=scb13a R. Shlomo Carlebach, Typescript B13, Version a Headed only: "1/17/72 morning Working docname: =scb13# , where # is sequential version number. Final title to be: sc_b13 Notes to be Deep_6'd to =scsab13 ------------------------------------------------------------------ I am greatful to Miriam Gal-Or for having responsibly mailed me this and the other RSC manuscripts and typescripts in my Moshav Mevo Modi'in Collection in Doberdane Estates House #101, may the Vaad never break down the door, ,which is a copy a BZ Collection, which is a copy of a Collection held by HH, who maybe originated it from HLP days, and which I copies from the Witt Collection, and if that ain't "clear as mud" what is, Jez. ------------------------------------------------------------------- EDITORIAL NOTES: This is a typescript, not a manuscript. It seems to have been typed on a manual typewriter, not an electric typewriter. Typewriters were noisy devices used before Bill Gates invented the computer, which he copied (with a few modifications) from an automatic back_scratcher designed by Norbert Wiener. It was typed ELITE -- 12-pitch, 72 characters per line. In my EinsteinWriter input I will preserve Line_Length and Line-endings. That facilitates proof-reading. I am greatful to Camp Zenith for having, however unintentionally, provided me with a warm dry place with a table to put my Pentium II on, and enugh peculiarly cooked potatoes et al. to crank this out. Someone writes, what are you doing sitting with a bunch of Arabs. Well, this ain't that, although the terminology for spiritual practices in the SO is predominantly Islamic -- I would say. by the conincidence of intellecutal history that the lineage ("silsa") of the Chisti order is predominantly Islamic. Right now we got only one Islamic dude, and he ain't even Arab, he's a Persian Sunni who came to Paris as a kid, and has matured into a poet and a bit of a bullshit artist, but maybe not as good at either as me. PVK was an eagle, "as clear and passionate as the dawn" (Yeats). But as for the epiphenomena that cluster about this Soupy_Youppie__SummerCamp -- well, if you want Sufi shlock, we got Sufi schlock. In the past 3 days, 3 of 4 people have insinuaed that I steal. Well, I do, but not that much. My first year I'm hanging around the kitchen of Shadmot Mchola before going back out to prune grape-vines, and I say to the other half of the volunteer force, let's steal lunch, and Meir says, you can't steal it, you worked for it. I'm handing out software sforim that I found on the lawn in front of Shoshana's Glatt Kosher Pizza Place, erstwhile Luciano's Al Fresco Neapolitan Guurmet "Palace in a Ruin" (that's how they describe a Sufi dervish), and so anyhow -- Hatzkela says, You can't give away copied CD's -- that's stealing -- that's a Biggie -- that's one of the 10 Commandments -- So I says back to Hatzkela, There's still 9 left -- Anyway, maybe goyim don't assume there's ten. I sit at my Pentium II in my imitation_pine__panelled tastefully remodelled shipping container and try to carry on. (sa, Campra, 28 Aug '05 -- 23 Av -- 22 Rajab, whatever Rajab is, but if you meet a young gentleman with a shishkabob implement slightly south of Damascus Gate it might be nice to know the date -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ START INPUT OF PAGE 1 OF RSC XEROX TYPESCRIPT B13 RSC Xerox Typescript B12a Copied (sa) from the Witt Collection, ca. 1986 This copy copied (sa) from the BZ Collection Another copied held, I think, by HH, who may have been the original compiler of this typescript. This is a xerox typescript, I think on a manual typewriter. I do not know the transcriber. ------------------------------------------------------------ START INPUT OF PAGE 1 OF RSC XEROX TYPESCRIPT B13 The VORKER, old REB YITZCHAKel VORKER was very holy, way out holy. [ N.B. -- The name is Yitzak , 'Yitzak_el' is merely RSC's diminutive ] and he had two sons. Reb Mendele was the younger son, the silent Rebbe, and the oldest son, the AMSHINOVER , was really very holy, but a straight rebbe. He learned a lot from the sfarim, and when he spoke he said very holy things, but he was like all the other rebbes. So the straight Chasidim went to the older brother, and the truth is all the young Chasidim, the fire chasidim, went to Reb Mendele. But they had to be on the level ... [3-dots typescript, presumably indicating, not elided text, but merely a pause as the Rebbe held his breath while the Junor Birdmen toked. ] if you don't know what it is all about, you can't stay by Reb Mendele. So when the holy Amshenover's daughter got married, the Amshenover