the sunrise service
for shlomo carlebach, by zalman schacter-shalomi
once a group of ten Hasidim were send by their Rebbe, Reb
Shlomo, to seek out Reb Zalman and to ask him to teach them
about davening, for Reb Zalman was widely recorgnized as a Baal
Tefillah, a master of prayer. Reb Zalman agreed to teach them, but
made them promise in advance to do whatever he asked of them,
no manner how strange it might seem, and the Hasidim agreed to
these conditions. Then Reb Zalman asked to know when they
prayed on Shabbes morning, and the Hasidim told him that they
liked to be well rested, so they met at ten o-clock in the morning.
Then Reb Zalman said: "What is the first thing that you say when
you start to daven?" And they replied: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord our
G-d, King of the Universe, who gives the rooster discrimination to
know the difference between day and night." THen Reb Zalman
said: "Why don't you meet the rooster when the rooster awakes?"
Therefore Reb Zalman awoke the Hasidim before sunrise, and as
soon as they had dressed he told them to follow him. But he did
not lead them to the Beit Knesset, as they expected, but into the
nearby forest, where they walked until they reached a clearing on a
hill, facing East. The Hasidim were quite surprised by this, for they
had never prayed outdoors. After all, where was the Ark for them
to face, with the scroll of the Torah inside it? But they had given
Red Zalman their word that they would obey without questioning,
so they kept their misgivings to themselves.
So it was that the Hasidim turned to the East and prayer Shacharis
that day in that place, surrounded by the birds and anuimals that
awoke in the forest around them. And it has been so long since
they had stood in one place ina forest that they were restored to
nature, and thus their prayers were said with a clarity and depth
that had often been missing. And it was due to that very absense
that Reb Shlomo had sent them to see Reb Zalman.
Thus when Reb Zalman brought them back to that forest clearing
the next morning, they did not hesitate to go, for they had so
benefitted from praying in that place. Now in the past each one of
them had focused on his own prayers above all, but that day, for
some reason, they found themselves aware of how all of their
prayers were linked together, and rose up as one. And it was
almost as if they were able to see the crown woven on high from
their intermingled prayers. And that day they felt a part of the
community of Israel as they had never felt before, and they knew
that the effect of all of their prayers rising upward was very great.
And they came to realize how all of those prayers formed the limbs
of the Divine Presence int his world.
The third morning, as well, Reb Zalman led the Minyan back into
the forest. This time he had them daven in groups of two. And
before they began, he said: "There is a spark of the Divine in every
person. So when you daven together, address the Divine in your
partner, and let your partner address the Divine in you. And for
today you must each alternate in pronouncing the lines of the
prayers: one will day one line and the other the next. And when the
other is speaking, listen as closely as if you had pronounced the
words yourself." This the Hasidim did, and their prayers that day
were shared between two in a way they had never known. So too
did they hear the prayers themselves in a new manner, for now
they heard each line individually as well as part of the whole. And
they gained a deeper understanding of the msyteries of the
prayers, which they had never previously known.
On the fourth morning Reb Zalman led the Hasidim back to the
clearing for the last time. There he said: "Know that I have been
trying to guide you through the gates of Pardes. The first of these
gates is Peshat, that of the literal. And on the first morning here
you came to know the Peshat of prayer, which once rose up as
spontaneously as the song of the bird or the crowning of the
rooster. One the second morning we entered the second gate of
Parde, that of Remez, which permits a glimpse into a still more
profound meaning. And that day you glimpsed how the prayers of
Israel form the limbs of the Divine Presence.
"Yesterday we considered davening from the perspective of the
gate of Drash, in which more than one meaning is found, and you
began to perceive how prayers can be understood in so many
different ways. Today, our last day together, I woul dlike to leak
you through the gate of Sod, that of Myster."
Then, just as Reb Zalman finished speaking, the sun appeared on
the horizon, and the Hasidim began to pray. And that day their
prayers blended together the songs of the birds around them with
those of their rebbe, Reb Shlomo, into a wonderful symphony. And
as they prayed, each one came to recorgnize that his own
contribution was like that of one of the instruments of the
symphony, and that the prayers theysand out were its notes. And
before they finished davening that morning, they heard as well the
voices of the angels who joined them in those prayers, which they
had never heard in all the days of their lives. And thus they came to
recognize how all life, in the worlds above and below, serves as a
great chorus giving praise to the Holy One for all the blessings He
has bestowed."
