;.cNotes on talk by R. Shlomo, 12/28/92
;.l1,6,60,66,1,0,10,75,192,2,15,20,25,127,10,0,
REF: B=SA_W021493:sh122892
NOTES ON A TALK BY R. SHLOMO CARLEBACH, DEC. 28, 1992, JERUSALEM
Direct quotes in quotation marks; ellipsis ... indicates anomission from direct quote; brackets [ ] indicate typist's (sa)interjection 

Tapes by R. David Zeller, Efrat, Israel; Videotape by NatanelShur, Nachliel, Israel.

Only 10% of the sforim available before WWII still exist.

"This first mitzva which we addded to the Torah is Channukah."

"A candle is only beautiful when it's dark."

"What is the first Torah sh'b'peh [oral-tradition Torah] in theworld:  children."

"Torah sh'b'ktav [written Torah, the Chumash] is also hidden. Torah sh'b'peh comes from a place which isn't there yet." 
             
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On the Shulhan Aruch (discussing tzedakah):

Charity  doesn't mean you have to give everything away.

"Tzedakah is everything there is."

"The relation of G-d to the world is tzedakah."

"The holy Samzer says...nothing makes me shiver...[except] when Ihear somebody crying."

The garment of G-d is charity.

"Tzedakah ... is the essence of Yiddishkeit."

You are forbidden not to give

If you eat ham, you're not a pagan...you just don't listen to thecommandments.  If you don't give tzedakah, you're a pagan, anoutcast. 
[[R. Shlomo re-conceptualizes the notion of 'pagan' in much of histeaching.  If/when his work is collected & input to a consolidated CD-ROM disc, one  might learn a bit of the depth of his vision ofJudaism by indexing & retrieving his instances of use of thatterm.--sa]]

"Why do I have so much trouble giving?  Because I really think itbelongs to me...The world belongs to G-d."

The mitzvah of tzedakah is to give to all -- not just Jews.

-------------
.p
The Dirty Penny:  a Shaggy Rabbi Story
as retold by R. David Zeller
op an orphan, ransomed on his wedding day, with the interventionof the Alter Rebbe

Synopsis:
The orphan  was ransomed by a miser who only had the strength togive one old dirty penny, and nobody would accept it from himwhich is why it was so dirty, and the Rabbi took it from him andout loud thanked the miser, and unheard  prayed that this poor manwho though he was a miser and made the world think so, to itssorrow,  have the strength to give more, and unlock his truenobility.

Tzedakah isn't just giving money...sometimes a person needs a goodword.

"You want to be like G-d?  Give tzedakah."

"The hardest thing in the world is to get to the point."
If I get to Israel, but act as I did in Borough Park, I'm missingthe point.

It took R. Mendel [of Kotsk?] 28 years to get to the point ofknowing.

When you do tchuva, the light of the nekudah, the point, isshining into you.

"People are angry, not out of badness, but out of love.  They loveto yell...they love talking loshon hora...they love telling theirchildren what they do wrong...it's completely misplaced love."

The Gemara says, before you daven, you hve to give tzedakah.

"The essence of davening is, that the point [nekudah] in my heartshould shine out through my mouth."

Sometimes I daven all day Yom Kippur and wlak home empty -- I feelI nevere get to the point.

"A tzadik is a person who connects heaven to earth -- the thoughtto my words. My own heaven and earth."

You work 6 days of the week and then do you come to Shabbos?  Youdo tzedakah 6 days of the weekk and then you come to Shabbos.

"hy am I not giving tzedakah -- because I'm a pagan.  I don'treally think G-d's giving it to me.  I believe I get it because Iwork for it."

[[Re:  Kiddush Lavana]]
"Life is like the moon -- if you're treal."
Every poor man is a little like the moon -- they're borken -- theydon't have what they need."

"All of Israel is missing -- gevalt are we in exile."

"Everything I need is sitting in heaven waiting for me.  You thingG-d would create me and not give me what I need?"

"R. Nachman says:  My own coarseness it covering it up... I can'tsee where G-d put it.  All the purity -- all the emptiness I have...is that I just don't see where G-d put it."

When I give tzadakah I un-coarse myself.

Eating and drinking, living a human life is not coarse -- that'swhat G-d want us to do -- coarseness is when I think I'm the wholecenter of the world.

A poor man is hungry -- you know how much shade that puts betweenhim and G-d...

"Adam wasn't driven out of Paradise -- he drove himself out -- hethought G-d was angry at him...over an apple?"

According to the Tree of Knowlege, when you do something bad,you're bad.  But G-d is not the Tree of Knowlege.

When I give tzedakah, I open the door.

"We have no idea how much cruelty we have in our hearts.  Sadlyenough.  We are living in a cruel world.  ... So when do I fix mycruelty?  Each time I give tzedakah, I befcome less cruel...eachtime you put your hand in our pocket, you purify yourself.