was dancing, and he put his hand on his brother's shoulder, and he was holding on to him, to the holy Vorker, and he was dancing. So the BIALER [ that is, the Bialer Rebbe] (b13-1a) [ -- I am told that the present Bailer Rebbe is the Rav of the Lugano (Switzerland) Synagouge, that he has published aboutr 70 sformim, and that in recent years he has become quite concerned with helping Baal Tchuva's (b13-1a) So anyhow, in Lugano the Dan Hotel is Glatt Kosher, on the Lake two doors down from the Grande Hotel Splendide -- you can use their swimming pool if the Lake is too cold. Me I stay between the two, at the Chinese Restaurant. The rooms are in an old house seperate from the Restaurant, and they got good vegetable soup and green tea too. Nice people. The Dan Hotel is run by Mr. Moshe Gefen and his wife and family, and also a woman named Leah, who thinks she is not Jewish though she sure looks like she just got off the boat from the shtetl -- one of the better neighborhoods -- and was surely right there at Mt. Sinai. They are very good people, make everyone feel at home even us semi_reformed hippies, and serve a great Shabat morning kiddish. Open Pesach through Sukot, ] [shoulder, and he was holding on to him, to the holy Vorker, and he was dancing. So the BIALER [ that is, the Bailer Rebbe]] thought, A chuzpah! Even if he is his brother, even if he is a rebbe, how does he dare to hold on to the holy silent rebbe. By his Chasidim, he was ranking with the Baal Shem. So he went up there, he had a lot of chutzpah, he went over to the Amshenover and took off his hand. With his right hand he removed his hand. But you know you can't play around with the Amshenover either. From that time on he had mamash no strength in his right hand. Absolutely none, it was just hanging down. When the Vorker got engaged, when he was 14 years old ... [3-dot typescript, presumably indicating, not an elision, but a brief pasue while the Rebbe waited for the Space Cadets to come back to earth ] He married the daughter of a rich man because his father rally wanted him not to have any worries, because he has to do his thing. The girl was very holy goes without saying. The father in law was a straight rich man, a chasidische ˜idele, but straight. He comes to town and he wante to find out who is his new son in law. So he asks the straight people. Who does a rich man talk to. To other straight people. They tell him he never opened a book in his life, he is running aroound all day in the forest, and hs is riding on horses, and he had a little goat ever since he was seven years old. So he walks in to Reb Yitzchak Vorker and he says he wants to break the engagement, because he hears the son in law is gornisht. So the holy [GLOSSAR: gornisht (Plural). What you put on hot_dogs when we're out of sauerkraut. See 'Efes sh'b' Efes' (third hardware store on your right, ask in the stockroom. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------- #p START PAGE 2 OF RSC TYPESCRIPT B13 Vorker said like this: first he got red in the face, then he got white, then red, then white, it was going on for a long time. He says, Do you know, do you know that you played with fire when you said those words, when you said Reb Mendle is no good, I don't want him as a son_in_law. To say such words about Reb Mendele Vorker! Do you know, he says, that you were playing with your own life. In heaven they just wanted to tear out your soul when you said it. I had a hard time keeping you alive, he said, So don't ever say such words again. I swaer to you , he said, not only you will be proud in this world, you will be proud in the coming world. (b13-2a) After his father passed away there was a big wedding in the family. The Amshenover was there with all the straight Chasidim, the Amsheover was saying Tora, Gevalt! He was really very holy, and he really had a lot to say. Reb Mendele Vorker was sitting, nothing , doesn't say anything. So after benching the straight Chasidim think, This is really heartbreaking, the older son knows so much, and the younger son hasn't said one word yet. The non_straight Chasidim knew just to be in the room with him is the holiest thing in the world. So Reb Mendele wanted to get rid of all the straight Chasidim. Everybody started crowding around him, forcing him to say something. So he looked at the clock, and he says, Oh it is two in the morning! What can one do at two o'clock in the morning, he says. I'm not tired tnough to go to sleep, and it is too late to begin to study, he says, you know what, let's play some cards. [ Meanwhile, his bride ... ] The Chasidim say, What is going on here?! Horrible! So