Brooklyn, New York 5749.
Copyright (C) 1988 The Inner Foundation Reprinted from Connections Magazine with permission A Vision of Peace and Unity by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach
Thank G-d, the religions are getting together more and more, people are getting together. And I don't mean to make gefilte fish out of religions, which, sadly enough, hurts me a little bit.
Some people think, let's make a gefilte fish out of all religions; everybody put a spoon in, and let's make a new soup. This is not what I am talking about. What's happening in the world is that everybody really wants to know: What do you think? What do you believe in?
It doesn't mean that I have to change. If I see that somebody else has a beautiful nose, it doesn't mean that I have to take off his nose to put it on my face. He has his nose and I have my nose. I'm just looking at his nose and seeing that it is beautiful. You know, people have to realize that basically every religion is a revelation of G-d. All I can ask is, let me know a little bit of what G-d is revealing to you. But I have to do what G-d is revealing to me, because if I cut myself off from my own revelation, than again I'm not living up to G-d.
We need something that G-d will reveal to all mankind, beyond everything in the world, deeper than any previous revelation, something so deep and so holy. I think the world is getting ready for it.
There is a very strong teaching from one of the new age holy Rabbis, Reb Zadok haCohen. Although he lived one hundred fifty years ago, he was ahead of his time by a few hundred years. He was most probably the greatest, or one of the greatest scholars and kabbalists in the history of the Jewish people. He had only fifty followers, because his teachings were so deep, that if you didn't know every word of the kabbalistic teachings by heart, you just didn't know what he was talking about. He said something like this:
"The world says that the world is getting less and less religious, but I say, on the contrary, the souls of people are becoming more and more refined. Maybe on the outside it looks like they are breaking away from G-d, but on the inside, they are getting closer and closer." 