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Holy
Beggars A Journey from Haight Street to Jerusalem Copyright 2008 Aryae Coopersmith Return to The Book Summary of Chapters "Their end is in their beginning, and their beginning is in their end." Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation This story unfolds simultaneously in three time periods: the 1960s & '70s, the 1990s, and the year 2003. In Part I, for all three periods, the story emerges and the plot thickens. In Part II the story finds its resolution, and the hidden connections are revealed. PART I: The Story Emerges The 1960sChapter 1: Messengers In 1939 in Baden, Austria, where Rabbi Naftali Carlebach is Chief Rabbi and the Nazis have just taken over, a strange visitor, looking like a messenger from another world, shows up at the Carlebachs' front door. The following week the Carlebachs leave Austria and are able to get to New York. Rabbi Carlebach's son Shlomo, a brilliant Torah scholar and young rabbi, together with his friend Rabbi Zalman Schachter, are students of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, who has also escaped to America from Europe. The Rebbe tells Shlomo and Zalman that they must leave New York to be his personal messengers, to go to college campuses and reach out to a new generation of young Americans. Chapter 2: Seeker Aryae is a college student who doesn't believe in religion or God. While studying in Jerusalem, he finds his way to King David's tomb and has an amazing experience that transforms him. He leaves Israel with Ruthie, an Israeli dancer with whom he had been living. While staying in Paris he takes LSD for the first time and has a direct experience of God -- as the Oneness of all being. His life has been propelled in a new direction from which there is no turning back. Chapter 3: Shlomo After they get to the States, Ruthie stays in New York and Aryae goes to San Francisco, where he finds an apartment near Haight Street and enrolls at San Francisco State College. One day on campus he stumbles into a concert of "The Singing Rabbi," and to his amazement finds himself once again in the experience of Oneness. The rabbi, who introduces himself as "Shlomo," quickly connects with Aryae and introduces him to two other students, Alex and Miriam, who soon become his close friends. Six months later they are at the Berkeley Folk Festival where Shlomo steals the show. He leads hundreds of students through the streets of Berkeley, rents a whole floor of a hotel, and invites them all to stay. He inspires them with dreams of bringing the Great Shabbos, the great day of love and peace, to the world. Chapter 4: Haight Street The Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park brings together psychedelic luminaries Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Allen Guinsberg, bands, musicians, dancers and 50,000 celebrants - to share an LSD trip where all their separate identities melt into universal oneness. This is the high point, the crowning moment, of the psychedelic culture of Haight Street. Dancing with thousands of others, Aryae joyfully releases his separate self and dives into the oneness. Then to his total amazement he finds himself dancing with a beautiful woman whom he has seen and fantasized about but never met. She invites him to join her in a celebration of cosmic sexual ecstasy. Chapter 5: Secret of Life As Haight Street prepares for the Summer of Love, Aryae spends Shabbos (the Sabbath) with Shlomo when he is in town, and with Alex and Miriam at their little house in the forest when he is not. Many doors of the soul, doors within doors within doors, keep opening as a result of these experiences, revealing the deepest of secrets inside. Alex and Miriam become stronger in their commitment to living as Jewish mystics. Aryae, who is still being pulled by the many cross currents of the world of Haight Street, is confronted with an existential choice about the direction of his life. Chapter 6: Summer of Love Ruthie has come from New York to join Aryae in San Francisco. The two of them, together with Alex and Miriam, drive from San Francisco to be with Shlomo in Mexico City. There are many unexpected adventures for everyone. When they get back to San Francisco it is summer of 1967, the Summer of Love. Shlomo arrives, and they all take a walk on Haight Street. It is there, surrounded by the thousands of newly minted hippies arriving hourly from all over the U.S., that Shlomo comes up with the idea of the