1.
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach sat in front of the Chanukah candles and cried. And he wasn't the only one who cried in front of the candles that year. Thousands of homes in Israel lit Chanukah candles and were filled with sadness. We are talking about Chanukah 1973, two months after the Yom Kippur War. We are the candles of the winter of '73.
""There is a recording from a concert in Tel Aviv during those days," Arnon Yahel, the man who always finds rare Carlebach recordings, wrote to me. "Rabbi Shlomo was greatly influenced by the war and performed for soldiers during it. After the war, he visited the wounded, and a few days after Sukkot, he arrived at Rambam Hospital in Haifa at the bedside of a soldier who was very seriously injured and lost his eyesight when his tank burned down.
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""The doctor told Rabbi Shlomo that he needed to be given motivation to live. Rabbi Shlomo told the wounded soldier: I promise you, the Messiah will soon come, and you will be the first to see him with your own eyes. The soldier told him in despair: By the time that happens, you will probably forget about it, forget me. Rabbi Shlomo answered him: You know what? I will compose a melody in your honor, and that is what will remind me of you forever. This is how the song 'Oruch Yamim Ishbiaahu Va'arhu Bi Yeshuati' was composed. In that performance, Shlomo refers to all the soldiers who were injured in the war and also speaks in a hint about that soldier. You can literally hear his grief all evening.".
2.
We'll come back to that recording later. But let's go back even further, to a performance that took place after another war, in a different atmosphere. In the summer of 1968, right after the Six-Day War.
Even after that war, Rabbi Shlomo appeared before the wounded.
""I want to tell you what happened to me now when I performed almost two months ago in front of soldiers," said Rabbi Shlomo during a performance at Kibbutz Ayelet Hashachar. "It was in a hospital in Ashkelon, and I told the wounded that I composed the melody near the Western Wall, 'Build your house as at the beginning and establish your temple on its foundation.' And there was a wounded guy there, very wounded, with only one leg. Suddenly, when I started singing, he jumped out of bed. When I saw that he was on one leg, of course I jumped off the stage to help him. He leaned on me and we danced. The guy was wounded there in the battle at the Western Wall.
""The doctor told me later that the guy was literally six hours after the surgery, but because he heard that I composed the song near the Western Wall, listen, the Western Wall is his... He bought the Western Wall with his blood, with his soul... So he simply couldn't help himself and started dancing. Gentlemen, understand: It's worth it if the Western Wall is where everyone stands and dances like crazy, really. A person who isn't crazy now is really crazy... Go ahead... And God bless you, you have two legs..."'
3.
I don't know how many of you know how to sing the melody of "Build your house as at first, and establish your sanctuary on its place," the song to which Rabbi Shlomo danced for long minutes with that amputated soldier in the Ashkelon hospital and later also with the kibbutzniks of Ayelet Hashachar. But the next song that Rabbi Shlomo sang there, "Am Yisrael Chai," there is hardly a Jew in the world who doesn't know it. And no matter how far away it is.
I already wrote here in the early days of the war how amazing his comeback was. How such an old song (almost 60 years old) returns not only to be a hit but also to arouse excitement, a new excitement, that wasn't there before. Everywhere they suddenly sing "Am Yisrael Chai." At weddings. At alliances. In hospitals. At prayer rallies. At the front, of course. And with what intention!
And suddenly I thought about the banal-exciting words. Wait, what is their origin? Who said it to whom and in what context? Of course I remembered from kindergarten that it was something related to Joseph in Egypt, but there it is a little different. There it is said in the singular. "I am Joseph, is my father still alive?" he asks his brother at that moment. So how did it become plural in the song? And what is the connection to "the people of Israel alive"?
So here is Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's explanation of his most famous song, a song that he not only composed but also wrote his own lyrics, or at least arranged them: "Gentlemen, this is a tune that I composed about a year and a half ago," he told the members of Kibbutz Ayelet Hashachar. "I performed in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It was on Purim, and believe me, gentlemen, it was one of the holiest nights of my life. Of course, the youth there don't have much Judaism. They have almost nothing. And we danced... We didn't dance on earth, we danced in the sky. We danced almost until dawn.".
4.
""Afterwards I returned to the hotel," Carlebach said excitedly about the meeting with the youth far beyond the Iron Curtain, "of course I couldn't sleep. How can you sleep on such a holy night? And I wanted to compose a song in honor of the Jewish youth in the world, but especially for the youth there, in Russia, in Czechoslovakia. Holy souls who want to be here in Israel, hopefully tomorrow... and I felt that something happened between me and them. I felt that I asked them a question, and I felt that they were asking me something too.
""Gentlemen, there is a verse in the Torah in Genesis, when the righteous Joseph saw his brothers, after so many years, the first question was: 'Is our father still alive?' And the answer was: Yes, our father is still alive. And also, gentlemen, we find another very beautiful verse. The righteous Joseph asked his brothers: 'Do you have a brother?' Do you know that you have brothers and sisters? Are you full of love as a Jew should be? Gentlemen, I felt when I came there to sing with the youth, that they were asking me a very simple question. They were asking me: Is our father still alive? Is it true that we have a father in heaven, and if so, why doesn't he help? But I shouted at the top of my voice: 'Yes, our father is still alive!' Just one more hour. One more night. Our father is still alive!
