Daniel Lev

[Aryae Coopersmith]

Recorded at the Reb Shlomo Shloshim & Reunion

El Granada, California, October 30, 1994

Daniel Lev: So I came to the House in ’74. I was another LA refugee. I was pretty shy. So when I saw Shlomo, I was always awe struck. I never really felt I could say much to him. But the first time I met him, just very briefly, was at the House. I had been involved in a number of various spiritual movements and things. The only exciting, energetic Jewish experience I had was being part of the JDL (Jewish Defense League) for a little part of my life. And that didn’t quite … (laughter) … it wasn’t spiritually uplifting. I mean that was just in my teenage years.

I got involved in Taoism and other types of spiritual practice, but I never felt at home. Somebody here said, I think Reuven said he walked into the House and felt at home. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I never felt at home, although I liked the sense of mystical connectedness that I had from the other spiritual practices. Then I discovered the Jewish Catalogue while I was at Sonoma State, and eventually saw the House was written in there as one of the communities, and decided to come there.

It was the first night of Hanukah, Shabbos. This coming Hanukah will be 20 years. I hitched down there, I didn’t know, it turns out Shlomo was going to be there that night. I went in, shocked by everything I saw, but Pesach and another guy said, it’s okay to stick around, Shlomo will be here, any minute. (laughter) So 45 minutes later he comes through the door, and I was like right next to the door on the quote unquote “men’s side,” and he walks in, and I looked at this pudgy guy.

He was pretty awesome. He came and he turned to me. I’m pretty shy – I’m mamash shy! And he comes up to me, and grabs my cheeks like this (laughter) and he says, “Oh it’s Shabbos!” He gives a kiss on the head, and said, “I’m really glad you’re here.” And he went and did that to everybody in the room. Or more. (laughter)

It’s great to tell this story over and over again, but it’s always different every time. There are some other things I wanted to say, so I’m rushing through it (laughter). So he started teaching and doing various things after he had said hello to everybody, and he started davening like mad. I didn’t really know, a bunch of us didn’t know Hebrew or anything. There were a few regulars, I remember David Drexler, he was there. He was moving back and forth with tzitzit… (laughter) I said wow, that’s a wild thing! What’s he doing?

At a certain point Shlomo stopped, turned around and said, “You know, before God created Adam, and created words, there were many other things created, and one of those things was song, music. It was always there. So don’t let the words get in your way." Then he turns around and he starts davening again. But he davens in a way that you don’t know that he’s using words. You know how he can do that? So we all start singing and dancing and going really wild, and jumping up and down. Somewhere inside of me, as were jumping up and down and singing, I had a little voice, that small, still voice inside of me, that just said, this is who I am! This is where I belong. I had that feeling of home. I didn’t know what the hell it was all about, but I was home. And I’ve been home ever since.

And seeing the other parts of the Jewish world – it was Jewish but it wasn’t home. This is home. I cannot see, I have not seen anything like this before Shlomo and Zalman came and began. It’s inconceivable that everybody cannot connect, but I understand why that’s so.

So much of my relationship was with the House. I had lived there for a little while, and lived in the neighborhood, and had lots of different experiences. I remember one experience with David Hertzberg. I was living on Second Avenue not too far away. It was one Shabbos, and David was running the House at the time. We were sitting around. We had finished davening. We were sitting around eating, maybe eight of us. We finished eating and a few people left. There were only four of five of us. And David says, “I have a great idea! Let’s drink a l’chaim to each of us!” So he opens a cabinet on one of those incredible book shelves, and pulls out, I don’t know how much, but it was scotch. He passes the Dixie cups around. And he says, “You know, I can’t pour for myself, so we’ll just pour for each other.”

So he pours the first round and he says, “L’chaim, l’chaim! May you always have Shabbos like this! May you always go inside and outside…” Whatever. I can’t remember what he said, but he gave an incredible bracha (blessing). And then, (drinking sound) all the way down. And we all chugged it all the way down. Then somebody else poured, and we went around again.

I was last. (laughter) All I could say was, “L’chaim!” I was really out of it. And then I said, “David, I gotta go now. I gotta go home and go to sleep.”

He says, “Go to sleep? We’ll take you home!” (laughter) You know, the thing about Dovid, he really had some of that essence of Shlomo that I recall. First, that kiss on my forehead, that essence. So four of five of us left the place. I remember we were walking down 9^th toward Judah arm-in-arm, and we were just walking and talking. Suddenly we started singing a niggun. (singing) It was about one in the morning. So you know, we cross the street. (sings some more) And by the time we got another couple of blocks, we’re starting to skip. Then we’re starting to run. And then we’re singing at the top of our lungs. Then we get to my house. So we’re singing in a circle in front of the house, until we finally fall to the ground. (laughter) Literally.

That was the House. When we get together, when we really let loose, when we forget that we have bodies that are 20 years older. That what’s Shlomo brought, and what we carry on.