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Teachings
and Writings of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach
Tu
B'Shevat Teaching
Until
the month of Shvat everything is dead, because everything
is happening on the inside. According to Beis Shammai, the
first (Rosh Hodesh) is Rosh Hashona (New Year of Trees), and
according to Beis Hillel, the fifteenth. What's happening?
Listen
to this. What's "beitah -- stuffing"? Why can't
I chew? According to the Arizal, every month corresponds to
a letter of the Hebrew alphabet and to one of the twelve tribes.
This month, the letter is "tsaddi" -- whose letters
stand for "Amha Kulom Tszddikim -- Your entire nation
is righteous".
Listen
to this: The holy Izhbetzer says that a Tsaddik is someone
who helps you get your outside shining, who gets your outside
shining into your inside. The inside-- we have it already.
The only thing, sadly enough, when it comes to the outside,
we've lost the shine. An awesome Torah. It's so deep, you
know, it's beyond words. The Tsaddik is one who gives you
the vessels, that your outside should be vessels for your
insides. What happens to most people?
Inside
they're a gevaldt, right? But their outside has absolutely
no vessels for what they have inside. So the inside gets lost.
You know what the Izhbetzer says? The moment we got out of
Egypt we make Moshe Rabbeinu so much trouble. We do it all
wrong. In Egypt we never did anything wrong. Why now? In Egypt,
everything was "inside". Inside, you don't do wrong.
Listen
to this. Imagine, without saying anything bad, when somebody
gets divorced. After getting married or before? You know,
on a joke level, someone once told me, he wants to get divorced
first and then married-- why should he ruin his marriage after?
Ok, it's a joke. But you know what it is? What's marriage?
Marraige is connecting your outside to the inside. Inside,
it's ok, inside I connect. The outside, mamash, day to day
life. Washing negel wasser, brushing your teeth -- outside.
That's what summer is all about. Summer is the inside coming
outside.
Ok
now listen to this. awesome, awesome. Everybody knows that
this month is the fixing of the beginning of the downfall
of everything. The snake tells Eve, Listen to this, deepest
depths. You know what G-d told you not to eat from the Tree
of Knowlege. That's how G-d became G-d. Listen to the deepest
depths. Do you know what brother snake is saying? What do
you think G-d is about. He's a famous kaballist. He took an
intensive wekend in Kaballah. Do you really think G-d is anything
special, something awesome. Nothing. You eat an apple. You
eat a PhD in Kaballah and you have it. What is "stuffing"?
No inside. Just stuff it in. Who cares, right?
Holy
stuffing is the other way around. I want the inside. I want
the holiest to shine into me. I don't want the outside to
interrupt from the inside. G-d should put it into me the way
it really is. Ok, now here comes a really deep Izhbetzer Torah.
What's the difference between a cute little vegetable and
a tree? How come a vegetable is dead when it's done? A tree
can live for hundreds of years. He says the deepest Torah.
The tree prays to G-d, please make something out of me. You
know what's praying the most? And this is one of the top ten
Izhbetzer Torahs. It's good to remember.
How
come one apple tree tastes so good and another one not? When
the apple seed is praying before G-d the very last second
before its completely disintegrated it's the prayer of the
deepest depths. And if its prayer is not so deep...There you
have two trees. I mean the depths of this Torah is awesome.
Gevaldt,
it's the very last prayer we say before we leave the world...
A vegetable prays a cute little prayer. A vegetable grows
and then just stops... But an apple seed, it prays so much.
its every second. It can't stop. The apple seed's prayer is
a "forever" prayer. So the tree lives forever because
this seed prayed so hard. Shvat is the Rosh HaShona L'Elanot,
the new year-- the headquarters-- of the trees.
Now
listen to this, it's so deep. A vegetable when it disappears
doesn't cry. It says, "I had my day. I'm happy. I had
a summer. I had a good time on the earth, saw the sun, went
to the supermarket, ended up on Shabbos in the chulent...
halivei (it should only be). Do you know what the tree is
crying out? The tree is at is end, each year. Listen to this.
The tree when it reaches the end, mamash, all its prayers
are rising up again. The tree prays all its prayers again.
Awesome.
I
want to tell you something very very deep. Imagine I need
coffee. I say, "Please G-d, give me some coffee."
And G-d answers me, "Ok, I'll get you some coffee".