they all left. After they all left he said, Close the door, let's be alone. They closed the door, they were up all night, saying nothing. QUESTION: Where did the tradition start that the bridgroom teaches some Tora at the wedding feast. RSC REPLIES: In the Gmora. It says in the Gmora a that if you marry your daughter to someone who doesn't know how to learn it is like throwing your daughter into a lion's den. So in order to make it easeir ------------------------------------------------------------------------ START PAGE 3 OF RSC TYPRESCRIPT B13 the groom is supposed to say something. He has to say that: 'Everybody thinks I know nothing so I have to prove that I am something'. And the people have to say: 'We know you are a great scholar, so you don't have to prove anything', so therefore thy stop him. One bridgegroom was really an idiot. You are supposed to say somthing good, some good Tora before the wedding, You can say some beautiful holy things before the wedding. So he started teaching all the laws of a bastard. (scb13-3a) (scb13-3a) [ 'bastard' = 'mamzer', the child of a married woman by a man other than her husband. There are very strict halachot restricing the status of such children and their descendents, but the biblical term 'mamzer', unlike the the English term 'bastard' at least as far back as Shakespearean English (Cf. eg Shakespeare's play, King Lear), and extending to contemporary USA slang, is not necessarily derogatory. ] It is sweet, but a little bit idiotic. So they stopped him anyway, it was good that they stopped him. ........ [7_dots typrscript, indicating a loss of text, presumably because the Sound Engineer had just inhaled from a joint of exceptional qualiity -- Mishrekan, perhaps -- which reminds me of our Graudate Students Christmas Party in Santa Barabara in 1968, but that's another story -- and, rather than turn over the cassette, chose to hold his breath rather risking the loss of a wisp of it ] / you have no vessels for chesed, it is too much. Like the fingers, remember -- the Hay gvuras. [GLOSSARY: the Hay Gvuras. I don't have the foggiest. Best Guess: Tall dry grass of exceptional strength, used by the Indians of coastal Maine, which is the foggiest, for basket_weaving. ] So afternoon he would yell, cutting the light to come down to the world. [ SOURCE: 'cutting the light to come down to the world'. I don't have the foggiest. Some hasidic mumbo_jumbo no doubt. See 'basket_weaving'. ] Especially HoShana Rabah, it was very strong, Simchas Torah is such a great light. Gevalt. So he woould yell, run around all over the house and yell. He would find something as he walked into the room, How come the books aren't straight. He would say, what's going on here. Why is the table not clean. So one day they decided they sould fix everything perfectly, so he wouldn't have anything to yell about. The holy SANZER ( a/k/a & d/b/a SAMZER ) walks around the house looking for some reason to yell. So he had nothing to yell about. So he yelled What's going on here. I want to yell and you don't let me. The biggest chutzpah I ever heard of.' He yelled at everybody for not letting him yell. It is really very holy. It means that the Samzer really knew the secret of anger. You really have to be on the highest level. We don't know the secret of anger. There were just two or three Rebbes who wewre on the level that they could yell. There ware also Rebbes who were very holy, they never yelled or spoke loud -- it is also very holy, I wish I would ------------------------------------------------------------------------ START PAGE 4 OF RSC TYPESCRIPT B13 be on that level, but the Samzer was on the level that he could even yell. He could even hit you. It was the greatest thing in the world if the Samzer would hit you. This yidele coame and he had no children, so people told him if he can get the holy Samzer to hit you it is the greatest thing in the world. When he would hit you he would say, "You Galgan!" Galgan in Polish actually means like garbage, but the truth is Galgan he meant actually the posek in Shir HaShirim HEBREW SCRIPT, SORT OF: ABL LChvsI GvNL Gal Gan -- It is the combination Gimel Nun, Gimel Lamed . Galgan can mean gan nol. It is a posked which means, My bride is like a closed garden. That means nothing can reach her, it is so holy. (B13-4A) He wanted everything to be covered so he said you gal gan, meaning like you nothing, but he was meaning gan nol, that you are so holy that nothing can reach you. So he would hit you, greatest thing in the world. A boy I was studying with at MESIFTA [ REFERENCE: 'Mesifta'. I have no idea. Most likely