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Each year, on the yahrzeit of Reb Shlomo Carlebach zt”l, Rav Shlomo Katz gathers to sing, learn, and remember the light that Reb Shlomo brought into the world.
This collection brings together teachings and stories shared over the years — reflections on the soul of song, the power of love, and the endless invitation to come closer to Hashem through music and heart.
Revisit the melodies, Torah, and spirit of the man who taught us to believe in the holiness of every Jew, and to never stop singing.
איי איי איי איי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי דיי דיי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי ליי, ליי דיי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי ליי דיי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי ליי, ליי דיי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי ליי דיי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי יא יא.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי דיי דיי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי יא יא.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי דיי דיי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי דיי דיי דיי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי דיי דיי דיי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי דיי דיי דיי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי דיי דיי דיי.
היי היי היי, איי ליי ליי ליי ליי, היי היי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי יא יא.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי יא יא.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי ליי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי היי היי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי היי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי היי היי.
איי ליי ליי ליי ליי היי.
לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה.
לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה.
דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה.
בם בם בם בם בם בם בם בם בם בם בם בם.
היי לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה.
לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה.
דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה.
דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה.
הו לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה.
לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה לה.
דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה.
דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה דה.
היי היי לה לה לה לה, לה לה לה לה.
לה לה לה לה לה, לה לה לה לה.
דה דה דה דה דה, דה דה דה דה דה.
דה דה דה דה דה, היי היי היי. Da da di da ra ra di, la la la la da da. Ai, da da da da da da ra da da da. Da da di da ra ra di, la la la la da da.
Ai, da da da da da da ra da da da. Da da da, la la la la da, la la la la la la la da. Ai, da da da da da da ra da da da. Da da di da ra ra di, la la la la da da.
Ai, da da da da da da ra da da da. Dai dai da, la la la la la la, la la la. Ai, la la la, la la la la. Ai, la la la la.
Ai, da da da da. La la la, ai, ai la la la.
הויל לך דודי במקדשך נא שבת נקבלה.
בני שבת נקבלה.
הויל לך דודי במקדשך נא שבת נקבלה.
בני שבת נקבלה. Da ra na, ai da da la la na, ai yai dai dai dai. Ai, la la la da da da da da da da.
La la la, la la la, la la la dai dai dai. Ai, da la da da da da da. La la la la la, la la la la la la la da. Ai, da da da da da da ra da da da.
La la la, la la la la, la la la la la la la da. Ai, da la da da da da da. Dai dai dai, la la la la la la, la la la. Ai, la la la, la la la la.
Ai la la la, la la la la. Ai, da da da da. La la la, da da da da da. Ai, la la la da da na, da la la da da da.
Ai, da da da da da da ra da da da. Ai la la na na, la la la dai dai dai. Ai, da la da da da da da. Na na na, ai da da, ai da da da.
Ai da dai dai dai dai dai. Ai, da la da da da da da. Na na na na na na na na na na na na, ai da da na na na na. Ai dai dai dai dai.
Ai, da da da da da da da na na da. Ai.You know, I really still can't believe that such an individual existed in this world. I think about it every day but only say it on the יארצייט. I really, I just can't believe it.
I just can't believe that such a, that such a, not, not an angel, not a perfect human being. I just, I can't believe someone that loved like he loved existed in the same planet that that we did. It's just beyond me, I can't believe it. I ממש can't believe it.
I know it sounds a little childish and funny, but I just can't, I can't believe it. And every ניגון and every story and every תורה just takes you back to that place that it's actually possible to live in this world and love. to that extent, to love? So, all year long we're trying to learn his תורות and really like what רב רז said about living that place of on the one hand, רב שלמה started every single, every single talk saying, everybody knows, and he ended off every talk, he ended off every talk saying, you never know. Isn't that funny? So is it everybody knows or you never know? Exactly, that that place that that that we just all learned from.But it's such a humbling feeling to know that we know of someone that lived like that and that loved like that.
And everyone would love to know the secret. How do you love like that? You know, how do you, how do you live like this? I remember that one time I was driving a big ברסלבר רב, someone that's very big in the ברסלב Israeli world a few years back. And he said to me, he said to me, תגיד לי, מה, איך הגורו שלך עשה את זה? How, how did, how did, how did your guru live like this? What was it?
