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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/1

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/1 - Wikisource, the free online library

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On the way[1]I told [such] a story that whoever heard it had a thought of teshuvah, return. And this is the story.

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HEALING METHODOLOGY! https://fr.breslev.com/348764/also see https://www.2ndnatureacu.com/post/the-liver-function-insight-from-judaism-oriental-medicine

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II faut beaucoup de courage et d'honnêteté pour s'ouvrir à des modes de pensée sortant des sentiers battus. En général, les gens s'attachent fortement aux idées propres à leur milieu social, culturel et éducatif. La guérison peut être une question de vie et de mort. C'est un sujet qui s'entoure parfois de barrières émotionnelles plus fortes que nous ne le pensons peut-être.

Pour ceux qui n'ont toujours considéré les soins médicaux qu'en termes de tabliers blancs, visages masqués, prises de sang, cadrans, compteurs, piqûres intraveineuses, etc., certains concepts de base des enseignements de Rabbi Na'hman concernant la guérison - la foi, la joie, le repentir, la confession, la charité, le chant et la danse - peuvent sembler hors de propos, à la limite inquiétants. Pour saisir la signification réelle d'une méthode qui sort de l'ordinaire, nous devons être assez humbles pour transcender nos idées reçues et en explorer les concepts selon leur véritable étendue et profondeur.

Le système médical conventionnel se concentre presque exclusivement sur le corps humain et ses maux. On peut dire que jusque tout récemment la majorité des médecins n'a pas tenu compte du propriétaire du corps - la personne, sa vie mentale et spirituelle, ses perspectives, sa vie sentimentale et émotionnelle, ses options morales, son mode de vie et ses activités - à peine l'intérêt poli que porte un mécanicien aux clients des voitures qu'il répare.

Le corps est considéré comme une machine, complexe, stupéfiante, extraordinaire, certes, mais une machine, qui est essentiellement la somme de ses composants et peut être " démontée ", examinée et " remontée " pour mieux marcher.

Quand quelque chose ne va pas, l'approche médicale normale est d'examiner les symptômes physiques du patient en vue d'identifier des changements pathologiques et leurs causes. Le diagnostic est suivi d'une série de plus en plus sophistiquée de médicaments et de techniques diverses.

Un grand nombre de ces techniques utilise certes les mécanismes stupéfiants d'autorégulation du corps, mais les médecins ont tendance à ne pas en tenir compte, mais plutôt à intervenir, parfois de façon agressive, pour renverser ou stabiliser le processus. S'ils peuvent le faire avant l'apparition de troubles permanents et irréparableses, on dit que le patient est " guéri ".

Tout au long de ce processus, le patient reste généralement passif. Il attend " patiemment " que quelque chose se passe. C'est d'abord la maladie qu'il perçoit et puis ensuite le traitement. Aux yeux d'un grand nombre de médecins, le rôle essentiel du malade est de venir se faire examiner et de prendre les médicaments qui lui sont prescrits.

Rabbi Na'hman de Breslev nous demande d'envisager sous une perspective tout à fait différente les problèmes de santé, de maladie et de guérison. On considère que ce qui se passe dans le corps de l'homme fait partie intégrale de sa vie engénéral. Quant aux symptômes physiques, à part ce qu'ils sont " en soi ", ilsrévèlent un langage qui exprime une affection plus profonde, qui marque l'optique, la conduite, la personnalité, et en fait l'âme même de l'individu. " Un petit trou dans le corps - un grand trou dans l'âme ", dit à cet effet , le Maguid de Mezritch (1704-1772).

Supposons que quelqu'un soit de nature faible, fatiguée, tendue. II des vitamines, des tonifiants... des vacances, mais ne constate aucune amélioration dans son état de santé. Il consulte alors un docteur (de médecine conventionnelle ou alternative). Ce dernier lui pose un certain nombre de questions et l'examine. Si le médecin arrive à établir un diagnostic plausible - hypoglycémie, syndrome de fatigue postvirale, diabète, affection cardiovasculaire ou autre chose - le patient admet le fait que c'est là le cœur du problème, et il commence à suivre les traitements prescrits par son médecin.

Mais est-ce le cœur du problème ? Est-ce tout le problème ? Est-ce la vraiment la racine du problème ? Peut-être les symptômes physiques constituent-ils un facteur important d'une maladie existentielle beaucoup plus grave ? C'est une âme qui est fatiguée. Pourquoi ? Qu'est-ce qui, dans la situation de l'individu, dans son entourage, ses habitudes et activités, peut bloquer son épanouissement, son aptitude au bonheur ?

Il se peut que le médecin attribue la fatigue à une consommation excessive d'aliments malsains. Mais peut-on isoler cet élément de la profonde frustration, de la dépression et d'autres facteurs qui ont peut-être poussé cette personne à des abus alimentaires. Sans un examen profond de ces problèmes, le traitement physiologique apportera-t-il plus qu'un changement superficiel ?

On peut en dire autant d'une multitude d'autres désordres physiques. Une maladie de cœur ou une tumeur cancéreuse peuvent révéler une crise beaucoup plus grave dans la vie du patient. De tout temps et dans les différentes cultures, les autorités médicales ont souligné l'influence destructrice d'états mentaux, comme la mélancolie, le chagrin et le désespoir, sur la santé physique. Mais de tels facteurs sont difficiles à mesurer de façon scientifique et ont été grandement négligés par la médecine moderne.

Pourtant, de nombreuses études entreprises ces dernières années ont démontré l'influence du stress, des conflits intérieurs, de la frustration, de la dépression, etc., dans un large éventail de maladies.

Peut-on vraiment faire une distinction entre les maladies du corps et celles de l'âme ? Les adeptes du système médical occidental conventionnel peuvent considérer les traits négatifs et les perspectives négatives du patient comme " malsains ", " malades ". Mais ce ne sont là que métaphores pour décrire des conditions physiques tangibles. Mais si la frustration, l'amertume, la colère et d'autres traits sont difficiles à mesurer, n'en sont-ils pas moins réels ?

Comme les problèmes émotionnels et spirituels sont intimement liés aux maladies physiques, est-il valable de traiter ces dernières avant d'apprendre au patient à résoudre les premiers.

II existe aussi des cas où les problèmes spirituels, émotionnels, n'ont pas encore causé de troubles corporels évidents. Peut-on dire alors qu'ils soient moins pathologiques que la tabagie, l'alcoolisme, la drogue ? Est-il sage d'attendre que le mal s'installe avant de chercher à le guérir ? Et qu'en est-il de toutes les sortes de douleurs que nous cachons volontairement ou involontairement ?

Le Rambam écrit : " Un médecin prouve davantage sa compétence en prévenant la maladie qu'en guérissant quelqu'un qui est déjà malade " (Yalqout Leka'h Tov, Béchala'h). Le leitmotiv de Rabbi Na'hman dans le domaine de la médecine est de veiller constamment à sa santé - la vraie guérison doit commencer bien avant que la maladie ne frappe. Veiller à sa santé est une mitswa, un commandement positif : " Garde-toi, prends bien soin de ton âme " (Deutéronome 4:9).

La bonne santé est indispensable à l'accomplissement de notre mission dans ce monde : il va de soi que la faiblesse physique diminue notre capacité à prier, étudier, accomplir des actes de charité et toutes les autres mitswoth.

Nous devons donc prendre le plus grand soin de notre corps, observer strictement les règles d'hygiène, manger avec sagesse et modération, faire de l'exercice, éviter le tabac et tous les abus. Ce n'est pas par hasard que la Tora nous demande de prendre soin de notre santé, en utilisant l'expression " prends bien soin de ton âme."

Les traitements mentaux ne sont pas un luxe : ils constituent les fondations mêmes d'une bonne santé physique. Il s'agit souvent de renoncer à des plaisirs immédiats au profit de bénéfices à long terme. On ne peut renoncer aux plaisirs du moment que si on est fermement convaincu que la vie dans ce monde vise un objectif plus élevé. Des facteurs comme le sens de la mission, le courage face aux obstacles et un optimisme général, sont la base d'une bonne santé. " Un cœur joyeux redresse le corps ; un esprit abattu dessèche les membres." (Proverbes 17:22).

De nos jours, la médecine préventive est en hausse. Le coût de la médecine conventionnelle est un fardeau écrasant même dans les pays les plus riches. Les diagnostics, les médicaments, les opérations et les soins hospitaliers sont devenus tellement onéreux que même les plus riches ne peuvent pas se les permettre. Les assurances santé ont subi une hausse vertigineuse. Les gens qui ont payé l'assurance santé toute leur vie, ont parfois la stupéfaction de se rendre compte qu'en cas de maladie, ils ne sont pas couverts.

Seuls les gens très riches peuvent s'offrir le luxe de soins fournis par l'État, mais le simple citoyen qui prend soin de sa santé devrait s'employer à éviter d'avoir besoin de traitements médicaux en veillant au mieux à sa santé. La foi, la joie, la prière, la méditation, la charité, l'amour et la bonté chers au peuple juif, peuvent conduire au but ultime qui est de nous protéger de toute maladie.

La maladie et la guérison

La maladie peut être quelque chose de terrible. Mais si on la considère comme un phénomène purement physique, on la transforme en supplice vide de sens, qui ne donne pas le moindre réconfort à ceux qui souffrent. La science médicale peut parfois définir les causes physiques de la maladie (ce n'est pas toujours le cas). Mais elle ne peut préciser pourquoi une certaine maladie fait partie de la destinée d'un individu à une période ou une autre de sa vie. Dire qu'un individu a eu une prédisposition génétique ne répond tout de même pas à la question " pourquoi "?

Pourquoi un bébé naîtrait-il déformé ? Pourquoi un enfant, un jeune homme ou une jeune femme dans la fleur de l'âge doivent-ils soudain perdre un pied ou une main ? Croire fermement que D-ieu guide le moindre détail de tout l'univers, qu'Il veille individuellement sur chacun de nous avec amour ne fournit pas de réponses réconfortantes. " Il n'y a ni sagesse, ni compréhension, ni conseils relatifs à D-ieu" (Proverbes 21:30).

Toutefois, la foi nous indique une voie qui nous permet de nous faire à la souffrance. En dernier lieu. D-ieu ne fait le bien. En fait, le fait de croire qu'en toute situation le bien existe quelque part, nous aide à le chercher et le trouver.

Tout en acceptant ce que nous ne pouvons pas modifier, nous devons prendre la responsabilité de ce que nous pouvons changer. La médecine conventionnelle tend à encourager les patients à compter sur le médecin pour réparer les dommages subis par leur corps - " Guérissez-moi !" - leur permettant d'éviter de confronter les problèmes profondément enracinés dans leur mode de vie et leur personnalité et qui sont peut-être à l'origine de leur maladie.

Mais se contenter de combattre des symptômes physiques évidents, peut être dangereux et donner des résultats négatifs. L'affection latente n'est pas guérie, et peut même provoquer de graves désordres par la suite.

Selon la Tora, le mal et la maladie sont souvent envoyés à l'homme pour l'inciter à bien s'examiner. Ils peuvent aussi l'aider à apprécier davantage la vie et la santé. Comment s'est-il servi de son corps ? Qu'a-t-il fait de sa vie ? Quelle est sa vraie mission dans ce monde ?

La compréhension profonde de notre ego est en elle-même une partie vitale du processus de guérison. C'est ce qui nous aide à prendre le contrôle de notre vie et à nous débarrasser des bagages inutiles : mauvaises habitudes, complexes désuets, colère, amertume, etc. Il devient ainsi plus facile d'améliorer les relations avec son conjoint, ses parents, ses enfants, ses amis ou ennemis, avec soi-même et avec D-ieu.

" Se tourner vers D-ieu " ne signifie pas simplement remplacer un genre de fatalisme par un autre, la croyance en des forces aveugles par une force spirituelle inconnue, implacable, qui se trouve " quelque part ". Cultiver la foi en D-ieu implique un changement radical à tous les niveaux de notre être. Nous devons apprendre à percevoir notre être et le monde qui nous entoure sous un angle tout à fait nouveau. Nous devons donner une autre direction à nos facultés de pensée et d'émotion, explorer notre capacité de prendre des décisions, emprunter des sentiers nouveaux, inhabituels.

C'est principalement par la prière que nous pouvons nous imprégner du Pouvoir divin dans notre vie. Il ne s'agit pas seulement de répéter des formules antiques et d'espérer en D-ieu et en Ses bénédictions. Nous devons apprendre une façon nouvelle d'utiliser les mots - nos propres mots - pour définir la bénédiction que nous recherchons et l'introduire dans les situations réelles que nous affrontons à l'intérieur de nous-mêmes et dans le monde ambiant.

(Extrait du livre " Les ailes du Soleil" par Avraham Greenbaum, publié aux Éditions de l'Institut Breslev)

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II faut beaucoup de courage et d'honnêteté pour s'ouvrir à des modes de pensée sortant des sentiers battus. En général, les gens s'attachent fortement aux idées propres à leur milieu social, culturel et éducatif. La guérison peut être une question de vie et de mort.

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Rabbi Nahman's stories videos. Multiple teachings, often on location.

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Rabbi Nahman's stories videos. Multiple teachings, often on location.

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https://www.youtube.com/@RabbiNachmansstories/videos

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Welcome to Rabbi Nachman Stories. Here you could find stories by Rabbi Nachman presented in a number of languages. Enjoy the light!

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The Clever Man And The Simple Man (Wikisource) 

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The Clever Man And The Simple Man (Wikisource) 

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/9

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/9 - Wikisource, the free online library

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Once there were two home-owners in a city who had great wealth, large houses and two sons; that is, each one of them had a son. The two children learned together in the same schoolhouse. One of them was a khakham [clever, smart, sophisticated, wise] and the other was a tam [simple, innocent, artless, wholesome] (not that he was a fool; rather, his intellect was simple, without sophistication). The two sons loved each other very much. Even though one was khakham and the other was tam, they nevertheless loved each other very much.

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A menu -- or bibliography -- of mysticism at 18forty referencing Rabbi Nahman: "To get a taste for Jewish mysticism, sample Rabbi Nachman of Breslov’s Stories..."

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A menu -- or bibliography -- of mysticism at 18forty referencing Rabbi Nahman: "To get a taste for Jewish mysticism, sample Rabbi Nachman of Breslov’s Stories..."

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https://18forty.org/articles/mysticism-a-menu-bibliography/

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What is mysticism? More broadly, what is spirituality? This question haunts many contemporary discussions, and hangs as a spectre above all attempts to define this sense of the divine that we seek. In an Orthodox forum on the topic of "Jewish Spirituality and Divine Law," the question of definitions is a thread that courses through the heart of many , as thinkers struggle to talk meaningfully about a topic that is by its nature ephemeral and hard to pin down.

Daniel Matt, the scholar of Jewish mysticism, writes in his Ayin:The Concept of Nothingness in Jewish Mysticism , the following:

How can God be defined? It cannot. To define ultimate reality would be to deny and desecrate its infinity. Though language brazenly insists on extending the semantic realm, God escapes its noisy clutches again and again.

