Holy Beggars: A Journey from Haight Street to Jerusalem

by Aryae Coopersmith, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (Contributor)

The 1960s San Francisco spiritual revolution – a view from inside. Memoir about a spiritual teacher and a student in 1960s San Francisco, a colorful cast – including Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Allen Ginsburg, Murshid Samuel Lewis ("Sufi Sam"), Swami Satchidananda, Ajari Warwick, Rabbi Zalman Shalomi Schachter, and many more – and lives that were changed forever. Aryae Coopersmith, a 22-year old college student in 1960s San Francisco, meets the charismatic rabbi and folk singer Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and decides to start a community for him. He rents a house and moves in with his best friends. Before long they find themselves – and their house – at the center of the San Francisco spiritual revolution as thousands of young people – Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Sufis, and followers of countless gurus – flood in through their doors. Giving concerts to packed halls all over the world, Shlomo is recognized as Judaism’s most influential musician, and one of its greatest spiritual leaders, of the late 20th century. Their house – the House of Love and Prayer – becomes an historic part of the legend of 1960s San Francisco. Aryae and his fellow students who are running other spiritual communities bring their teachers and gurus together to create a big San Francisco event – the Meeting of the Ways – to celebrate the oneness of the world's spiritual traditions and all the world's people. Aryae's best friends Efraim and Leah leave San Francisco and head to Jerusalem, where they become ultra-Orthodox Hasidim. Many others from the "House" follow. Aryae stays behind and settles into a secular life as a Silicon Valley business owner. After Shlomo dies, Aryae feels compelled to tell the story. To try to understand the lives of his old friends and pull together the scattered fragments of his own, he travels to Jerusalem. This profoundly moving memoir tells a story of grace, loss, redemption, and ultimately of acceptance. It invites us to reflect on how the 1960s spiritual revolution – with its vision of the oneness of us all – has impacted each of our lives.

414 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2011

Reviews

[Natanel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book. It is deep and well written. A fascinating life story. I always liked the songs of Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach and I often listen to his music and teachings. They're deep, beautiful and the stories are amazing ! One day I watched a documentary about Schlomo in which Aryae Coopersmith was interviewed. I googled him and decided to buy his book. Wow! I had no idea I would find so many treasures.
The story Aryae is telling is fascinating. It's a real trip, a journey that span from the 1960's San Francisco to 2000's Jerusalem and California. Everything about this book is deep. It took me to the deepest and most beautiful places. With the Holy beggars I traveled inside their house of love and prayer on Haight Street in the 60's then, I was touched by the teachings, the depth of the stories and moved by the humble author and 40 years of intense life questioning , growth and movement.
Aryae has been deeply influenced by the great Schlomo Carlebach and he's doing an amazing job sharing with us this spiritual journey and his life mission and quest. It opened my horizons in such a way I recommend that book to everyone.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving this book five stars because 1) I'm so glad it's been written. There's scant real history of what was going on for youth in the 60's. Most has been stereotyped and turned into cheapened comic book versions of what was a hugely significant time. But this book is honest and shares some of the struggle and hope and it left me with an genuine glimpse into an important time and place I have longed to know more about; and 2) the author is humble and honest and I suspect was more instrumental - in fact pivotal - in what happened than he allows himself to portray. That makes him very compelling as an author. In fact, for me the best thing about the book is the continual sense of the author grappling with hugely significant past events and trying to understand their meaning and his current relation to them. Because of the dearth I described above of honest writing about the era, he's pioneering. He is clearly a kind and modest person, with a lot of charisma of his own and his modesty makes his narrative compelling. But, while I know it is difficult to write about religious feeling and spiritual connection, that part of the picture isn't shared at all in the book even though it's what the book is about. It's like watching a circus with the center ring empty. So I was left feeling confused and still not grasping deeply what happened in terms of the young people's relationship either to Shlomo Carlebach or to Judaism or the universe. We don't know anything about the young people, their backgrounds and concerns, that would give us any insight into what was happening for them. I largely could not tell the young people in the book apart. Mr. Coopersmith may have purposefully written the book that way to protect his friends' privacy. But it's not possible to really understand the events without that insight. So in the end, the book left me feeling like I still don't understand wha really happened.

[Elisheva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very eye opening about the time period. The 60's in San Francisco was a crazy time. It was definitely interesting but lost me in the details at certain points, and it kind of dragged. 3.5 stars

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounded up.

Some valuable memories of the author and his friends who coalesced around Shlomo Carlebach, but suffers in places from purple prose, weak organization and unreliability.

I was also struck by the transition from a fairly balanced reaction to the posthumous allegations against R. Carlebach, to passages lauding Eliezer Berland who would confess to sexual and financial crimes a few years later.

[Noach · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am really enjoying this engaging tale of the House of Love and Prayer, the lives of the Holy Beggars who shared in its creation, and the legacy of Shlomo Carlebach and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. The book could seriously use a good edit, but then again, it feels home-grown, which is in the spirit of the 60s, and I can be down with that. More than any of those things, I'm finding that the book is a memoir of Aryae Coopersmith's life so far. And a good, rich, complex life it's been. Not always easy and not always pretty, that life, but Aryae's writing shows to good effect the ongoing transformative effect of a true Rebbe. And as I am discovering in my own life, the work of the True Rebbe happens as much in our own hearts as in the consciousness of the external Rebbe. The Rebbe instills a kind of expansive spaciousness and presence. We do the work.

I'm part of the legacy Aryae's work in the world has made possible. I was too young to have met Shlomo, but I am looking forward to meeting Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi next week (aug 2012). And I will meet him in an auditorium filled with Renewalniks. All of whom owe the existence of a brand of Jewish practice that can coexist with the modern world AND touch the storytelling, musical, Torah-fed spring of classical Hasidism. And their children and their children's children. This branch of Torah is so vibrantly alive.

Shlomo's memory is a blessing. Thank you, Aryae. You live in Berkeley, I guess, as I do. Maybe some day I'll get to shake your hand and thank you in person.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rec by izzy Eichenstein Fascinating book about shlomo carlebach and the house of love and prayer in SF. An important part of modern Jewish history. I'm a little young to remember it exactly from my own experience but still can relate to a charismatic teacher reaching out to searching Jews and transcending boundaries. It was very inspiring and also a real portrait of a legend whose music so moves me. It touches heaven, highly recommend