House of Love and Prayer. Chapter 7: House Shlomo, who is now traveling all the time and giving concerts everywhere, keeps returning to California, but there is no House of Love and Prayer. Alex and Miriam grow tired of waiting, and decide it's time to head for Jerusalem. They go to the East Coast to stay with Alex's parents and make their final preparations to leave the U.S. Aryae comes to realize that it is up to him to start the House of Love and Prayer. With $350 given to him by a friend, he finds the perfect house, rents it, moves in, and calls Shlomo. Shlomo persuades Alex and Miriam to turn around and go back to San Francisco. They move in with Aryae and Ruthie, and the House of Love and Prayer is launched. The 1990s Chapter 8: Jellybeans Two decades later Aryae has been divorced from Ruthie for a long time, and is now a Silicon Valley businessperson with a house on the coast south of San Francisco, his second wife, Lane, and two young kids. Now his marriage with Lane is falling apart. On his last night in the family house with his children, he lights the Hanukah candles with them, and remembers his first Hanukah at the House. It was with Shlomo, whom he hasn't seen in many years. The next day he leaves on a business trip to New York. He wants to find Shlomo and spend Shabbos with him. Maybe Shlomo can help him put his life back together. Chapter 9: Trap Aryae finds his way to the Carlebach Shul in New York, where Shlomo is leading Friday night services. Shlomo invites Aryae to stay for dinner at the shul. He introduces Aryae to the members of his congregation, including a group of young yeshivah students and a visiting Orthodox rabbi, as his "top man" at the House of Love and Prayer in San Francisco 20 years ago, and tells them that Aryae is now an Orthodox Jew and a psychiatrist, neither of which is true. Shlomo then asks Aryae to give a talk on this week's Torah portion. Aryae, who hasn't been studying much Torah lately and doesn't know this week's portion, freezes. Chapter 10: 27 Miles Aryae rescues himself by telling the story of a 27 mile walk in the rain in Los Angeles with Shlomo in 1968. In this story Shlomo, by the force of his love and his commitment and his example, inspired Aryae and hundreds of others to experience the power of Shabbos, and the reality of God's presence in their lives, on a completely new level. Everyone loves the story. The visiting rabbi invites Aryae to daven at his shul the next day and to tell the story there. Shlomo says he'll be there too, and they can sit together. Aryae wants so much to talk to Shlomo about his life, but it's late, and Shlomo looks so tired. Shlomo promises Aryae that they'll talk the next day. Chapter 11: Mistaken Identity The next day Shlomo and Aryae meet at services at the other rabbi's shul. They sit briefly together, but soon Shlomo explains apologetically that he has to leave. Aryae feels abandoned. He remembers how he often felt like this with Shlomo in the old days. After services the rabbi asks Aryae to tell the story again to his congregation. He tries to fix up Aryae, the Orthodox psychiatrist from San Francisco, with one of their members, a beautiful young woman, great granddaughter of a great Hassidic rebbe. Aryae flees - with jangled feelings and lots of unanswered questions. 2003 Chapter 12: Another World To celebrate his 60th birthday Aryae has come with his third wife, Wendy, to Jerusalem. He is seeking out old friends from the House, especially Alex, now called Elya, and Miriam, whom he hasn't seen in 34 years. He wants to interview them about their memories of the House of Love and Prayer, to help him write the story he now feels compelled to tell. Shulamis, who was a young teenager at the House and is now a rabbi's wife and a grandmother, takes them, for the first time in Aryae's life, to the Holy Wall. Chapter 13: Hats Wendy and Aryae visit Debbie, who was a teenager at the House, and is now a grandmother and religious writer living in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem. On impulse Debbie brings Aryae and Wendy to Elya and Miriam's place a few blocks away, two days ahead of schedule. Aryae and Elya look at each other for the first time in 34 years. Living strictly religious lives in the midst of the ultra Orthodox world, Elya and Miriam are now Breslover Hassidim, and Elya has become one of Israel's best known mystic artists. He gets a sudden inspiration to bring everyone to the Tomb of Samuel the Prophet in the West Bank, so Aryae