The mystics, who celebrate divine ineffability, are quite comfortable with a God who refuses to be trapped by language. Yet even they need to refer to this nameless one-at least to communicate their awareness to others. To express a bit of what they have uncovered, one of their favorite strategies is to call God "Nothing." We hear this paradoxical divine epithet in the East and the West: Meister Eckhart's Nichts, St. John of the Cross' nada, the Taoist wu, and the Buddhist sunyata and mu. I will focus here on the Jewish mystical concept of ayin, "nothingness." Ayin is first found in medieval Kabbalah as a theological concept. Later, in Hasidism, its psychological significance is emphasized and ayin becomes a medium for self-transformation.

Matt, talking about the idea of 'nothingness,' writes that the very impossibility of definition is part and parcel of the Divine, and perhaps the same could be said about the experience of the Divine. We often find it impossible to communicate meaningfully about what we think or feel when we experience God, but perhaps this is the very point.

Mysticism is hard to define, and as an experience-driven realm of knowledge, in some ways it can only be approached in a circumambulatory nature, by circling the experience of the Divine until one gains a better understanding. We want to help out your circumambulations, so we put together a tasting menu of some of our favorite readings on the fundamental questions of mysticism.

As always, this bibliography is far from exhaustive, and we prefer to think of it as an invitation for further exploration rather than a checklist for your intellectual journey. Looking back at this topic , here are some of our favorite articles that we found illuminating, and we hope you find illumination here as well. We include articles and our book recommendations.
Appetizer: Mystical Texts and Experiences Whet your appetite with this big picture issue to get you started.
We know, we know, shameless self-promotion and all that. But if we can't push our own product, who will?! So come down to 18Forty for a short "History of Jewish Mysticism," from the Bible until today. Once you're here, you might as well check out our reflections on mysticism as an escape from this world or invitation to dive into this world, Fans of Kafka, Joey Rosenfeld, and the questions of transcendence vs. immanence will definitely enjoy those stray thoughts. Any discussion about Jewish mysticism dances between two points - the mystical text, and the mystical experience. We feel that the way we approach reading mystical texts offers much to the rest of our sorry lives, so check out our "What is Reading Worth," to see whether you agree with us.
Entree: Contemporary Mysticism Here's your meal; we hope you enjoy.
To get a taste for Jewish mysticism, sample Rabbi Nachman of Breslov's Stories. Rabbi Nachman was particularly drawn to storytelling at the end of his tragically short life and these fascinating parables, dreams, and epic stories offer a window into the heart and soul of the Rabbi Nachman of Breslov - and all of us. You don't have to start with all of them; read , let them sink in, and reflect on them as you would a fine wine or fresh croissant. When the time is right, you can check out Ora Wiskind-Elper's masterful on the stories, but we recommend starting with the stories themselves. However, these are stories to be experienced personally and reflected on, far more than interpreted and extrapolated, so maybe start with reading them for yourself, or to your kids.

Alan Brill's "Dwelling with Kabbalah: Meditation, Ritual, and Study," part of the Orthodox Forum on Jewish spirituality and law, is well worth a read. It makes for a great introduction to major ideas of Jewish mysticism, and some possibilities for their contemporary application. Once you are there, check out some of the other articles in the book; there is some seriously thoughtful reading there. Ariel Evan Mayse's four-part series on "The Development of Neo-Hasidism" is a poetic, substantive overview of some of the major thinkers and trends in the contemporary translation of Jewish mystical ideas into popular practice, and will bring you up to date on more places to look for contemporary mysticism.

If you are interested in a more direct scholarly exposure, the work of is highly important reading on the foundational issues of mysticism, such as the authorship, cross-cultural influences on the , literary trends, as well as Idel's treatment of major kabbalistic thinkers and trends. Shaul Magid is a highly thoughtful writer on mysticism, , and contemporary religious life. Check out their writings, see if it speaks to you. For a more religious or directly spiritual window into the mystical, the lectures of Joey Rosenfeld and Rav Moshe Weinberger are great starting points.
Drinks: Just For Fun Less scholarly than our other offerings, these readings are (usually) friendlier for couches and reading while on line at the grocery store.
One thing that is particularly enjoyable about Jewish mysticism is how much remarkable creativity there is. Because the intellectual boundaries are drawn in very different places than they are in other domains of Jewish learning, Jewish mystical ideas and texts can be powerfully creative. That doesn't quite make them easy or fun, as many of the foundational texts are full of kabbalistic jargon, and can have the feeling of a metaphysical textbook to sefirotic couplings (which can be quite risque, it turns out!).

Now that we are distracted and talking about Jews and fantasy and stuff, Michael Weingrad's "Why There is No Jewish Narnia" at the Jewish Review of Books is the best of its kind - a touching historical reflection on why Jews have stayed away from traditionally writing fantasy. It makes for an interesting meditation on the relationship us Jews have had with this world and the next, if you are feeling thoughtful. Once we are in this, might as well also throw in Rabbi Meir Soleveitchik's fascinating " The Secret Jews of The Hobbit," as well as Nathaniel Stein's hilarious "The True History of Jewish Wizards at Hogwarts." ( We also aren't exactly sure what this has to do with mysticism, but just go with it please.)
Dessert: Our Book List We are proud to have had profoundly thoughtful guests to discuss these questions. Here are some of the books they recommended we read. We also included some book recommendations on our site - feel free to check those out for more information.
There's a book called Inner Space , which is based on classes given by Rav Aryeh Kaplan, transcribed and written by another tremendous teacher who operates in the shadows, Avraham Sutton...

I ... would highly recommend Inner Space as that first book. And then if a person is interested in the interface between these ideas, there's a book called Kabbalah and Postmodernism written by Sanford Drob, which I highly recommend because that's a really good place to be introduced to the possibility of utilizing modern Western philosophy as a lens through which to view the modern significance or postmodern significance of . From a psychological perspective, I would recommend Centers of Power by Schneider and Berke. I'm blinking on their first names, but it's a very wonderful book about psychoanalysis and ...

There's a book that recently came out that is just tremendous. It's called Nefesh HaTzimtzum , a two volume set, one is a translation of Rav Chaim Volozhiner's Nefesh HaChaim , and the second is an explanation and exploration of ideas that he understood working with one of the greatest kabbalistic teachers of our generation, Rav Moshe Schatz, who's a contemporary Jew living in Givat Shaul. So those are the books that I would recommend off the cuff. And then there's a lot more that I would recommend for someone who's interested in a next level.

Dr. Ora Wiskind-Elper pushes product, and we respect her for that. Check out her masterful books, Wisdom of the Heart, Tradition and Fantasy in the Tales of Reb Nahman of Bratslav, and her recent Hasidic Commentary on the Torah. Rav Moshe Weinberger also recommended her books, so it's a double recommendation. That has to count for something. In her words:

I'll just be egotistical, yeah, I would just be egotistical, I think you can read one of my books, maybe Wisdom of the Heart .

Rabbi Moshe Weinberger recommended too many books, so it's on you to choose which you want to read. Enjoy his lovely recommendations:

I'll give you a few examples of what's being done that I have found is having an extraordinary amount of success reaching that are looking for that phase two, phase three, and moving forward. There's a that lives in Eretz Yisrael, in Beit Shemesh, Rav Avraham Zvi Kluger, Rav Kluger. He's the author of, already by now there must be 30 , more. He began with Nezer Yisrael . I have a close relationship with him, he's an extraordinary person, absolutely extraordinary person who was raised in the insular world of Klausenberg, Eretz Yisrael, but he gets it, he just gets it. So there's a translation of his Yichud Hisbodedus , that's called "One," O-N-E, that is an introduction to developing a , a way of speaking and hearing, speaking to and hearing from Hashem that's very, very clear, that's very healthy, it's called , by Rav Kluger. All of the Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh's , the ones that are translated, there are already quite a few, even Da Es Nishmascha , somebody got it off the computer and they had it printed up on Central Avenue, many of those things can be printed up. But the earliest have already been translated into English. Da Es Atzmecha has been translated in English, Da Es Nafshecha I think is in English, even Da Es Nishmascha is in English. Exceptionally, exceptionally clear without being weighed down with a million , without this says, this says, just , Godliness, and how to begin to work practically on achieving a relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu .

It's a primer to the world of hisbodedus , and hisbodedus of serious work in Hashem. You have, look, Breslovers put out, my friend, Reb Chaim Kramer, he should have a , Reb Chaim Kramer and Chabad have put out such amazing things. They were ahead of their time, they still are, with putting out. But by way of crossing over into the world of , so many people have had tremendous success using the books of the Nesivos Shalom . Now you have someone who's been adapting them, a fine that's been putting out Nesivos Shaloms , it's always a safe and healthy way of entering into, gently into , into . But Rebbe Nachman's stories, what Breslov has done, Reb Nachman's Torah, Likutei Moharan . I recommend for any person who's serious about pnimius haTorah , you have to learn cover to cover three, four times, and if you need to get some help with listening to from that are out there, there are some very good people and wonderful .

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A Menu-or Bibliography-of Mysticism - 18Forty

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Though language brazenly insists on including God in the semantic realm, He escapes its noisy clutches again and again.

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''Turkey Prince' Yehuda Barkan video of drama: סיפורי מעשיות - מעשה מאינדיק

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''Turkey Prince' Yehuda Barkan video of drama: סיפורי מעשיות - מעשה מאינדיק

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K36hNTJXjZg

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Turkey Prince - סיפורי מעשיות - מעשה מאינדיק

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/13

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I'll tell you about being happy!

A tale. Once there was a King who had an only son. The King wanted to transfer the kingdom to his son during his lifetime, so he threw a grand party (which they call a "ball"). Now, when the King throws a ball there is certainly great merriment, so especially now that he was transferring the kingdom to his son during his lifetime, there was certainly a very great celebration. And there at the ball were all the royal officers and all the dukes and gentry, and people were very merry at the ball. And the country too was enjoying this - the king's transferring his kingdom to his son in his lifetime - for it is a great honorific event for the King. So a very great celebration took place there, and there were all types of festivities there: song groups, drama groups and so forth, as well as everything useful just for merriment - it was all there at the ball.

And when they had waxed very merry, the King got up and said to his son, "Being that I am a stargazer, I see that you will at some time fall from the kingship. Therefore see to it that you have no sadness (that is, no grief) when you fall from reign; just be happy. And if you will be happy, I will also be happy. Even if you will have sadness I will still be happy that you are not king, since you are not fit to be king if you cannot keep yourself happy. (In other words, if you are the kind of man that you cannot keep yourself happy even when you fall from reign then you aren't fit to be any sort of king). But when you will be happy then I will be extraordinarily happy."

The King's son took over the reign very sharply, appointing his own royal officers, and he had dukes, gentry and soldiers. Now, this son of the King was a clever person and loved wisdom very much, and very great intellectuals accompanied him. And whoever came to him with some sort of wisdom was very esteemed by him, and he would grant them honor and riches for their wisdom. Whatever each one wanted, he gave him: one wanted money - he gave him money; another wanted honor - he gave him honor; anything for wisdom. And because studying was so important to him, they all took to wisdom and the entire country was occupied with philosophies [c hokhmoth], because this one desired money - in order to get money for it [being his motive] - and that one desired status and honor. And because all of them were busy only with philosophies, therefore they all forgot there in that country the strategies of war (in other words, how to wage a war), for they were all busy exclusively with philosophies, to such a degree that the smallest person in that country was the greatest sage in another country, while their own wise men were utterly wild scholars. And on account of their philosophies those wise men of the country fell into heresy and drew the son of the King too into their heresy. Albeit the simple folk were not harmed and did not become disbelievers, for there was great depth and subtlety in the sages' wisdom, so the common folk were not able to enter into their wisdoms, therefore it did not harm them. Only the wise men and the King's son became heretics.

And the King's son, because there was good in him, for he was born with goodness and had good character traits, would frequently remind himself, "Where am I in the world? What am I doing?" etc. and would make a very big groan and sigh deeply over it. He would ponder, "What is this? I should be carried away with such things?! What's going on with me? Where am I in this world?" as he kept sighing intensely. Albeit as soon as he began to use his intellect the heretical philosophy became strong again in him. This happened numerous times, that he would still contemplate where he is in the world, what he is doing, etc. as above, with groaning and sighing - but as soon as he began using his intellect the heretical belief became strong in him again, as above.

And the day came to pass - there was a flight in a certain country - everyone fled, and as they were fleeing they went through a forest, losing two children there, a male and a female; someone lost a male and someone lost a female. And they were still little children of four or five years and did not have anything to eat, and they screamed and cried because they had nothing to eat. Meanwhile there came up to them a beggar going along with his sacks (which are called torbes), carrying bread in them, and these children started to nudge him and huddle after him. He gave them bread and they ate. He asked them, "Where have you come here from?" They answered him, "We don't know," for they were little children. And he started going away from them and they asked him to take them with him. He said to them, "This I do not want, that you should go with me." Meanwhile they took a look - the beggar is blind! It was a marvel for them: since he is blind, how does he know how to go? (But in truth this itself is a novelty, that such a question should occur to them, for they were still young children. However, they were clever children; therefore it was a wonder to them.) He blessed them (this blind beggar), "You should be as I am; you should be as old as I," and he left them more bread and went away, and the children understood that Hashem Yithbarakh was watching over them and had sent them here a blind beggar to give them food.

Afterwards their bread ran out, and again they started screaming for food. After that it became night and they passed the night there. In the morning they still had nothing to eat so they screamed and cried. Meanwhile again a beggar comes up who is deaf; they started talking to him and he shows them with his hands and says to them, "I don't hear anything whatsoever." And this beggar also gave them bread to eat and started going away from them. They also wanted him to take them with him but he did not want. And he too blessed them, "That you should be as I am!" and also left them bread and went his way.

Later on their bread also ran out and again they screamed as above. Again there came to them a beggar who was tongue-tied (that is, he stammered with his mouth). They began to speak with him and he was mumbling his speech so they didn't know what he was saying - but he did know what they were saying - only they did not know what he was saying, because he was stammering. This beggar also gave them bread to eat, and also started to go away as before and also blessed them that they should be as he, and he went away, all as before.

Then there came again a beggar who had a crooked neck and it transpired as before. Then there came again a beggar who was hunchbacked (which is called hoikir). Then there came again a beggar without hands. Then there came a beggar without feet. And each one of them gave them bread and blessed them that they should be like him, just as the other beggars.

Afterwards the bread ran out by them yet again and they started walking toward a settlement until they came to a way. They went with that way until they came to a village. They (these children) went into a house, and they had pity on them and gave them bread. They continued into another house and there too they gave them bread, so they kept going around into houses and they saw [things are] good for them and they are being given bread. The children decided between them that they should always be together, and they made themselves large sacks (which are called torbes) and went around to the houses, and went to all happy occasions, to brissim [rite of circumcision] and to weddings. And they continued further along, going into cities, to the houses; and went to market fairs, and would sit among the beggars in the same way they sit there on the prizbes [ledges which protrude from the sides of buildings] with a teller [a plate for collecting alms], until these children became famous already among all the beggars, for all of them recognized them and knew of them; that they were the children who had been lost in the forest as mentioned.

