The yearly concert has always been a gathering point for the students of the late rabbi, who come from all walks of life and know their beloved teacher as simply “Shlomo.” The first such concert was held for Reb Shlomo’s shloshim - the memorial thirty days after his passing – at Jerusalem’s Heichal Shlomo hall. From then on, it was held on Shlomo’s birthday for a few years. Emphasis began to shift to the yahrtzeit (anniversary of his passing) as spontaneous musical prayer-filled pilgrimages to the rabbi’s Har HaMenuchot grave became a yearly occurrence and the concert took place first at the Yeshurun Synagogue – and then outgrew the venue in favor of Binyanei HaUmah - the largest hall in Jerusalem.
Memorial events are also held in New York, where Reb Shlomo’s synagogue – which he inherited from his father, Rabbi Naftali Carlebach - is located, but the Jerusalem concert is where the part of the rabbi’s legacy that led him to move to Israel and found Moshav Meor Modi’in is most apparent. The concert showcases the living nature of the rabbi’s teachings, which continue to move forward, develop, and affect the Jewish people and bring them home to Israel – “to the Land of their soul,” as one English mainstay melody played at the annual concert terms it.
“So many people are living in Israel because of Shlomo,” said Yehuda Katz, the musical director of the concert and redemption rock-band Reva L’Sheva front-man. “I know that I am one of them.”
Katz said that he recently heard “an awesome Torah (teaching)” from a student of the Vilna Gaon. “When one returns to the Land of Israel they must sing. Song is what is going to bring achdut (unity) to the Land of Israel.”
A video clip of Shlomo performing for an audience soon after the Six Day War on Israeli television was shown between performers at the concert. The tone and instructive nature of the video set the stage for an emotional evening – one many audience members described as being a very healing experience following the trauma of the summer’s Gaza and northern Shomron expulsion. “Believing in the coming of the Messiah is a belief of every Jew, the Rambam says,” Shlomo said, “but what does that really mean? I’ll tell you. According to our holy rabbis, it means that one must believe with complete faith that the nation of Israel has the ability to bring the messiah and the redemption.”
This year’s concert, in particular, embodied the sort of radical unity that Shlomo’s melodies continue to bring about.
Hundreds of young people, many still wearing orange ribbons tied to their wrists and bags - battle-worn from opposing the eviction of Jews from parts of the Land of Israel, sang their hearts out for shalom - peace – a concept and word that the Israeli political lexicon has assigned to a left-wing political viewpoint, but which remains a desire across political lines.
Hareidi-religious performers and audience members, some of whom were openly hostile to Reb Shlomo during his lifetime for his stance on women’s issues and outreach, paid homage to the late rabbi in a way that left some former students of Shlomo’s with mixed feelings, while others saw it as a continuation of the humble rabbi’s way.
Rabbi Yoel Rackovsky of the Old City’s Netiv Aryeh yeshiva recalls walking to a wedding on Mt. Zion with Reb Shlomo and witnessing a teacher of his approach Shlomo and scream at him, saying that he was despicable and that everything he did was wrong. “Reb Shlomo just stood there patiently listening, and when the rabbi stormed off, he went back to talking with us like nothing happened.” Rackovsky added that he later approached Reb Shlomo, asking him what he was thinking about while he was being verbally accosted. “He told me, ‘I was just thanking the Holy One Blessed be He that I was not in his shoes - that I was not that angry at another Jew.’” Rackovsky relates.
Another hallmark of the concert is the performance of rare songs from among Shlomo Carlebach’s thousands of compositions – launching them once again into the public consciousness. From there, such melodies – some that exist on only one audio tape or that were sung only once on someone’s wedding video - enter the roster of tunes used to sing the Psalms at the Friday evening Shlomo-minyans, attended by young and old alike in nearly every town in Israel.
One such song at this year’s concert was Utzu Eitza V’Tufar (“They will plot and nothing will come of it…because G-d is with us”). “It is a song some people know, but which I think has been lost and it was an honor to bring it out,” said Katz, whose band, Reva L’Sheva performed the song and recorded it on their recent album. “I know it was a theme song for a lot of people during the Disengagement. We just happened to record it before that. I think that if we want everyone to come together it has to be under the banner of G-d.”
Another song, a tune, called “Niggun Neshama,” (Soul Melody) was already being sung by the audience when its performer took the stage. The tune was rediscovered by Calrebach's daughter Neshama, who found the song while listening to an old audio tape from a class Shlomo gave in 1985. Shlomo Katz, who has performed the song across Israel, sometimes for a half-hour strait or more, is a student of Reb Shlomo who never knew him during his lifetime.
After playing several other tunes, before launching into “the niggun,” Katz said: “Physically the higher you fly, the further you are from every person – but spiritually, the higher you fly, the closer you are to every person. It’s such a gift from G-d that such a soul was given to us after the Holocaust - to open our hearts again and to wipe away all our anger and tears.” He then offered a prayer that the tune act as a prayer for G-d to once again send such goodness and inspiration to the world, “because we can’t continue like this.”
He then launched into the melody, which is unique in that the energetic high-part is perfectly in harmony with the introductory low-part – allowing for harmony among those singing different tunes. It will be available on Katz’s upcoming album, to be released on Chanukah.
Other performers included Ahron and Yonatan Rahzel, the Witt Family, Chaim Dovid Saracek, Naftali Abramson and Josh Laufer – who, together with his students from the Neve Michael youth village, performed a hip-hop version of a Shlomo classic.
Organizers of the annual event are calling upon the Jerusalem Municipality, which sponsors many cultural events throughout the year, to pitch in to recognize the connection between Reb Shlomo and the holy city.
“Shlomo was the great suspension bridge between various communities within our country and indeed the world,” said Shlomo Carlebach Foundation founder Joe Schonwald. “Shlomo criss-crossed the globe bringing the message of Jerusalem to everybody. He did more for Jerusalem and Aliyah than a lot of other organizations that have that in their mission statement and receive funding from the State of Israel and the Jerusalem Municipality. The city has three cultural departments: religious, secular and hareidi. It is a shame that the three never meet and it is high time to recognize Shlomo’s legacy of contribution to Jerusalem’s culture through unity and diversity.”
Schonwald attributes the emotionally-charged nature of this year’s concert to the political events of the past year. “We are so hungry for a spiritually-charged event beyond all politics and beyond slogans - something that transcends the usual denominational lines,” he said. “This was it - people from various walks of life where all there and it could be felt.”
Schonwald also added that each year more and more of Shlomo’s contributions to Jewish life are recognized. “We are talking about someone who probably hugged more people than King David. I have seen Carlebach concerts by Sephardi performers, secular performers, hareidi-religious performers - at the reception for the Pope when he visited New York they played Shlomo’s Lema’an Achai V’Reyai (“Because of my Brothers and Friends”).
“We owe the renewal of Jewish prayer and worship to the liturgy that Shlomo wrote. He was the singing rabbi, but he was also the father of Jewish music. Before that we had songs that came out of our European or geographic experiences, but that wasn’t Jewish music per se. Shlomo invented Jewish music for our generation.”