drives them. Once there, a great wind blows away Aryae's little kippah (skull cap) and Elya's large Hasidic felt hat into a deep excavation pit. As they climb through the wind and rain into the pit to retrieve each other's hats, Aryae and Elya rediscover the essence of their friendship. Chapter 14: Moshav Wendy and Aryae are staying with friends at Moshav Meor Modiin, Shlomo's moshav (community, settlement) in Israel. It was founded by some of Shlomo's followers after the House of Love and Prayer was sold 1977 and the proceeds sent to Israel. Aryae is drawn to connect with the people and the life of the Moshav, hoping that this will somehow provide a clue to putting together the broken pieces of his own life. He interviews Meira, now 83 years old, who had served as a kind of mother figure to the young hippies at the House in San Francisco, and learns what her life is like here. He and Wendy then attend a wedding at the Moshav, and make a surprising discovery. Chapter 15: Moshav 2 A few days after the wedding Aryae interviews Rachel, the mother of the bride. Rachel tells her story of leaving the House of Love and Prayer in 1969 and coming to Jerusalem, with all the hardships and unexpected twists and turns that that entailed. Her husband Rabbi Avrahan Arieh rushes in with his latest book, Seeds and Sparks, that is literally hot off the press, and gives the first copy to Wendy and Aryae. Later when they attend Shabbos services at the shul on Friday night, Wendy is very disturbed by the experience of sitting behind the mechitza, the ritual barrier that separates the women from the men during prayer in the Orthodox world. When Aryae had been at the House, there was never a mechitza because Shlomo said their job was to break down walls, not build them. Wendy and Aryae, talking with the people around them, try to understand, why is there one now at the Moshav? Part II: The Hidden Connections The 1960s and 1970sChapter 16: Fixing the Heart Leading a Friday night celebration of singing, dancing and prayer during the first weeks of the House, Shlomo brings hundreds of people, everyone with their arms around each other, into the peace and love and sweetness of Shabbos. The president of a local shul walks in and publicly confronts Shlomo over violating the Orthodox rules for separating men and women. Shlomo must publicly resolve this disconnect - between the Orthodox rules he is committed to live by, and the drive from his heart to bring everyone together. Aryae also has a dilemma to resolve, brought on by the strong attraction he shares with Sarah, a young woman living at the House. Chapter 17: This Too Shall Pass During the first year of the House of Love and Prayer, it seems to Aryae like the whole world is showing up at their doorstep. Young people from all over the U.S., visiting rabbis from everywhere, and visiting teachers from a rainbow of other spiritual traditions together with their followers, fill the House every Shabbos, and more and more people decide to move in. The holy beggars at the House welcome everyone, and the flow of people and events never stops. Peoples' lives get swept up in the endless current of humanity. Aryae begins to feel that this way of living is unsustainable. Shlomo's best friend Rabbi Zalman Schachter spends Shabbos at the House and gives Aryae a ring with the inscription in Hebrew, "This Too Shall Pass." Aryae loses the ring, but it returns in a miraculous way. Chapter 18: Fallen Leaves Shlomo comes to the House for the holiday of Succot, when religious Jews live in booths, succahs, with roofs of leaves, to remember the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Alex and Aryae and the holy beggars have built a giant succah in the back yard. Hundreds of people gather in the succah with Shlomo in the misty, chilly San Francisco night, to listen to him give over one of his deepest teachings, the Torah of the fallen leaves. Late at night, after most of the guests have gone, the people from the House join Shlomo in the succah to sleep in the rain. Chapter 19: Tzitzit As the war in Vietnam rages, the Selective Service finally catches up with Aryae, who has been trying unsuccessfully to get classified as a Conscious Objector. When he reports to the Army induction center, standing in a line with hundreds of naked young men, he is ordered to take off his religious garments, his kippah and his tzitzit (ritual undershirt with fringes). Teachings from Shlomo help him decide how to deal with this order, the Army, and