And just as they were longing very much for the blind beggar he immediately calls out and says: I am here. I have come to you for the wedding, and I'm presenting you with a derashah geshenk [commonly meaning gifts given to the groom in reward for his pre-chuppah derashah, lecture; but possibly meaning a gift that is free for the seeking, derashah, as per Ps. 24, Deut. 4:29 etc.], that you should be old as I. For previously I had blessed you with this, that you should be as old as I; now I present it to you as a completely free gift, derashah geshenk, that you should live as long as I. You think that I am blind. I am not blind at all, except all the time of the whole world does not come across me as much as an eye blink (thus he appears blind, for he doesn't peek into the world whatsoever, for all the entire world's time doesn't come across him whatsoever, even as an eyeblink, therefore no sight or any glimpse of the world at all is relevant to him), because I am very old and I am yet entirely young [Heb. yanik, suckling, i.e. infantile] and have not yet begun living at all - but I am still very old. And it is not I alone that say this; on the contrary I have an approval upon it from the Great Eagle. I will tell you a story. (All this the blind beggar is saying.)

One time there were people traveling on many ships on the sea. A storm wind came and broke the ships, and the people were saved. The people came to a tower; they went up on it and found there all kinds of food, drink, clothing, and whatever one needs. And all good was there, and all the delights in the world. They spoke up and said that each one should tell an old story - what he remembers from his first memory, that is, what he remembers since his memory began. There were old and young there and they honored the biggest zaken [elder, old; akin to zakan, beard] among them to tell first.

He answered and said, "What shall I tell you? I remember back when they cut the apple off the branch." No one at all knew what he was saying, however there were wise men there and they said, " Oowah! - that is a totally old story." Then they honored the second zaken, who was younger than the first, that he should tell. The second one replied, "That there is an old story?!" (expressing wonder) "I remember that story, but I remember back even when the candle was burning." Those who were there replied, "That story there is older yet than the first," and it was a marvel to them that the second one is younger than the first, yet remembers an older story than the first. Then they honored the third zaken, that he should tell. The third one, who was younger yet, spoke up saying, "I remember back even when the construction of the fruit was just beginning; when the fruit was just starting to become a fruit. They answered there, "This is an even older story." Then the fourth spoke up, who was even yet younger, "I remember back even when they were bringing the seed so as to plant the fruit."

The fifth answered, who was even yet younger, "I recall even the sages who thought up and brought out the seed." The sixth, who was even yet younger, called out, "I remember even the taste of the fruit before the taste entered into the fruit." The seventh called out, "I recall even the smell of the fruit before the smell entered the fruit. The eighth answered and said, "I remember even the appearance of the fruit before it went upon the fruit."

And I at the time was just an infant (that is, the blind beggar who is telling all this), and I too was there and I announced, "I remember all these stories - plus I remember absolutely nothing ( un ich gidenk gor nisht). They replied, "That is a story completely older than all of them," and it was a great marvel to them that the child remembers more than them all. In the midst of this came a Great Eagle and knocked on the tower and said to them, "Cease being poor! Return to your treasures and use your treasures," and he said to them that they should go out from the tower age by age; whoever is oldest should go out first. He took them all out from the tower, removing the babe first, for truthfully he is, after all, older than all of them, and likewise whoever was younger he brought out first, and the hoariest elder he brought out at the very end, for the one who was younger was in fact older (because the younger he was, the older a story he kept telling), and the most aged elder was younger than all of them.

Now I present it to you as a completely free gift, derashah geshenk, that you should be as old as I. There was a great celebration there with great jubilation and they were extremely happy.

Inasmuch as there is a land where there is great wealth - they have enormous fortunes - one time the wealthy people gathered together and each one began boasting of his good life, how he lives such a good life, and each one described the routine of his good life.

I spoke up and said to them (that is, the deaf beggar who is telling all this): I live a better "good life" than you, and this is the proof: for if you live the good life, help out that country - for there is a country where they had a garden, and in the garden were fruits having all kinds of tastes in the world and all kinds of smells in the world; there too in the garden were all kinds of shapes of every color and all the kvetin [flowers] in the world; everything was there in the garden. And over the garden was an agradnik [gardener] [that is, someone who sees to the garden], and the people of the country would live a good life through the garden. The gardener there got lost, so naturally whatever there is in the garden must surely cease to exist since the gardener is no longer there to see to the garden and go about with what needs to be done around the garden. But despite this, they would have been able to live from the garden's aftergrowth (that is, from the regrowth, that is, what grows in a garden by itself from that which falls down).

A cruel (in other words, merciless) king came over the country and could do nothing against them, so he went and spoiled the country's good life that they had from the garden. It was not that he spoiled the garden, rather he left behind in the country three crews of henchmen and commanded them to do what he ordered them. And by doing there what the king ordered them they ruined the taste, for through what they did there they made it that whoever wanted to feel any taste, it would have the taste of rotten carcass. And similarly they ruined the smell so that all the smells would have the smell of galbanum, and similarly they destroyed the appearance, for they made it be dark in the eyes just like when it's cloudy. (All this did the three crews of workers accomplish in the country by doing there what the king ordered them, as mentioned.) Now if you live the good life let me see if you can help out that country. (So is the deaf beggar still saying to the Land of Wealth which had bragged that they live the good life, as mentioned.) And I say to you: if you won't help them out, it will harm you too (that is, the fact that in that country the appearance, taste and smell were ruined, will reach you too).

The rich men mentioned above got up to go to that country, and I went with them too, and on the way they lived their good life, each his own, for they had fortunes as mentioned. When they came nigh to the country, there began to spoil also by them the taste and the other things, and they felt in themselves that it had become spoiled with them. I spoke up to them, "Just consider - if now when you have not yet entered the country, the taste, appearance and smell have already become spoiled for you, how will it be when you go in? And all the more so, how can you still help them?" I took my bread and my water and gave it to them. They felt in my bread and water all the tastes (and all the smells etc.) and everything became corrected that had been ruined for them (that is, the taste, appearance and smell).

And the other country, that is, the country where the garden was (where the taste etc. had been ruined, as mentioned), started to look around to repair the country's ruined taste and so forth. They came to a decision: inasmuch as there is a Land of Wealth (that is, that very land mentioned above with whom the beggar had spoken, as mentioned), it felt to them (that is, it felt to the country where the garden was) that their gardener who had become lost (through whom they had lived the good life) is from the same root as [the people of] the Land of Riches who also live the good life; therefore they liked the idea that they should send off to the Land of Wealth - they will surely help them! They did so and sent messengers to the Land of Wealth. The messengers went, and they encountered each other (that is, the emissaries came up against the people of that very Land of Riches on the way, for the Land of Wealth themselves wanted to go to them, as mentioned). They asked the messengers, "Where are you going?" They answered, "We are going to the Land of Wealth so that they will help us." They spoke up, "We ourselves are that rich country and we are going to you."

I spoke up (that is, the deaf beggar who is telling all this) to them, "Don't you need me? For you cannot go there and help them," as mentioned above (because when they only so much as came near the country, they themselves were already affected; all the more so when etc. as mentioned). "Therefore you stay here and I will go with the emissaries to help them."

Later I went further to another city (of that country) and saw two people fighting with each other on account of some trade transaction. They went to the courthouse to bring suit and the court decided for them: this one is entitled and that one is obligated - and they went out from the court. Afterward they again bickered with each other, and said that they no longer want this courthouse - they just want another courthouse - and they chose for themselves another courthouse and brought their case before the other courthouse. Afterward one of them again got into an argument with someone else, and again they selected a different courthouse, and so they fought on and on there, this one with that one and that one with this one, always choosing a different court, until the entire city was filled with courthouses. I took a look and saw that this was due to there being no truth there; now this one tilts the verdict and favors this one (in other words he curries favor with him and decides in his favor), and later the other one favors him (in other words later the other decides in his favor in return), for they take bribery and they have no truth there.

Afterwards I saw that they are full of adultery, and there are so many illicit relations there that it has already become like an altogether permissible thing for them. And I said to them that on account of this, the taste, the smell and the vision were ruined for them, for the aforementioned cruel king had left them the three aforementioned squads of agents so that they should go and ruin the country. For they went around and spoke lewd speech among them, bringing lewd speech into the country, and through lewd speech the result was that the taste was ruined, so that all the tastes had the same taste as nevelah [carcass of an animal that died on its own; same root as nivul < nbl decayed]. And likewise they brought bribery into the country, and thereby their vision was ruined and it got dark in their eyes, for so it states, " Ki hashochad ye`aver `einei chakhamim," in other words bribery blinds the eyes of the wise [Deut. 16:19]. And similarly the henchmen brought lechery into the country, and through this the smell was ruined, for lechery results in ruined smell (and look in another place in our words [ Likutei Moharan II 1:12] that lechery blemishes one's smell). Therefore you should see that you repair the country from these three sins and seek after these people (that is, the agents who brought the three sins into the country, as mentioned) and drive them out. And when you do so and you purge the country from the three sins, I say to you that not only will the taste, vision and smell be repaired, but that moreover even the gardener who was lost from you will also be recoverable.

They did so, and they began cleansing the country of the three sins. And they sought out the people (that is, the henchmen mentioned above) and they would grab someone and ask him, "From where did you come here?" - until they caught the cruel king's agents and drove them out, and they cleaned out the country from the sins. Meanwhile a noise was made: Maybe the insane one is the gardener after all? For there is an insane man going about who keeps saying that he is the gardener, and everyone holds him to be insane, and stones are thrown at him and he is driven away - but maybe he in fact is the true gardener?! They went out and brought him (that is, before these ones who sat and repaired the country; and also he, namely the deaf beggar who is telling all this, was there). And I said, "Of course he is the gardener!" (That is, the one whom they had previously called insane.) Hence, I have a testament from there that I live the good life, for I myself repaired the Land. Now I present you with my good life as a gift.

On the third day the groom and bride again thought back, crying and longing, "How can the third beggar be brought here, who was a kaved-peh [tongue-tied]?" (That is, who stammered with his mouth.)

Meanwhile in he comes and says, "I am here!" And he fell on them, kissed them, and he too said to them as before: Previously I had blessed you to be like me. Now I give you, derashah geshenk, that you be like me. You think I am speech-impaired. I am not speech-impaired at all, rather: the utterances of the world which are not praises to the Supernal One have no integrity (in other words thus he appears like a tongue-tied person who cannot talk, for he has absolutely no wish to speak any worldly speech which is not praise to Hashem Yithbarakh; since talk that is not praise to Hashem Yithbarakh has no integrity, thus he stammers in his speech). But in truth I am not speech-impaired at all. On the contrary I am an orator and a speaker, that is, one wild novelty of a good talker. And I can say such wildly innovative riddles, poems and songs that when I begin to speak my riddles, poems and songs, there can be no creature in the world that will not want to hear me (in other words there is not a creature in the world that will not want to hear his poems etc.). And contained in them (that is, in the riddles and poems that he says) are all the wisdoms. And I have testimony to this from that great man who is called "The Truly Gracious Man" ( Der Grosser Man; Der Emetir Ish Chesed - with these terms did Rabbeinu of blessed memory tell it). And there is a whole story to this.

For, once upon a time all the wise men sat, and each one boasted of his wisdom. {1} This one boasted that with his wisdom he had invented the production of iron (that is, the ability to make iron from earth is what he brought out to the world), {2} that one boasted that he had invented another type of metal (that is, another type of metallurgy: zinc or lead etc.), {3} another boasted that with his wisdom he had invented the production of silver - this is already more momentous (that is, the ability to make silver is what he had brought out); {4} another boasted that he had invented the ability to make gold, {5} and another boasted that he had invented weapons of war (that is, the instruments with which war is conducted, namely guns, cannons and so forth - the technology of making these instruments is what he brought out); {6} yet another boasted he can produce metal wares without those things that they produce these metals from, {7} and another boasted of other wisdoms, for there are numerous things in the world that have been invented through wisdoms, namely saltpeter, gunpowder and the like. So each one boasted of his wisdom.

Someone there called out, "I am cleverer than you all, for I am wise as the day." No one there understood what he was saying, that he is "wise as the day." He replied to them, "Because all your wisdoms can be put together and they will constitute no more than one hour, even though each wisdom is obtained from a different day, according to the creation that came into being on that day. For all of those wisdoms are composites (that is, several things are mixed together and from them the thing is produced; therefore each wisdom is taken from the day in which God created the things from which the materials are taken and combined with wisdom to make the thing they want to make: silver, copper and so forth); in spite of this, all of these wisdoms of yours can be put together by wisdom, constituting no more than one hour. But I am wise like an entire day." (So did that final wise man boast.) I (that is, the tongue-tied who is telling all this) called out to him, "Like which day?" (In other words, "Like which day are you wise?") He (the wise one mentioned) responded, "This one here (that is, the tongue-tied) is wiser than me for he's asking like which day. But like whatever day you wish, that's how wise I am." However, why, after all, is he smarter for having asked like which day, if the wise man himself is also as smart as any day he wishes? But there is a whole story:

For, the Truly Gracious Man is in truth a very great man. And I (that is, the speech-impaired who is telling all this) go about, gathering up all true generosities, and bring them to the Truly Gracious Man. And the root of time's genesis (that is, that [such a thing as] time should exist, for time itself, that is, the very existence of years and days in the world, is itself also created by Hashem Yithbarakh) is solely through true kindnesses. And I go about and gather up all true kindnesses and bring them to the Truly Gracious Man, resulting in time coming into being.

And there is a Mountain, and on the Mountain stands a Stone, and from the Stone emerges a Spring. Now, every thing has a heart, and the entire world also has a heart, and the Heart of the World is a complete structure, with face, hands, feet etc. But the nail of the foot of the World's Heart is heartier [Yid. hertziker] than the heart of anything else. And the Mountain with the Stone and the Spring stands at one end of the world, while this Heart of the World stands at another end of the world, and the Heart stands facing the Spring, desiring and hoping continuously, exceedingly, that it should come to the Spring, and the longing and desire of the Heart to come to the Spring is just extraordinary. It screams nonstop, the Heart, to come to the Source, and the Source longs for the Heart too.

Now, the Heart has two things that make it weak. One, because the sun pursues it exceedingly and scorches it (because it always yearns and desires to come to the Source), and the second thing that tires the Heart is due to yearning and desiring, that the Heart constantly yearns and wishes; it keeps pouring out its soul for the Source and screaming and so forth, as above, so as to come to the Source, for the Heart is always standing facing the Source, and screams " Na! Gevald!" [Yid. Please! Woe!], and keeps on yearning most exceedingly for the Source, as mentioned.

However, when the Heart needs to rest a bit, so as to draw a little breath [Yid. oyf zoyfn] then comes a Big Bird and spreads its wings above it, shielding it from the sun; then the Heart gets a little rest. But even then while resting it also looks facing the Spring and still longs for it. But since it longs so much for the Source, why does it not go to the Source? Only, as soon as the Heart wants to go close to the Mountain upon which is the Source then it no longer sees the peak; it cannot look at the Spring - and as soon as it would not look at the Spring it would expire, for the Heart's entire vitality is only from the Source, so when it stands facing the Mountain then it sees the Mountain peak where the Spring is, but immediately as soon as it wants to go to the Mountain, the peak no longer appears (for such indeed is the way with a tall mountain; standing from afar the peak is visible, but upon going nearer the peak is no longer visible). Then it can no longer look at the Source and could - Mercy save us! - expire, and if this Heart - Mercy save us! - would expire the whole world would be destroyed, for the Heart is the very vitality of every thing, and how can the world endure without the Heart? Therefore the Heart cannot go to the Spring; it only stands facing the Spring, longing and screaming without cease to be able to come to it, as mentioned.

