6—THE BULLETIN—Thursday, January 13, 1977
(Continued from Page 2)'
Once I spoke to Ben Gurion. It was '68. He asked me, **What do you do? I said "I'll tell you. Whit your messengers destroy, I am trying to rebuild."
He got very angry. So I said, "Listen, holy brother," or whatever I called him, I will tell you something. Whien you come to America you talk to Truman,-to Nixon, to whomever it was there. You talk to the rich people. You don't talk to the kids. But I am telling you straight. The people you send out from Israel smell so bad that if I wouldn't come sometimes to -deoderize the air a little bit, it would be suffocating."
When I walked out , you know, he said to me: "You know something," he said, "I think you have a great soul."
find a fSottor at end of world
But what I want to tell you is, you know it's very beautiful to say, "I care for the Holy Land. I care for the people of Israel.'' If I care for the. people of Israel then I should be trying to get all the kids back. And I should do anything ...
Listen, G-d forbid, if somebody's child is sick and there is one doctor, an Eskimo at the end of the world who says I can save your child's life, I am going to that Eskimo. And if I am not going to that Eskimo, I am a murderer.
And if I am standing before the establishment for 15 years begging them, pouring my heart out all over the world, all over Israel, and. telling them, "Let's do something," and they don't want to, it's not I who is the murderer, it's they.
The day when the Meshiach is coming I am going to take all those people and cry my heart out before G-d. They are not the Jewish leaders. They know what's going on in the world! Kaplan—I know that there has been some criticism of yon by the Orthodox establishment. One aspect that was mentioned was that yon believed it was Pilniach Nefesh, that to save a soul, to save the soul of a Jewish girl, it was permitted to call her up to the Torah. Is this correct? Carlebach—Now you see what I said ... I wquld maybe not do it in a Shul. You see in my house in San Francisco it's not a Shul, it's a hospital. My Shul is a hospital. In my Shul in New York I don't do it either. But the House of Love and Prayer in San Francisco is absolutely a hospital. This is where I fix souls to reconnect them to Yiddishkeit.
And if a girl comes to me and she says mammesh, "This week I've got to be called up to the Torah, I need strength."
Do you know what kind of kids I was dealing with in the House? Drug addicts. Okay, today it's a little bit better, today, the kids are more spiritual. But in those days kids were just in the dumps.
I will tell you something very strong. There was a girl who was like . . . like prost. Every night with somebody else. Okay she comes to the House
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and mammesh she needs desperately something to make her strong. She realiy wants to become a woman again, a holy woman, a Jewish daughter.
She comes to me and says, "Shloimeh, please call me up to the Torah." And I want you to know, if you would have heard her saying the Bracha over t|ie Torah . . . gevaldt was she promising G-d, begging G-d 'please give me strength.'
Who am I to take this away from her?
You see . . . What do you know what's going on in young people's hearts, how much they want, how much they need and how much they are crying before G-d: "Give me a little bit of strength!"
And I will tell you something else. If this same girl marries a non-Jew the next day, or goes to India, nobody will say one word. But if she was called up to the Torah, it's terrible!
Our judgment is just so perverted, absolutely perverted of
what's important, what is unimportant, what are we talking about, what we call "Jewish," what we call "not Jewish," what we call "Orthodox" or not.
Everybody is against making women into Rabbis, right? Basically, I wanted to open a Yeshiva for girls too. Maybe I will not call them Rabbis. Maybe I will call them "messengers." But I think it's time for girls to . . .they have a strong thing to say. And thank G-d, G-d is opening gates for us.
And let's be realistic; haven't we goofed off on the education of our daughters? Gevaldt have we goofed off!
Nobody folks eboat iho soul
Kaplan—No wonder the estab-lislunent thinlcs you^re a threat. Carlebach — Disgusting, you know. And again I'll tell you, this same girl, when this girl becomes a Bishop, nobody will talk about her. "So she left Judaism." If this girl becomes a Rabbi, and I don't mean a political Rabbi who talks about Carter or Nixon on Yom Kippur, but a girl who mammesh will then stand before the Yiddin and 'say, "Yiddin, mammesh, Shuva Yisroel Ha Shem Elokecha" . . . "Let's return to G-d" . . . Listen we had prophetesses before. Miriam was a prophetess. Why not? Why not?
You know why not, because we are stupid. You see. The way we look at the world; what we are talking about... we are hot talking about the soul. The more unimportant a thing is, the more
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we are talking about it. Kaplan—Have you met any girls that you thuik have the capacity to become Rabbis? Carlebach—Tremendous. Tremendous. You know, I started the Yeshiva a few years ago in San Francisco for boys and girls. The Yeshiva lasted half a year. Then it folded up, I'll tell you why. I spoke to some rich people in New York. They said, "We are giving you $15,000."
A gevaldt. A gevaldt. The same people give $200,000 for nothing and I told them, in 1970, we could have saved the world at that time. At that time it was only ehe beginning that kids broke away to become Hindus and Yogas and all kinds of things.
But you know it's a joke for them. You see if I tell them I need $100,000 to plant trees in a Kibbutz, that they understand. If I say I need $100,000 for a new home' for the aged in Beersheva, that they understand too.
You see what is wrong with the Establishment basically is that they only understand when there is a threat for Jews to be wiped out physically. But they are not aware that there is a threat in the world to wipe us put spiritually. And that they don't Want to comprehend. T will give ifnohey for anything physical. I can tell soniebody: "A Yiddele is hungry, he has 12 children, give me $10,000." He will understand.
