Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach was born in Berlin in January of 1925. He came from an illustrious Jewish heritage that dated back from antiquity. Shlomo's father, Rabbi Naftali Carlebach, ran a trace of the family and he claimed that they were descended from King David himself through eighteen different branches.
Shlomo's mother secured visas for the family to leave Germany before the Holocaust actually started. Shlomo's family went to Switzerland first for a few years, before coming to the USA when the Holocaust started.
While on the ship to the US from Switzerland, the captain of the ship told all the passengers, “You don't know what kind of miracle it is that you are on this ship.”
All of Shlomo's life it seemed that hashgacha pratis, “divine providence”,was at work.
Shlomo was a child prodigy scholar called an illui in Hebrew. He had the Torah (Bible) half memorized by the time he was a scant five years old and had an insatiable love of learning Judaism. He was carefully guarded and received treatment reserved for royalty.
Noted rabbis and mathematicians like the Shtadler Gaon, wanted to take young Shlomo under their wings but it wasn't until he was 15 that he left his family's care. Shlomo became a student of Rabbi Aharon Kotler, who was the Rosh Yeshiva, or the head of a seminary for Jewish studies in Lakewood, NJ. Lakewood Yeshiva was considered to be like the Harvard of Jewish learning and Shlomo got in at that tender age of 15 instead of the 18 that most students entered, if they could get in at all.
While at Lakewood, Shlomo stayed with a prominent family in a program called ben bayit that means “son of the house.” It was considered an honor not only for him to be treated like this but it was also considered an honor for the hosting family to receive him.
Shlomo stayed in Lakewood for about ten years until he came to the conclusion that he needed to go out into the world and to better the world around him. He claimed that after the Holocaust, all the great leaders and teachers of the Jewish people had perished and most people were left leaderless. He reasoned that if he stayed in Lakewood Yeshiva, he could have bettered himself, but if he ventured out into the world he could better the world around him. He was always aware of how well he was treated and how his background differed from that of the average person.
Shlomo's next stop was the Chabad Lubavitch (Chabad is the biggest Chasidic dynasty) yeshiva in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY. Shlomo decided to go there because Chabad was doing outreach and had infrastructures for receiving Jews who wanted to return to the orthodox Jewish way of life. Such people are called Baal Teshuvas (Hebrew “Masters of Repentance”) or Chozrim Bitshuvas (“Returnees in Repentance”).
When people found out that Shlomo left Lakewood to go to Chabad they were upset. They told him “You're leaving Harvard to go to City (of NY) College?” It caused quite a stir. But Shlomo was intent on embarking on a new direction.
While at Chabad, the Rebbe (“Grand Rabbi”) of that movement asked Shlomo what he wanted to do with his life. Shlomo replied that he wanted to become the greatest Talmud scholar of his day. (Note: The Talmud is an extensive commentary and expansion of the Torah). The Rebbe told Shlomo to forget about what he wanted to do and concentrate on what the world needed from him. Shlomo heeded that advice and his life was dedicated to serving other people. He never stopped helping others all the days of his life.
But Shlomo ran into a snag. He gave a class and he told the people that the men and women couldn't stand next to each other and he said he lost 90 people. Then he told the remainder that they couldn't sing together and he lost 9 more. Only one person was left and Shlomo came to the conclusion that he couldn't do outreach that way. So, Shlomo decided to leave Lubavitch.
The Rebbe told Shlomo, “I can't tell you what to do, and I can't tell you what not to do. Go and G-d be with you.” And Shlomo left Chabad Lubavitch.
He was rootless for a while but he managed to survive. Around 1958, Shlomo bought a guitar and history was ready to be made. Shlomo composed a number of songs called nigunnim in Hebrew and he was on his way to a stellar career as the “Father of Modern Jewish Music.” He composed constantly and started giving concerts, which he used as a base for doing outreach to wayward souls. He also recorded over 70 recordings.
He used a guitar to accompany himself but never played the instrument as an end in itself; it was simply a tool to be used for his ministry.
Shlomo toured the globe giving concerts all over the world including India, Germany, the Benelux countries, Israel, etc. His soul lit melodies are currently being used to reenergize Judaism as Carlebach minyanim (“quorums”) are springing up all over the globe.
Shlomo became very controversial because he became the hippie rabbi, grew long hair and started his concerts by hugging and kissing people in the audience including women, in spite of Orthodox Judaism's ban on men and women touching each other if they're not married.
Shlomo gave a concert in Temple that was very upscale and his hippie followers came to see him. They hadn't bathed in a month, hadn't changed their clothes in a month, etc. The rabbi of that temple thought it was disgusting and Shlomo realized he needed to get his own place. Then, he found a house to use and dubbed it “The House of Love and Prayer.”
The House existed until 1976 when Shlomo packed it in and moved his followers to Israel, at Moshav Me'or Modi'n, which is located right near Lod airport in Israel, half way between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Shlomo emphasized the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, who was a great grandson of the founder of the Chasidic movement. This Rebbe emphasized serving G-d with joy. Rebbe Nachman claimed that the greatest sin is to be sad because when you're sad it often leads to other sins that are worse than what made a person sad in the first place.
Shlomo had a heart condition in his later years, he was severely overweight and his doctors told him to slow down but he refused to listen. His line of reasoning was that as long as he could ignite one Jewish soul to come back to his roots, he would put aside his concern for himself. Shlomo passed away on October 20th of 1994. He lived until the age of 69, roughly the age that King David himself lived. The gap in the Jewish world has never been filled since this remarkable man passed on, but his music and legacy live on.