And the Spring is completely timeless, for the Spring is not within time at all (in other words the Spring has no time at all, that is, because it is completely above worldly time). So how can the Spring exist in the world? (For in the world nothing can exist without a time.) But all the Spring's time is simply the Heart giving the Spring a day as a gift. And when it comes time for the day to be let out and terminated - and should the day go away the Source would no longer have any time and would depart from the world - then when the Source is no longer, the Heart itself would also expire, Mercy save us, then the whole world would become nil, Mercy save us, as mentioned. Thus, when it gets very close to the end of the day then they begin to take leave of each other (which is called gizeginin) [wishes and blessings upon departing] - the Heart and the Source - and begin saying wonderful riddles, poems and songs to one another - very fine riddles and songs - with great love and tremendous yearning (one for the other, the Heart for the Source and the Source for the Heart).

Now, the Truly Gracious Man supervises and keeps watch over this, and when the day reaches its very end and needs only to give out (at which very instant when the day lets out and the Source shall no longer have any day, as mentioned, it will pass away and thus, Mercy save us, the Heart will expire too; the whole world will be destroyed) - at that moment the Truly Gracious Man arrives and gives the Heart a day and the Heart gives the day to the Source; thus the Spring once again has time (that is, that day the Source can again maintain its existence and consequently the Heart too can maintain its existence, etc.). And when this day comes from the place whence it comes, it comes along with riddles too and with fine poetry which contains all wisdoms. And there are distinctions between the days, for there is a Sunday, a Monday, etc., and similarly there is a first of the month and holidays (in other words, according to what sort of day comes along, with such poetry does it arrive).

And all the time that the Truly Gracious Man has, is entirely through me (that is, through the tongue-tied one who is telling all this). For I go along and gather up all true generosities, from which all the time comes to exist, as mentioned. (And therefore the tongue-tied one is even smarter than the sage who boasted he is wise like any day one wishes, for time itself and its days altogether come to exist entirely through him, the days coming along with poetry and riddles containing all wisdoms, etc., as mentioned). Hence I have a testimony from the Truly Gracious Man that I can say riddles and poetry containing all the sciences (because all the days, with the riddles and their poetry, come to exist entirely through him, as mentioned). Today I present you in a full gift, derashah geshenk, that you should be like me. There was a grand celebration and superb gladness there, and they had a ball ( Zey hobn a Hilva giton)!

When they had completed that day's celebration and passed the night afterwards, in the morning they again thought back and yearned, and so forth, for the beggar who had a crooked neck. Meanwhile in he comes and says: I am here! (and so forth...) Previously I had blessed you to be like me. Today I present it to you, derashah geshenk, that you should be like me. You think I have a crooked neck. I have no crooked neck whatsoever. On the contrary, I have a very even neck, a very beautiful neck, except there are vapors [ havalim] of the world (that is, worldly nonsense), and I wish to release no breath or spirit [Yid. duch] whatsoever into the world's vanities (and therefore it appears his neck is crooked, since he twists his neck from the world's vanities world and wants to release no breath or spirit whatsoever into the world's vanities). But in truth I have a very beautiful neck, an extremely fine neck. For I have a superb voice, and all kinds of sounds [ qolot] in the world, which are only sound without speech - I can mimic all of them with my voice, for I have a very superb neck and voice. And I have testament to this from that country -

For there is a country where they are all expert in the science of music making, and they are all involved there in this wisdom, even little children. There is not a child there who cannot play on some musical instrument. And the most minor person that is in that country is the greatest expert in another country in musical knowledge. And the sages and king of that country, and the cappellas [song groups], are extraordinarily great masters of that wisdom.

One time the country's sages were sitting together and each one boasted of his musical prowess [ chokhmah]. {1} This one boasted he could play on this musical instrument, {2} that one boasted he could play that musical instrument, {3} and another boasted: on another musical instrument. {4} Someone else boasted he could play several musical instruments, {5} and another boasted he could play on all kinds of musical instruments. {6} This one boasted he could perform with his voice like a certain musical instrument, {7} that one boasted he could perform with his voice like a certain musical instrument, {8} and another boasted he could perform with his voice like several musical instruments. {9} Still another boasted he could perform with his voice exactly like a drum (which is called poyk) when it is struck, {10} and another boasted he could perform with his voice like shooting from cannons (which are called urmatis) [?<Ukr. garmata, cannon]. And I too was there (that is, the one with the crooked neck who is telling all this). I spoke up and said to them: My voice is better that your voices, and this is the proof: because if you are indeed such experts in musical sound, help the two lands -

For there are two lands, a thousand miles apart from each other. And there in these two countries when night arrives no one can sleep, for when it becomes night they all begin crying out with wailing voices - men, women and children. If a stone were to rest there it would melt down, for at night they hear an exceedingly wailing sound, and because of it, all of them there must start wailing - men, women and little children, etc. (And this happens in both countries), for in one country they hear the wailing sound and must all lament as mentioned, and likewise in the other land it too is so, and the two countries are a thousand miles apart. So if you are such expert musicians (that is, you can play and sing), let me see if you can help the two countries, or at least reproduce the sounds (that is, mimic the wailing sound that is heard there). They said to him, "Will you take us there?" He said, "Yes, I take you there [present tense]," and they arose to all go there.

They went and arrived there (that is, at one of the two aforementioned countries). When night came, it was as always - they all began wailing, and the experts too wailed as well. (So they saw for sure they could not help the countries.) He said to them (that is, the one whose neck was crooked said to the aforementioned sages), "Anyway, tell me where this comes from, that they hear this wailing sound. Where is the sound from?" They said to him, "And do you know?" He replied, "I know indeed."

"For, there are two birds, one male and one female, and they are just one pair in the world. The female got lost. He seeks her and she seeks him. They had sought each other very long, until they lost their ways and saw they can no longer find each other, so they stood still and made themselves nests. He made him a nest nearby one of the two countries - and not actually near it, except that in consideration of the bird's voice it is called near, since from the place where he stopped and made him a nest they can already hear his voice in that country. And likewise she also made her a nest near the second country (that is, likewise, not right nearby, except from there her voice could be heard over there). And when night comes then this pair of birds begin both wailing, for he bemoans her and she bemoans him, wailing with a very big yell. And this is the wailing sound heard in these two countries, because of which they must all begin wailing intensely there and they cannot sleep." (So did the crooked-neck continue telling.) But they would not believe this, and said to him, "Will you lead us there (that is, to the birds)?"

He said, "Yes, I can lead you there. Except how can you come there? For if even here you cannot bear the sound and must all wail - when you will come there you will surely be unable to stand it at all! And by day one cannot stand the joy there, for by day the birds gather together by each of them separately, that is, to him and to her, and console them and make them happy with extremely great joys, and they tell them words of consolation: "You will still find each other," making them very happy, so much so that by day it is impossible to bear the joy there. And the sound of the birds making them happy is not heard from afar, but only when one arrives there. But the sound of the pair wailing at night - it is heard far away; you cannot, therefore, come there." They said to him, "Can you correct this?"

He replied, "Yes, I can correct it. For I can mimic all the world's sounds (that is, all kinds of sounds in the world, he can emit them with his voice, making it exactly like any sound at all); furthermore I can throw voices, that is, I can throw a sound which here, in the place where I let it out, will not be heard at all - only somewhere far away will it be heard - and therefore I can throw her voice to him, that is, the sound which I will let out will arrive close to the place where he is, and likewise I can throw his voice so that it arrives close to her; thereby will I draw them together" (until he brings them together). But who would believe this?

He went and led them into a forest. They heard as if someone opens a door, shuts it again and slams the bolt shut (which is called a klaymke); and firing from gun (which is called a biks), sending the dog to fetch (the thing that he was shooting), and the dog thrashing in the snow [Yid. gigraznit in shney]. The sages heard all this, and they looked around - they saw nothing at all, and also from him they heard nothing at all. (It could only be that he, the crooked neck, was throwing those sounds. So they saw for sure that he can replicate all kinds of sounds exactly, and also throw sounds.) (And he did not tell more about this, but went up afterwards.) Hence I have testament from that country that I have a wonderfully fine voice and I can replicate all the world's sounds. Today I present this to you completely in a gift, derashah geshenk, to be like me. There was a grand celebration there, and extremely high spirits.

On the fifth day they were also happy. They remembered the beggar who was a hunchback [Yid. hoikir], and they yearned very much, "How can that hunchback beggar be taken here? For if he were here, the joy would be immense." In the midst of this he arrives and says, "I am here! I have come to you for the wedding." And he fell on them, hugged them and kissed them, and said to them:

For, there was once a conversation in which people boasted about this matter, each one boasting that he has this feature of the little holding the much (in other words, a small space containing very much). They laughed and scoffed at one of them; and the rest who boasted about this feature of the little holding the much were accepted. But my little that holds the much is greater than all of them.

For, one of them boasted that his brain is a "little that holds the much," for he carries in his brain thousands and myriads of people with all their needs, all their customs, and all their discussions and movements. He carries all this entirely in his brain, so he is a little that holds the much, since a bit of his brain bears on it so many people with their needs and so forth. (Therefore he is called a little that holds the much, that is, a bit of space containing and bearing so much, namely the bit of brain bearing so many people with all their affairs etc.) They laughed him off and those present there replied, "You are nothing and your people are nothing."

One of them spoke up and said, "I have seen such a 'little that holds the much.' For, once I was passing by before a mountain and I saw a huge amount of garbage and filth on it. It was a novelty for me - from where does so much garbage and filth come on the mountain? There was a man there by that mountain. The man said, 'It's all mine.' For he was dwelling there beside the mountain, and kept throwing on the mountain his garbage and secretions from his eating and drinking, and defecated there, until there was so much garbage and feces from him on the mountain. So this man is a 'little that holds the much,' insofar as so much garbage comes about from one man. That's what this is too." (That is, so is the little-that-holds-the-much of the one who boasted that his brain bears so many people etc.)

One of them boasted he has the feature of the little that holds the much, inasmuch as: He has a bit of countryside that produces a great quantity of fruits. Afterwards they reckon the fruit that the country has produced and they see that the country does not in any way hold as much space as the fruits need to take up; there is not at all in the country so much space as the fruits need to occupy. So this is what a little that holds the much is (namely, a little space that holds so much). His words pleased them, for in truth this is certainly a little that holds the much.

One of them said inasmuch as he has an orchard [Heb. pardes] (namely, a garden) - a very fine one - where there are fruits and so forth: A great many people and noblemen travel there, for it is quite a nice orchard. And when summer comes, very many people and noblemen travel there to take walks there, and in truth there is in no way to be found in the orchard so much space as to contain that many people. This, then, is a little that holds the much. His words also pleased them.

One of them said that his speech is a little that holds the much, for he is a private secretary for a great king, and to the king very many people come. One comes with praises to the king (that is, each one says a praise to the king), another comes with petitions for the king, and so forth; and the king certainly cannot hear out all of this. "I gather up all their words into just a few words, and tell the king just these few words. Contained in them are all their praises and petitions, with all their words entering into my few words which I tell the king. Therefore my speech is a little holding the much."

One of them said that his keeping silent is a little that holds the much, for he has against him very many accusers and slanderers who gossip very much about him, for they argue with him and talk about him very much. And to whatever they slander him, bicker with him, and accuse him with much gossip, he performs some silence, and that is the solution to all the questions and all the utterances spoken against him. Hence his silence is a little holding the much.

One of them said that he is a little that holds the much, for there is a poor person who is "well-visioned" [that is, blind] and very large, whereas he (that is, the one who was boasting and telling this) is very small and leads about the large poor one who is blind. Hence he is a little holding the much, for the blind one could slip and fall, but he holds him up with his guidance, and due to this he is a little that holds the much, since he is a small person and holds the big blind one.

And I (that is, the hunchback who was telling all this) was also there. I declared: It is true that you have the feature of the little that holds the much. And I know what all of you meant (that is, all those who boasted one by one of their little that holds the much - he knows what each of them meant); even the final one who boasted that he leads around the big blind one. He is greater than all of you. But I am still greater and higher than all of you. For, he who boasted that he walks the big blind one, his meaning is that he conducts the lunar cycle (that is, the heavenly orb where the moon is), for the moon is called "blind," for she does not shine in-and-of herself, and she has nothing of her own whatsoever [ veleith lah migarmah klum], and he (that is, he who boasted in this) conducts the moon, even though he is small and the moon is very great; and this gives the entire world sustenance (in other words, by means of this the entire world has existence), for the world needs the moon. Hence he is definitely a little that holds the much, for sure. However, all the same, my little that holds the much is completely higher than all of them. And here is the proof:

For, once there was a group that investigated: Inasmuch as every beast has its shade (that is, its shadow) in which it specifically wants to rest, and conversely there is a special shadow for each animal, because each and every beast chooses for itself some shadow, and only in that shadow specifically does it want to rest; similarly, each bird has its branch on which it specifically wants to rest, and not on any other branch, while another bird has its own branch and only there can it rest and not on any other; and so each and every bird has its own special branch - therefore the group investigated if there could be found such a tree in whose shadow all the beasts could rest, in that all the beasts would want to dwell in the shadow of that tree, and upon whose branches all the birds of the sky [ tziperei shemaya, Dan. 4] would rest. And they discovered that there is such a tree. They wanted to go there to that tree, for the delight that there is there by that tree is absolutely limitless, since all the birds and all the beasts are found there, and there there is no harm whatsoever from any animal (that is to say, no beast injures anyone there), and all the animals there are freely mixed. They all engage in play there and it is certainly a very wonderful pleasure to be there at that tree. They began to examine rationally which side [Heb. tzad] they needed to go to come to that tree, and there fell a dispute between them regarding this, without there being anyone among them to decide, for one said that they needed to go to this side to the east, and another said to the west side they needed to go; one said here, another said there, and so on, until they could not discern the right side to go to in order to come to that tree.

A sage came along and said to them, "Why are you investigating by which side to go to the tree? Find out first who are the people who can come to the tree! Because to that tree not every man can come, since no one can come to the tree except one who has the tree's attributes (Heb. midoth). For, this tree has three roots: One root is faith (that one should believe in God, blessed be He), the other is awe, and the third is humility (that is, to not have special regard for oneself), and truth is the tree's body, that is, the tree itself is truth, and from there go out branches. Therefore no one can come to the tree but one who has these traits of the tree." (That is, faith - he should believe in God; fear - he should have fear of God, and humility - he should not have any special regard for himself; and truth. So did the sage say to the group.)

The group, however, did not all have these attributes; only some of them had in them these traits. But they had between them very great unity (that is, the group all loved each other and held themselves tightly together). They did not want to separate from each other in order that some of them should go to the tree (that is, those who already had these traits of the tree) and the rest should stay behind - they did not want this, for they held themselves very much together. Instead they had to wait until the rest of the men would exert themselves in attaining these attributes so that they could all come to the tree.

