Part V--Introduction to the Birkat HaMazon

The tape recorder gets rigged up again  at the
conclusion of the meal that followed the previous
teachings and story.  At first it's a scarcely audible
jumble of words and phrases about how a human being
gives help (reluctantly) "...two hours later you
bother me again?" "I'll tell you, listen to me now,
Harry, we're such good friends, who cares about
yesterday, today.  Right now I need this money." 
"Okay, but I gave it to you."  [The dialogue continues
in this way, and eventually "Harry" gives his friend
the loan--$2000--but ends by saying, "Please don't
call me for another year."]  Compassion, right? This
is a human being.

But you know the way G-d, when we deal with G-d? G-d
nebich gives me a little piece of cake, a little bit
[shtain?] dinner.  So I come to G-d with the holiest. 
I say, "U-v'nai Yerushalayim--can you please rebuild
Jerusalem? Can you please bring the Messiah?" [Does
G-d say,] "What is this Chutzpah?" You know? "I mean,
really, because I gave you a little bagel, therefore
you bother me right away about Yerushalayim?"

But now listen to the other side.  I want you to open
your hearts.  Remember I told you I met this girl
yesterday--can't say on Shabbos--it was Shabbos--last
night I went out, I met this girl.  And she was very
sweet, she was smiling.  And we walked into this
coffee shop, and I said, "Can I take you out for
coffee?" She says, "Why not?" You know? We're going in
there, and I say to her, "Um...uh, you wanna give me
the sugar, you know, for the coffee?" She says,
"Okay."  And I say to her, "Listen, you know, you're
so beautiful.  Maybe you can give me some more sugar. 
Would you like to marry me?" You know?

Now listen to this very careful.  If she doesn't love
me, you know? "Listen, what kind of chutzpah is this?"
You know? "I didn't know you five minutes ago." Right?
"Okay, you're taking me out for coffee, and I give you
sugar, therefore? Chutzpah!" Right? If she loves me,
do you know what she'll say? "You couldn't have asked
at a better moment," right?

Now listen to this, sweetest friends.  If you don't
love a person after doing one favor, you say, "Really,
I mean, really, take off, such chutzpah!" You know? "I
just did you a favor--that's it! Don't talk to me for
another year."  If you love somebody very much, it's
the other way around! If you do them one favor, you
can't wait till you do them another favor, right?
'Cause it's so beautiful to do somebody a favor,
right? When you love somebody--Listen, my Neshameleh,
when she'll ask me, let's say in the morning, she'll
say, "Daddy, give me apple juice."  Ten minutes later,
she'll say, "Give me this juice."  I'll say
"Chutzpah--I just--"? I'll say, "I'm so glad, gevalt!"
I'm jumping out of my skin, right? Can you imagine,
ten minutes later, she'll say, "Take me to Israel." 
So I'll blow my mind, my Neshama wants to go to
Israel! Right?

So I want you to know, bentching is--bentching is,
mamesh, that we are so close to G-d, we have just a
little taste how much He loves us, that I can eat one
bagel, and ask, "U-v'nai Yerushalayim.  Please,
rabayna shel olam, bring the Messiah.  Fix the whole
world."

But again, you have to realize--and here I just want
to tell you this one very important thing.  This is
one of the top Torahs of Reb Nachman.  You know, most
of us think always of life in terms of, "What am I
doing with my life? How much money do I make? What's
my future? What's my past?" This is cute, right? It's
the outside of it.  Inside--life itself is so deep,
right? [Long pause]

Chevra, I don't know what to say.  Mamesh, my head
doesn't work.

Anonymous helpful person:  Reb Nachman.  Top Torah.

Reb Shlomo:  Ah, it's a gevalt! Thank you very much.

Same person:  You're welcome.

[Shlomo continues] Reb Nachman says, at that moment,
when you put food in your mouth, if you want to you
can receive life on the highest level.  Listen, I can
take a bite off an apple and receive eternal life,
right? Or I can just receive the apple.  It's up to
you.