תכלס, what was it? How, how do you live like this? How do you love like this? How do you love God after the six million, the way that he loved השם? And how did he love so many shallow Jews the way that he truly loved them? How do you love non-Jews the way that he loved non-Jews? How do you love the תורה the way that he absolutely loved the תורה? He loved it. He loved it.
He loved the תורה. When you're learning his תורה, you're saying, this is a, this is, this guy was in love with what he was talking about.
מאיפה זה? What, what is it? Where does it come from? I don't think by the way that there's a chance that we'll answer that now or it'll ever be answered. And it's also not exactly the point to figure out how he did it.
But I really, I really, really stand behind, I stand, I cry over what רב רז was saying.Every single teaching and every single story and every single ניגון is truly the fruits of עץ החיים, truly the fruits of the tree of life. And like we've said so many times, every, thank you so much. Thank you. Every, every time that we've learned and received his teachings, there's an attempt to figure out how to hold on to the tree of life.
עץ חיים היא למחזיקים בה.There are people that couldn't handle his וורטלך and his stories and this cute ניגונים because it was too much tree of life for them and they needed עץ הדעת. They needed knowledge. So if you're not giving me knowledge right now, how, how far could I feel that I'm being intellectually challenged, right? And yet every single ניגון of his, every single story was clearly just taking us to that place before the sin, before the sin. That's why his תורות on soulmates are so almost impossible to relate to.
And we barely learn them because he's talking about before Adam and חוה ate from the tree of knowledge. And he's kind of there. He was kind of there, speaking from there and sharing from there. But לענייננו, for you and I today, 2016.Every single תורה that he taught was reminding us that which we already knew and we simply forgot.
It's very clear. And he himself said it. It's not, I'm not making that up. That's something that he said.
He said, I never tell anybody what to do because I believe with all my heart and soul that each person knows what to do, deep down inside. That's what חז"ל, רב קוק speaks about this in אורות התשובה. That's what מוסר כליות is all about. That's how אברהם אבינו kept the whole תורה.
יצחק kept the whole תורה.
יעקב אבינו, they kept the whole Torah before it was given because in their כליות, which we, we translate it as kidneys, but it's קישקעס. It's קישקעס, yeah. It's blood, it's מוח, מוחין דגדלות.
We know inside what's right and what's wrong. And once in a blue moon we have a soul that comes down and just reminds us. He reminds us through a song, he reminds us through a teaching. He reminds you, you know it.
So like this יארצייט is a celebration of thanking השם for what we know, not just for sending him down, but it's celebrating that which you and I now have what to work with. And the amnesia is ברוך השם, you know, less and less apparent in our lives.But if I had to just for today choose one area where be a תפילה for עם ישראל and for us in the זכות of the נשמה of רבי שלמה עליו השלום, I would ask how is it possible, like we said before, to live like that, to love like that?
רבי שלמה would get very angry about certain things when it came to the depth of עם ישראל. When it came to what we're capable of doing, and when it came to the Torah that we're being taught versus the Torah that our נשמות are really waiting to hear. Like רבי שלמה once quoted a letter that Rav Kook wrote to רבי צבי יהודה his son that said to him, you know, you're going to meet a lot of kids when you go out there in the world and they're not going to be satisfied by anybody other than like a בעל שם טוב to come and tell them who השם is.
But they've been learning from other people about what השם is, so it looks like they're really not interested, but it's not true. They're so interested, but they're just not willing to compromise on anything less than a גילוי אלוקות like that of, let's say for instance, the בעל שם הקודש. So many of us that are in this room, what keeps on drawing us back to this magical world, which people like to say, like קב״ח, you know. You're into קב״ח.
I don't know what that means even. But that that ענין of like what what keeps on drawing us back to the root of this נשמה is that we're not willing anymore to compromise hopefully on anything less than how good and how sweet and how rich our lives could be if we would just be in that place of everybody knows versus you never know, and be okay to be there with utmost vulnerability and utmost openness. Because in עץ החיים it doesn't really matter if you know or not. It just matters that you showed up, right?