And so they did, toiling until they all came to those traits mentioned above. (That is, they all waited for each other until each had toiled and they all came to those virtues mentioned above, that is, by now they all have faith, fear and so on, as mentioned.) No sooner did they all come to the attributes, when they all came to one mindset and all agreed on one way by which to go to the tree. They all went. They went along for a while until they could see the tree from afar. Meanwhile, they take a look and the tree is standing on no place at all, for the tree has no space whatsoever. And since it has no place whatsoever, how can anyone come to it?

And I (that is, the hunchback) was also there with them. I announced to them, "I can bring you to the tree. For the tree has no place whatsoever, for the tree is completely above space (in other words, it is higher than worldly space; it has no place whatsoever), and the aspect of the little that holds the much still takes place in space, for although it is a little that holds the much, that is, a little space holding much more than can be put in the space, in any case it still takes place in space, because after all it still occupies some sort of space in any case. But I (that is, the hunchback) have such a little that holds the much that it is the absolute edge of the place beyond which there is no space whatsoever. Therefore I can carry you all to the tree, which is above space completely. (For, this hunchback is something like an intermediary, that is, a midpoint, between space and above space, for he is the ultimate degree of the little holding the much, which is the actual end of space, above which there is no unit of space whatsoever, since from there and above is the aspect of completely beyond space. Therefore he can take them out of space and bring them above space. Understand this.) I took them and carried them to the tree. Hence I have a testament that I have such an ultimate degree of the little holding the much. (And that is why he appeared as a hunchbacked person, for he carries a great deal on him, for he is a little holding the much.) Today I give you this very thing in a gift, that you should be like me. A great joy took place there, and a superb gladness.

On the sixth day they also rejoiced, but they also yearned, "How can the one without hands be brought here?" Meanwhile in he comes and says, "I am here! I have come to you for the wedding." And he too spoke to them as the others, falling on them, kissing them and saying to them: You think I am crippled in the hands. I am not at all crippled in the hands. I do have power in the hands, only I do not use the power in my hands in this world, for I need the power for something else - and regarding this I have a testament from the Watery Castle (fun das vasirikn shloss).

For, once several of us were sitting together. Each one was boasting of his power he has in his hands. This one boasted he has such a strength in his hands, that one boasted he has such a strength in his hands, and so each one boasted of his strength he has in his hands.

Namely, one was boasting that he has such a power and a strength in his hands, that when he shoots an arrow he can pull it back to him again, for he has such a power in his hands, that although he has already shot the arrow, he can yet turn it around and tow it back to him again.

I asked him, "What kind of arrow can you pull back?" For there are ten kinds of arrows, since there are ten kinds of poison. For, when one wants to shoot an arrow, one smears it with a poison. There are ten kinds of poison, and when they soak it in one poison, it injures like so, and when they soak it in another poison it does more damage. And so there are ten kinds of poison, each one worse than the other, that is, more harmful. (And this in itself is ten kinds of arrows, for the arrows are one sort; it is only because of the variety of the poisons that they smear the arrows in, which are ten kinds as mentioned above, that they are called ten kinds of arrows.)

So he asked him, "What kind of arrow can you pull back?" In addition he asked him whether [only] before the arrow has struck someone he can pull it back, or whether even after the arrow has already struck someone he could also pull it back. Upon this the other answered: "Even after the arrow has already struck someone, I can still pull it back." "But still, which sort of arrow can you pull back?" He answered: Why, this-and-this kind I can pull back.

I (that is, the one [without hands] who is telling all this) called out to him, "You cannot heal the Queen's Daughter. If you can pull back no more than one kind of arrow, you cannot heal the Queen's Daughter."

One was boasting that he has such a power in his hands that whoever he receives from, he gives to (that is, by his very getting something from someone, he gives to that person), and hence he is a master of charity. I asked him, "What kind of charity do you give?" (For there are ten kinds of charity.) He replied: he gives tithe. I called out to him, "If so, you cannot heal the Queen's Daughter, for you cannot at all come to her place (because you only give tithe), for you can enter in no more than one wall (in the place where she is dwelling), therefore you cannot come to her place."

One boasted that he has the following power in his hands: "Inasmuch as there are officials in the world (that is, senior men who are encharged with giving orders over a city, a country, etc.), each one needing wisdom: I have such a power in my hands, that with my hands I can give him wisdom, by laying my hands on him." I asked him, "What kind of wisdom can you give with your hands?" For there are ten measures (kabin) of wisdom (that is, ten varieties of knowledge). He replied: Such-and-such a wisdom I can give. I called out to him, "If so, you cannot heal the Queen's Daughter, for you cannot even know her pulse, because there are ten varieties of pulses, and you cannot know but one pulse, since you can only give one wisdom with your hands."

One boasted that he has such a power in his hands: when there is a ruach se'arah [lit. tempest spirit] (that is, a storm wind) he can detain the storm wind with his hands. He can seize the storm wind with his hands, restraining it, and can moreover with his hands make the wind with a mass, that it should be the sort of wind that is needed; with the [proper] weight.

I asked him, "What kind of wind can you grasp with your hands?" There are ten varieties of winds. He replied: Such-and-such a wind. I called out, "You cannot heal the Queen's Daughter, for you cannot at all play the melody for her. For there are ten varieties of melody, and the Queen's Daughter's healing is through melody, and you can play for her no more than one melody."

They called out, "What can you do?" He replied, "I can do what you all cannot do, namely, all the nine parts of each thing that each one boasted of, which you cannot do, I can do. For, there is a story:

"For, one time a king desired (lit. cooked himself up about) a Queen's Daughter, involving himself with executing schemes to capture her, until the thing was attained and he caught her; then she was with him. One time the king dreamed that the Queen's Daughter stood over him and killed him. He awoke sharply (lit. caught himself up), and the dream entered deep in his heart. He called all the dream interpreters and they interpreted it for him according to its simple meaning, that the dream would be fulfilled according to its simple meaning, that she would kill him. The king could not give himself any counsel, what to do with her. To kill her - would pain him; to send her away from him - this vexed him severely, for another man would take her, and this vexed him very much, for he had made so much effort for her, and now she would come to another man's hand, and moreover if he let her go and she came to another man's hand, then certainly the dream could be fulfilled that she would kill him, since she was by another. To hold her fast by him - he feared because of the dream, lest she kill him. So the king did not know what to do to her. Meanwhile his love for her perished little by little because of the dream (that is, he no longer loved her so much as before) and at each moment the love perished more and more, and likewise by her the love perished more each moment, until it became by her a hatred of him. She fled from him.

"The king sent after her to seek her, and they came and told him that she was circling around the Watery Castle. For there is a Watery Castle, and there are ten walls there, one inside the other, and all ten walls are completely of water, and also the ground in the Castle that they walk on is also of water. And likewise the garden, with its trees and their fruits, are entirely of water. As for the beauty of the Castle and the novelty of this Castle, there is no need to talk, for it is certainly a very wonderful novelty, for the whole Castle is of water. Entering the Castle is certainly impossible, for one would drown, for the whole Castle is entirely of water. Now the Queen's Daughter, upon fleeing, reached the Castle and was circling there around the Castle. They told the king that she was circling there around the Castle.

"The king and his soldiers went to catch her. When the Queen's Daughter saw this she decided she would run into the Castle, for she wanted more to drown in water than that the king should catch her and she be with him; and perhaps she would be saved after all and she could slip into the Watery Castle. When the king saw this, that she was running into the water, he said, "If that is the case, well then..." He ordered to shoot her; if she dies, she dies. They shot her and all the ten types of arrows that are smeared with the ten types of poisons struck her. And she, the Queen's Daughter, ran into the Watery Castle and entered into its interior, passing through all the doors of the watery walls. For there are doors there in the watery walls, so she passed through all the doors of all the ten walls of the Watery Castle, until she entered into the Castle's interior, fell down and remained faint.

"And I (that is, the handless one who is telling all this) heal her. For whoever does not have in his hands all the ten varieties of charities cannot enter past all the ten walls of the Watery Castle, for he would be drowned in water. So the king and his soldiers pursued after the Queen's Daughter and were all drowned in water. But I can enter past all the ten walls of the Watery Castle.

"Now, the walls of water are sea waves standing like a wall. The winds are what erect the waves of the sea and hold the waves up. And these waves, which are what the ten walls are, stand there constantly, but it is the winds that hold the waves and erect the waves. And I can enter past all the ten walls of the Watery Castle, and I can pull out from her (that is, from the Queen's Daughter) all the ten varieties of arrows.

"And I know all the ten varieties of pulsebeats through the ten fingers, for through each finger of the ten fingers one can know a particular pulsebeat from the ten varieties of pulsebeats, and I can heal the Queen's Daughter through all the ten varieties of melodies (for her healing is through melodies, as mentioned). Therefore I do, in fact, heal the Queen's Daughter. Hence I have such a power in the hands. Today I give you this very thing as a gift." There was a grand celebration there, and they were superbly happy.

[Rabbi Nachman said:] This story is very hard for me to tell, but because I've already begun telling it, now I have to finish it. [But he did not actually finish telling it.] In this story there is not one word that will be void of meaning, and whoever is adept and versed in sefarim [mystical Judaic texts] can at least understand some of the hints. And the arrows - of which that [character] boasted he could pull back arrows - this is found in the verse, "[ Im shanothi beraq charbi/ If I have twofold [unleashed] My sword [like] lightning {i.e. as lightning flashes from one end of the sky across to the other end, against My people in retribution}, wethochez bemishpat yadi/ My hand will yet have hold on [strict] justice..." [Deut. 32:41], and as Rashi explains, "Flesh and blood shoots an arrow and cannot retrieve it, but the Holy One, Blessed be He, shoots an arrow and does have the ability to retrieve it [as if He were holding them in His hand]." And the charity which safeguards against the walls of water - this is also found in a verse: "[ Lu hikshavta lemitzvothai; wayhi kanahar shelomekha/ If you would listen to My commandments then your peace would be as a river] wetzidkathekha kegalei hayam/ and your charity (righteousness) as the waves of the sea." [Isa., 48:18]. And the wind - his grasping it in is hands - this is found in, " Mi asaf-ruach bechofnaw/ Who has grasped the wind in his fists?" [Prov. 30:4] (Which is an aspect of producing melody, as explained elsewhere [ Likutei Moharan #54].) And the ten types of pulses and ten kinds of melody - this is already explained in the Zohar [and see LM II pg. 32a (#24)]. [Rabbi Nathan adds:] All this we heard explicitly. But who, when and what? (Beyond this he said nothing more, that is to say, who they all are, what this is, and when this all took place - this is unknowable.)

The conclusion of the story - that is, what happened on the Seventh Day with the footless beggar, and the conclusion of the King's son with whom the story began - he did not tell; and he said he would not tell any more, and it will not be heard until Mashiach comes - speedily in our days, Amen!

He also said, "If I did not know any other thing besides this story, I would still be wild news." He said so explicitly. For this story is very wild news. Contained here in it are very many moral lessons and much Torah, for it contains many teachings and speaks of many ancient tzaddikim; of King Dawidh, peace be upon him, for King Dawidh stood at the world's edge and cried out to the Spring that flows from the Rock that is on the Mountain, as mentioned above, as written in Tehilim [Ps. 61:3], " Miqtzeh ha'aretz eleikha eqra, be`atof libi; betzur-yarum mimeni tancheni/ From the end of the earth I will cry unto You, when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I."

(All this we heard from his mouth explicitly. And what is understood from his words is that King Dawidh, peace be upon him, is the aspect of the Heart, as has been transmitted [ Zohar Shemoth 108], and he is hinted to in the story regarding the Heart of the world, which stands at the end of the earth, facing the Spring, crying and longing for it constantly etc. But still the words are closed up; fortunate is whoever will merit attaining secrets of this story.)

The matter of King Dawidh and the aforementioned scripture, "From the ends of the earth," that is hinted to in the story, pertains to the Third Day, because there it speaks about the Heart and the Spring; look there and you will see wonders, how in each matter wonderful things are hinted. [In Yiddish: In this story are found very, very great secrets of the Torah, from beginning to end. All the stories of this book are thoroughly great secrets of the Torah; each word and each thing means something completely different - but this story is above them all.] And of the greatness of the awesomeness of this story it is not possible at all to tell, for it is above all of them. Exceedingly fortunate [ ashrei ashrei] is whoever will merit even in the Coming World to know of it just a little bit. And whoever has [a] brain in his skull, let the hairs of his flesh stand on end; let him understand a little of the greatness of the Creator, Blessed be He, and the greatness of the true Tzaddikim, when he looks well into this awesome story, the likes of which will not be heard.

The matter of the verse, "From the ends of the earth," mentioned above, pertaining to the story of the Third Day - this I heard explicitly from his holy and awesome mouth, of blessed memory. Furthermore, look at this which I found afterwards - that the majority of the words of the chapter of Tehilim where this verse is written, which is Ch. 61 - virtually all of it is explained there [in] hints of the lofty secrets of the story of the Third Day mentioned above: "You will add days onto the days of the King" etc. - for he always needs that they should add days to his days etc. as mentioned. " Chesed we'emeth, man yintzeruhu/ Summon mercy and truth, that he may preserve it" - this is the True Man of Kindness etc., " Der Groyser Man; Der Emesir Ish Chesed" - because all the time and the days are made via the Great Man, who is the True Man of Kindness as mentioned there in the story, and he gives and adds at each moment, days to the days of the king, who is the Heart, which is the concept of King Dawidh, peace be upon him, as mentioned. And this is, "that he may preserve it" - because he guards and protects, for as soon as the day comes very close to ending - and then the Spring and the Heart and the entire world would end, God forbid - then the True Man of Kindness protects and guards this, and comes and gives a day to the Heart etc. as mentioned. And this is, "So will I sing praise unto Your name forever, that I may perform my vows day by day [ yom yom]" - because each and every day which He gives him, he comes with songs and poems etc. as mentioned. "I will trust in the covert of Your wings, Selah" - for when the Heart needs to rest, a Great Bird comes and spreads Its wings over it etc., and this is, "I will trust in the covert of Your wings" etc.

Pertaining to the First Day: The matter of the elders, that each one boasted of what he could remember, where one boasted that he remembers even when they cut his umbilical cord etc. and he was the youngest elder of them all, etc. - our Rebbe of blessed memory said that in the Gemara (Yerushalmi) something similar is recorded: that Shmuel boasted that he remembers the pain of his circumcision etc.; see there.

Who can glorify or tell? Who can evaluate? Who can estimate even one minuscule of the millions or billions of hitnotzetzoth [branchings/ revelations/ illuminations], a bit of the clues of wonders of wonders from the very, very awesome and high secrets of this awesome story, which is full of secrets of secrets from beginning to end? One who is enlightened in the matter will find goodness, and hitnotzetzuth of certain clues according to his capacity.

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/13 - Wikisource, the free online library

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Nanach: directory of sites, books, articles in many languages

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Nanach: directory of sites, books, articles in many languages

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https://nanach.org/

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Na Nach Nachma Nachman Muman Information Site

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Official information site of Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman.

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VIDEO: Rabbi Nahman's Stories: The story of the king. Rabbi Nachman's story. Uman. Ukraine.

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VIDEO: Rabbi Nahman's Stories: The story of the king. Rabbi Nachman's story. Uman. Ukraine.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLTxicpsdx0

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The story of the king. Rabbi Nachman's story. Uman. Ukraine.

