Wednesday, October 28, 2015

R' Shlomo Carlebach - Yahrzeit 16 Cheshvan

Remembering R' Shlomo Carlebach on his 21st yahrzeit 

A Niggun is a Chassidic melody, often wordless and repeated several times, which is intended to express and stir one’s soul. Considered a path to higher consciousness and transformation of being.


The Story of the Krakow Niggun




Carlebach performing ''Krakow Niggun''


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you so very much Devorah,
This is so wonderful what you have posted. Have always loved Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's music.

Hashem bless you and yours.

sc

Dov Bar-Leib said...

NO! NO! NO!, and I have the actual cassette tape of what he said as the intro. to the Crakow Niggun!! The CD does NOT have the intro. on it as the cassette tape does. And he clearly says the following.

I saw them ....the 6 million, and they came to me (at the Rem"a's synagogue) and asked, "Is this the way? Is this the way to Yerushalayim?? Let's dance!"

You see similar to the prediction of the Klausenberger Rebbe, Rav Shlomo had heard from his Rabbanim that when there are 6 million Jews in Eretz Yisrael, the Final Redemption can commence. There are now 6 million Jews in Eretz Yisrael.

Devorah said...

Thanks for that info Dov.

Dov Bar-Leib said...

And based on what Rav Shlomo said in the introduction to the Niggun, he is even hinting that the 6 million Jews in Eretz Yisrael are gilgulim of those who died in the Shoah, gilgulim or survivors so it seems. If that is the case, then maybe I should be dancing. I think I will dance when Har HaBayit really is b'yadeinu.

Devorah Chayah said...

Dov, at that point, I don't think you'll have a choice any longer. Your legs will dance without you even thinking about it! :-D

Devorah Chayah said...

I heard this on the radio late one night in 1978. I didn't understand a lot of what he was talkign about, but it made me cry to hear it. Twenty years later I converted (for the third time!) after an eighteen year spiritual search. I've never forgotten it. Seeing this here today, it reminded me and I looked forit on youtube. Here it is...

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach - Yossele 1974

Devorah Chayah said...

Or maybe it was ''79 or '80. Somewhere around that time.

Dov Bar-Leib said...

The University in that Yossele story was most likely either St. Louis University, a totally Catholic university, or it was Washington University also in S. Louis. I know this because Rav Shlomo said, "The Rabbi of that City...". There is only one city in the Midwest of the US with a Moreh D'Atra at the time, Rav Shalom Rivkin zt"l.. Rav Rivkin was also the Av Beit Din of the Va'ad HaEir of S. Louis and in full charge of kashrut inspection for the Vaad HaEir for the OV. So he would also have been in charge of overseeing the kashrut at the ecumenical event in Shlomo's story. The only other possibility of a major Midwestern American City with a Rav of its only shul and a major Catholic University would have been Louisville, Kentucky. St. Louis had/ has many shuls but one Chief Rabbi, Rav Rivkin. Plus with a major concert by Rav Shlomo, it would likely have been at a university with a large Jewish student population. That would have been at Washington University. The Archbishop at the time would have been Cardinal Carberry and his Asst. Bishop could have been a guy named Joe.

Interesting fact: Rav Shlomo, before his career as a musician and kiruv specialist blasted off in the early to mid 1960s, was a Melamed at Epstein Hebrew Academy in S. Louis for either one or two years along with doing many other things in the 1950s. Since that was one of the places where he started his life as a professional, he came to S Louis frequently on visits in particular to do concerts at Epstein. Personally for me after he did a concert at the JCCA in S Louis around 1991 or 1992, I engaged in a half hour chat with him about everyone's favorite subject.....the End of Days. He didn't want to stop talking with me, but he had to go. So he invited me to his shul in the Upper West Side of Manhattan where is was far more difficult to have half hour chats with him, but I will always treasure that half hour chat that I had with Rav Shlomo after one of his concerts. Funny, now that I remember, it was right after the First Persian Gulf War, and I remember commenting to him that IF Gog Bush Sr.'s son becomes Governor of Texas, he will likely be elected President in either 2000 or 2004 and will vie to complete the work of his father, President #41, at least in Bavel and ultimately against us. I truly believe that if Rav Shlomo were alive today, he would be a Geulah watcher.

Dov Bar-Leib said...

Rav Bienenfeld, former Rav of Young Israel in St. Louis told me that if it was in the 1970s, the Chief Rabbi of S.Louis was Rav Menachem Zvi Eichenstein zt"l who served in the exact same capacities from 1938 until 1981 that Rav Shalom Rivkin served in starting in 1983. (Sorry for the mistake) The position of Chief Rabbi (Moreh D'Atra) in S. Louis has been discontinued since the death of Rav Rivkin in 2011. I was at his funeral at Shamgar funeral home.

The only other US American city with a Chief Rabbi in the latter half of the 20th Century was in Baltimore on the East Coast. The only other city in North America with a Chief Rabbi until the present day is Montreal, Canada. Rav Gedalia Felder of Toronto seems to have been the Chief Rav of Ontario Province and not specifically Toronto until his passing in the 1990s.

I found this fascinating Wiki article on cities in the world with Chief Rabbis. While several countries or commonwealths do have this position, the United States is not one of those countries. The list at the bottom of the article shows how rare the position is even in American cities.