But when I pray for something very deep, my prayer is all
that there is. The more I need something from G-d, the deeper
the depths my prayer touches my neshama. And that prayer touches
all the prayers which I ever prayed in this lifetime and perhaps
other lifetimes as well... what do we know... You want the
real truth. I don't know.
You
see there are two types of Torah -- from the Tree of Knowlege
and from the Tree of Life. The Tree of Knowlege Torah, cute...
the Tree of Life Torah -- beyond choice. Don't choose. Just
stuff it down. I don't have words to explain it -- it's the
deepest Torah... so deep... What is seder night all about?
Seder night, G-d is mamash giving me his light. What is the
deepest freedom in the whole world? You know what our problem
is? We take the deepest holiest thing and we cut them short.
Chew here, chew there, change it all so that it fits... What
is Kadeish about -- the first item in the Seder -- what do
we do with the cup? Everyone is chewing it down from all sides
so that it fit... You want to love someone the most? Stop
chewing! What is the fixing? Can you swallow it without chewing
it?
Take
it in, not like Esau. Esau wants to swallow up the whole world.
What is winter all about? G-d is putting something in the
trees beyond chewing. A tree cannot taste. Rav Tsadok haCohen
tells us that during winter G-d gives us something so holy,
it is beyond our vessels. Since its beyond our vessels, from
Outside it looks -- oy!-- stupid. Reb Tsadok haCohen says
winter is the highest. The only thing, I'm not enough in touch
with my Inside to know what is really so bad.
You
know, sometimes, between people, husband and wife, parents
and children, you're angry at each other, you yell at each
other.. But when you think you are far away, that is the time
when you are really the closest. Reb Nachman says that if
you're so close that you can be angry at somebody, then gevaldt,
are you close! When you're so close that you can even hate
somebody, then gevaldt, are you close, right. Gevaldt you
are so close. And if you're already that close, Rebbe Nachman
tells us, when you are angry at another person, at that moment
G-d gives you the vessels to fix his/her soul, in the deepest,
deepest way. Imagine, we are angry at our children... Gevaldt
we can fix their souls forever.. gevaldt, gevaldt...
Everybody
knows that the tribe of the month of Shvat is Asher. "Barukh
m'banim Asher -- the blessing of Asher is children. You know
when a baby is born, he can't chew. Do you know why? Chldren
don't just want a little milk from their mother at feeding
time. They want their Mother to give them over their heart,
their soul, everything that there is. What is Asher's blessing?
Asher had the most children. You know, sometimes you go to
school and the way they teach you to be a Jew is all Chewing.
It's so stupid because they think children are so stupid.
You know what? The truth is just the opposite! Asher has the
blessing of children.
Asher
has the vessels to stuff children. Don't chew. When it comes
to food, maybe they swallow it. When it comes to something
really deep and holy, they chew it down... to nothing. And
here let me tell you something awesome. You know what it means
to chew? Chew it in, chew it out. Chew it again. Tree of Knowlege.
Why
are Shvat and Adar the last two months of the year? Because
Nisan, Pesah is already the month of Redemption, Moshiach,
no chewing. When it starts to grow again, do you think people
who chew so much are growing? Yeah they grow, but how much
are they growing? Could you say humanity has grown unbelievably
since the second World War? It hasn't grown an inch. Right?
You know it also says of Asher, "Tovl b'shemen raglav"
-- he immerses his feet in oil".
What
does Raglav (feet) really mean -- his habits. It means Asher
has no habits. His wisdom is the deepest wisdom. Everything
Asher does is done with the deepest consciousness. His habit
is to immerse in the Torah. Sadly enough, we do everything
out of habit. And what is my biggest habit, my biggest chewing
-- cutting someone down from Heaven. You can even love as
a habit.
Imagine
I meet a girl, right, and I'm madly in love with her after
one day. After a week I marry her. Ok, now it's a habit. What
happened -- I chewed it down to nothing. But Asher is so deep.
No habits. And listen to this. What do we do -- we give over
to our children our habits. Everything we do is by habit.
I'm a Jew by habit, you be a Jew by habit, too. I love people
out of habit, you love people out of habit, too.
I
bless you, I bless myself, I bless all of Israel , this Tu
B'Shvat, with the blessings of Asher, Barukh m'banim v'tovl
bashemen raglov. I bless us all with the blessings of children,
that we immerse ourselves, we immerse our children in the
deepest depths, beyond habit.
Copyright
© by the Shlomo Carlebach Foundation
Teachings
and Writings of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach
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