This posting is about the “Paradoxical Legacy of Rabbi Yeshua Witt” who is or was Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s #1 man who lived in Jerusalem for many years. Yeshua was involved with me for a time spanning over 20 years. I found him to be a friend in need and I needed his help several times. But the story is complicated and a lot needs to be analyzed.
Of all the people Shlomo m’kareved (“brought near - into Judaism”) Yeshua was considered to be the pinnacle of what Shlomo wanted in a disciple. He became a very big lamdan (“scholar”) and he took everything Shlomo said verbatim.
He also had a lot of connections in chesed organizations (“charities”) and he hooked me up with some funds the last time I was in Israel. He certainly didn’t laugh at me like Yaakov Silberstein (Shea Hecht’s right hand man in NCJFE) did to me at Chabad and tell me “You’ll starve!” In other words, I was a priority to him.
Years ago when I came to Modi’in, Shlomo told everyone to treat me very well and it was Yeshua who took this to heart the most. I became closely associated with him over the years. I was a very important person to him and it was considered a very big victory that Shlomo and his Chasidim managed to get me away from Hickman in particular and Christianity in general. Keep reading it gets complicated like I said.
Yeshua and I toured with Shlomo and Yeshua handled my finances as my parents channeled money into his bank account to give me during my first extended stay at Modi’in in ’78 to ’79, which is now going on 30 years ago. We trusted him a lot.
When I couldn’t live at home after I got my master’s degree, I made a bee-line for
K’far Chabad but they booted me out. I went back to Yeshua and he put me up despite the fact that he had quite a few children even back in ’86 to ’87. I sort of dropped on top of his family like a 180-pound megaton bomb. Well, I always wanted to make an impact!
He asked me how much money I had and I told him. He wanted me to invest it in learning in his yeshiva headed by a Rabbi Yerachmiel Poupko. I refused. I knew if I spent that money in Israel I would never see it back. Also, Rabbi Poupko didn’t like me and Yeshua threatened to get him on my case later on in ‘95.
So, I left Israel and went back to the USA. Life hasn’t been easy for me.
Years ago he was also a problem for me. Shlomo let him decide if I was going to go on TV with him and Yeshua’s verdict was “No.”) I probably could have started a career as a singer and guitarist back then but I was blocked. I used to do a lot of kumsitz parties in Israel and Israelis like my voice and guitar playing. The end result was that I became a problem for Yeshua again over the years.
I went back to America as I said and worked for 6 years at AT&T and was at Con Ed for a few months. Shlomo died when I was at the latter and I told my uncle that I discussed the rabbi with non-Jewish co-workers and my uncle exclaimed, “You talked about a Chasidic Rabbi in Corporate America in NYC?”
I thought I was being brave like the children of Benjamin who according to tradition don’t “bow down to Esau.” Also, I am Mordechai (my middle Hebrew name) Hayehudi (“the Jew”) or the hero in the Megillat Esther (“Book of Esther”). My uncle just thought I was crazy. And my uncle was an Orthodox Jew and he helped manage an upscale Jewish restaurant years ago where Shlomo sang. I got in for free a few times.
I was fired at Con Ed and I made plans to go back to Israel. Again, Yeshua let me live with him and his family. He kicked one of his children out of the child’s bed to take me in. This time I was about 220 pounds. Another megatonic explosion happened in Jerusalem the Golden. Yeshua had 12 children by then. (He maxed out at 15 kids by the way!)
Now, Yeshua takes certain sexual liberties with his female flock and I asked him about it. He just kept telling me, “I know what I am doing!” His wife overlooked it and laughed at me once when I gave a second glance to Yeshua over it. Did he really know what he was doing? He left Israel some years ago.
I heard Shlomo Carlebach once say, “There are higher levels than the Shulchan Orech or Codification of Jewish Law. What he meant by that is unknown to me anyway.
Many times Shlomo would pontificate without explaining what he meant.
To jump ahead for a second, I came back to the USA and I sent some emails to Yeshua. I asked him why he did all of that citing the fact that the Jews had a very big machloket (“controversy”) with the Romans because the Romans used to throw orgies before they went into battle, which isn’t exactly the Jewish way of warfare in antiquity. The Jews thought the Romans were unholy and the Romans thought the Jews were crazy for not doing it.
Yeshua asked me why I was being nasty to him and writing all those emails and he told me I “was cutting my nose to spite my face!” To some extent I was because as unusual as his behavior was some times, I needed his help a few times and he was a brother to me.
I have a friend from the old 8th St. Shul named Rabbi Dov Shurin (http://www.dovshurin.com). He has what they call yichus or “lineage” as his grandfather was Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetzky who was a Gadol Hador or a “Torah Luminary in his generation.”
Shlomo once quoted the Baal Shem Tov and Dov told him, “Yeah, but the Baal Shem Tov wouldn’t have said it with a girl sitting in his lap!” Dov’s zaydei (“grandfather” in Yiddish and Polish) told him he shouldn’t have gone so far. Dov has a really big mouth and I like that characteristic in a mentsch (Yiddish “responsible adult male”).
Dov also said that those of us who come after Shlomo have to purify what he did. And I am still somewhat of a Carlebach person. I still talk to Rabbi Fried.
My uncle claimed he channeled $300 into Yeshua’s bank account and Yeshua denied that he got the money. Yeshua once told me he needed 60K dollars per year to keep going and I thought he was as poor as dirt. He also was paid by Shlomo and his mother had an antique store near the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.
During my last stay with him, he kept complaining that Christian missionaries were calling up his house looking for me. I knew it was not true but I knew what he really meant. He was petrified of me. And I did wind up back in the care of the Jesus movement.
Yeshua told me a few times that the soul of Jesus Christ came to Israel Baal Shem Tov (the “the Master of the Good Name” the founder of Chasidism) and the Baal Shem told Jesus that he couldn’t fix his soul because he hurt too many people. I was still chalked up to being a problem almost 20 years after I left Christianity.
After a while when I was on Social Security benefits, to talked to Yeshua about how I had a good income because my Federal benefits were supplemented by a part time job and also my small pay at the Drop In Center of New Brunswick. Yeshua asked me, “How much money do you Hhhhaaave?” in a really crazy tone of voice.
He invested in buying sculpting clay, plaster and gave me money for liquid latex and I did a rubber mask of Shlomo so we could make some money off my mask making hobby. Someone told me it was sacrilegious.
Yeshua used to always comment that when I was with him I was OK Jewishly. I kept the Sabbath and kept kosher, etc but when I was cut loose from him, I fell apart in that regard. It can be analyzed as follows based on a Chasidic story off the Carlebach Kumsitz A-D tapes:
A rabbi passed away and his Chasid saw him in a dream. The Chasid complained that now that the soul master died, he was having a very hard time. The Rebbe told him that when he was alive, the disciple was experiencing life (like Shabbat observance), the way he was “giving it over to him.” But now that he was gone, the disciple only had what he was able to absorb over the years. Can you understand that all of this did not make a dent in me over the years?
Anyway, back to the main body of the piece:
After I came back to the US in ’95, I came back to the Carlebach movement a few years later. I met Yeshua in NY and he and I talked.
I also called him up in Israel and he told me he didn’t know what was going on and that the Arabs killed someone a few days ago. I told him I didn’t believe in Orthodox Judaism anymore and he saw my point. He left Israel and thank G-d I found out that he is alive and well elsewhere.
Another great Carlebach Movement Paradox if you ask me. What do all of you think?