Shlomo's Stories


Book Description

A collection of stories by the late, world-renowned rabbi and folk singer Shlomo Carlebach.




The Invention of the Jewish People


Book Description

A historical tour de force that demolishes the myths and taboos that have surrounded Jewish and Israeli history, The Invention of the Jewish People offers a new account of both that demands to be read and reckoned with. Was there really a forced exile in the first century, at the hands of the Romans? Should we regard the Jewish people, throughout two millennia, as both a distinct ethnic group and a putative nation—returned at last to its Biblical homeland? Shlomo Sand argues that most Jews actually descend from converts, whose native lands were scattered far across the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The formation of a Jewish people and then a Jewish nation out of these disparate groups could only take place under the sway of a new historiography, developing in response to the rise of nationalism throughout Europe. Beneath the biblical back fill of the nineteenth-century historians, and the twentieth-century intellectuals who replaced rabbis as the architects of Jewish identity, The Invention of the Jewish People uncovers a new narrative of Israel’s formation, and proposes a bold analysis of nationalism that accounts for the old myths. After a long stay on Israel’s bestseller list, and winning the coveted Aujourd’hui Award in France, The Invention of the Jewish People is finally available in English. The central importance of the conflict in the Middle East ensures that Sand’s arguments will reverberate well beyond the historians and politicians that he takes to task. Without an adequate understanding of Israel’s past, capable of superseding today’s opposing views, diplomatic solutions are likely to remain elusive. In this iconoclastic work of history, Shlomo Sand provides the intellectual foundations for a new vision of Israel’s future.




How I Stopped Being a Jew


Book Description

Shlomo Sand was born in 1946, in a displaced person’s camp in Austria, to Jewish parents; the family later migrated to Palestine. As a young man, Sand came to question his Jewish identity, even that of a “secular Jew.” With this meditative and thoughtful mixture of essay and personal recollection, he articulates the problems at the center of modern Jewish identity. How I Stopped Being a Jew discusses the negative effects of the Israeli exploitation of the “chosen people” myth and its “holocaust industry.” Sand criticizes the fact that, in the current context, what “Jewish” means is, above all, not being Arab and reflects on the possibility of a secular, non-exclusive Israeli identity, beyond the legends of Zionism.




Holy Beggars


Book Description

The 1960s San Francisco spiritual revolution - a view from inside. Memoir about a spiritual teacher and a student in 1960s San Francisco, a colorful cast - including Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Allen Ginsburg, Murshid Samuel Lewis ("Sufi Sam"), Swami Satchidananda, Ajari Warwick, Rabbi Zalman Shalomi Schachter, and many more - and lives that were changed forever. Aryae Coopersmith, a 22-year old college student in 1960s San Francisco, meets the charismatic rabbi and folk singer Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and decides to start a community for him. He rents a house and moves in with his best friends. Before long they find themselves - and their house - at the center of the San Francisco spiritual revolution as thousands of young people - Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Sufis, and followers of countless gurus - flood in through their doors. Giving concerts to packed halls all over the world, Shlomo is recognized as Judaism's most influential musician, and one of its greatest spiritual leaders, of the late 20th century. Their house - the House of Love and Prayer - becomes an historic part of the legend of 1960s San Francisco. Aryae and his fellow students who are running other spiritual communities bring their teachers and gurus together to create a big San Francisco event - the Meeting of the Ways - to celebrate the oneness of the world's spiritual traditions and all the world's people. Aryae's best friends Efraim and Leah leave San Francisco and head to Jerusalem, where they become ultra-Orthodox Hasidim. Many others from the "House" follow. Aryae stays behind and settles into a secular life as a Silicon Valley business owner. After Shlomo dies, Aryae feels compelled to tell the story. To try to understand the lives of his old friends and pull together the scattered fragments of his own, he travels to Jerusalem. This profoundly moving memoir tells a story of grace, loss, redemption, and ultimately of acceptance. It invites us to reflect on how the 1960s spiritual revolution - with its vision of the oneness of us all - has impacted each of our lives.




