Date: 5/23/2009 9:00:12 PM ( 15 y ) ... viewed 1829 times
I am not in touch with too much news
from the Jewish World.
I just read yesterday
that RABBI ARYEH HIRSCHFIELD died
January 6, 2010 while in Mexico.
He was snorkling in the ocean.
he was there to celebrate a wedding
of his son.
His passing touches me very deeply.
This man touched me very deeply
during the moments we spent together.
I have to concur with what this article says.
I have known a few other rabbis who have touched by soul to this extent,
and Aryeh was among the deepest. Is interfaith work is among the most profound I have known, and his music is a lasting witness.
Here is an remarkable excerpt about this
Rabbi as I knew him. It is written
by RABBI GERSHON WINKLER
I do not do lead too many Jewish
experiences myself.
I notice I am on the program
for the WHOLE BEING SHABBAT
CELEBRATION at the WHOLE BEING
CELEBRATION.
I am going to have Rabbi Aryeh Hirsthfield's
music with me
I met him at the first Kallah I went to of
the Jewish Renewal Movement in Berkeley
in 1993. I believe I may have seen in in
Oregon again that year. I heard him give
a Shabbat service. The man was a true
Spirit Wrestler. His interfaith work was
monumental. It is told in one of his
cassettes that I imagine is a CD today.
It was about going to Germany and
doing a concern in the area where
people were touched by the Halocaust.
He ushered me back to the living room where we sat down again and spoke for well over an hour. He shared with me his concern for the dormant Jewish soul, as he called it, still in hiding from millennia of trauma, afraid of emerging and dancing in the sunlight of newer and better times. He spoke of Rabbi Shim’on bar Yo’chai (2nd century) and his son Rabbi Eliezer, who were forced into hiding during the Roman massacre of rabbis, a decree issued by Caesar Adrianus Pluribus who realized that the teachings of the rabbis were responsible for the anti-authority sentiments and rebellious attitudes of the Jewish populace across the length and breadth of the Roman Empire. These two rabbis hid, buried themselves up to their necks in the sand of a cave in the Galilee, and when the Caesar died and the decree was abolished, they emerged from hiding but with a disdain for the world and for anything worldly. Whatever they would cast their eyes at would burst out in flames — so high and spiritual had they become after more than a decade of seclusion.
Then, a heavenly voice rang out: “What!? You come out of the cave to destroy My world?! Return and get your act together.” They returned to the cave, where they spent another year grounding themselves, debriefing themselves from the harmful blend of trauma and spirituality that had distorted their consciousness. When they re-emerged, whatever they set their eyes on would heal or mend. Another version of the story is that when they re-emerged, wherever Rabbi Eliezer directed his eyes, flames would burst forth as before, but his father Rabbi Shim’on would then direct his eyes at the catastrophe and it would be fixed. A perfect marriage of past and present, of what had been and what could be.
“That’s where we’re at,” Reb Aryeh said, his eyes piercing with so much passion I was afraid he would set the sofa on fire. “We’re still trying to emerge from the cave of a tragic past, but we are having difficulty with our vision of future. Everything we look at bursts into flames, everything we try to renew and do differently and better somehow melts before our eyes. We haven’t succeeded in bringing out the fullness of our spirit, of the Jewish Soul. We’re Jewishing with more joy and in a more user-friendly way, but the soul of Judaism remains buried, hidden away in the cave of our trauma. We are dancing again, but have forgotten the music that goes with the dance.”
I will be writing more about him.
I am very sorry I did not maintain contact with
this treasure of a man.
I want to get his music.
I once had some of it that I got from him
personally. I played it over and over
till it fell apart.
LINKS OF NOTE:
WHERE TO GET HIS MUSIC
and DONATE TO HELP HIS CHILDREN:
Pina Palmera:
Donations may also be made to Pina Palmera, a non-governmental organization that Beth and Aryeh discovered in Mexico which they were touched by and wanted to support. Pina Palmera helps indigenous people with disabilities in the rural communities on the southern coast of Oaxaca. To learn more, visit http://www.pinapalmera.org
When someone dies,
it holds the potential to make us all better people.
VIDEO FROM THE NEW YEAR
CLOSING CEREMONY WITH CHILDREN OF FREEDOM
2009.
Just had this pointed out...
I am blowing the Shofar with my dad Solomon in this...
This ends with music by the late Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield,
used with permission of his wife Beth.
THIS ENDS WITH SOME MUSIC
FROM ARHEY HIRSHFIELD
Used with Permission
Alert Webmaster