But if I tell him there is a Yiddele, and he has 10 children and they will all become Goyim, give me money to save his children . . . No!
You see, because during all that time we lived in Ghettos, till the last 150 years, the only threat was really a physical threat. It's only in the last 150 years that the threat has become spiritual.
Kaplan—And we haven't learned to.cope with it?
Carlebach—We just ignore it. "Mach zach nisht vissendick,'' you know. Yoii see, you can tell somebody, "There is a Yeshiva, there's some 50 creeps learning, "^and he understands that's part of the show; Jewish people, we need a Yeshiva. • You know the famous story about the rich man, who came to a Yeshiva, looking for a son-in-law. So they gave him the best boy. The best boy comes to his house to marry his.^ughter, but he has ho daughter. He says to him, "What do you mean you want a son-in-law and you have
no daughter?" He says, "I will tell you something. I have everything. I have a cow, I have a horse; so I thought, let me have a son-in-law too . . . 'loz er zach dreyen,' you knowy let him walk
around."
You see, they think we have everything, we have creeps, we have meshugoyim; let there be a Yeshiva also. It's meaningless to them.
And something else! You can get money for Israel, it's far away. For Russian Jews, it's far away. But you walk up to a rich guy and say, "Listen brother, I want to save your son, your son . . . your daughter '. . .No!
But the question is, are you
that low and creepy that you would rather let your son and daughter go to the dumps than to save their souls? What kind of a father are yoU? What kind of a mother?
md mother . •
But this is the kind'of father and mother we are dealing with today. The question is only, "Is the Establishment better than they or worse?" Is the Establishment ready to say, "Let's save our children." And let's be honest, the Establishment's own children are going to the dogs. _
I wanted to tell you more about my Yeshiva. Okay. I announced all over the place we were opening a Yeshiva. Cars— and that was 1970 when the Hippie movement was strong like mad—cars from all over the country were on their way to San Francisco . . . kids coming to learn. There was a whole carload in a van from Boston, kids who wanted to become Buddhists. And they heard me somewhere in a concert . . . So they decided they are going to a Yeshiva to learn . . . quitting everything they have.
A week before the: Yeshiva is supposed to open,, I have one
more meeting with those three rich people.
Okay they decided that $15,-,000 is too much. AH they can give me is $5,000. I had to pay $5,000 the next day for the mortgage.
We were left with no money. And in San Francisco there were no jobs available at that time. How long can you feed, kids?
So slowly, slowly, slowly, some kids remained. The carload of kids from Boston went straight to a Krishna sect.
There was a boy, Mpishele, who came all the way from a little hick town somewhere in Pennsylvania, a little holy Hip-pele. I tried my utmost to keep him going.
You know what he is doing now? He is worshipping fire. He joined some kind of a Buddhist sect who worshipped fire.
Just for this one Moishele, you know; I hate to say bad things, but those people who disappointed me, they are the biggest philanthropists, they give money in the thousands for everything. So just this $10,-000 ...
Kaplan — How many children were there left?
Carlebach—Finally we had 36 people.
Kaplan—36 righteous men? Carlebach—No you see, 36 was
after most of them didn't make it, because. there were no jobs. These 36 were kids who were holding out because they had little jobs. But then just ... no.
Kaplan—You would have had, more^ maybe a hundred had you had ftmds?
Carlebach—I could have had thousands, mammesh thousands. Kids were ready for Yeshiva ... this Yeshiva was good for them because it was so holy. . . . I want you to know, you won't believe it; kids'were learning mammesh day and night ...
I will tell you one story about one boy.
I met this boy. He was living together with a non-Jewish girl. Now the girl was very special and holy. But anyway he says to her, "You know, mammesh, I've got to be a Jew again^ you know." She says, "I will not be in your way. If you want to be a Jew." He says to her, "Not only do I want to be a Jew, I want to become a Rabbi."
Dd you know what it takes out of a boy to break up with a girl? You know, not on an angry or hate level, but mammesh on a loving level . . . "I want to .become a Rabbi!"
This girl would come in every few days to the House and bring him some food. This tboy was living in the Hbusei learning day and night, day and night. Finally it came to a point, he had no job, he needed support. At that time my own funds were also limited. I tried to keep him a little bit.
To make it very, very short, this boy had it in him, mammesh, gevaldt, you know; Gevaldt was he hungry for learning!
The saddest thing is we lost him. A half a year later he got married in a church to this girl. This boy could have been so holy, so great.
I had one girl learning there —I had a few girls but this one girl I tell you—this girl was such a genius, mammesh a genius.
You know the "Maaral" is the deepest depth of Jewish phfl-osophy in learning. I was. learning with the^ kids Maaral. After one week of learning Maaral, this girl had soaked in so much of his way of thinking, that when I asked the question, she knew already what the Maaral is going to answer. And you can walk around Yeshivas and they won*t get it.
I had one boy, you know, one boy. After one week of learn-. ing Gemmorah, he knew so much that in most of the "Tosa-fos" he would ask the question by himself. After one week of learning! I had mammesh gen-iiuses there.
In Israel do you know where the big geniuses are? Not in Yeshivas. The big geniuses are on the street, hanging around, heartbroken. They don't know what to do with themselves. Kaplan—Would you say the potential is tremenddcs? Carlebach—The potential is utmost. Greater than ever. And we are happy with a few crumbis. Kaplan—Do I have your permission io publish all of this or most of Jt?
Carlebach—All of it. ^ank you brother.