a Yeshiva in New Joisy or possibly Bwooklyn, but possibly a School of Applied Auto Mechanics in Hoboken. Just a guess, as Lois Lane would say in TV Superman. ] One year told me that his granfather had to go to the army. Now it it bad, but in those days it was worse because a Jew wasn't treated like a soldier, he was treated like dirt. He never had a chance to be anything, he would have to clean the bathrooms [ that means, in Czarist days, put new cow poop in the privy ditch ] and everything ... [ 3 dots typescript, indicating, most likely not an elision of text, but merely a pause, presumably while the Rabbi caught a contact_high from the attendant hippies ... ] it was really bad. So his granfather was mamash strong, a husky, real strong man. So he came to the Samzer and he says, please do something for me. So the Samzer looked him, and he out out with his stick, and he said "You Galgan!_". He says, "You look to me like you can hardly breathe" That means already this is it! He is husky, strong like a lion. He comes to the physical examination. The doctor looks at him and says, "He looks to me like he can hardly breathe, you better call the ambulance fast and take him home." So the soldiers came, and carried him out on a stretcher and took him home. . [2-dots text, presumably indicating, not an elision of text, but merely that the page was pooped upon by a doti fly. ] It is a true story. The OLD BOBOV REBBE had the stick of the Samzer. You have to be on the highest level to be able to hit someone. The BOBOVER told us that his father only had the stick in his hand on very special occasions, maybe on Purim, or at the wedding of his daughters. [ REFERENCE: 'Old Bohover Rebbe' and 'Bobover'. I don't know, but almost anyone who reads this does. R. Shlomo would use the form 'the Old X REbbe' for the predecessor of the 'X' Rebbe who was chugging shots of schnapps whilst R. Shlomo was doing likewise. So eg 'the Lubavitcher Rebbe' was R. Menachem_Mendel__Schneerson , who was the Lubavitcher Rebbe during R. Shlomo's Ministry, and 'the Old Lubavitcher Rebbe' was his predecessor, from whom R. Shlomo learned and if memory serves received smicha. ] At the last wedding it was really very special. A few weeks ----------------------------------------------------------------------- START PAGE 5 OF RSC TYPESCRIPT B13 before the War was the biggest holiest wedding in Poland before the War. The Bobover Rebbe's daughter. In Bobov was almost like an army. He had thousands of Chasidim sitting on horses, with special uniforms, ride out to greet the bride, and thousands of young people on horses ride out to greet the groom too, and the Bobover, who was way out, knew science and enginering, and invented a whole thing like psychedelic lights, lights would go on the chosen, cala, chosen_cala, way out lights. The Old Rebbe invented it by himself There were about five or ten thousand poeple at the wedding, there were tents all over. The Bobover Rebbe was so high, and maybe he saw already what was going to happen (b13-5a) so su8ddenly he got on the table, and he says, like saying right now I am on the level that I can hit you, he said I want everybody to run past, and I will hit everybody on the head. So he was standing on the table, and can you imagine, ten thousand yidela, not running, but slowly, dancing, and he was hitting everybody over head. (b13-5a1) The [ succeessor ] Bobober said Yom Kippur was nothing compared. Everybody got hit on his head and his soul was mamash clean. The Bobobver Rebbe said, the most precious thing he was guarding when the Nazi's came in, was the Samzer Rebbe stick. (B13-5b) So at one time he was sitting on a train and he put the stick on top. And then suddenly the Nazis came on the train and they dragged all the Jews off the train. So he just opened the window and he jumped out and ran, and he forgot the stick. But he said the Meshiach is coming one day, and he will bring it back. A holy stick like that doesn't get lost. (B13-5c) OK. Now he starts talking aobout: [ So this Typescript apparently starts in the middle of class, where R. Shlomo is teaching from some old holy book, maybe Reb Nachman. ] If your are, ( G_d forbid ) by nature always getting angry (B13-5d) how to break it. He says: You have to know that the door for holiness is always open. The door never closes. Even if you are so much drowned in getting angry, and so much drowned in evil, the truth is, the door is always open. It is unbelievealby easy, if you really want to you can do it. Not only can we do it not to be angry, we can lift ourselves up to be completely the opposite. Can mamash turn