A cup of love and prayer: Rav Shlomo’s 18th yahrzeit

This weekend brings a confluence of events commemorating the continued influence of Rav Shlomo Carlebach, a’h, on the Jewish world, in music, kiruv, and the expanding circle of his admirers on his 18th yahrtzeit.

This Motzai Shabbat (Saturday night), January 12th, Neshama Carlebach, Shlomo’s daughter and a musician in her own right, will hold a concert in his memory at the Carlebach shul in Manhattan. On Monday evening, January 14th, Jonathan Greenstein and Neshama Carlebach will present a Kiddush cup, that they codesigned in memory of Shlomo, at Greenstein’s Judaica gallery in Cedarhurst.

Shlomo Carlebach was born in 1925 in Berlin and passed away in 1994 at the age of 69. He is buried in Har Hamenuchot in Jerusalem, Israel. Shlomo, the scion of a German rabbinic dynasty, began his studies in Lithuania and came to the U.S. in 1939. He was a student at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, and Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn and Beth Medrash Gevoha in Lakewood. Carlebach received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner. He worked as an emissary of the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson from 1951 through 1954; the Lubavitcher Rebbe set Carlebach on his path to kiruv, to go to colleges to return Jews to Judaism. He played guitar and composed thousands of original songs with lyrics from Tanach (Torah, Prophets, Writings) and the siddur (prayers); his legacy in the Baal Teshuva movement and his music, often in Carlebach minyanim worldwide, continues to grow and thrive.

“I am a big fan, a chossid of Shlomo,” said Jonathan Greenstein. “His music kept me connected with religion. The first place I stop in Israel, right from the airport, is by my Rebbe at Har Hamenuchos.” Greenstein saw him at an NCSY event when he was a teenager after he left Yeshiva of Flatbush and entered public school. “His music touched a raw nerve, a part of my soul that was completely missing from all the nonsense shoved down my throat in yeshiva,” he said. Greenstein often leads the Carlebach minyan at the Young Israel of Woodmere.

A Judaica dealer since age 14, Greenstein owns businesses in home health care and real estate but Judaica is “my love and passion. “ He met Neshama Carlebach through the band PeyDalid and they became friends. Greenstein wanted to do something for Rav Shomo’s 18th yahrzeit, what would have been his 88th birthday. “Shlomo’s most special thing in the world was Shabbos,” explained Greenstein. He asked Neshama how Shlomo made Kiddush, the blessing over wine recited on Friday evening and Saturday at noon before two of the Shabbat meals, and she cupped her hands, showing that he held the cup in the palm of his hand. Neshama and Greenstein designed the silver Kiddush cup together, with a rounded base so it sits in the palm of a hand. Each cup is made from two pieces of 925 silver by Greenstein’s silversmith in Jerusalem in a workshop 20 feet from the Mamila Mall. Each cup is hammered by hand and engraved with the words: “Good Shabbos, Good Shabbos, The Cup of Love and Prayer. Designed by Jonathan Greenstein and Neshama Carlebach.” Its name is a reference to the kiruv center for song, dance and gatherings for unaffiliated Jewish youth called the House of Love and Prayer set up by his followers in San Francisco in the 1960s.

“So many of us believe in G-d and traditions,” said Neshama Carlebach. “When they hold this cup, they connect to what my father gave on a spiritual level in a physical sense. He was a spiritual human being.” His music helps “bring his energy down, helps people connect with G-d and themselves on a spiritual level.” She noted that people who are not observant are “not getting in the door, and even the observant, its hard to be mindful and now even more. Hashem wants us to connect.” She pointed out that the cup “has to be passed hand to hand, passed from one human being to another—you can’t put it down for someone else to take it. My father was connected to everything meaningful and G-dly. I can’t think of anything more meaningful to celebrate his life. It’s a beautiful tribute.”

Neshama explained that January 14th is Shlomo’s English birthday, the 18th of Tevet is his Hebrew birthday and his yahrtzeit, the day of his death, is the 16th of Cheshvan. She has a yearly commemoration on his yahrtzeit at the Carlebach shul, but it was postponed due to Hurricane Sandy. She sings his songs and speaks about him at these events. “It’s beautiful and meaningful for me,” she said. “It is celebrating his life and remembering his petirah (death).“ She said that it is often sold out but “call to see if there’s space.”

She said that many didn’t give her father credit for his work and that she “had an issue with that. He was an innovator, a pioneer; he was changing the world. No one in the world doesn’t have a story or memory” about him. “I just think he’s more alive then ever. It’s a beautiful thing. When someone is gone from this world they tend to fade. But the world remembers and keeps him here. I am very grateful.”

Greenstein made ten silver Kiddush cups. He wanted to “do something the not yet so learned person could associate with just to connect with a physical Shabbos connection with Reb Shlomo.” He said that Shlomo died in poverty, giving everything that he made in his life to charity. “I felt he was deserving of it now, to do something in his memory.” A portion of the sales, “a big chunk,” said Greenstein, will be donated to the Israel Children’s Cancer Fund. Each cup is priced at $2500. He also made a silver charity box, a replica of Rav Shlomo’s grave. It is, said Greenstein, “also hand wrought and comes with five CDs of previously unreleased Reb Shlomo recordings.” It is priced at $7500.

“G-d is in all of us,” said Neshama. “We are G-d’s Kiddush cup.”

For more information about Neshama’s concert go to www.carlebachshul.org. The shul is at 305 West 79th Street in Manhattan. The concert is at 8 pm on January 12th. For more information call 212 580-2391.

The ten Kiddush cups and the charity box will be displayed on January 14th between 8 and 10 pm at Greenstein Gallery, 417 Central Avenue. Everyone, said Greenstein, is invited.