Majdaneck, Poland 5749
Transcribed for Connections by Sam Intrator

Copyright (C) 1989, The Inner Foundation

Reprinted with the permission of Connections Magazine

Commercial distribution prohibited without written
consent of copyright holder and the Estate of
Shlomo Carlebach

In Poland, Rabbeinu was asked how he could greet, shake hands
with -- and even hug -- children of the perpetrators and even
perpetrators themselves. Rabbeinu answered,
If we had two hearts like we have two arms and two legs,
then one heart could be used for love and the other one for hate.
Since I have but one heart, then I don't have the luxury of hating
anyone.

The Holy Izhbetzer comments on "I am earth and ash",
that to grow spiritually, you need both. Some of our
Jewish leaders have made a complete religion out of the
ashes of the Holy Six Million. But ashes alone are just not
enough to nurture the neshama. You need the earth also to build
strong roots.

On the one hand I cannot forget what happened
in Europe. On the other I know that I have to help rebuild
a new world.

What's a holocaust memorial? Is the last
will and testament of the six million to have a
memorial? Their last will is that we yidden should
be yidden. Unfortunately, many yidden give
two million dollars to a holocaust memorial while their own
kids don't care about being Jewish.

Inconsistency in one's emotions or thinking is a human
quality and a very honest expression of one's humanity.
A deceitful person attempts to reconcile contradiction
through conniving reasoning and by stretching the truth.

My goal is to turn people on to Yiddishkeit or whatever
other religion or spiritual path they were born into. 
And to make frumm (religious) Jews consious of our world
mission.
 
Orthodox Jews keep G-d's commandments but have trouble accepting
their responsibility to help make this a better world for all of humanity.
On the other hand, the enlightened Jews who came out of the ghetto
sought to achieve social responsibility but completely neglected
the commandments.

Rav Kuk taught that the so called secular Jews by settling
in and building the Holy Land, were guarding the body of the
Jewish people, while the religious Jews were watching its soul.
Today the body of the Torah, the laws, are being guarded
by the religious Jews, while the soul of the Torah, the fire
of its teachings are being watched by the so-called secular Jews.

We orthodox Jews have to deliver G-d's message to the entire
world and that's why I travel to a place where there aren't
that many Jewish people now. That's why I came to Poland.
It's a place that has especially bad memories for our people.
But that's the very reason that it makes Poland a prime choice
for change. In the Bible we find that Shechem is the city
where Dina was raped. Years later it was the city where
the brothers sold Joseph and the split of the twelve tribes
began. But it's also the headquarters for the tribe of Joseph
who symbolizes the start of the redemption.

So the greatest tribute we can offer to the Six Million is
to return to the place of their eternal rest and swear to
them that we shall dedicate ourselves to spreading their
values and their dreams to the entire world. Holocaust
memorials have been turned into a business by people
who haven't the slightest idea of who the pre-holocaust
Jews were and what they stood for. We cannot allow
assimilated Jews who speak in an alien tongue
be our spokespeople to the world. We must address
the world in our own Divine language. If I let out
tztzis and payus everywhere, then when I return
to Germany, I let them out even longer. I was in Hamburg
once and a Jewish lady told me that I wasn't in Jerusalem
where I could let my religion hang out this way. I told her
that in all the times I've been back to Germany, no
German ever made such remarks to me. Her comments
are, cholila, Nazi-like. The Nazis wanted to wipe out
our people and she wants to wipe out our religion.
Another time, in Hamburg, I walked
into a resturant with a German TV reporter. He
saw me eat some fruit and told me, thank G-d
you eat kosher, that he had interviewed a famous
Israeli pianist the week before, who ordered ham
and cheese. I felt a sigh of relief, he told me. Thank
G-d, the Fuhrer didn't suceed and there are still Jews
who are proud to be Jews.

We frummer Yidden can make such a Qiddish haShem
with our behavior, that we can inspire the whole world.
But first we have to clean up our own act. A little
Israeli boy once told me that the reason he doesn't go
to a Jewish school is that he lives near a yeshiva and
he hears the children crying whenever they get beaten
by the teachers.

 Any parent or teacher who hits children is, G-d forbid,
keeping Der Fuhrer's way alive! G-d's words can be taught to
our children and spread throughout the world only in a loving way that
is completely free of all anger and hatred.