ourselves over to the other side. (b13-5e) -------------------------------------------------------------------- START PAGE 6 OF RSC TYPESCRIPT B13 The Gmora says: The difference between doing right and doing wrong is like this: A person has free choice, if you want to do wrong you can do wrong. You can do wrong, but G_d doesn't help you to wrong. The door is open, do your wrong thing. With holiness, G_d not only lets you do right, 'HE' helps you. The way G_d helps us is unbelieveable. Even the lowest of the lowest, and the ugly of the ugly, and the dirty of the dirty, can reach the highest level in the world. (b13-6a) (b13-6a) [ Oh yeah? Says who? Cf. Jesus' Wedding Shirt parable. Best's I recollect, Ram Dass once wrote that his guru said of LSD, it lets you go up to the highest level -- sartori or samadhi or whatever -- but you can't stay there. ] But then he says, don't wait until tomorrow, because very day it gets harder. Remember, REB ELIMELECH says, The best time to work on that is when you are eighteen. As much as the door of holiness is open, don't kid yourself, he says, it is hearbreeakingly hard. You need so much concentration you cannot let go for one second. Until you make it your second nature. The first few weeks you have to concentrate day and night. Let's say you are working on not getting angry. You have to be like holding on to the reins of horse, when it is wild, running down a hill. You can't let go for one second. The moment you let go, that's it. So you have to hold the reins of your own horse. But then slowly slowly you are not going down hill anymore, you go straight then you can let go a little bit. Then maybe you reach the level that you only have to remember once a day that you shouldn't get angry, or maybe once a week. But regardless, even the holiest person has to remind himself al lot of times. It is so easy to fall over. So the holy SEER OF LUBLIN wrote down for himself what he had to do. He always had a sheet of paper in front of him. He would glance at the sheet of paper so he wouldmn't forget what he had to do. And on the sheet or paper it said, I made up my mind that I should never forget that I am not permitted to get angry. (b13-6b) (b13-6b) [ Sarah Cornelia said: Whenever I had a lot to do -- housework or leading a long white_water kayak or whatever -- I would play ping_pong with my husband. I would lose. I always get very angry when I lose, so that would give me the energy to do my work. ] That means he was thinking of it all the time. First of all, a person has to know what is wrong with him. You have to examine yourslf like a doctor. If you don't know what is wrong with you ... [ 3-dots typescript, presumably indicating, not an elision of text, but merely that the RAbbi inhaled a bit of laughing gas -- Nitrous Oxide -- from a mini_tank that someone forgot to turn off. We used to carry them around in our backpacks, in case the chicks put the pot in the Oregano jar and then got stoned and forgot which was which. Needless to say we could not go into the kitchen, because that was Chicks' Work. That was in the Good Old Days, "When men were men and women were girls."] Let's say for instance, I am always getting angry, and I think that my sickness is anger. Maybe my sickness isn't even anger. Maybe my sickness is jealousy. I am only getting angry because I am jealous of [ last two words on line cut off by faulty xerox, though someone who digs type fonts could reconstructd them. ] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- START PAGE 7 OF RSC TYPESCRIPT B13 who is doing something or who gets a little bit of attention. So I will put my whole heart into anger, but it won't cure me, because this is not what makes me explode. So first you have to know excactly what it is. Maybe your sickness is stupid pride, you think you are the greatest person in the world: whenever you come in to a room everyone should get up before you, and when they don't, you get angry. But it is not that you suffer from anger, you suffer from arrogance. So he says: First of all you have to know exactly your sickness. Then you have to know exactly why you got sick: Look back, because when you were born you weren't sick. What happened to you. When did you start being sick. The most important thing is, after you know exactly what your sickness is you have to find holy books and learn about that sickness -- do research. But don't read it - - mamash yell it out. Yell it out very loud until you hear yourself. This is because it is very easy to yell and make someone else listen, but to listen yourself, sometimes you have to yell so loud you are just