Book Review - Holy Beggars (Guest Post)

Holy Beggars is an uneven book about uneven people – primarily the author, Arye Coopersmith, and Shlomo Carlebach – in a strange and unique place and time, Haight-Ashbury of the late ‘60s, specifically the House of Love and Prayer. The unevenness has the herky-jerky quality of a hand-held camera trying to track elusive characters and a fleeting zeitgeist. While there is credit given to editors, there is none of the polish of “as told to” a professional writer. The book awkardly shifts focus between past and present, different cities and stages of life, and many of the basic facts of Shlomo and the House are introduced along the way, in context, making it hard to plunge into.

Little is told of the author's background, but he winds up as the “go to guy” in the physical establishment and the spiritual teaching at the House. With little religious background, but with a lot of flower power, he embarks on this task, with Shlomo’s initial enthusiasm, but limited follow-through. Although the House has an energetics start and burns brightly, the experiment is bound to fail.The failures, both of the House and the personal lives of those drawn to it, are presented in a painfully honest way. AC is disappointed by Shlomo’s inability to commit, or more accurately his tendency to casually over-commit, and his inability to just show up on time. The marriages of Arye Coopersmith, Shlomo, and Zalman all fail, and their personal failures give a sense of their difficulty to partake of “Yeshuvo Shel Olom”, conventional settling of the world, and of unfulfilled spiritual seeking.Among the highlights of the book are Shlomo’s encounters with many other Eastern spiritual teachers. This was Shlomo B’Mochin D’Gadlin, without Tzimtzum of having to cover his Orthodox flank.

Also included is his long relationship with Zalman Schechter, including Shlomo’s assessment of their commonality and differences. There are especially poignant sections devoted to the author’s re-connecting with many Orthodox people in Jerusalem, who were initially drawn in and taught by the author, but left for Israel for destinations such as Breslov and Diaspora Yeshiva, and far surpassed the author in Orthodox commitment. There’s not much of Shlomo's Torah brought down, but that’s not what you want to know about; what you really want are details about Shlomo’s private life. Fear not, they are discussed in detail, objectively, fairly, and in context. Much is made of the schism in the Berkeley Aquarian New Age Minyan, as fallout from pro and anti-Shlomo factions. For those of us who did not directly participate in the magic of that time and place, and met Shlomo afterwards, this book serves as a taste, a ta’am, of wide-open possibilities and inevitable crashes. While we may think that going from Lakewood to Brisk, or from Spinka to Lubavitch, is a life-altering transition, these seekers went to the outer edge of the known universe and back in their spiritual journeys; and yes, there was sincerity and manipulation Be’Ir’Vuvyeh.

If not for Leibel Bronstein, there would be no Soviet Union,
Soviet Union was the nemesis Gashmi and Ruchani of Lubavtich
Lubavtich was the catalyst to the emergence of RaSHBaN (Reb Shlomo Ben Naftoli, Carlebach)

RaSHBaN was a big force in freeing Soviet Jewry
freeing Soviet Jewry was begining of the end of Soviet Union
end of Soviet Union engendered Lubavitch Messianic dreams
Lubavitch messianic dreams proved , well, how to say,  controversial for Lubavitch

HaYotze MiKol Zeh - If Lubavitch had chapped Leibel Bronstein early and made him into a Mashpia, history would have been a lot different...

מנאי - בעלז פון אמאל