February 25, 2007

Last week I learned from a friend that filmmaker Menachem Daum is getting started on a new documentary, on the life of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. Since Reb Shlomo figures so prominently my book, this is a very interesting development.

I first met Menachem when he was in San Francisco in 1997 for a showing of his film, "A Life Apart," at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. After seeing the film I went up to him and told him how much I enjoyed it. We got to talking, and I wound up driving him back to his hotel.

We talked about Reb Shlomo, who was his spiritual teacher as well as mine. Shlomo passed away in 1994. Menachem said he hoped to make a film about Shlomo's life someday. The biggest challenge from his point of view was how to deal with some of the controversy that was part of Shlomo's life. At that time I had begun writing Holy Beggars and was facing the same set of issues: how to tell the story of this extraordinary human being -- whom we loved, who had been our teacher, and who had made such a profound impact on the lives of so many people -- but who was also complex , and whose life seemed to contain fierce contradictions.

I dropped Menachem off at his hotel, and haven't seen him since then. In 2005 he came out with his next film, "Hiding and Seeking," which was shown on PBS and received an Emmy® nomination.

What is so moving to me about these two films, and I believe so profound, is the loving and wise sensitivity with they treat a complex set of human issues. It has to do with the tension between two realities: the reality of the world as experienced by many fundamentalist Jews living in ultra-Orthodox communities -- a world into which Menachem Daum was born -- and the reality of the more diverse, secular, inclusive and chaotic world that most of us in the West inhabit. His genius as an artist is the way he is able to bridge these worlds.

It seems to me that at this time in history, we need more people like Menachem Daum, people from within the core of many faiths, who are capable of building these kinds of bridges.

Anyway, when I found out that Menachem was moving ahead with his film about Reb Shlomo, I called him. It turns out that I'm going to be in New York next month, to attend the senior recital of my son Adam, who is a musician in the Jazz Program at New School in New York. "What if you do some video of interviewing me about the House of Love and Prayer?" I said. "You can use it as part of your film, and I can use clips to post on the Holy Beggars web site." He liked the idea, so we decided to do it.

After the conversation, I looked again at Menachem's proposal for his film. Here's a part of it:

Shlomo often acknowledged that he was a man of many contradictions. As a result, throughout his life he was constantly at war with himself. Among his internal struggles was his attempt to reconcile his religious fundamentalism with his increasing humanism and egalitarianism. On the one hand, he was deeply rooted in a Judeo-centric, parochial Orthodox Judaism that emphasized Jewish chosenness. Yet, Shlomo had to break through these barriers as he increasingly felt deeply connected to every single human being. Throughout his life Shlomo constantly wrestled against boundaries for the sake of his art and for his sense of connectedness to all humanity. Like most of us, Shlomo’s strengths and weaknesses came from the same place within himself and he experienced his share of personal triumphs and failures. Give Us Harmony will present an admiring but honest portrait of a lonely and pained man who, while trying to save the world, found it increasingly difficult to save himself.

I am looking forward to seeing Menachem Daum next month. I am looking forward to talking with him, on camera and off, about some of our shared experiences and concerns. I am honored that he is willing to spend time with me as an informal collaborator and friend. I hope our conversations will also have value for him.