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Writings of R. Schmuel Horowitz (20th C) on Rabbi Nahman's light

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Writings of R. Schmuel Horowitz (20th C) on Rabbi Nahman's light

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Mikhtevei_Shmuel

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Mikhtevei Shmuel - Wikisource, the free online library

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The light of the Tzaddik Ha’emet/true tzadiq himself has been revealed to us -- it is our Rabbi [Nachman] z”l. We need to cling only to him and not seek in other places, for he is a new way, like Rashbi and the Arizal and the Baal Shem Tov in his uniqueness. And after him there shall be no more new [ways/revelations] until our righteous Mashiach.

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PDF of the stories with translation edited by Nissim Kaufmann

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PDF of the stories with translation edited by Nissim Kaufmann

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Umatzdikei harabim kakokhavim, le‘olam va‘ed
And those who turn the many to righteousness shall be like the stars forever and ever
Dan. 12:3

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https://issuu.com/tzaddikmag/docs/tale_of_trust

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A Short Story by Rebbe Nachman of Breslev

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92NY Elie Wiesel 1967 lecture on Legends of Hasidism: Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav

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92NY Elie Wiesel 1967 lecture on Legends of Hasidism: Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/12

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/12 - Wikisource, the free online library

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/2

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/2 - Wikisource, the free online library

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/Sichot

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/Sichot - Wikisource, the free online library

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These parables and anecdotes following the 13 Stories, were printed in the original 1815 printing only in Hebrew and not with a Yiddish translation below them like the 13 Stories have.

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Elijah Interfaith Institute bio of Rabbi Nahman by Biti Roi and Zvi Mark

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Elijah Interfaith Institute bio of Rabbi Nahman by Biti Roi and Zvi Mark

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https://elijah-interfaith.org/sharing-wisdom/rabbi-nachman-of-breslav

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Religious Genius Biti Roi and Zvi Mark Rabbi Nahman of Breslav (1772-1810) was born in Medzhybizh, the birthplace of Hasidism’s founder, the Baal Shem Tov. R. Nahman’s unique life was detailed by h…

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Book of

Which we have been privileged to hear from the mouth of Rabbeinu Hakadosh, the Hidden and Concealed Light, Nachal Nove`a Mekor Chokhmah/ The Gushing Stream, The Source of Wisdom, HaRav Rebbe NACHMAN ztzuk"l of Breslev, great grandson of the Ba`al Shem Tov Hakadosh and composer of the books Likutei Moharan and several other compendia.

Go out and see the might of your Master Who has illuminated heavenly Torah for us to enliven us as [sure as] it is this day, for the everlasting world; and our God has not forsaken us in our servitude but has extended kindness to us in each and every generation and has sent us deliverers and rabbis and tzadikei yesodei `olam/righteous ones, foundation of the world to teach us the way. His first [mercies] have come to pass and yet His mercies have not ceased at any period or any time. And He has performed kindness for us, drawing water from the wellsprings of salvation, ancient things, words which are the secret of the world, under wonderful and awesome clothings. See and understand and look at His wonderful and awesome way, which is an inheritance to us from our holy forefathers who were during ancient times in Yisrael.

For such is the way of the upper holy ones, harvesters of the field, who raised their hands and hearts to God, to clothe and conceal the King's treasure houses in story tales according to the generation and according to the times, knowing the understanding of times, to know what Yisrael should do, until [Mashiach] arises and delivers Tziyon and returns to build the ruins of Ariel. "Now Ya`akov and Yisrael are told what God has done."

Chinese

English

Hebrew

Hindi

Persian

Yiddish

,ספר סיפורי מעשיות Keren Hadfasah D'Chasidei Breslev, Jerusalem, 2002. A Newly typeset edition of the original 1815, including the Second Introduction from the second printing and "many corrections."

Rabbi Nachman's Stories, Translated by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Breslov Research Institute, Jerusalem, 1985. A pleasant read, containing many explanatory notes, though some liberties are taken that deviate from the originals.

Click here for a page containing this entire book on one (LARGE) page!
Translation:Tales of Rabbi Nachman/All

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman - Wikisource, the free online library

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Book of Which we have been privileged to hear from the mouth of Rabbeinu Hakadosh, the Hidden and Concealed Light, Nachal Nove`a Mekor Chokhmah/ The Gushing Stream, The Source of Wisdom, HaRav Rebbe NACHMAN ztzuk"l of Breslev, great grandson of the Ba`al Shem Tov Hakadosh and composer of the books Likutei Moharan and several other compendia.

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Article on The Fly and the Spider or The King Who Fought Many Wars by Anna Morvern

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Article on The Fly and the Spider or The King Who Fought Many Wars by Anna Morvern

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https://tsavtaquest.wordpress.com/on-the-fly-and-the-spider-or-the-king-who-fought-many-wars-by-rabbi-nahman-of-uman/

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Online discussion of editions of Sippurei Maasiyot

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Online discussion of editions of Sippurei Maasiyot

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https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/130914/is-there-a-sipurey-maasiyos-with-very-good-explanations

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Is there a Sipurey Maasiyos with very good explanations

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Is there a good version of Sipurey Maasiyos by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov with excellent commentary, in English or in Hebrew?

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The 7 pillars of faith. The soul of Mashiach preceded the world...

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The 7 pillars of faith. The soul of Mashiach preceded the world...

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:The_Seven_Pillars_of_Faith

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The Seven Pillars of Faith - Wikisource, the free online library

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BRESLEV.FR Video site: Les contes de Rabbi Nahman

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BRESLEV.FR Video site: Les contes de Rabbi Nahman

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https://breslev.fr/les-contes-de-rabbi-nahman/

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Chayei Moharan No.123 (Wikisource). Rabbi Nathan.  Spiritual struggle.

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Chayei Moharan No.123 (Wikisource). Rabbi Nathan.  Spiritual struggle.

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Chayey_Moharan#123

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Chayey Moharan - Wikisource, the free online library

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Notes of “the Copyist” are those of the Tcheriner Rav, R’ Nachman Goldstein z”l. Notes that are enclosed in <pointed brackets> indicate text that was not included in earlier, censored versions; see Chayey Moharan background.

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Chaya Rivka Zwolinski's site, BreslovWomen: What do we want? To feel less pain and more optimism. To be happy and lead meaningful lives.

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Chaya Rivka Zwolinski's site, BreslovWomen: What do we want? To feel less pain and more optimism. To be happy and lead meaningful lives.

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“What do we want? To feel less pain and more optimism. To be happy and lead meaningful lives.” BreslovWoman was founded by Chaya Rivka Zwolinski, the leading teacher of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov’s wisdom for women in North America. She brings compassion and a deep understanding of psychospiritual trauma, transition and growth to her coaching, […]

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Likutei_Moharan

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Likutei Moharan - Wikisource, the free online library

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/8

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/8 - Wikisource, the free online library

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A tale. There was once a rabbi who had no children. Later, he had an only son and he raised him and made him a wedding. The son would sit in an attic room and learn [i.e. study Torah], as is the way with the wealthy. He would study and pray constantly, except that he felt in himself a lacking [due to] some deficiency, but he did not know what, and he had no taste [satisfaction] in his learning and praying. He told this to two young people and they advised he should travel to a certain tzaddik [saintly Jew]. Now, this son had done a [certain] “mitzvah” [commandment or good deed] through which he had reached the aspect of the Smaller Luminary. The only son went and told his father inasmuch as he feels no taste in his service [meaning in what he serves God, namely praying, learning and other mitzvot] inasmuch that something is missing for him but he doesn’t know what — therefore he wants to travel to this tzaddik about whom they had told him, as above. His father answered him, “How do you come [to decide he’s worthy for you] to travel to him? You are, after all, more scholarly and more pedigreed than he. It doesn’t suit you to travel to him. Desist from this way!” Until the father thus dissuaded him from traveling to the tzaddik.

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My Jewish Learning: Praying in the fields and hitbodedut

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My Jewish Learning: Praying in the fields and hitbodedut

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https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/praying-in-the-fields-hot-topic/

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Praying in the Fields | My Jewish Learning

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Book review of Moshe Nahmani, Shnei ha-Me’orot [The Two Luminaries]: Rabbi Nahman of Breslov / Rav Avraham Yitzhak Hakohen Kook (2019) by Rabbi Bezalel Naor

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Book review of Moshe Nahmani, Shnei ha-Me’orot [The Two Luminaries]: Rabbi Nahman of Breslov / Rav Avraham Yitzhak Hakohen Kook (2019) by Rabbi Bezalel Naor

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https://orot.com/book-review-shnei-ha-meorot/

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BOOK REVIEW Moshe Nahmani, Shnei ha-Me’orot [The Two Luminaries]: Rabbi Nahman of Breslov / Rav Avraham Yitzhak Hakohen Kook (2019) Moshe Nahmani has distinguished himself as a foremost independent researcher of the annals of Rav Kook. Like Rav Kook, he has an affinity for Beshtian Hasidism (something which alienates him from some disciples of Rav […]

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Chayei Moharan No.60-80 (Wikisource). Rabbi Nathan.  Comment on the tales.

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Chayei Moharan No.60-80 (Wikisource). Rabbi Nathan.  Comment on the tales.

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Chayey_Moharan#60

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Chayey Moharan - Wikisource, the free online library

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Notes of “the Copyist” are those of the Tcheriner Rav, R’ Nachman Goldstein z”l. Notes that are enclosed in <pointed brackets> indicate text that was not included in earlier, censored versions; see Chayey Moharan background.

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Article by Rabbi Nasan Maimon at Breslev.co.il on the story of faith

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Article by Rabbi Nasan Maimon at Breslev.co.il on the story of faith

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https://breslev.com/322036/

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Rebbe Nachman’s Stories: Faith – Breslev

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Long ago, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov had recognized Simcha as the key to success in religion and coming truly close to Hashem. In stressing the importance of Simcha he went so far as saying that depression – the antithesis of Simcha – constitutes “the main bite of the serpent (the Yetzer Harah)”. How far should a person struggle to remain steadfast and avoid depression? The lesson is best illustrated by the following story Rabbi Nachman told to his disciples:

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A HIDDEN STORY OF R. NAHMAN OF BRATSLAV about book on the Tale of the Bread by Zvi Mark (scroll down)

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A HIDDEN STORY OF R. NAHMAN OF BRATSLAV about book on the Tale of the Bread by Zvi Mark (scroll down)

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https://sgp.fas.org/news/secrecy/2004/10/101804.html

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SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2004, Issue No. 91
October 18, 2004

INTELLIGENCE SUPPORT TO MILITARY OPERATIONS

TRACKING THE DRAGON: NIE'S ON CHINA, 1948-1976

A HIDDEN STORY OF R. NAHMAN OF BRATSLAV

INTELLIGENCE SUPPORT TO MILITARY OPERATIONS The role of intelligence in supporting military operations is elucidated in a newly revised Pentagon doctrinal publication. Detailed without being overwhelming, the document provides a snapshot of how U.S. intelligence functions today to support the military. "This publication establishes doctrinal guidance on the provision of joint and national intelligence products, services, and support to military operations," the Preface states. "It describes the organization of joint intelligence forces and the national Intelligence Community, intelligence responsibilities, command relationships, and national intelligence support mechanisms. It provides information regarding the fundamentals of intelligence operations and the intelligence process, discusses how intelligence supports joint and multinational planning, and describes intelligence dissemination via the global information grid." See Joint Publication 2-01, "Joint and National Intelligence Support to Military Operations," approved October 7, 2004 (297 pages, 1.8 MB PDF file):
TRACKING THE DRAGON: NIE'S ON CHINA, 1948-1976
The National Intelligence Council at the CIA has published a new collection of recently declassified National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) on China, dating from 1948 to 1976. Since it is the nature of estimates to anticipate events on the basis of incomplete information rather than to record what has already been learned, the new collection arguably reveals more about the history of U.S. intelligence than about the history of China. A compact disk containing 71 NIEs on China will be available for purchase from the Government Printing Office bookstore. But 37 of those NIEs may be downloaded directly from here: An introductory essay by Robert L. Suettinger places the NIEs in their historical context. In a minor irony, the essay cites an unclassified Director of Central Intelligence Directive (DCID) that is posted on the FAS web site. The irony is that CIA, whose information policy is pretty well broken, now refuses to release all such Directives under the Freedom of Information Act, arguing that to do so would infringe upon the protection of intelligence sources and methods.
A HIDDEN STORY OF R. NAHMAN OF BRATSLAV
The lost or suppressed manuscript that surfaces at an auspicious moment to reveal shocking truths is a hoary motif of romantic fiction. Every once in a while, this kind of fantasy also comes true, more or less. "For almost two hundred years, Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav's 'Tale of the Bread' was hidden and guarded," writes Zvi Mark in a recent edition of the Israeli journal Tarbiz. "Until recently the story was extant only in manuscript and was never printed." Now it has been. Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (1772-1810) was the leader of a Hassidic Jewish sect, a theologically idiosyncratic and original figure, and an antirationalist. Among other things, he was known for his stories, in which seemingly conventional folk tales were employed to communicate truths of the spirit and Jewish teachings of redemption. Rabbi Nahman's stories first came to widespread attention in Martin Buber's 1906 rendering, "Die Geschichten des Rabbi Nachman," which is said to have influenced Franz Kafka. Recent English editions include "Beggars and Prayers" by Adin Steinsaltz and "Nahman of Bratslav: The Tales" by Arnold Band. Arthur Green's "Tormented Master" is a probing critical biography. Unlike the other thirteen canonical tales of Rabbi Nachman, The Tale of the Bread "was kept secret as esoteric lore," according to an English abstract of the new publication. "This article presents the text of the tale and its variants on the basis of manuscripts and printed versions. It also explicates the biographical and ideational background of the tale and analyzes its literary components. The reasons for the secrecy surrounding the tale become apparent in the course of this analysis," the abstract coyly states. "'The Tale of the Bread': A Hidden Story of R. Nahman of Bratslav" by Zvi Mark was published in Hebrew in Tarbiz, volume LXXII, no. 3, July 2004, which may be available at university libraries and can be ordered from Magnes Press at Hebrew University in Jerusalem ( http://magnespress.huji.ac.il). ******************************
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.

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an email newsletter on secrecy and security policy

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The King's Son Who Was Made Of Gemstones (Wikisource)

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The King's Son Who Was Made Of Gemstones (Wikisource)

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/5

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/5 - Wikisource, the free online library

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There was once a king who had no children. He went and got involved with doctors so that his kingdom should not be turned over to strangers, but they did not help him. So he decreed on the Jews to pray for him to have children. The Jews sought a tzaddik to pray and cause it happen that the king should have children.[1]
They sought and found a hidden tzaddik, and they told him to pray for the king to have children.

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Sichot Haran by Nathan of Breslov (Wikisource). Conversations of Rabbi Nahman. Comment from Rabbi Nahman's contemporary and closest follower.

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Sichot Haran by Nathan of Breslov (Wikisource). Conversations of Rabbi Nahman. Comment from Rabbi Nahman's contemporary and closest follower.