""And do you know what I asked them? I asked them: Do I have a brother? Are you still brothers and sisters? Are you still Jews? And do you know what they answered? The answer was: 'The people of Israel are alive!' A Jew can be slaughtered, burned, but a Jew cannot be killed. A Jew is alive. Wherever he is, the people of Israel are alive. Gentlemen, we are the chosen people. There is something holy in every Jew, something immense. The people of Israel are alive. Gentlemen, I composed this a year and a half ago, but now, after the Six-Day War, the truth is that the whole world is full of 'The people of Israel are alive.' The meanest person in the world knows that the people of Israel are alive. And because the people of Israel are alive - our father is still alive. So gentlemen, when I sing the word 'Alive!' I simply want something to happen here. But loudly.".
And Karlibach begins to sing the opening to the song (which is less sung today), with the question and answer: "Is our father still alive? Alive! Is our father still alive? Alive! Is our father still alive, is our father still alive, is our father still alive!...""
5.
And back to the sad Chanukah of the post-Yom Kippur War, and actually to this Chanukah of the Simchat Torah War. Throughout the entire performance at Tzvata, Carlebach returns again and again to the war and the dead and wounded soldiers. We hear his grief throughout the evening. And the audience's. 2,222 soldiers were killed in less than three weeks, from Yom Kippur to the ceasefire on the eve of Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan. 7,251 were wounded. 294 were taken prisoner.
But Carlebach doesn't stay with the sorrow and mourning. Every song of his and every speech in a performance is filled with pain, but no less with encouragement and great faith. Before the song "Even though I walk through the Valley of Shadow, I will fear no evil, for you are with me," he tells of a warrior who described to him how at the height of the battles in the Golan Heights, "when he was in the real Valley of Shadow," he prayed with this song.
He then searches the crowd for another soldier with whom he corresponded throughout the war. "I hope I'll simply be able to compose a song for every soldier who, God willing, returned safely," he says.
He talks about his song, "Israel Trusts in God," which was very popular during the difficult days of the war: "What a holy verse. Israel trusts in God. What holy soldiers, who sing it all day and all night. Perhaps it was just for our soldiers that King David composed the entire Book of Psalms... Israel trusts in God. We hear the voice of God, the voice of every soldier. We walk down the street and see soldiers and know that they have a secret with God. They trust in God and He trusts them. Israel trusts in God...""
What a brilliant diagnosis, and how true it is today. In view of the videos of strengthening and awakening from the field – perhaps you don't have to be a Carlebach to feel it. This secret has become an open secret.
6.
Back to the rare recording. Here comes the section about Hanukkah, where we began: "Gentlemen, if you will allow me to tell you. I sat with Hanukkah candles and looked at the holy candles and they looked at me. And you know, gentlemen, fire and water do not go together, but tears with fire are the same thing. Suddenly I saw the candles of Hanukkah, the light of the people of Israel, the tears of the people of Israel, the children of the people of Israel. 'A Hanukkah candle – a man and his home.'.
""But where is the house? Where is the fire? Where are the candles? And I thought and thought and thought... Many holy children from the people of Israel lit the candles a year ago, but this year the candles are looking for them and they are not seen. And I also observed, many children from the people of Israel light candles this year but do not see the candles. They no longer have eyes. And I thought and thought, 'I will bless him with a long life.' Our soldiers deserve all the blessings, they deserve a long life full of goodness, but the main thing is 'and I will show him my salvation.' They deserve to see the salvation of God, they deserve to see the light of the Shabbat candle. The candle in the house, the candle of peace and love in the whole world.".
The musicians are already preparing to start playing, but Karlebach has one more point, one more feeling, that is important to him to say before he starts singing and dancing the song with the entire audience of 'Tzavta' for many minutes: "If I may say so, I felt it deeply, deeply: a person who has no eyes - not only does he not have eyes to see, he also does not have eyes to cry. I felt it deeply, deeply in my heart of hearts. A person who has eyes only cries with their eyes, a person without eyes is all about crying.".
""Well, gentlemen, I ask you that with all your heart we bless the entire people of Israel that they will see the salvation of God. Every soldier, young and old, will be privileged to see the salvation of the people of Israel. The time has come for every father and mother to see their children back home. The time has come for every woman to see her husband say Shabbat Shalom to her. The time has come for all the children in the people of Israel to have a father who will bless them, 'May God bless you and keep you.'".
""God deserves to have some peace in the world, we, the people of Israel, deserve to have a sanctuary, we deserve to have some rest, the whole world deserves to have peace. 'And I will show him my salvation.' Okay, gentlemen, I need a lot of accompaniment. Even though it will be a little happy, I want to tell you, Rabbi Mendel of Warka says that the holiness of the people of Israel is expressed in the fact that they can dance with tears. So, gentlemen, with real dedication, with all the strength you have. I will show him my salvation for a long time...""