The Invention of the Land of Israel


Book Description

What is a homeland and when does it become a national territory? Why have so many people been willing to die for such places throughout the twentieth century? What is the essence of the Promised Land? Following the acclaimed and controversial The Invention of the Jewish People, Shlomo Sand examines the mysterious sacred land that has become the site of the longest-running national struggle of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Invention of the Land of Israel deconstructs the age-old legends surrounding the Holy Land and the prejudices that continue to suffocate it. Sand’s account dissects the concept of “historical right” and tracks the creation of the modern concept of the “Land of Israel” by nineteenth-century Evangelical Protestants and Jewish Zionists. This invention, he argues, not only facilitated the colonization of the Middle East and the establishment of the State of Israel; it is also threatening the existence of the Jewish state today.




Reb Shlomo


Book Description




Holy Brother


Book Description

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach was one of the most original and inspired Jewish personalities of the twentieth century. In this incredible volume, Yitta Halberstam Mandelbaum, a devoted student of Reb Shlomo, gathers dozens of stories about this charismatic, loving Jewish leader. The episodes retold here by Reb Shlomo's followers and admirers underscore his unfailing generosity, his capacity to love unconditionally, and his desire to reconnect every Jew with his or her heritage. As a whole, the collection reveals how many individuals were touched by Reb Shlomo, and serves as a moving tribute to the man many consider a tzaddik (righteous one).




The Soul of Jerusalem


Book Description

There is a little land. In that little land, there is a little city. In that city there is a little street, and on that street there is a little wall. When you stand by that Holy Wall, you can hear the footsteps of our father Abraham, and you can hear the trumpet of the Great Day to come. You hear the past and you can hear the future. You can hear the singing of the Levites. Or, you can hear us crying, going into exile. You can hear the six million crying out of the gas chambers, and you can hear the trumpet of the Great Day to come. I was standing one early morning by the Holy Wall, and I was saying Kaddish for my father. But when you stand by that Holy Wall, you say Kaddish for the whole world. Sometimes you feel like saying Kaddish for your own soul, and sometimes you feel like saying Kaddish for tomorrow. Then you hear the words “Yisgadal V’yiskadash Shmei Raba — May G-d’s Name become great and sanctified,” and you remember there is one G-d, and you know that the Great Morning is coming. You know that day and night will get together. The living and the dead, we and the whole world. This is my song, the song of tears, because on that Great Day the tears will march through the world, and the whole world will join them. The tears will clear the world and prepare the world. Everything will come together. We will all come together. It will be a new morning – a new beginning. In this remarkable and life-changing work, the reader is transported to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem to be inspired by the teachings of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach zt”l. Masterfully adapted by Rabbi Shlomo Katz (renowned musician and creator of the best-selling and acclaimed The Soul of Chanukah: Teachings of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach), these teachings touch the soul.




The End of the French Intellectual


Book Description

Charting the decline of the French intellectual, from the Dreyfus Affair to Islamophobia The best-selling author of The Invention of the Jewish People, Shlomo Sand examines the troublesome figure of the French intellectual. Revered throughout the Francophile world, France’s tradition of public intellectual engagement stems from Voltaire and Zola and runs through Sartre and Foucault to the present day. The intellectual enjoys a status as the ethical lodestar of his nation’s life, but, as Sand shows, the recent history of these esteemed figures shows how often, and how profoundly, they have fallen short of the ideal. Sand examines Sartre and de Beauvoir’s unsettling accommodations during the Nazi occupation and then shows how Muslims have replaced Jews as the nation’s scapegoats for a new generation of public intellectuals, including Michel Houellebecq and Alain Finkielkraut. Possessing an intimate knowledge of the Parisian intellectual milieu, Sand laments the degradation of a literary elite, but questions the value of that class at the best of times. Drawing parallels between the Dreyfus Affair and Charlie Hebdo, while mixing reminiscence with analysis, Sand casts a characteristically candid and mordant gaze upon the intellectual scene of today.




The Sages of Chelm and the Moon


Book Description

Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of Chelm – the city of wise fools celebrated in Jewish folklore. According to legend, Chelm was populated by preposterously silly townsfolk. There are numerous tales of their idiotic exploits and the most famous is the story of the people of Chelm and the moon… The people of Chelm have a problem. They love to walk the streets at night under the light of the radiant moon. But every now and then, the moon disappears from the sky and they can’t find their way home. Perhaps someone is stealing it, or maybe it’s hiding on purpose? Being very clever, the wise people of Chelm know exactly what they must do. They will buy a brand-new moon – one that will shine clear and bright every night. But will everything go according to plan? Shlomo Abbas retells the story with a perfect comic touch and Omer Hoffmann illustrates the tale beautifully. For 4–8-year-olds.