עץ הדעת, it matters if you know or you don't know.
In עץ הדעת, if I know, I could be there. But in עץ החיים, somehow, just being there and having the רצון to connect to what's been going on, that's what we want, that's what we know. So one of the ways that I think, and I really don't know how he succeeded in doing this, but he really cleansed himself from anger.And when one cleanses themself from anger, I'm not talking about, you'll say to me, what do you mean? I heard him scream on a tape. It's like, that's not what we're talking about.
There's about four tapes that exist with him screaming amongst the 17,000 hours, right? One of them was Jews for Jesus and the three other had to do with ארץ ישראל. So I understand what we're talking about. I'm talking about anger, inside anger. Inside anger.
Because רבי שלמה said in the name of האריז״ל that when anger takes over a person, the נשמה says, I'm sorry, I just can't spend time here with you right now. Let me know when you're done, I'll come back later. But he was such a soul man. What is what was the name of the show on Broadway that they did? Soul Doctor.
What a great name. He was a soul doctor, right? Because he was with his נשמה. He was with his soul. He was alive.
He, the body and the soul were always together. For what happens to a person when they cleanse themselves from anger? I'll tell you a little bit, just based on his own words. I always wonder, we all travel a lot now. We see the world.
All of us are always meeting people, being in far out places. And I don't know, to me, I don't experience like a hundredth of the things that he would experience traveling, being on the road, being with people. So how, what what what is it? Did it just happen to him? And what I don't understand, that it didn't happen to anybody else? There's so many amazing musicians that are hopefully tuned into what's called היכל הנגינה, which means the chamber of the ניגון. Well, how come, ברוך השם, we have a little bit here in ירושלים but there's not so many new ניגונים that are coming down and conquering the world.
So what what what are they not tuned into? When a person cleanses themselves deep down inside from anger, so they're able to do two things. They're able to hear. They're able to listen. The פיאסצנה calls this השקטה.
השקטה, quieting down. But all the whatever and mindfulness are trying to get to is that place of of quieting down everything so that you can hear again. And like רב שלמה said, פרשת וירא being the שבת that he took off, it's just incredible. Although I, I kind of think we could say that even if it was like תרומה or תצווה or even צו, you know, we could find a way, but since it happened like that, it really is, it really is out of this world.
There's that famous teaching that we learned here like five, six years ago on the יארצייט, which has to do, ויעש ה' לשרה, וה' פקד את שרה כאשר אמר, ויעש ה' לשרה כאשר דיבר. That whole teaching of the אישביצר says that we think that the way it works in this world is that we דאווענען, and then ה' answers us. But really it's the other way around. It's that ה' דאווען to us in our ear, he whispers, כאשר אמר.
And then we respond to ה's prayer by דאווענען for that which God wants us to דאווען over. So it's not that we're דאווענען and ה' responds. It's that ה' דאווען, and we respond to ה's דאווענען. But how are you going to hear?
רב שלמה says שרה אמנו was able to hear ה' whispering into her ear, I want you to be an אמא.
Even if you're 89 years old, I want you to be a mother. I want you to be an אמא.So she was only praying for such a crazy thing to get pregnant at 89 because she was responding to ה's prayer, I want you to be an אמא. Please pray to be an אמא. So he says that when you cleanse yourself from anger on a real way, it's something you really work on.
And רב שלמה worked on this very, very, very much. Very much. The kid in תורה ודעת was a magical kid and in Lakewood too. But he was a fervent מתנגד.
You know, there's there's something there. You could take it or leave it. There's some kind of a heavy energy there. He really, he really spoke about this.
He spoke about not willing to talk to his חברותא. Once he saw that his חברותא was talking to a girl that was wearing a short-sleeve shirt. See how deep that is? That he actually, that's the, that's that same person that wouldn't talk to his חברותא because he saw him talking to a girl with a short-sleeve shirt, ended up becoming a person that did not look at people with an ounce of judgment. It's because a person works on himself.
When you cleanse yourself from such anger, you could hear all the prayers that ה' is, ה' is asking you to pray. But it's got to be quiet. You have to get quiet inside in order to know what is ה' asking me to דאווען for. That's one thing.
