Rabbi Shlomo Katz, a community Rabbi in Efrat, educator, and musician, spoke to Arutz Sheva–Israel National News, marking 30 years since the passing of Reb Shlomo Carlebach.
Rabbi Katz relates to the fact that Reb Shlomo's spirit is very much alive thirty years later: "There’s never been a phenomenon like this in recent history. It's hard to really comprehend, but we see that this generation and the younger generation is thirstier and hungrier than ever for authenticity".
"There's something about the spirit of Reb Shlomo that forces a person to discover what that authenticity is", Rabbi Katz explains, "Reb Shlomo's spirit, his Torah, his teaching, his message, his music is really pushing people to really get in touch with what's authentic about them. They feel something so real and then they ask themselves, ‘It's not outside, it's inside. Where is it in me?”
“We are living in an era of greater authenticity. I definitely feel that", Rabbi Katzs says and relates to the gathering at Reb Shlomo's grave site on the day marking 30 years since the passing, "I thought it would be quiet. The place was flooded with people; flocking of thirsty souls. Thousands of them were not even alive when he was born and they're missing someone so intensely that they never met. Where did this ever happen before? It's something that's still brewing. This is only the beginning stages of something much bigger."
He adds that, without a doubt, music helps so much and strengthens, “this past year brought about these new phenomena that have been happening at many different Shiva houses. People feel the need for less talking and just singing to be a real consolation. We've seen at funerals, the strongest moments have been the moment right there by the burial; singing his songs has been such a crucial part of the consolation this past year. It's unbelievable. It’s as if he planted all those seeds for today. That's what it feels like.”
As a community Rabbi, Rabbi Katz continues to use all the tools – the music, the soul, the spirit, the Torah, and halacha – everything goes together as a community Rabbi, “in the past, it was just music. I personally felt that what I was receiving from the Torah of Reb Shlomo touched my heart and soul and continues to touch my heart in such a profound way, that there was a need for leadership. But even if I never sang another one of his songs, or never quoted him or said his name, ‘it's apparent in everything that that we do’. It's also been a tremendous source of bringing people from the outside who want to feel something real and authentic like the shul Shirat David in Efrat has been the source of ‘there’s someone waiting for you in here. Come’.”
Rabbi Katz believes that "many see that the spirit of music is very relevant these days, there's much more openness to Jewish content in music. Regular mainstream radio stations play songs with words of the Torah. Rabbi Katz says that ‘those artists are very much influenced directly by him. I know this for a fact. These are the conversations that I have with these incredible souls that God put into the world now, to be emissaries; to bring this out, each in their own way, but they have been very much inspired and feel the love from the world of Reb Shlomo, that's pushed them to really take things to the next level.”
Regarding continuing in Reb Shlomo's path, Rabbi Katz says: “We haven't even scratched the surface regarding his world of teaching Torah. That's something that I've been working on for many years. Thank God, we completed a perush [commentary] of his on the Bible, called Even Shlomo, that something I've been working on for twenty-two years. It's about his words, his message, his healing message, the way he understood what Hashem wanted from us, is unparallel to anything that I know of".
"There are also hundreds of songs of his that the world doesn't know and we are still finding them in different archives and collections", he adds, "But I think that the message of ‘open your hearts,’ or ‘the deepest depths,’ people used to hear it and say, ‘oh, that's so Carlebachi and it's so cute and sweet.’ Today, if we're not going to open our hearts and go to the deepest depths and take that as seriously as all the other halachic things that we take that seriously, we're missing the point.”