POLITICS

1) The Sound of One Hand Clapping

The Baal Shem teaches that when a person is happy they
automatically clap their hands. This is because joy is
spreading throughout the entire body. But do you know
what it is that I’m really doing when clapping my hands?
A person is literally bringing the left and right to love
each other. Let me explain. The right (hand) usually tells
the left (hand): “Listen, you know you’re a leftist. I don’t
want to have anything to do with you, don’t you see, we are
right.” And the left (hand) says to the right: “Who needs you?
Who even cares! You are so right, you’re always
doing something good.  Who needs you and your mitzvot.
I have no strength for you. Why not face it—you’re so boring,
that we are really the ones who are right.” So the right doesn’t
speak to the left and left doesn’t speak to the right.
But when you clap hands, you are bringing right and left
together. The right comes close to the left and says
“Hey, you’re precious after all. Maybe you are really right.”
And the left says to the right: “I love you. Hey maybe we
were wrong.” So the left and the right learn together from
each other just for a little bit. So let’s sing and pray
that the Holy One stir the hands of our people so that we
recognize that we are only one holy and sanctified nation.

2) This is the House of the L-rd

You know friends, if you build a little bungalow, it
doesn’t take very long. But if you’re planning to build
Rockefeller Center, it takes very long. You know a lot
of people are complaining, why doesn’t Israel get its
act together; why is it taking so long? So you know
what we are saying… Gevaldt! What kind of house is
G-d building if it takes so long? It must be an
unbelievable house!

3) Army of Peace.
Last night, it’s true, I played for two thousand
soldiers. They were dancing with the kind of
fire only holy soldiers could dance. They were
holding their guns very high over their heads,
reaching heaven with their guns,  It was the guns
of peace, gons of Mossiah…

Let it be this year!!!

4) Yerushalym.

From the city of Yerushalym, the city of tears
and of joy, the city of broken stones, broken
hearts and the city of bliss and utmost completeness,
the city which connects us to everything
past and where we hear the echoes of the future—
the great future. The city every Jew is ready
to die for and which gives life to every Jew.
The city where the gates of prayer are open and
the city which opens every heart—the city where
the holiest Jew knows “I haven’t begun yet being
Jewish” and where the lowest Jew knows, “I am still
the holiest Jew… ” I am sending you, my dearest, most
precious brothers and sisters, all my love and best wishes.

A Jew is always on his way to Yerushalayim. There is
no pain in the world which can make me forget
Yerushalayim. There is no joy in the world which
can make me forget Yerushalayim.

*******
New York, 5754.

The holy Maggid of Trisk and the holy Rebbe of Gorlitz corresponded
with each other for ten years. Each of the Rebbes began his letters
with the greeting, “To My Great Friend” and signed it with his name,
“Avrehemle” or “Boruchl”. But in between the greeting and signature
the page was entirely blank. The Maggid was asked why he
and the Rebbe sent such letters to each other. He replied,
“When you write with ink, you have words. When you write with your
blood, there are no words.”

Every Jew receives a letter from Yerushalyim, a blank page that begins
with the words, “To My Great Friend”, and is signed “Yerushalayim”. But
that one blank paper is so deep, so holy. On the one hand, it gives you
hope, on the other, it breaks you into pieces…

I write to you, my dear brothers and sisters, holding this blank letter
in my hand and in my heart. We all love Yerushalayim and the Holy Land
so much. But since the paper is blank, everybody puts their own words
into it. I know that the words which every Jew puts on the paper come
from love for Yerushalayim. But to tell you the truth, I wish that the
broken stones of the Holy Wall and the broken spirits of our people,
broken for two thousand years, could reveal to me what Yerushalayim
really wants.

I bless you and me that tomorrow morning or tonight in our dreams, we
receive another letter from Yerushalaym, a letter not covered in blood
any more, only covered in sunshine and the great light which will shine
out from Yerushalaym into Israel and into the whole world.

Your brother and friend,
Shlomole ben Pesiya
who is madly in love with every Jew,
madly in love with Yerushalayim and,
crazily, still in love with the entire world.