New York – Almost seventeen years to the day since Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach died of a heart attack at age 69 on a flight to Canada, his thoughts and commentaries on the first half of Sefer Bereishis century will be available for the first time to the public.
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Even Shlomo, published by Urim Publications and The Shlomo Carlebach Legacy Foundation, was released last week in Israel and is slated to debut in New York this week. The 263 page hardcover volume, fourteen years in the making, encompasses the unique insights of the man who was inarguably the greatest composer of the twentieth century on parshiyos Bereishis through Toldos.
Compiling a posthumous commentary on the entire Chumash from someone who never wrote down a single word was no small task, according to editor Rabbi Shlomo Katz, a renowned musician who not only follows in Reb Shlomo’s musical footsteps but is also an integral part of the Shlomo Carlebach Legacy Trust which is devoted to publishing and distributing Reb Shlomo’s legacy.
“We have been collecting his works for years,” Rabbi Katz told VIN News. “We have recordings of concerts, classes and hundreds of thousands of hours of shiurim that Reb Shlomo gave. To date, we have gone through 1.2 terabytes of information and even that is only four percent of all the material we have acquired.”
This volume is expected to be the first in a series of seforim featuring Reb Shlomo’s Torah thoughts and the second half of Sefer Bereishis is expected to be released next summer. Rabbi Katz anticipates that future volumes will cover all of Chamisha Chumshei Torah, Neviim, Megillos and seforim on the different Yomim Tovim.
While most people think of music when they hear the name “Carlebach” many are not aware that the gifted composer had rare semicha from the Pachad Yitzchak, R’ Yitzchok Hutner and learned with Reb Aaron Kotler, Reb Shlomo Heiman and the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Known as a brilliant scholar and one of the top students at Beis Medrash Govoha in his day, Reb Shlomo was known for taking two suitcases with him on all of his travels, with one half of one suitcase devoted to clothing while, the remaining suitcase and a half were dedicated to seforim.
Despite the fact that Reb Shlomo attended Litvishe yeshivos in his youth, he spent a considerable amount of time surrounded by chasidus.
“It is very clear in Reb Shlomo’s commentaries in this sefer that he was very influenced by his chasidus,” explained Rabbi Katz. “His observations are a blend of those influences and like his music are both unique and filled with sweetness.”
Even Shlomo is available for $25.00 from www.urimpublications.com
If the sefer is only half as good as his music and love for others, it will be wonderful.
Other, more competitive, distributors sell this item too.
Oder a Galech oder a Malech!
Other, more competitively priced, outlets will also stock this.
switess bruderss dis iz wriely wriely sow gevaldig ! sow gevaldig ! and lett it oupen all ouf our heartss wriely bring uss sow much closer all together now !
Why is he nameless in the headline? With any other author is would have read “Rabbi Shlomo Carlbach’s Torah Commentary Published Nearly Two Decades After His Death”.
R’ Shlome is my Rebbe in music. But ch”v to compare him to Yehuda and Dovid Hamelech. Also he didnt learn WITH R’ Aron Kotler and R’ Heimann, rather he learned UNDER them- he was a Talmud and they the Rosh Yeshiva ( R’ Heimann first then BMG)
He was indeed a very smart man, but had a lot of nisÝoines that he fell through, so one needs to make a dicision if he wants to learn torah from him, and for sure those gedolem regretted giving him smicha (from rav aharen kotler its known) so that’s not a sales pitch!!
He also never studied with either the Rebbe Rayatz or the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZY”A. Neither Rebbe ever gave private or public shiurim. He learned at one of the Chabad yeshivos at some time and then he went against the Rebbe ZY”A’s standards.
My grandfather remembers him from chaim Berlin and lakewood and says he was considered crazy then. Carlebach’s mother begged Rabbi Hutner to give her son a job working in the Chaim Berlin library.
Its embarrassing. The next thing out will be Kabbalah by Lipa Schmeltzer.
Reb Shlome was a living contradiction. He made many true Bal-Tshuvas, but, it seems, his personal life was not on such a high level. Makes you wonder how they were him “dan” in Shomayim.
Does anyone know what R. Chaim Vital wrote about R. Yisrael Najarah? He was
the author of Ko Ribon Olam etc.
If you don’t like it, then don’t get it.
I am not going to comment, as others here have chosen to do, on Shlomo Carlebach’s human faults or lack thereof. I also will not comment at all on his religious credentials.
I WILL note that the author of the above article, in describing Carlebach’s stature as a musical composer, referred to him as: “…the man who was inarguably the greatest composer of the twentieth century…”. Read that sentence again, and then reflect on the fact that the in the period of the twentieth century the list of composers included, among many others, GUSTAV MAHLER (who was also Jewish, by the way)!!! I happened to like Shlomo Carlebach’s music, but to compare the specifically musical, compositional content of his songs to the music of Mahler, or of Arnold Schoenberg (also Jewish), or many others (Jewish and gentile) who could also be mentioned from the list of 20th century composers, is complete, 100% uninformed narishkeit.
[For those who know a little about technical music facts, almost ALL of Shlomo’s songs consist of nothing other than I IV V major key progressions, or equally simple minor key progressions. The purely musical content (I am not talking about religion here) is very BASIC.]
There is one thing I would like to add, in the previous generation we had in every chassidus a certain hate against other chassidus, kids grew up knowing that the rebbe from the other chassidus is a sheigetz and a kofar (and many will say that they had the image in their head of a guy with a long ponytail (before pic were around as it is today) we now live in a more open world and we all know that even if 2 parties (chassidus) think that the other one is completely off in yiddishkeit there is still some derech eretz and respect for others, god made it that way that there are different groups and different ideas, bais shamai and bais hillel were fighting in halacha all the time and we have no doubt that hashem liked them both, if you have something against how one did something and think that he was wrong that in no way means that hashem thinks the same way.
I always knew he had his own Shulchan Aruch, now I see he has his own Torah.
To #16 I would caution you not to make up stories about the Rebbe, unless you have proof.
#26 and how do i know its not a bubba maiseh? #27 Do us a favour and dont makeup your own history of chassidus in previous generation
One who saves a life is as if he has saved the whole world. Reb Shlomo repeatedly saved many lives. When a young man was going off the derech, Rav Hillel David sent him to Shlomo to be influenced by him. His humanity was unparalleled.
in my days he was known as a “poro aduma” he is metaher temayim & metameh tehorim
The Freidike Rebbe was well aware of Shlomo Carlebach level of learning since meeting him as a child in Europe.
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You have now crossed the line from inaccuracy into fantasy. Carlebach was a borderline cult leader who just told stories (often stolen brazenly from others) and composed a few good songs (and did a lot of things that were totally ossur and illegal as well). If there are any harassment victims who feel compensation is due to them, and if this sefer sells any copies, I hope that profits will go to these victims (it is all long past the statute of limitations so none of this can be enforced.)