But when you cleanse yourself from anger, something else happens as well. I think that this teaching is the hardest teaching for this שבת, of all the hard things that we have with this coming שבת. But we always think that when we're in עת צרה, when we're in a time of pain and we're going through a big נסיון in life, the way to show ה' that you really need his help is to show him how צעבראכן you are. Is to show God how much pain you're in, and somehow we think that that's what's going to open the gates and then end our suffering and then answer us as to what the answer to all our נסיונות in life are all about.
And when you have a lot of anger inside your heart, then that's what you're also going to look up to שמים. and show, I'm so angry. How could you do this to me? You see how much I'm suffering, and somehow we think that we're going to hear how to get out of our צרות by showing that kind of a, by by looking like that.But Reb Shlomo quoted the Vorker Rebbe with the following teaching, which makes life that much more challenging. The יארצייט's a challenging day, by the way.
It's very challenging. We're talking about cleansing ourself from anger in the merit of the person we're learning from today. So the Vorker Rebbe says that a ייד only hears נבואה or he only hears a בת קול from שמים if he's in a state of שמחה and if he and if he's cleansed, cleansed himself from anger. So let me ask you, was there a greater state of confusion in the world than when אברהם אבינו was walking up to the עקידה with his son to go and שחט him? Did אברהם אבינו have every legitimate reason to look at God with such anger and saying after all the נסיונות I passed, this is what I have to do now? Now how do we know what he looked like? Reb Shlomo says, What do you think אברהם אבינו looked like when he was walking up the עקידה with his son יצחק? You would think if you imagine yourself, that you're walking up crying, screaming with such anger and confusion.
However, right before אברהם אבינו שחט his son יצחק, what does it say? He hears, he hears a בת קול.
אל תשלח ידך אל הנער. Don't שחט your son. So the Vorker Rebbe says, can you imagine if אברהם אבינו God forbid walked up to the עקידה angry at God for such a test? You know what would have ended up happening? He would have שחט-ed his son.
It's good out. It's out, it's out of this world. Which means, היי משמע, הא ראיה, it's a proof from the פשט of the פסוקים that יצחק was spared and you and I are sitting here and there's a thing called Judaism and ירושלים because of one thing. Why? Because אברהם אבינו was cleansed from anger.
And somehow found that place of שמחה despite all the confusion, enough in order to hear a בת קול that told him, I didn't want you to שחט him. I just wanted you to be ready, העלהו שם לעולה. I never said ושחטהו. God never says go up and שחט your son.
The פסוקים say go and put him up on the altar. In our lives, we think we have to do a lot of heavy things, a lot of very bad, serious things in order to get through tests in life. But if we were only able to cleanse ourself from anger, we too would hear the words אל תשלח ידך אל הנער in all these other places in our lives, in all these other areas where we think that we have to do something so horrific on the level of slaughtering your own son.Cleansing yourself from anger doesn't mean that you don't have any pain in your heart. I think that Reb Shlomo had within him more pain than any other individual that I ever met.
But there's no סתירה over there. There's absolutely no conflict, there's no contradiction between carrying inside yourself pain while being cleansed from anger and filled with what he called Vitamin S, שמחה. There's no סתירה. In fact, הא בהא תליא.
They're most probably dependent on each other. And that's why when you listen to a certain recording when he sings אם אשכחך in 1972 on the famous album, what's it called?
ובנה ירושלים. So he says there a statement which is very weird. He says, there is no pain in the world that can make me forget ירושלים.
But then he says, there is no joy in the world that can make me forget ירושלים. So how does that, how does that meet? Well, the next line is, I'm on my way to ירושלים, because when you're on your way, you have to feel everything and you have to go through everything. And when you're on your way, אנחנו בדרך, all of us. You know, Reb Shlomo, whenever he, quite often when he would begin teaching, he would always say, brothers, sisters, I have no idea where to begin.
I have no idea where to end, so I'm just going to start in the middle. Right? And one time I heard him say, he said, I'll start in the middle because he said, any anyway, we're in the middle of our lives here. And he said, and obviously, each of us have been here before. He was talking about גלגולים, right? So we're all in the middle anyway.