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Sichot_Haran

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Sichot Haran - Wikisource, the free online library

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“Ki ani yada`ti, ki-gadol Hashem, ve’adoneinu mikol-Elohim/For only I know that Hashem is great, and our Lord [greater] than all gods” (Ps. 135:2). King David, alav hashalom, said: “Ki ani yada`ti/Only I know” — “ani yada`ti / I [i.e. specifically I] know,” for the greatness of the Blessed Creator is impossible to tell to someone else, and even to oneself it is impossible to tell from day to day, according to what dawns on him and sparkles [mitnotzetz: an illumination from the Ohr haChayim/Light of Life] for him on that day. He cannot tell himself on another day the shining and the sparkling [hitnotzetzut] of the greatness of the Blessed One that he had yesterday. And therefore he said: “Ki ani yada`ti” — “ani yada`ti,” for it impossible to tell at all. And he said that what is written after that, “Kol asher-chafetz Hashem, `asah; bashamayim uva’aretz/Whatsoever Hashem pleased, he has done; in heaven and on earth” etc., is a completely different matter and completely distant from the praise, “Ki ani yada`ti,” for his intention in these words, “Ki ani yada`ti” is impossible to tell at all, and it is very, very high, high beyond high, impossible for the mouth to tell; only “I knew” specifically, as mentioned, and as written in the Zohar (Vol. 1, page 103): “Nod`a basha`arim ba`alah/Her husband is known at the gates (Prov. 31:23)” — each person according to what he fits in his heart, as explained in a different place [LM #73,#63].

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Brief bibliography on Rabbi Nahman for a course, 'Introduction to Hasidism', see Chapter 10

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Brief bibliography on Rabbi Nahman for a course, 'Introduction to Hasidism', see Chapter 10

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https://www.youngjudaea.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/JST-335-Hasidism-syllabus.pdf

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Article at My Jewish Learning on how to talk to God (hitbodedut)

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Article at My Jewish Learning on how to talk to God (hitbodedut)

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https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/how-to-talk-to-god/

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“Pour out your heart like water before God…” – Lamentations 2:19When I was younger, I used to go out to…

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breslov

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Gravesite of Nachman of Breslov in Uman, Ukraine

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Audio recording of Anna Morvern's June 2024 classes on the stories of Rabbi Nahman.

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Audio recording of Anna Morvern's June 2024 classes on the stories of Rabbi Nahman.

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https://youtu.be/o-1p0D_ZBuo?feature=shared

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"Wise Stories". Audio recording of Anna Morvern's June 2024 classes on the stories of Rabbi Nahman.

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Na Nah Nahma Nahman Meouman Wikipedia en français

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Na Nah Nahma Nahman Meouman Wikipedia en français

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https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na_Nah_Nahma_Nahman_Meouman

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Un article de Wikipédia, l’encyclopédie libre.

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Chayei Moharan No.151-166 (Wikisource). Rabbi Nathan.  Rabbi Nahman's travels.

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Chayei Moharan No.151-166 (Wikisource). Rabbi Nathan.  Rabbi Nahman's travels.

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Chayey_Moharan#151

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Chayey Moharan - Wikisource, the free online library

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Notes of “the Copyist” are those of the Tcheriner Rav, R’ Nachman Goldstein z”l. Notes that are enclosed in <pointed brackets> indicate text that was not included in earlier, censored versions; see Chayey Moharan background.

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/3

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/3 - Wikisource, the free online library

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Likutei Etzot, collected advice (Wikisource)

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Likutei Etzot, collected advice (Wikisource)

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Likutei_Etzot

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Likutei Etzot - Wikisource, the free online library

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Lehrhaus article by Yehuda Fogel, The Tragic Heroes of Bratslav: R. Nathan Bratslaver on Dispute and Multiple Truths

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Lehrhaus article by Yehuda Fogel, The Tragic Heroes of Bratslav: R. Nathan Bratslaver on Dispute and Multiple Truths

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https://thelehrhaus.com/jewish-thought-history/the-tragic-heroes-of-bratslav-r-nathan-bratslaver-on-dispute-and-multiple-truths/

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The Tragic Heroes of Bratslav: R. Nathan Bratslaver on Dispute and Multiple Truths | The Lehrhaus

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Lehrhaus editor Yehuda Fogel asks: What does R. Nosson Bratslaver’s understanding of controversy have to do with Hegel?

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Shop: Breslov.org 'Rabbi Nahman's Stories' book

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Shop: Breslov.org 'Rabbi Nahman's Stories' book

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https://books.breslov.org/product/rebbe-nachmans-stories/?currency=USD&mc_cid=541a519b76&mc_eid=8411bc159b

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Rebbe Nachman’s Stories - books.breslov.org

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Translated and annotated by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan Our Sages told stories to convey the deepest secrets about God and His relationship to the world. Rebbe Nachman expertly plied this ancient art to create some of the most intriguing stories and parables ever told. More elaborate than any previous teachings, the Rebbe’s allegorical stories are fast-moving, richly-structured and deeply insightful, while containing all the ingredients of a marvelously entertaining read. Rabbi Kaplan’s running commentary, drawn from the writings of Rebbe Nachman’s students, gives English-speaking readers access to authentic interpretations of these stories for the first time. Hardcover. 552 pages. Bibliography and Index. Size: 6″ x 9″

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VIDEO. Rabbi Nahman's stories. The Diamond Story.

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VIDEO. Rabbi Nahman's stories. The Diamond Story.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o29Ug7OzSa8

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Book: Nahman of Bratslav. The Tales. Classics of Western Spirituality.

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Book: Nahman of Bratslav. The Tales. Classics of Western Spirituality.

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/7

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He [Rebbe Nachman] announced, "I'll tell you my entire trip that I had."

A tale. There was once a king who had a number of hard wars up against him, and he conquered them and took many captives. (In the midst of his words as he began telling this story he interjected and said, "You might think [mistakenly] that I will tell you everything and that you will be able to understand.") The king made a big banquet (a ball) every year on the day when he vanquished the war. There at the ball would be all the royal ministers and all the gentlewomen, as the usual way of kings goes, and comedy shows would be made and they would make fun of all the nations: of the Turk (Heb. Ishmaelites) and of all the nations. And they would imitate every nation in the way that their manner and conduct is, and they probably made fun of Jews as well.

The king ordered to bring the book in which the mannerisms and customs of every nation are recorded. And whenever the king would open up the book, he would see [Heb. only: that written in it were the practices and mannerisms of the nation] exactly as they performed the parody of them, because probably the one who performed the comedy also saw the book. While the king was poring over the book, he saw a spider crawling on the edge of the book's pages, and on the pages stood a fly. Presumably, where does a spider go? - toward a fly. Meanwhile as the spider was crawling and going toward the fly, a wind came along and lifted that page from the book; the spider could no longer go to the fly. It turned around and crawled exactly as if it were turning around and no longer wants to go to the fly. Meanwhile, the page fell back in its place and again the spider wanted to go toward the fly. Again the page lifted and did not permit it; again the spider turned back. Thus it happened several times. Afterwards again the spider went towards the fly and was crawling along until it had already gotten itself up with one foot on the page. Again the page lifted up - and the spider was already somewhat on the page - then the page lay down completely, until the spider was left between one page and another; and it was crawling around there, but kept getting left deeper and deeper until nothing whatsoever was left of it. (And the fly - I will not tell you what happened to it.)

And the king had been watching all this and was very astonished; he understood that this is no empty thing but rather he is being shown something through it (and all the ministers saw that the king is gazing and wondering at it). And the king began thinking: what does this signify? And he dozed off over the book. The king dreamed that he was holding a diamond in his hand and looking at it. An exaggerated number of people were emerging from it and he threw the diamond down out of his hand. And the usual way by kings is that over them hangs their portrait and on top of the portrait hangs the crown. He saw in the dream how the people who had emerged from the diamond took the portrait and cut off its head, then they took the crown and threw it into the mud, and they ran towards him to kill him. A page from the book upon which he was lying lifted itself and shielded him and they were unable to do anything to him so they went away, then the page returned to its place. Then again they wanted to kill him and again the page lifted itself as before. Thus it happened several times. The king very much wanted to see what sort of page is shielding him (that is, protecting him); what mannerisms are written on it; from which nation it is. But he was afraid to look and he began to scream, "Woe! Woe!" All the ministers who were sitting there heard and they wanted to wake him up; however, this is no sort of protocol, to wake up a king. They rapped around him in order to wake him, but he did not hear.

Meanwhile, a tall mountain came to him and asked him, "Why are you screaming so? It is such a long time already that I sleep and nobody at all has woken me up - and you have woken me up!" He said to him, "How shall I not scream, when they are rising up over me and want to kill me, except that this page is shielding me?!" The mountain answered him, "If this page is shielding you then you need have no fear of anything whatsoever, for many enemies rise against me as well, but this same page shields me. Come, I will show you." It showed him how around the mountain stand thousands and myriads of enemies and they make feasts and rejoice, playing musical instruments and dancing. And the joyful occasion is that some group from them, one of them thinks and arrives at some wisdom how to go up on the mountain, hence they make a big celebration and a feast with music and dancing, and thus with each group (that is, faction) from among them - "except that this page of these mannerisms that shields you shields me."

And on the mountain's peak is a tablet, and on it were written the mannerisms of the page that shields him; from which nations it is. But since the mountain is high, one cannot read the writing. However at the bottom was a tablet; there it was written that whoever has all [his] teeth - he can go up on the mountain. Hashem Yithbarakh provided that there grows such a grass there where one needs to go up on the mountain, that whoever comes there, all his teeth fall out; whether he was going by foot, riding, or driving a carriage by animals, always his teeth would fall out. Lying there were piles white with teeth, like mountains.

Later the people from the diamond took the portrait and put it back together as previously, and they took the crown and washed it up, and they hung them back in their place. And the king woke up and immediately looked at the page that had shielded him - which mannerism of which nation is it? He saw that written on it is the mannerisms of Jews [Heb. Yisrael]. He began to look at the page honestly and he understood the right truth, and he came to a decision that he himself would definitely be a Jew [Heb. Yisrael]; however, what does one do to return the entire world back to the best state [ machzir lemutav], to bring them all to the truth? He came to the decision that he would journey in search of a sage who would solve the dream according to its essence (that is, he should interpret the dream exactly as it is). And he took two men with him and traveled around the world, not as a king but as a simple person, and he traveled from one city to the next and he asked: where does one find such a sage who can solve his dream according to its essence? They informed him that there-and-there is found such a sage. He went there and came to the sage and told him the truth: that he is a king and he had vanquished wars, and the entire story that happened, as mentioned, and he asked him to solve his dream. The sage answered him, "I myself cannot interpret; however, there is a time on this day and in this month - then, I gather together all the spices of the Incense (that is, all the herbs from which they would make the Incense) and I make from them a compound (in other words, he mixes them all up together) and the person is smoked with the incense and this person thinks in himself what he wants to see and know, and then he knows everything."

The king resolved: since he has already in fact spent so much time on it he would wait longer until that day and that month (which the sage had told him). The day came and the sage did for him so, as described above, and smoked him with the incense. The king began to see even things that had happened to him before he was yet born, when the soul was still in the upper world (in other words, on the other world); how they led his soul through all the worlds and they announced, "Whoever has something to say for the prosecution (that is, to speak evil) against this soul, let him come." There was no one who found fault. Meanwhile someone did come and was running and shouting, "Master of the World! Hear my prayer! If this one should come upon the earth, what then have I to do any longer, and for what have You created me? And this was the Samekh-Mem (in other words, the one who was shouting was the S.M. himself; he was yelling: if this soul should go down on the earth he will no longer have anything to do). He was answered, "This soul must go down on the earth, and you - give yourself advice." He went away (that is, the one who was yelling).

They led the soul further through worlds [`olamoth, pl. of `olam, a term for "world" whose root also denotes concealment; hence, the world as a clothing and concealment of the Blessed Unity] (in other words, worlds) in order to swear it in already, in order that it should go down on the earth. And he had not yet arrived (that is, the S.M., who was yelling earlier, had not come yet), so they sent an emissary after him. He came and brought with him a little oldster, a hunched-over one, with whom he was long familiar (that is, the Accuser had been acquainted with this old one from long ago), and he laughed and said, "I have already given myself an advice; this soul can now go down on the earth." They released the soul and it went down on the earth. And he (that is, the king) saw everything that happened to him from beginning to end, how he became king, the wars he had, etc.

And he took captives, and among the captives was a beautiful woman who had every kind of charm in the world. However, this charm was not from herself; rather, she would hang a diamond upon herself and the diamond had all kinds of charm, and on account of that it seemed she had all kinds of charm. And upon that mountain can no others ascend except the wise, the rich, etc. (And more than this he did not tell.)

And there is a great deal more in this. (From "And he took captives" until the end - was not written properly as he told it.)

[Notes Following the Story]

Mizmor leDawidh bevorcho/ A psalm of Dawidh when he fled... Hashem, mah-rabú tsarai, rabim kamim `alai/ Hashem, how many are mine adversaries become; many are they that rise up against me...

We'atah Hashem magen ba`adi, kevodi umerim roshi/ But you, Hashem, are a shield about me: my glory and the lifter up of my head...

Qoli el-Hashem eqra weya`aneni mehar qodsho selah/ With my voice I call out unto Hashem, and He answers me from His holy mountain, Selah - the mountain mentioned above.

Ani shakhavti wa'ishanah/ I lay down and I sleep - as mentioned above.

Haqitzothi/ I awake...

Lo-ira merivevoth `am/ I will not fear a multitude of people...

Ki-hikitha eth-kol-oyvai léchi; shinnei resha`im shibbarta/ for you have smitten all my enemies on the cheek; You have broken the teeth of the wicked - for their teeth would fall out when they wanted to go up on the mountain.

`Al-amekhá virkhathékha selah/ May Your blessing be on Your people, Selah. [Psalms 3]

Stand and contemplate these wonders! If you are a living being [ ba`al nefesh], take your flesh up in your teeth and place your life [ nefesh] in your palm; stand trembling and amazed. Let the hairs of your head stand on edge, and return again and wonder at these words which stand in the highest of heights.

1. The big trip to Navritch, Zaslav, Ostoh, Dubna and Brod. See Chayei Moharan #160, 157, 68.

2. "Shinei resha`im shibbarta/You have broken the teeth of the wicked" (Ps. 3:8); Berakhot 54b

3. do not pronounce the name: Samael, the accusing angel and the angelic prince of Esav

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/7 - Wikisource, the free online library

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He [Rebbe Nachman] announced, “I’ll tell you my entire trip that I had.”[1]

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My Jewish Learning: Who was Rav Nahman of Breslov?

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My Jewish Learning: Who was Rav Nahman of Breslov?

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https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/nahman-of-bratslav/

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Who Was Rav Nachman of Breslov? | My Jewish Learning

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Nahman of Bratslav. Hasidic Mysticism. Kabbalah and Hasidism. Kabbalah and Mysticism. Jewish Spirituality and the Divine World. Jewish Ideas and Beliefs.