drowning your ears out. And then he says: When you really work on your sickness every little thing you see in a book which can help you, you have to yell for days and days, yell it out loud until it gets into you. Every day you have to think how good it is when you are not spiritually sick. For a few minutes let your soul feel how good it is when you don't get angry, when you are not jealous, when you are not arrogant. Let your soul be healthy for a few minutes. The beautiful thing about the soul is that if you want it to, it can mamash be healthy for a few minutes. Let's say on Shabos for one day we are not sick, we are really not sick. Then maybe the sickness comes back. On Shabos we are not sick. (b13-7a) (b13-7a) [ This is the teaching: On Shabos, even souls in hell are released for Shabat. And that teaching stood me in good stead when I was in hell. I'm sittin in the hot spring across the Rio Grande bridge in Arroyo Hondo, after a night of familiar nightmares, and this Indian shows up, and sits down, and after a bit he says, she was in hell yesterday. Or maybe he says, he was in hell yesterday. PVK used to say, hell is right here, on earth. The Prophet Muhammed, Peace be unto him, says, I can't say where, 'Sometimes G_d is as close as the nose of your camel.' ] It is not like a body, when it is sick it is always sick. You cannot say, G_d, let me be healthy for five minutes, then I'll limp again, it just doesn't go. The body is not on that infinite level. The soul is on the level that for five minutes I can just taste a little bit of bieng well. This feeling of letting your soul feel what it is to be well, has to be completely ----------------------------------------------------------------------- START PAGE 8 OF RSC TYPESCRIPT B13 whole. Let's say for instance, although it may sound stupid, imagine how would I feel if I would be as holy as the Baal Shem, or be on the level of the Silent Rebbe. Gevalt. What a pleasure. Just pleasure. What a beautiful life. (b13-8a) (b13-8a) [ Well, to be Enlightened is not necessrily a beautiful life in every respect. Jesus of Natzereth had a few rough hours. And PVK once remarked, maybe inadvertantly, "my crown is thorns -- but I am dancing" (Zenith, closing lecture I think, about mid-90s ] The way I would look at people, the way people would look at me. The way everything would be. Let it be complete, get it into you. Later on, he says, when you get into this, whenever you want to get angry this thought will stick to you and you will see how good it is when I don't get angry, how holy it is when I do right. It will get you so much that you won't have to work so hard. Then, you simply have to pray over every little thing. You have to cry and beg G_d, Please I want to get well. Another thing which is very strong, is to keep your mind clear. The mind has to be clear all the time. Imagine we meet people, and our mind is really very seldom clear, we don't know what they are saying, we don't know where they are now, we don't know where we are. We are not clear. We are coming in with frequency of notions. (b13-8b) (b13-8b) [ I don't know what RSC means by 'frequency of notions', but maybe it is something like notion -- Hindu, I suppose -- of 'monkey mind' -- the opposite of what is called -- in Buddhism I think -- 'one-pointedness.'] If we could mamash train our minds just to be clear. On top of all this, he says: If you want to do it, don't just do it for one day and then stop. If you are going on the path just go all the way. A lot of people oculd do it for one day. Like taking one pill and thinking you are cured. You have to take it for a long time. What did we learn before, [ REFERENCE: this lecture, above ] about doing good and doing wrong. Doing wrong you just have free choice, you can do it. But when you do right, not only you have choice, but G_d helps you. So even if you are the lowest of the lowest, G_d is with you all the way -- you can do it, but you have to do it. [ RSC ON THE HALF-SHEKEL, FROM TYPESCRIPT B13, 1/17/72 No further info on place etc. of this teaching available ] Everybody has to give half a shekel for the korbonot. There is a whole maschete callled Shekalim. [ CROSS-REFERENCE; Reuven Praeger, in Jerualem, revived this mitzva, in full detail, in the late 1990's. For details see his Website, which hitch_hikes on www.israelvisit.com , as I recall. QV AND SEND IT TO HIM] Everybody has to give it. Rosh Chodesh Adar the holy court would send our messengers to every city and they would sit in the market place and everybody would come give them half a shekel. You are not permitted to give more. If a rich man