Like to him that was very clear. We're in a state of of the middle. I'm on my way to ירושלים. I'm on my way.
אנחנו, אנחנו בדרך. We're still on the way. I will say though, just like I can't believe, I simply can't believe that it really exists, that it's possible to cleanse your heart from such, from possibly, from legitimate reasons to be angry at establishment and at השם, at השם יתברך. I really can't believe that he left the world and משיח didn't come.
Because it scares the daylights out of out of out of us, you know, me for like, oh boy. So what does that mean about about today, you know? But when I realized that, כולנו בדרך, we're all, I'm on my way to ירושלים, that we're still walking, and it's a very long walk, it's a very long process, then somehow I'm okay with living with all the pain and with all the and with all the שמחה that happens simultaneously.In a recent recording, a video that was just published recently, from French television, the earliest recording that we have with sound, there's a song that ר' שלמה sings in major, which you all know is a שמחה song. The words are very שמחה'דיק. And if you didn't know what he was singing, and you just put it on mute, you think he's singing על אלה אני בוכיה.
Because he looks like he's in such a serious state of mind. But really, he's singing a song that he wrote in his dream.
כי בשמחה תצאון ובשלום תובלון.
כי בשמחה תצאון ובשלום תובלון.
הא עוד יפתחו הכל לפניכם ניגון, בכל הצדיקים הניגון הבא, רוחם.That's a pretty optimistic song with a lot of optimistic words.
כי בשמחה תצאון ובשלום תובלון. And he looks like this. You see, being in touch with השם is a serious thing.
And being בשמחה doesn't mean that you look like this all the time. It means that נפשא קשורא בנפשא. When I know what my life is dependent on, I take it very seriously. And ר' שלמה was very clear what his life depended on.One time ר' שלמה said that there was a moment in his life where he also, he said he was so fed up with everything that was around him, that he, I don't know why he said דוקא these words, but he said, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to be a dishwasher in Dallas.
Those were his words. Why dishwasher? Why Dallas? I don't know. I have no idea. Huh? Dishwasher and Dallas.
Yeah. I guess so. The certain, there's a certain, certain גוי'יש, there's a certain level. And yet what happened to him, he said, but I realized something.
At that moment I I remembered something. He said at that moment I remember in שירת הים we say, זה אלי ואנוהו, אלהי אבי וארוממנהו. He said that at that moment I realized that there are moments in life where it's enough for me to hold on to the יידישקייט that my father gave me.
אלהי אבי וארוממנהו, right? But but then there's moments in life where it's not a punishment that where you came from is hidden to you, and that you can't remember what your own שבת table growing up tasted like.
That's not a punishment. He said, in other words, that's an opening for you to start creating your own שבת table. Things that seem to us like a הסתר, like complete hiddenness, in truth, it's not really hiddenness. It's just moments of us becoming the רבי'ס we need to become to.
Those moments of not being able to connect to, let's say, ר' נחמן or... whatever it was that we connected until now, and dare I say, dare I say even, there are moments I can't, you can't hear רב שלמה. You don't want to listen to רב שלמה for whatever the reason is and it kills you because you're not connecting. That's not a, that's not a punishment.
At that moment, it's basically saying to you, are you ready to start preparing your own שבת table? Do you believe enough that you have what it takes to make your own שבת table, to make your own טיש?But if you're cleansed, if you're cleansed from that anger, you can hear that's what השם's telling you and you could start preparing the טיש. You could start doing it yourself. And רב שלמה did it. He had to do it on his own.
Because after leaving רב אהרן and after leaving לובאוויטש, sleeping in cars because he had nowhere to go, he was there. He was at that place where even though he had access to everyone and to anyone, inside there was a different calling coming out, saying, 'It's time for you to stand up on your own two feet.' And it's time for us as well to stand up on our own two feet. Not by forgetting all that made us, gave us the כח to stand up on our own two feet. But it's so clear that by now, that it's such a ברכה that רב שלמה never became a real חסידות with actual מנהגים that this is how you have to act or do it.
Besides the ניגונים. Don't worry, Judy. There's only one way you could sing the ניגונים. You'll הרג א וועלט if you mess up with the notes.
