Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach passed away 26 years ago but his teachings, stories, and poems continue on all over the world. On the anniversary of his passing about a month ago, a Shlomo Kumzitz was broadcast in his honor.
Singer Yehuda Katz, one of the organizers of the evening, was excited to hear about the thousands who participated in the evening held in memory of R. Shlomo and the love and closeness they felt for him on this evening.
In light of this, Katz and his friends decided to rebroadcast the evening this coming Saturday night, in honor of Hanukkah and in honor of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and those who wish to feel connected to him, even 26 years after his death.
Event pruducer Bob Stark told Arutz Sheva: "Shlomo obviously had a profound effect, and continues to have a profound effect, on the way in which we express ourselves spiritually, in davening, just in term of closing one's eyes and listening to his melodies.
"His greatness, which is linked to his music and his Torah, deserves being celebrated on his date of birth, as well as a memorial on his yohrtzeit."
Stark told Arutz Sheva that the kumzitz is part of the activities of the project called Motzash Live to say farewell to Shabbat: "It was part of activities Yehuda Katz and I started a few years ago," said Stark. "The idea is to use music to reach spiritual empowerment. Saturday night gatherings are less 'popular' than receiving the Shabbat on Friday night, but there are opinions that Shabbat observance is not complete without the unique observance when Shabbat closes."
"I was privileged to be a real student and good friend of R. Shlomo Carlebach for 22 years," Yehuda Katz said in a conversation with Arutz Sheva. "I know how much his music, way of life, and Torah influenced me, so this year I wanted to establish an evening that would be really R. Shlomo."
He explained: "We called it R' Shlomo's Kumzitz. The evening was already his yohrtzeit and they got so many good responses," he said. "Thousands of people watched it. That's why we're broadcasting it again on Hanukkah motzei Shabbat so that a few thousand more will see it. It gave people this connection and this closeness. That's why we are broadcasting it again."
Katz explained that precisely during COVID-19, people are especially looking for human closeness. "A lot of people at home in COVID are looking for something to do. COVID opened the door for people to say how much we miss this closeness. Precisely when someone comes and says I want to be close to you, I want to be your friend, people are really excited about it."
He described the event as a 'virtual campfirel. "This is two hours of song, stories, and Torah that we heard from Reb Shlomo," he noted. The evening is attended by Katz and his band "Maagal", and singer Chaim David Sarachik, the Solomon Brothers, and the Kotler Brothers.
"It's not on stage, we sit together and do everything together. Everything is natural," he stressed. To the evening he invites "every Jew who wants to receive love through song and Torah."