says, I want to give ---------------------------------------------------------------------- START PAGE 9 OF RSC TYPESCRPT B13 (LAST PAGE) money for the whole city they would say it is very sweet of you, but we don't need that. We need Moishele's half_a_dollar, and Yankele's half_a_dollar. Does anybody remember, if you get angry on Shabos, how many averas do you do. First of all, you make a fire. Second, idol worship. All week long you are not permitt4ed to speakd idle words, (b13-9a) but on Shabos espcially it says, V__ Y_DBeR DaBaR , [ REFERENCE: I have no idea. It seems to be saying, and to speak speech, #l2 as_It_is_said, "talk the talk [ and walk the walk ] (USA contemporary Afro_American slang, often said of Bill Clinton ] ] on Shabos you are only permitted to speak holy words. When you get angry you definitely don't speak holy words. So you are doing two averas, you are making a fire, and you speak idle words. Is it permitted to speak idle words generally -- No. Where does it come from: In QRIAT SheM'a it says, V_ShiNaHTaM L_BaNeI_Kha V_DiBaRTa BaM [ And sharply to your sons, and speak them ... ] Metsudah: "And you shall teach them sharply to your cildren, and discuss them" You should speak BaM , in them. [ EXEGESIS: I suppose this is BaM , B_iM , in them ] The Gmora says you should only speak Torah and not nonsense. So when a person talks nonsense he is literally doing an avera. But on Shabos when you talk nonsense you are doing two averah, first of all, DiBaRTa BaM, and then it says , V_DBaR DBaR [ TRANSCRIBER NOTES; END OF TEACHING ] -------------------------------------------------------------------- sa, Campra, CH-6718 Olivone -- 6 Sept '05 -- 2 Elul -- =================================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DEEP_6 OF COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY -- APPENED, AND ALSO FILED OFF TO =scsa_b13 (as_it_is_said, (USA 1940's), "No Comments from the Peanut Gallery") THAT IS, FOOTNOTES (sa) TO SC_B13 -- FOLLOW ("teach the fallow fellow to follow the furrow" -- someone's translation of some famous Roman Poet who nobody remembers -- Virgil if memory serves ) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== CUT HERE: ==================================================================== DEEP_6 OF COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY -- (as_it_is_said, (USA 1940's), "No Comments from the Peanut Gallery") THAT IS, FOOTNOTES (sa) TO SC_B13 -- FOLLOW ("teach the fallow fellow to follow the furrow" -- someone's translation of some famous Roman Poet who nobody remembers -- Virgil if memory serves ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (b13-1a) [ -- I am told that the present Bailer Rebbe is the Rav of the Lugano (Switzerland) Synagouge, that he has published aboutr 70 sformim, and that in recent years he has become quite concerned with helping Baal Tchuva's So anyhow, in Lugano the Dan Hotel is Glatt Kosher, on the Lake two doors down from the Grande Hotel Splendide -- you can use their swimming pool if the Lake is too cold. Me I stay between the two, at the Chinese Restaurant. The rooms are in an old house seperate from the Restaurant, and they got good vegetable soup and green tea too. Nice people. The Dan Hotel is run by Mr. Moshe Gefen and his wife and family, and also a woman named Leah, who thinks she is not Jewish though she sure looks like she just got off the boat from the shtetl -- one of the better neighborhoods -- and was surely right there at Mt. Sinai. They are very good people, make everyone feel at home even us semi_reformed hippies, and serve a great Shabat morning kiddish. Open Pesach through Sukot, ] (b13-2a) [ After which he said, if it weren't were my great humility, I would turn you into a toad, and turned him into a brown_and_white mouse. Next week, immediately after havdala, the Hasidische Mafia wrote to the Learned Elders of Zion, and said, stop scribbling and forget the Czar, we're going to discover America and all move to Miami Beach in Condos. ] (scb13-3a) [ 'bastard' = 'mamzer', the child of a married woman by a man other than her husband. There are very strict halachot restricing the status of such children and their descendents, but the biblical term 'mamzer', unlike the the English term 'bastard' at least as far back as Shakespearean English (Cf. eg Shakespeare's play, King Lear), and extending to contemporary USA slang, is not necessarily derogatory. ] (B13-4A) TEXT: It is a posked which means, My bride is like a closed garden. That means nothing can reach her, it is so holy. [ No doubt. And also there is a physical_emotional meaning, as in 