Subject: Forgiveness
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 01:07:23 PDT
From: "Michael Ozair" <m_adin@hotmail.com>
To: reb-shlomo@shamash.org

Chevre,
The last week has been the busiest week in the history of our list.
I don't know whether a mazel tov would be appropriate.
I'm still a little shell shocked.
All the postings were quite passionate, but as we all know,
Passion is the life of man,
while Compassion is the life of G-d.
Thanks to all who are now helping shift geers toward Compassion,
Forgiveness and G-dliness.

For one cold moment, it almost became easy for us to forget what it was
that made Shlomo so important to all of our lives.
G-d, forgive us all for how easy it became to forget.

Do you remember how effortlessly Shlomo could look beyond OUR own
schmutz?  OUR own limitations?  OUR own baggage and handicaps?
Who lifted who out of the mud?

We all received SO MUCH from our great teacher and beloved friend,
and lo' and behold, here it is, right here chevre! Our prime
opportunity!! To finally give back to our Rebbe Shlomo exactly what he
spent his whole entire life giving to us:
The ability to see BEYOND the schmutz and imperfections and to LOVE
unconditionally. As Shlomo's chasidim, I feel in my heart of hearts that
this is the call of the hour.

OK, on a human level, it's not so easy.  That is why  when love on a
human level fails, the story is not over: the Divine in us needs to be
aroused and reawakened, to step foward and lead.

Reb Shlomo on Moshav Meor Modiim - Melaveh Malkah Summer 93'

Just heard this story on tape.  Brought me to tears.
The transcript does no justice to actually hearing Shlomo tell it
himself.
It's heartbreaking.  But here it is anyhow.

Reb Shlomo:
I want to tell you my favorite story
about me and my cousins, the Arabs.
Maybe I told it to some of you,
so forgive me, but it's such a good story.

A few years ago I gave a concert in Marseilles, France
and the next night I was supposed to give a concert in Brussels,
so I thought because I live in New York
that Marseilles to Brussels is like Manhattan to Brooklyn.
So it should be no problem.

At night, after the concert in Marseilles,
I call up Air France and ask what available connection
do they have to Brussels and they say it's very hard,
impossible to get there by the time I needed to.
But instead they suggest a Mid-East airline,
I can't remember the name, but it's an airlines that flys
Beirut to Paris to Brussels and arrives on time for me to make the
concert.

O.K., so in those days it was a little dangerous.
But there is an old teaching of Hasidim:
When you don't know what to do
you can either ask a wise man or wise woman
and do what they say or ask a fool and do the opposite.
So it's always hard to find wise people when you need them,
but you can always find a minyan of fools wherever you go.
You don't have to worry.
So baruch HaShem, I got myself a minyan of fools at the airport
and they say, 'G-d forbid, it's dangerous'
so I say to myself, 'O.K., I have to go.'

But you know, my beautiful friends,
when I board El Al, I say a little tehillim,
I pray a little that I should arrive safely,
but I also know in my heart that G-d is protecting all Israeli
airplanes.
When I board TWA, I pray a little bit stronger.
But boarding Lebanese Airlines, oy vey gevaldt,
did I shuckle gevaldt, like a lulov on Sukkos gevaldt.
So I sit down and realize there's only six passengers and began learning
a little bit.

And you know friends,
some Arab women are really beautiful.
You can't take it away from our cousins,
some of them are very very beautiful.
So this super absolutely beautiful stewardess comes up to me,
and she says to me, 'I have to ask you something,
what is this little cap on your head?'
So I said I have to tell you four things,
'First of all, I'm your cousin.
Second, I love you.
Third, I bought this little hat in Jerusalem.
And fourth, I wish you and I could dance in the streets of Jerusalem
together.'

So she says to me,
'I have to tell you three things:
First, I'm your cousin.
Second, I love you.
Third, I also want to dance with you on the streets of Jerusalem.'

Gevaldt, did she hug me.
It was me and all of Israel hugging her back.
She then says to me,
'Do you know that if the pilot knew we have you on the airplane
and I didn't tell him, he would never forgive me.'
So between you and I friends,
how often is it that the pilot comes out to greet you?
Not so much.

So two minutes later,
the pilot, then the co-pilot,
and two more stewardess and three more stewards.
And the hugging and kissing is mamash from here to the end of the world.
Then, the co-pilot says to me, 'I'm so glad your here on the flight,
I have a problem and I know your sent here by G-d to solve my problem.
I want you to know my wife is Jewish
and my daughter will be a Bat Mitzvah a few weeks
and I don't know what to do.  I can't have the Bat Mitzvah in Lebanon?'
So I told him, 'This is it!  You have to come to New York
and we will make the biggest Bat Mitzvah in my synagogue.'

Anyway, everybody gives me their telephone numbers, their addresses, I
give them mine.
And while we are talking to each other, I say to them,
'What are you doing tonight in Brussels?'
'Nothing special'
So I say to them, 'Oy Vey!  You have to come to my concert tonight
at the Jewish Community Center in Brussels.
And do you know how happy everybody will be to see you?
You'll never know, you have to come!
If the whole crew of the Lebanese Airlines comes to the Jewish Community
Center,
you will have so much love, like you haven't felt since the day you were
born.'

O.K., so we decided to meet 8:00 PM at the lobby of the Hilton.
But later on in the conversation,
we hear a message on the loudspeaker that the flight to Brussels is
being canceled.
There weren't enough passengers on the flight.

Do you realize how many air flights I've walked off already?
Do you think the stewardess's ever cried when I walked off?
Do you think the pilot ever stood by the door waving at me,
till he couldn't see me anymore?

I walked down the steps,
and each step was a hundred years.
Do you know why we were all crying so much?
Because we knew it would take a LONG time till we ever see each other
again.
I want you to know that those few people are always deep in my heart.

And so this was a few years ago,
and a week later I read in the New York Times,
that . . . I don't want to mention such dirty names in a holy place like
this,
but there was a bombing in the airport in Beirut
and they mentioned the names of the pilots and stewardess that were
killed.
And you know friends,
it was my best friends.

And you know, in a certain deep holy way,
I will still be mourning for them,
even after another hundred years.

I learned from them the deepest thing in the world.
That we (Arabs and Jews) are so close to each other,
so close to each other.

And if the politics wouldn't interfere,
we could all be brothers and sisters in the deepest way,
in the deepest, deepest way.

I want you to know something else.
Not every Moshav is as open hearted
as our chevre here on the Moshav.
Everybody here is so open.
Nobody has doors at all to their hearts.
Like our father Abraham,
who had no doors to his house.

And I hope, I hope . . .
let's just hope for miracles.
Real miracles.
Because sadly enough,
when you are dealing with politics,
you are already dealing with liars.
Politics and Yiddishkeit together is called 'lies'.
They just don't go together.
Anyways, let's hope for the best.
Between ourselves and our cousins,
let's hope for the best.
Mamash, the best.

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