But besides that, it's such a ברכה that this phenomenon is not dying. There are more יארצייט commemorations this year than there ever was, ever.I remember the first time I ever went to a, to a יארצייט was 20 years ago. It was the second יארצייט. And my רב in high school, I couldn't believe he did this.
I look back now, I'm like, wow, that was the coolest thing in the world. He was a שלמה חסיד. And what he did was that he basically skipped school with me. This is רב צבי קורן.
He, he basically ditched classes that day, רב קורן from רעננה. And he brought me with him to classes that we both were ditching that he was going to teach me, to come and cry our eyes out in the morning with אמונה and with מימי in יקר. To cry out in the afternoon at the קבר. And in those days, the concert was in, it was in ישורון.
It was in ישורון then. And every day, every יארצייט for 20 years for me, it was, it's so weird how it's so much not about רב שלמה because he's not, לא המתים יהללו-יה. He's not here and doesn't need us to do anything other than to stop ignoring our נשמות. That's it.
That's it. To stop ignoring our souls. And this day, the ט"ז חשוון, this is the day that we, we once again come back and say, we're going to cleanse ourselves from anger so we can hear השם. We can hear again what you have in store for us and the dreams that you have for us.
So that maybe I could have a ניגון. You never know. Maybe I can say a תורה'לע that was never said before. Or maybe I can understand something and internalize it like I never did before.
And that's the חידוש of the power of the עילוי נשמה of a day like today.But after saying all those self-empowering things, he was the sweetest man to ever walk the face of the earth. And that's why this day is very sad on a certain level. Because he was, he was the sweetest person. Such sweetness, how could it be that there's a whole generation of people, myself included, that cry and long and miss something that they never even had? How do you miss something you never had before? Because what we're really crying and longing for is for ourselves.
It's not him. It's that feeling that he would make you feel through all the תורות and תפילות. That our נשמות in a state of גלות still long to be one with ourselves. And that's the pain of today, that's the שמחה today, that's the rejoicing of today.
And in each ניגון you can find another piece of yourself. So בעזרת השם it should be like, you know, the יארצייט it's like on a certain level of ראש השנה for many of us. I want to ask each of you a ברכה. I asked this to my חבר'ה in אפרת.
I'm asking for each of you as well. There's no reason in the universe על פי טבע that my children, that my daughters should grow up learning about God without learning it through Reb Shlomo's פירוש. There's no reason. When Reb Shlomo learned any פסוק, he heard the words I love you from השם, from each פסוק that he learned.
It's a חיים. So I'm begging each of you, from the bottom of my heart, to please storm the heavens today with תפילה that the gates to get Reb Shlomo's תורה out to the world open wider like never before, because our children need to fall in love with השם at a young age. Please. Please, please from the bottom of my heart.
I know you all share that תפילה. I know you all share that תפילה. All of us here. So please, because as much as we think we have a concept of who he was and what his תורה was, we we have no idea.
I have no idea. I have no idea. It's just טיפה מן הים what we've been exposed to. It's literally just a drop in an ocean.
I believe that if each of us take today to really work on cleansing ourselves from anger, to really wipe ourselves out from that place of all the legitimate reasons to be angry, and say ובכל זאת שמך לא שכחנו. We still haven't forgotten your name השם.
נא אל תשכחנו. Then please don't forget us and don't forget the need for us to hear the prayers that you're whispering into our ear so that we know what to דאַווען for.
How often do you show up to שול at high moments? It could be יום כיפור or anything. And you have such a state of confusion. You ever go to the כותל on a Friday night and find it the hardest place to דאַווען in? You ever show up יום כיפור, the weirdest thoughts come and penetrate your mind and heart? And you're so hard on yourself wondering how in the world could this be that דווקא now here in this place. But if we'd only be able to hear what השם is praying into us so that it could literally be responding to השם's prayer.
A איד feels most at home when תפילתו שגורה בפיו. When his דאַווענען is flowing forth out from his mouth, because he's responding to God's prayer. I have to share with you one last thing and we'll sing one more ניגון. There's a תפילה we say in יום כיפור.
