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Teachings
and Writings of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach
Shlomo
on Hanukkah
House of Love and Prayer, San Francisco.
Hanukah 5733
We
are standing before G-d, begging the worlds crying out to
the world; let's stop celebrating victories; let's start celebrating
Light. There is some light left in the world. King David said
in the Psalms; Ani Shalom, I am peace. I'm not preaching peace
not talking about peace I am Peace. When the world talks about
peace, they always mean you should peaceful; always the other
one. You can get peace wholesale; not in Moscow, not in Washington,
not in Geneva, only in Yerushalayim. You know I was at the
rally for Israel at City Hall and looked up at the tall buildings,
very tall, very beautiful. But they don't reach heaven. But
there is one little wall in Yerushalayim and when the most
insignificant Jew stands by it and sheds his tears on it,
he reaches heaven, maybe much higher.
Reb
Nachman says that whenever a Jew is going he is on his way
to Yerushalayim. For the Jew there is only one place he can
get peace in Yerushalayim The world won't give him peace.
So we must find it among each other and G-d and Israel. Peace
always has to be between two. Before G-d created the world
He didn't need peace all he needed was Himself. But once He
created the world, He needed peace with the world. We are
the only people who have stopped killing for two thousand
years and even when we did, we did it to survive, and even
then we cried over it.
The
world wants peace, but as far as they are concerned, they
will only have it when we Jews have gone. When the world says
that we have to give up some land, what they are really saying,
and what they really mean is, Jew get out of all the land,
withdraw from the globe. The Jew is reminding the world of
G-d and the world says let me have peace, got off my back.
And so every once in a while the civilized world says let's
have another crusade for G-d. Let's kill in the name of G-d.
And we Jews are once again telling the world If you want to
kill don't do it in G-d's name; do it in your own name. So
when they say Geneva and peace remember Munich, remember the
light of Chanukah telling us that peace is not synomous with
Kissinger synonomous with G-d. Because how can we be at peace
with the world if we are not at peace with G-d?
How
did Judah Maccabee find his great army.? It could be today.
You and I know the truth. The Greeks were a highly civilized
people. Many people still believe in the Greek civilization.
We spend more time learning about them then we do most any
other civilization in school. So the civilized Greeks had
a few sweet things. They decided that a Jewish bride on the
night of her wedding, must spend the first night the soldiers;
and pulling Jews off the streets to worship idols is a very
civilzed thing to do. So finally the older Jews said, let's
die for G-d, and Judah Maccabee said, no, let's fight for
G-d. He went right down to the pagan temples, where, of course,
the Jewish youth were. And he grabbed them and shouted at
them, What's going here? How long will you worship pagan idols?
And he asked one boy what would you do to bring light back
into the Temple and he said, I'd give my life. That was Judah
Maccabee's army. So I ask, Let's become a great army; let's
kindle the Light.
It
says "shelo yihbe neiro l'olam v'ed", the light
will burn forever. G-d swore to us, if there would be such
a thing as the depths of G-d, then from the deepest of depths
of G-d, thru His very Existence, He swore to us that the Light
would burn forever.
All
the holidays extend from the night to the day. Pesach -- Matzo
we eat night and during the day. On Succos we sit in the Succoh
both at night and during the day. Chanukah is one holiday
where the whole ceremony is only at night. Chanukah gives
us the strength to bear the sometimes long, sometimes blackest
of nights. But G-d swore to us that in the morning the Light
will be burning.
Copyright
© by the Shlomo Carlebach Foundation
Teachings
and Writings of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach
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