? Purity. First you have to purify your heart,
then you reach holiness in your mind. What does "purity in your heart"
mean? A pure heart means there is not one billionth of an ounce in my
heart which is angry at G-d. Do you know how angry we are at G-d?
Basically we are very angry. Most of the time we think, "You know, G-d,
if I were You, I would do things differently." Then we think, "Listen,
You created the world. Couldn't You take just a little bit better care
of it?" Whatever I do wrong. whatever happens to me, I just blame on G-d,
right? I very rarely blame it on myself. So "pure" means I am absolutely
not angry at G-d.

     Do you know what holy means? Not only am I not angry at G-d, holy
means that something happens to me which makes me know that G-d is
right. Something happens to my mind which is not a one-plus-one kind
of knowing. It is a holy kind of knowing when I really know, "This is
the way it should be." Even if I don't understand why, it really doesn't
matter. Suddenly my mind becomes a vessel to know that things are really
the way they are supposed to be.

     When we are pure, and G-d should please bless us to be pure, then
the light of G-d is really shining into us in all its clarity, on an
infinite level. The light of Holiness is not really part of this world.
The utmost one can reach on a worldly level is purity. Meaning to say,
all I can work for is being pure. Holiness is a gift from G-d, because
it is not of this world. Holiness means that I am completely clear that
there is one G-d, that I am not angry at Him, and that I know on the
deepest levels that the world is the way it is supposed to be. How
could it be otherwise?

     According to Jewish law, the utmost of purity is life, and the
utmost of impurity is, G-d forbid, death. According to Jewish law,
when I touch a dead body, I become impure. On a spiritual level I am
sad. Sadness is Gehinom, the utmost of spiritual death. It makes me
impure. Being impure means I give up. The less I give up, the more
strength I have for purity.

     What is the whole process of summer and winter? According to the
Jewish calendar there are only two seasons, summer and winter. What is
winter? Why doesn't the tree grow apples in winter? Do you know why? It
gave up. Nature gave up. It's cold out; it can't do it; it will never
do it. What happens in the summer? Suddenly something happens and they
say, "No! Don't! Let's not give up." The moment they don't give up,
suddenly all of nature becomes pure again. Suddenly there is life again
in nature. Things begin to grow. Then suddenly holiness comes into the
world. Isn't summer the holiest thing in the world? Everything is
growing. Everything is bearing fruit.

     Someday, Someday, G-d will revive the dead. When will this great
thing happen? Pesach. Pesach is the time of the beginning of summer.
Every year there is a little revival of the dead. Is there anything
more dead than nature in the winter? All of us are half dead. Whenever
we give up, we are dead, we are on the level of winter. When we don't
give up we are on the level of summer. If a person is really deep enough,
every summer he can taste a little bit of the great reviving of the dead
which will take place sometime, someday. G-d will show us that there is
no such thing as death. When G-d revives the dead, it will not be like a
little witch doctor who says a few words over the dead body and it starts
moving again. There will he no death. There is now, because we give up.

     During the winter, the trees don't touch each other; they don't talk
to each other. "I don't want to have anything to do with you, tree", says
one tree to another. So the second tree answers the first tree, "Listen,
aren't we brothers?" "Acch, cut it out! I don't believe in this whole
'brother' thing. Nothing will ever become of you. Nothing will ever become
of me. Let's keep our distance." Then comes summer, and one tree loves the
other tree so much, so he sends out his branches. He tries to get close to
the other trees just a little bit. The trees get together. People who gave
up don't want to have anything to do with anybody else. Don't kid yourself,
when two people meet who gave up, do you think they love each other?
They despise each other. When two people meet and talk evil about
somebody else, do you think they love each other? Each of them thinks,
"Ach, what a low creep he is for the way he talks about other people. I
only talk like this because I am in his company. What can I do?" The other
one thinks, "I'm far beyond that. I never speak evil about somebody else,
but when I meet low people like him, I have to talk evil." If you tell each
other holy things, you really get close. Pesach is actually a combination
of two Hebrew words: Peh Sach, my mouth is talking. People talk to each
other again. The winter people don't talk to each other. The summer people
do, the pure people, the holy people.

     The sun is shining in the winter a little bit, but the moment the sun
touches the tree, the tree says, "What do you want, Sun? You're up there,
I'm down here. Leave me in peace." According to the Talmud, the wind is
also needed for growing. The sweet little wind is blowing, but the tree
says, "Hey, Wind, really. You come from far away. What are you blowing
around here for? Go back where you came from."

     The holy Bais Yaakov asks, "Why does one apple taste better than
another apple?" Sometimes we meet people who gave up. Do you think they
really gave up? They just don't have anyone to tell them, "Don't give up!"
They are crying, "Please tell me, 'Don't give up!' I'm begging you."
Sometimes you meet people and they yell at you. They are angry, but they
don't know how to say what they really mean. What they really mean is,
"Will you please help me take the anger out of my heart? Please have
compassion, I don't have strength anymore." When they put out all of their
anger and all of their impurities and show them to you, that means,
"Please help me." If you then turn around and say, "Ach! " it hurts them
even more.

     What is the tree doing in the winter? It is crying all the time,
"Please G-d, don't make me give up. Please have compassion." The more the
tree cries, the better the apples taste. Even if the tree cries a little
bit, the apples taste a little bit better. The apple is growing in the
summer, but the taste is growing in the winter. The taste of the apple is
the prayer of the tree during the winter.

     Sometimes we meet beautiful people, but they have no taste, they are
tasteless people. They didn't cry during the wintertime. Some people,
maybe their apples aren't so beautiful, but they taste so good.

     The Baal Shem Tov says the taste of the apple goes all the way back
to the seed. Here the farmer comes to put the little seed in the earth.
What is the seed thinking about? The seed says to G-d, "I was already an
apple. I was already finished. I did my thing in the world. Now you are
putting me back, making me start all over again. I don't have strength to
disintegrate and start all over again." The Baia Yaakov says, "Why do you
have to plant some seeds every year, but the seeds of a tree you can plant
once, and they grow for hundreds of years? It depends on how much the seed
is crying. Little grass seeds don't cry very much, so it only grows for a
year. A tree seed cries so hard that this prayer can keep the tree growing
for hundreds of years."

     There is a passage in Psalms, "The holy man is growing like a tree",
(Ps. 92). Some holy people are on the level of trees, so their prayers can
last for hundreds of years. They don't give up. You cannot grow until you
know this: Don't give up.