So the story is that--all Breslov Chasidim were big
shleppers, you know? Most of them.  So Reb Nosson, the
greatest pupil of Reb Nachman, was once invited by Reb
Nachman's grandson, who was very wealthy.  He didn't
feel right to go there, but he was invited.  The whole
day he was crying inside, "Gevalt, my rebbe was so
holy, and here this one is into money and everything."
 So he says, "I came to the house," and he regretted
that he went.  He wasn't accustomed to this kind of
riches.  And then he comes to the food.  And he says,
"Oy vey."  You know? "With this kind of golden plates
and golden spoons, you're not gonna--who knows? Forget
it!"  But then he says, "Reb Nachman's grandson walked
in, and he made a motzi," and he says, "the way he put
the food in his mouth, I swear to you, I haven't seen
it since Reb Nachman."  Mamesh, the utmost--you know?
With the utmost readiness to receive life on the
highest level.

Gevalt, I'm keeling over.  Yitzchak, can you start
bentching? And I'll just bentch fast, yeah?

Jerry:  Time for you.

Shlomo:  Yeah, but I want to answer back, yeah?

Yitzchak:  Okay, say Rabbosai n'varech.  [Shlomo leads
the call and response at the beginning of the
bentching.  And the chevra begins to sing....]

Quick segue to the concert and the introduction by
Rabbi Leo Abrami of Temple Beth Ami, the host
congregation.

Rabbi Abrami:  Now that Shlomo has brought you all
here to our congregation for a lovely evening, and I
would like to tell you, very briefly, that this
concert and this workshop this afternoon, this
gathering, would not have been possible if it had not
been for the good will--and the faith-- of one of our
friends here--two friends--Jerry and Linda Strauss. 
And I would like therefore to introduce to you, Jerry
Strauss.  [Applause]  I would like to mention also the
fact that Mrs. Yudel--Serena Yudel--worked many hours
this afternoon to prepare this lovely dinner we had
tonight, so we want to thank Mrs. Yudel also [applause
begins] and all the others for making this possible.

Jerry:  It's really my pleasure to welcome Shlomo
tonight, as I said before, all the way from New York
today, you know, and direct from a whole happening
last night in New York and here with the study group
this afternoon.  I also want to thank Yitzchak Muller
for helping us today with the study group and songs
and everything else, and he'll also be accompanying
Shlomo tonight.  And it's just real special because
I've just recently moved here, to see so many special
people, and trying to get to know the community,  and
for my wife Linda, and thanks to Serena, also, my mom,
really my wife's mom, but it's really like the same. 
And from the deepest depths of my heart, as Shlomo
would say, I wanna now really give it over to Shlomo
and let him bring the light of Chanukah into our
lives.

[Shlomo plays an opening number, then addresses the
audience as follows] 

Shalom to you, my sweetest friends.  Good evening. 
You know, friends, the difference between words and
singing? It's very simple.  Imagine if somebody talks
to me, and while they talk to me, I also say the same
words.  It's crazy, right? Then I don't hear what they
say, and they don't know what I'm saying--the whole
thing is falling apart.  Singing is the other way
around.  When someone sings, and I don't sing with
them, then I absolutely don't know what they're
singing about, right? The second difference is that
words--if I go over them a hundred times--the more I
utter those words, the less taste they have, right? If
I say, one and one is two, one and one is two, one and
one is [his voice trails off] that's it, right? I know
it already, right? Singing is the other way around. 
The more I sing the melody, the deeper I begin to
understand the melody.  As far as I'm concerned, a
melody, unless you sing it at least 200 times,
you--[end of tape]







AFTERWORD:  Transcriber's Kavanah

My intention, in making these and other transcripts,
is to faithfully reproduce, word for word, what Reb
Shlomo actually said on the occasions when the
recordings were made.  I do this so that there is an
accurate record, in hard copy format, so that if
something should happen to the tapes, or if the tapes
are inaccessible, that anyone who is interested can at
least read and review the teachings and stories given
over by Reb Shlomo, and, sometimes, the table talk and
side conversations.