the war. Chapter 20: Lord Get Me High One of the high points of the House of Love and Prayer, and perhaps its most widely publicized event, is the wedding of George and Pamela which Shlomo performs in Golden Gate Park. Humdreds of people attend, many of them who are in the park that day and wander over spontaneously, including a photographer from Life Magazine, which features the wedding in a spread that is seen around the world. Aryae and the holy beggars take Alex and Miriam to the airport as they leave San Francisco forever, to go to Israel. Shlomo comes back for the holiday of Shavuot - which he and the holy beggars celebrate by jumping into a lake at Golden Gate Park. (Chapter includes photos.) Chapter 21: Israel People leave the House to go to Israel. From the letters they send back to their friends at the House, and interviews years later, a picture emerges of what happens when they get there. Chapter 22: Rabbi Shlomo gets sick and convinces Aryae to stand in for him on a nation-wide concert tour followed by a Shabbaton (Shabbos retreat) for an Orthodox youth group at a kosher hotel in Miami Beach. The only problem is, Shlomo has told the youth group director that Aryae is an Orthodox rabbi. Under pressure from Shlomo, Aryae reluctantly agrees to play the part. When he arrives in Miami with Ruthie, it becomes clear that they will be under close scrutiny. Will he be able to pull it off? Later Shlomo offers to make Aryae a real rabbi. Chapter 23: Covenant Through a series of interviews people recount stories of their adventures at the House during its second year, after Alex and Miriam have left. On the one hand, the energy of the House is still very high and wonderful things keep happening in people's lives. On the other hand, problems keep accumulating beyond the point where Aryae and his friends can handle them. They get Shlomo to agree that the House has to close. Aryae and Shlomo make a commitment to each other. Aryae will devote all his time to opening a second House, which will be a yeshivah where people can come and learn, and will be run in a more organized way. Shlomo will alter his life by spending three or four months each year in San Francisco. Chapter 24: Different Shoes Aryae and the holy beggars launch the new House of Love and Prayer Yeshivah. Shlomo initially spends time teaching there. Aryae helps organize the Meeting of the Ways concert in San Francisco, a large gathering for all the Bay Area's spiritual teachers and their followers. At the concert Shlomo says to everyone, "We're all on the same path; we're just wearing different shoes." This moment is an amazing embodiment of the dream of that time, that the peoples from all the world's religions can really come together as brothers and sisters. But trouble soon follows. Aryae begins to see that, in spite of Shlomo's best intentions, he simply won't be delivering on his commitment, and the Yeshivah will not materialize. As he realizes that his dream will not happen, Aryae gets more and more depressed. Eventually he concludes that he and Shlomo are wearing different shoes, and he leaves the House. Chapter 25: Rebuke Away from Shlomo and the House, Aryae tries to sort out his life in 1970s America. He gets interested in Jungian psychology, takes off his religious garments, goes to graduate school, ends his marriage with Ruthie, lives in a rented garage and commutes huge distances to graduate school and his various internships. He reconnects with Reb Zalman on the day of the Yom Kippur war, and spends what seems like half his life on gas lines during the oil crisis that follows. In 1978, ready to try a second marriage, he goes with Lane, the woman he has been living with, to see Shlomo, hoping that Shlomo will perform the wedding. For the first and only time ever, Shlomo rebukes Aryae. The 1990s Chapter 26: Valentine's Day Forteen years later Aryae's marriage with Lane has fallen apart, and he is living by himself. Feeling alone in the world as he sits in his Palo Alto office on Valentine's Day, Aryae is surprised to get a call from Sarah from the House, whom he hasn't seen for two decades. She is now divorced, an attorney living by herself in San Francisco. Drawn together by the intense memory of unfulfilled sexual longing from so many years ago, Aryae and Sarah wind up spending the night together. As they are lying in bed, she startles him by telling him about her connection with Shlomo. Chapter 27: Last of the Mohegans In March 1994 Shlomo and Zalman hold