'My Secret Gardem^. amd as om "Come all ye fair and tender maidens / who flourish in your prime / Keep clean and neat, keep your garden sweet / Let no man steal your thyme." (English folk song.) ] (b13-5a) [ Nu, so why did they not all sell the horses and get on boats. ] (B13-5b) [ Oh really. Better you should guard a few rubles and buy a new stick. I mean, someone with psychic power can do tricks with anything, and someone without, can't do tricks with anything. ] (B13-5c) [ More precisely, a holy stick goes to compost, but a holy person does not get lost. ] (B13-5d) [ In the Middle Ages they spoke of 'Four Temperaments' -- Ballanchine made a ballet with that title -- that was Choloric, Phlegmatic, and I don't recall the other two -- Melancholic and Sanguine, maybe. So anyhow, 'always getting angry' is of course Choloric, as any idiot should know. Incidentally, and speaking as an Israeli, I mus say that it is a vile canard -- that means, a dirty duck -- that Israelis are by nature rude. Nothing could be further from the truth. Why, the very possibility could not even be imagined, except of course by an absolute idiot. ] (b13-5a1) [ Don't look like it did much good. Five years later most of 'em was blowing in the wind, I suppose. So if he was so doggone high, why didn't he sell all the horses and put 'em all on boats. So maybe that holy stick wasn't worth a box of matches. I mean, a real Prophet always reads the New York Times. In time. ] (b13-5e) [ Anger is good. Better even than greed. Anger gives me the energy to do things. PVK says: Move from rage to outrage. I mean, let us forget all this sweetness_and_light and cultivate the 7 Deadly Sins. I mean, a Wise Old Man is "cute and sweet" but 8 out of 10 sure wish they had a bit more Lust. And as for their wives, its 9 out of 10. More or less, counting Mistresses. Like Aristotle said, a vice is just a virtue taken to excess. Or I suppose you could say too, a vice in deficient quantity, as_it_is_said "My get_up_and_go just got up and went." (USA folk saying, mid_20th century. ) That's Sloth, Roth. ] (b13-6a) [ Oh yeah? Says who? Cf. Jesus' Wedding Shirt parable. Best's I recollect, Ram Dass once wrote that his guru said of LSD, it lets you go up to the highest level -- sartori or samadhi or whatever -- but you can't stay there. ] (b13-6b) [ Sarah Cornelia said: Whenever I had a lot to do -- housework or leading a long white_water kayak or whatever -- I would play ping_pong with my husband. I would lose. I always get very angry when I lose, so that would give me the energy to do my work. ] (b13-7a) [ This is the teaching: On Shabos, even souls in hell are released for Shabat. And that teaching stood me in good stead when I was in hell. I'm sittin in the hot spring across the Rio Grande bridge in Arroyo Hondo, after a night of familiar nightmares, and this Indian shows up, and sits down, and after a bit he says, she was in hell yesterday. Or maybe he says, he was in hell yesterday. PVK used to say, hell is right here, on earth. The Prophet Muhammed, Peace be unto him, says, I can't say where, 'Sometimes G_d is as close as the nose of your camel.' ] (b13-8a) TEXT; imagine how would I feel if I would be as holy as the Baal Shem, or be on the level of the Silent Rebbe. Gevalt. What a pleasure. Just pleasure. What a beautiful life. (b13-8a) [ Well, to be Enlightened is not necessrily a beautiful life in every respect. Jesus of Natzereth had a few rough hours. And PVK once remarked, maybe inadvertantly, "my crown is thorns -- but I am dancing" (Zenith, closing lecture I think, about mid-90s ] (b13-8b) [ I don't know what RSC means by 'frequency of notions', but maybe it is something like notion -- Hindu, I suppose -- of 'monkey mind' -- the opposite of what is called -- in Buddhism I think -- 'one-pointedness.' ] (b13-9a) [ OK, this point rests on a pun on idol / idle , but it is a harmless pun. That is, speaking idle words -- bavardage (Fr.) -- may in a reasonably deep sense be said to be idolatry -- "for they bow down to emptiness and the Void" (Siddur, Alenu) -- and R. Zalman has an article where he says, this is not the Void of Zen #l4 -- and also, PVK says, the Void is not empty, it is, on the contrary the realm of all_possibilities -- but they are all intermixed -- #l5 I guess maybe that's tohu_ v_bohu #l2 so I think of the crowd at a chic disco, swaying and bowing down under flashing red lights to that hellish musical noise #l1] ====================================================================== sa, Campra, CH-6718 Olivone, -- 2 Elul -- =======================================================================