I want to convey the flavor of what a Shlomo event was
really like, not just the content, and so I transcribe
the interruptions and the hesitations along with the
brilliant, flowing remarks, commentary, and humor of
our rebbe.  I omit false starts and some distractions.
 My goal is to produce a transcript that can be
enjoyed, savored, learned from, read aloud, shared,
and eventually, perhaps by another hand, further
edited for clarity and concision.

For example, it wasn't until I started doing some of
these transcripts that I really noticed how often Reb
Shlomo says, "You know?" and "Right?" In common speech
these interjections are regarded--especially by
English teachers and speech coaches--as extraneous and
annoying.  In Reb Shlomo's case, they seem to me to be
devices intended to invite those assembled around him
into his thought processes or into those in whose name
he is speaking.  They are there to foster intimacy and
empathy.  But for those who have not heard his voice
or known him personally, they might seem odd or
unnecessary.  I am sure that many of them could be
deleted without any harm being done to his message. 
But for the present, I leave them in.  I don't want to
make the decision to delete, especially when I am
sharing material most people have never seen before.

I also take great care with punctuation and
capitalization.  It's not always easy to know where to
put the quotation marks and where a sentence begins or
ends.  In general, I use brackets to enclose my own
interpolations or helpful descriptive background. 
Parentheses are part of the text, but more often I use
dashes (which I type as two consecutive hyphens) to
indicate a parenthetical phrase or interruption in
thought.  I avoid ellipses...except to indicate that
something has been omitted.  I listen to his voice
carefully to understand where a question mark is
called for and where--rarely--an exclamation point is
appropriate.  I also thoroughly review the spelling
and listen to the tape over and over again, with the
manuscript or screen in front of me, to be sure I have
not misquoted him, even in a minor matter.  Where
there is a quote in Hebrew, I try to research the
source and transliterate it correctly.  I use
earphones and work in a quiet space, whenever that is
possible.  It's not always perfect, but I think my
efforts tend to produce quality work.

Eventually, I am sure, under the auspices of the
Foundation and with the appproval of the family, some
authorized published materials will become available. 
I offer this series partly at the suggestion of Elana
Schachter,* who suggested in this space a few weeks
ago that individuals who have tapes begin making
transcripts and circulate them on this list.  Elana
edited many of the teachings that appeared in the Holy
Beggars' Gazette in the 1970s and knows whereof she
speaks.  She is also a Foundation board member.  I had
the privilege of doing similar work with Shlomo tapes
for AGADA in the 1980s.  I know from personal
experience that Reb Shlomo was delighted to have his
events recorded and that he sometimes listened in
amazement to things he had said.

On the question of whether someone might share this
material off-list, I responded to Moshe Eliovson's
query in the following words: 

Dear Moshe,

Sorry for my delay in replying.  I have no objection
to your sharing the transcript with anyone you like;
in fact, I'm pleased and feel honored that you find it
worthy of further distribution.  However, a caveat is
probably in order, though not, I would imagine,
necessary in your case.  The whole issue of who "owns"
Shlomo or who has rights to his legacy has been raised
several times that I am aware of and, unfortunately,
seems to have been discussed mostly within a
legalistic framework.  At this point in time, I
understand that the S.C. Foundation has a claim on his
words, music, and image; it is also true that there is
a lot of latitude allowed by this institution and de
facto permission granted to share teachings and
stories and recorded music within the chevra and to an
extended audience so long as it is not done for profit
and, I would guess, is done in the spirit of Reb
Shlomo (however that might be defined, and by whom). 
Any commercial publication, duplication, and
distribution would require the permission of the
Carlebach Family and/or the S.C. Foundation.  Kol
Chevra, for example, is a product of the Foundation,
and all profits go back to the Foundation.  In other
cases, royalties or a flat fee are required, as well
as permission.  All that said, I encourage you to
share any transcripts I produce with whomever you wish
subject to the above guidelines.

Chazak u-varukh!

Reuven

If anyone has any better information, please post it
to the list.  Thank you.
  

--- Moshe Eliovson <Moshe.Eliovson@lazard.com> wrote:
 Shalom Reuven,
 
 1) Thank you so much for transcribing the shiur and
 posting it!!!...

 3) May I please have your permission to forward your
 posting along to my friends in the world at large?
 
 Todah,
 Moshe