a fabrengin (celebration gathering) in Berkeley. They share stories about the beginning of their careers when the old Lubavitcher Rebbe kicked them out of Brooklyn in 1949. Aryae listens intently. These two old men, who knew the world of the great rebbes of Europe before the Holocaust, are the carriers of the seed stock of spiritual wisdom of a generation that was destroyed. Zalman says, "We're the last of the Mohegans." Later Aryae takes his son Adam to meet Shlomo. It is the last time he will see him. Chapter 28: Kaddish When Shlomo dies on October 20, 1994, people come together by the thousands for his funeral in Jerusalem, for a huge gathering in New York, and for smaller events all around the world. Aryae feels shocked and disoriented. The conversation he's wanted to have with him for so long, that kept getting put off for another day, will never happen. Aryae invites some of his old friends, some of the original holy beggars, to his home for a memorial gathering. They share stories about their experiences with Shlomo and the way he changed their lives. Aryae begins to understand that, in order to put his life back together, he needs to find a way to tell the story. Chapter 29: Shomer This chapter, which after much soul searching he has decided that he must include for the story to be complete, has been the most difficult for Aryae to write. He is on the Council, or board, of the Aquarian Minyan, the spiritual community in Berkeley initiated by Reb Zalman in the 1970s. A visiting rabbi makes the community aware that there have been reports, which began coming to light after Shlomo's death, from women who described his sexual misconduct with them and the hurt they experienced as a result. This information ignites a storm of intense feelings that polarizes the community and tears apart friendships. The situation is so stressful that the Shomer (board chair, literally "guardian") quits, and asks Aryae to take his place. Aryae has to sort through his feelings about Shlomo and make a decision. 2003 Chapter 30: A Place to Pray Aryae and Wendy spend Shabbos with Elya and Miriam in Jerusalem. The two couples, whose lives are outwardly so different, discover how connected they really are. When Aryae decides not to accompany Elya at 5:00 AM on an eight mile walk uphill through the rain, he has to search on his own for a place to pray during Shabbos. He winds up spending five hours swept away with a group of Hasidim who cry, sing, shout, bang the walls, and dance around him. When Elya returns in the late afternoon, he reveals the startling information that the Rav, spiritual leader for thousands of Breslover Hasidim, has asked Elya to bring Aryae to see him. Chapter 31: Feast of the Queen That night there is a House of Love and Prayer reunion in Jerusalem. People share memories of their unique and varied journeys from Haight Street to Jerusalem. As he listens to stories of how their lives were transformed, Aryae has to confront something he hasn't thought about for years -- his role in launching them on their journeys. People are excited that after more than 30 years of separation, Aryae, together with Wendy, has finally come here, and they encourage them with great enthusiasm to move to Israel. Elya, who knows Aryae best, shifts the perspective by offering him a blessing. Later, Aryae realizes that Elya's blessing contains the key for bringing his life together now. (Chapter includes photos.) Chapter 32: The Rav Wendy and Aryae, preparing to go to sleep where they are staying at the Moshav, get a call from Elya after 10 PM that the Rav is ready to see them. They drive into Jerusalem, pick up Elya and Miriam, and the four of them visit the Rav and his wife the Rabanit. With the three men sitting at one end of a very long table and the three women sitting at the other end, a midnight exchange of stories, songs, laughter, and surprises blows everyone's mind and melts everyone's heart. Chapter 33: Legacy Death is the ultimate mystery and the ultimate journey. A measure of our lives is the legacy we leave behind. Aryae and Wendy are honored guests at an ultra-Orthodox celebration that reveals the passing of the batton from one generation to the next. They go with Elya to visit King David's tomb, which Aryae hasn't seen for almost 40 years, since King David started him off on his journey. Then they go to visit Shlomo's grave to share silence, sighs and tears. Aryae has come full cycle in the journey which has no end. (Chapter includes photos.) |