I wrote a ניגון for this many years ago, והכהנים והעם העומדים בעזרה. And that that the words are very powerful. And I always thought it meant that one time a year, right, I thought this, that one time a year the כהן גדול would say God's name במפורש, and everyone would just be healed, and they'd fall on their faces thanking God for witnessing such a moment. One of my favorite ספרים in the house is is תפארת שלמה, obviously my my בכורה's name is תפארת.
And I opened it this year ערב יום כיפור, and it it messed me up big time because I realized that I got the פשט completely wrong. He brings a question from the תוספות יום טוב, very interesting question. Says, מאי שנא? What's such a big חאַפּ? What's such a big deal that the כהן would say God's name on יום כיפור? In the בית המקדש, God's name was said every single day in the בית המקדש. So why are we making such a big deal about it? And why did everyone start falling on their faces when he said it on יום כיפור? So the רדומסקער brings the אריז"ל.
And the אריז"ל says something mesmerizing. The אריז"ל says, all year long, the כהן גדול knew that that's was that was his עבודה and he had to do this, and he had to say God's name in the בית המקדש. But on יום כיפור we say a very interesting word. We say יוצא מפי כהן גדול, that the word of the name of God was יוצא.
מפי כהן גדול. It emanated, it it, how would you say? Came out. It just naturally blew forth out of the כהן גדול.
מפורש יוצא מפי כהן גדול.
It just came out of the mouth of the כהן גדול. He didn't have to, it was a moment of reaching such דבקות, of quieting himself from any legitimate reason of being angry. That the name of השם just flew forth out of him. And when עם ישראל saw that a person in this world could be so cleansed of anger and that השם's name is just flowing forth from within him, היו כורעים ומשתחווים ונופלים על פניהם.
That that's what happened. They saw that one day a year there was a Jew who made himself into absolutely nothing in order to deliver absolutely everything.
ר' שלמה made himself subconsciously into absolutely nothing. Everyone knows that he could have been the greatest ראש ישיבה, the greatest formal educator.
He could have made himself into a position where he would receive utmost infinite כבוד. But then it would be about him. And it was never about him. It was never about him.
When you live like that, the ניגונים יוצא מפיך. The Torahs come out of you. It's not you that's doing it. You're בסך הכל just a conduit.
It's just coming out from you, out of you. And each ניגון, you realize, they might sound a little bit familiar, even if you never heard it before. That's because it's coming from that chamber of נגינה where each of our נשמות feel most at home. So when we hear one of his ניגונים that we've never heard before, it's very simple.
He's just reminding me a little bit of who I am. Because it was never about who he was. It was about what each and every one of us are and what we can be, and what we are literally becoming right now. So maybe I'll sing a ניגון that most of you never heard.
That's okay. I'm sure some of you have heard it because these bootlegs are spreading like wildfire. Let's sing one more time just to make sure you get the notes right. I'm singing next to Judy, that's why I have to make sure you're getting all the notes right, okay? Listen very closely.
One more time, just sing it alone one time just so you get every note here. Like ר' שלמה said, you change one note, change one word in the sentence, it can mean something completely different. Like one time he said when someone was singing a ניגון of his while he was teaching it to them, he says, I'm so happy you're all singing. you know this ניגון, but let it be a little bit mine.
So listen again. Listen from the beginning, okay? It's a little. Di dai lai da da dai dai, bum bum bum bum bum bum bum. Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum.
Bum bum da da dai dai dai, bum bum bum bum bum bum bum. Bum bum bum bum bum, di da dai ye dai ye dai. Da da dai, dai lai lai lai lai dai dai dai dai. Lai la da dai da da dai.
Ai yai yai yai yai yai. Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum. Bum bum bum bum bum bum da da da da la la ye dai. Lai la da da dai dai.
Bam ba dam bum bum. Bam bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum. Let's go. Bum ba da da, bum ba da da bum bum bum.
Ah ah ah ah ah da da da da. Da da dai dai da da da da dai dai dai dai. Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum. Da da dai dai dai dai dai dai lai lai lai lai.
Bum bum bum da da da da da da da. Lai la la la la lai la da da dai, bum bum bum bum bum bum, bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum. Ai yai yai yai yai. Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum.
Ai yai lai lai dai dai dai, oh oh oh.
ישר כוח everyone.
ישר כוח. Thank you everybody.