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Chaim Kramer from Breslov Research Institute on Imagination

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Chaim Kramer from Breslov Research Institute on Imagination

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https://breslov.org/imagination/

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Our thoughts are our closest companions. The better part of any day we spend inside…

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BOOK: Souls on Fire, Portraits and Legends of Hasidic Masters by Elie Wiesel

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BOOK: Souls on Fire, Portraits and Legends of Hasidic Masters by Elie Wiesel

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Souls on fire; portraits and legends of Hasidic masters : Wiesel, Elie, 1928- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

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The Scroll of Secrets. Book by Zvi Mark on the hidden messianic vision of R. Nahman

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The Scroll of Secrets. Book by Zvi Mark on the hidden messianic vision of R. Nahman

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https://www.betemunah.org/The%20Scroll%20of%20Secrets_%20The%20Hidden%20Messianic%20Vision%20of%20R.%20Nachman%20of%20Breslav.pdf

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Chayei Moharan No.25 (Wikisource). Rabbi Nathan.  Storytelling and its spiritual impact.

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Chayei Moharan No.25 (Wikisource). Rabbi Nathan.  Storytelling and its spiritual impact.

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Chayey_Moharan#25

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Chayey Moharan - Wikisource, the free online library

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Notes of “the Copyist” are those of the Tcheriner Rav, R’ Nachman Goldstein z”l. Notes that are enclosed in <pointed brackets> indicate text that was not included in earlier, censored versions; see Chayey Moharan background.

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Article on ‘A Story of Trust’ or ‘Trust’ by Anna Morvern

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Article on ‘A Story of Trust’ or ‘Trust’ by Anna Morvern

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https://tsavtaquest.wordpress.com/on-a-story-of-trust-or-trust/

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https://www.sefaria.org/Sippurei_Maasiyot?tab=contents

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Allegoric tales recounted by R’ Nachman of Breslov and recorded by his disciple, R’ Natan. Read the text of Sippurei Maasiyot online with commentaries and connections.

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Kitzur Likutei Moharan: abridged Likutei Moharan (Wikisource)

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Kitzur Likutei Moharan: abridged Likutei Moharan (Wikisource)

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Kitzur_Likutey_Moharan

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Kitzur Likutey Moharan - Wikisource, the free online library

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Svara 2020 article on worry, despair and Rabbi Nahman's guidance

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Svara 2020 article on worry, despair and Rabbi Nahman's guidance

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https://svara.org/hot-off-the-shtender-dont-worry-or-go-ahead-and-worry-but-still-be-happy-a-talmudic-prescription-for-turbulent-times/

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Audio: 'Ashreinu Rabbeinu' Orah Simcha's Spotify podcast 

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Audio: 'Ashreinu Rabbeinu' Orah Simcha's Spotify podcast 

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https://open.spotify.com/show/1DE51265V8BRbD4m778a21

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Podcast · Orah Simcha · Join us on a journey of inner transformation and spiritual growth with Ashreinu Rabbeinu-an exploration of Chayei Moharan, the life of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. This podcast is a sanctuary for all seekers, offering uplifting and practical wisdom designed to deepen your connection to the Divine and bring joy to your life by following in our teacher's footsteps!

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/6

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/6 - Wikisource, the free online library

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A tale. There was once a king who had a wise man. The king spoke up to the wise man, “Inasmuch as there is a king whose signature declares that he is a great man of might, and a man of truth, and humble (in other words, a truthful person who does not focus on himself [lit. “hold of himself”]): mighty — I know that he is a great man of might, for the sea flows around his country, and on the sea is stationed a navy on warships with cannons and they do not allow anyone to approach, and inwards from the sea there is a great swamp (a place where one drowns) surrounding the country, through which there is only one narrow path wide enough for only one person to pass; there too cannons are positioned, so that if someone comes to attack, the cannons are fired, so it is impossible to set foot there.

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Na Nach Nation Blog: inspiration, quotes, Uman

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Na Nach Nation Blog: inspiration, quotes, Uman

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https://nanachnation.org/blog/

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I love to behold it. From my balcony I watch as all of my neighbors begin to make their uncharacteristically high number of trips to the dumpster daily. Men, women and children are seen in the streets, arms overflowing with stuff to throw away, and schlepping huge bags of clothes to the donation bins.

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Both Jewish in their thematization of exile and universal in their focus on alienation, the stories are long. And like any good Jewish story, one often wonders halfway through what this is all about.

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101 Great Jewish Books: Sipurei Masiyos, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1816)

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This collection of stories told by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov was first printed in 1816 by Rebbe Nachman’s follower Reb Nosson Sternharz. A cross between rabbinic midrash and Kafka-esque parable, Rebbe Nachman (or Reb Nosson) makes liberal use of heroes’ journeys and elements of romance, with the stories designed to inspire a cosmic kind of …

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/14

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/14 - Wikisource, the free online library

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A king once went out hunting. He dressed in regular clothes so that he would feel more comfortable. Suddenly, heavy rain began to fall - literally a flood of rain. All of the ministers scattered for shelter, leaving the king in great danger. He searched until he found a little house in which dwelt a simple villager. The villager took the king in, gave him fresh clothes, and shared his food with him – groats and the like. He heated the oven and let the king sleep on some straw. It was surprisingly pleasant and sweet for the king. He had never experienced such sweetness, since he had been so tired and exhausted.

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Likutei Tefillot, collected prayers (Wikisource)

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Likutei Tefillot, collected prayers (Wikisource)

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Likutey_Tefillot

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Likutey Tefillot - Wikisource, the free online library

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Notre Rav Rav Avraham Ifrah Rav Avraham Ifrah est originaire du Maroc de Rabat. Dans les années 1970 alors que ses parents ont émigrés en Israël, lui choisit la France. Il est étudiant à la faculté de Lettres de Toulouse, lorsque mordu de musique, il joue de la guitare et de l’harmonica le soir, dans […]

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Sefer HaMidot, the Aleph-Bet book (Wikisource)

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Sefer HaMidot, the Aleph-Bet book (Wikisource)

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Sefer_Hamidot

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Sefer Hamidot - Wikisource, the free online library

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Racheli Reckles on emuna and adrenal fatigue at Breslov.co.il

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Racheli Reckles on emuna and adrenal fatigue at Breslov.co.il

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https://breslev.com/427028/

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Breslov.org: the difference between heartbreak and depression

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Breslov.org: the difference between heartbreak and depression

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https://breslov.org/the-difference-between-heartbreak-and-depression/?print=print

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The Difference between Heartbreak and Depression

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"The sacrifice to G-d is a broken spirit; G-d will not despise a broken, shattered heart." (Psalms 51:19) "After heartbreak comes Joy." (Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom p. 150) Rebbe Nachman begins his story of "The Master of Prayer" (Rabbi Nachman's Stries pp.278-353) describing how the hero of the story, the Prayer Leader, lived far from civilization/ but would visit inhabite areas on a regular basis.

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The Letter From Heaven. HaPetek HaKodosh (Wikisource)

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The Letter From Heaven. HaPetek HaKodosh (Wikisource)

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:The_Letter_from_Heaven

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The Letter from Heaven - Wikisource, the free online library

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מאד היה קשה לי לרדת אליך It was so hard for me to come down to you, תלמידי היקר להגיד לך כי נהנתי
my dear student, to tell you, I enjoyed so much מאד מעבודתך ועליך אמרתי from your hard devotion. Regarding you I said מיין פייעריל וועט טליען ביז “My fire will be blazing[1] until משיח וועט קומען חזק ואמץ
Messiah comes.” Just be strong and courageous בעבודתך
in your religiousity, נַ נַחְ נַחְמָ נַחְמָן מאומן Na Nach Nachma Nachman Me’Uman ובזה אגלה לך סוד והוא And here I reveal to you the secret of it is this:
מלא וגדיש מקו לקו (פצפציה)
Stacks and heaps [of books](seven dots underneath)[2] from precious line to precious line[3]. (Pei, Tzaddi, Pei, Tzaddi, Yud, Hei)[4] ובחזוק עבודה תבינהו וסמן
By being very religious you will understand it. And the sign is -- יז בתמוז יאמרו שאינך מתענה The 17th of Tammuz they’ll say you’re not fasting.

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Shop: 9 1/2 Mystics by Herbert Weiner (book)

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Shop: 9 1/2 Mystics by Herbert Weiner (book)

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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4779776

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A thoughtful and entertaining search for contemporary i…

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Naanaach blog: Stories and Parables of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov - Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman 

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Naanaach blog: Stories and Parables of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov - Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman 

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https://naanaach.blogspot.com/p/stories-and-parables-of-rabbi-nachman.html

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Stories and Parables of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov - Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman

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HH Wondrous Stories (and parables) – from the holy book Stars of Light (Koachvey Ohr) (free download link at end of the page) Mazal…

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Likutei Halakhot, collected laws (Wikisource)

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Likutei Halakhot, collected laws (Wikisource)

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Likutei_Halakhot

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Likutei Halakhot - Wikisource, the free online library

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The Tzaddik Center: The Rabbi's Only Son.

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The Tzaddik Center: The Rabbi's Only Son.

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https://tzaddikcenter.com/2016/09/13/story-8-the-rabbis-only-son/

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Story 8 : The Rabbi’s Only Son • The Tzaddik Center

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Living Judaism from the Holy City of Tsfat

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Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum on pilgrimage to Uman and the teachings of Rabbi Nachman

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Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum on pilgrimage to Uman and the teachings of Rabbi Nachman

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https://jewishaction.com/jewish-world/people/powerful-teachings-reb-nachman/

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By Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum The Story Behind "Na-Nachman"
The great allure of Reb Nachman combined with his physical absence makes it inevitable that a variety of fringe elements should be trying to project their own ideas onto Breslov. Among the most conspicuous are followers of the late Reb Yisroel Ber Odesser, a Breslover Chassid who lived to be over 100 and who advocated the invocation of Reb Nachman's name as a kind of mantra (" Na Nach Nachma Nachman miUman"). Writing out holy names in this manner ( achorayim) has impeccable roots in Kabbalah, but traditional Breslov literature lacks explicit reference to use of the Rebbe's name in this way. Nevertheless the so-called "Na Nach" camp's frenetic poster and graffiti campaign in Israel and elsewhere has certainly had the effect of making Reb Nachman a household name in many parts of the Jewish world.

In the Soviet Union of twenty years ago, praying at Rebbe Nachman's grave carried the risk of landing you in jail. This just added further irony to my first visit there in 1979, a Cambridge-educated, former atheist-libertine, baal teshuvah looking for the spiritual world of my forefathers.

Was that me with the bushy new beard in the Moscow airport, pleading with a fat customs' officer not to confiscate half my kosher food for our week's foray behind the Iron Curtain? My traveling companion and I had secret plans to take a ride from Kiev through the Ukrainian hinterland to the drab town of Uman, where lay the gravesite of the legendary Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810) in a totally undistinguished private backyard.

This Chassidic luminary, great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, known in his lifetime as a masterful story-teller and source of inspiration, wisdom and comfort, promised before his death that if even the worst sinner would come to his grave and there recite 10 Psalms and give a penny to charity, he would span the length and breadth of the universe to save him from Hell. Reb Nachman's unique promise seemed to justify the risks.

The next time I went to Uman was in broad daylight nine years later. By then the Soviet Union was breaking down. I was with a group of 200 Chassidim going to celebrate the first officially-tolerated public Breslover Rosh Hashanah gathering since the days of Stalin. It was held on the very site where the Nazis had rounded up Uman's 20,000 Jews for deportation. Another irony.

A thousand people came for Rosh Hashanah of 1989. Each year the numbers increased until in 1998 there were nearly 10,000. They flew in from as far away as Argentina and South Africa as well as Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Williamsburg, Borough Park, Flatbush, Monsey, Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal. They included rabbis and Torah scholars, accountants, lawyers, doctors, university professors, scientists and technicians; Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Yemenites, black-hatted Chassidim, and wearers of knitted kippot.

What is the secret of the magnetic pull over exponentially-growing numbers of Jews by a Chassidic Master who passed from this world 190 years ago, leaving behind little more than a few followers and an assorted legacy of stories, parables and Torah teachings?

Today, it is primarily through his teachings that we can have any connection with Reb Nachman. For me personally, the key to the power of those teachings that thoroughly transformed my life and world view lies in their enabling me to connect with my own long-lost heart, and to discover the heart in Judaism. To enable someone as jaded and over-intellectual as I once was to experience joy in prayer and song and feel a genuine sense of personal connection with God is no mean achievement. In the recesses of our hearts may lurk the strangest thoughts and nagging doubts, darkness, depression and despair. Reb Nachman knew all this. With unfaltering grace this master psychologist - a true doctor of the soul - shows each one the way out of his or her sufferings to find comfort and consolation.

Many of Reb Nachman's unapologetic pronouncements used to bother me greatly when I first read them, yet I could not get them out of my mind. One example: The only time a person can think clearly is when he is dead. When he is lying on the ground with his feet to the door he will finally see the truth. Lying there dead he will realize that he wasted his days in vain. He will know that his most overwhelming desires were mere foolishness and silliness. For who really forced him?

Reb Nachman's sparkling tales and dazzling spiritual teachings were such "nectar for my soul" that I felt compelled to make sense of the various other statements he made that flew directly in the face of the rationalist, science-based world-view with which most of us grew up.

Again and again Reb Nachman stresses the crucial importance of making it a regular practice to speak directly to God. But so often my experience of synagogue services was as dry, meaningless rituals, having no relevance to modern life and needs. Speaking directly to God was something that my college friends and I passionately may have wanted to do, yet somehow we could just never take the leap.

Reb Nachman doesn't brook excuses, encouraging you to pray unabashedly: You must pour out your thoughts and troubles to God like a child complaining and pestering his father. You must pray for everything. If your garment is torn and must be replaced, pray to God for a new one. Make it a habit to pray for all your needs, large or small, and especially for fundamentals, that God help you attach yourself to Him. You can meditate in thought, but the most important thing is to express your thoughts in speech.

I used to associate speaking to God with my elderly grandmother and "Fiddler on the Roof." But I have come to understand that this is the single most vital spiritual practice needed by all of us in the sick civilization of our times. Indeed doctors and psychologists increasingly admit that meditation and spirituality are the only genuine cures for anxiety, hypertension, heart disease, substance abuse, dependencies and many other ills.

Reb Nachman's great emphasis on simplicity - saying your prayers with simple faith and trust, snatching each opportunity to practice charity and kindness, keeping yourself happy with cheerful songs and tunes - is a necessary antidote to our super-sophisticated culture. We have internet, mobile phones, jet travel and every other convenience, but we do not have mental clarity or peace of mind. Nor can they be attained with psychiatric drugs or herbal compounds.

Precisely because we are all up to our ears in work and other tasks and commitments, it is vital that we learn to stop relentless activity. We must set regular times to sit quietly in order to think seriously about where our lives are going and what we need to do. We must make it a habit to ask God in our own words to help us accomplish the goals that give meaning and purpose to our brief stay in this world.

The most famous of all Reb Nachman's sayings - "It's a great mitzvah to be happy always"- is surely a challenge to a civilization in which depression is the number one complaint people bring to their doctors. So often there seems to be everything in the world to be depressed about - making a living, health problems, personal disappointments and frustrations, difficult relationships. The problems are compounded by the fact that our materialistic culture sets preconditions for happiness that the majority can never fulfill, such as having good looks and plenty of money. Those who lack them (or think they do) are left disappointed and frustrated.

Photos of stars and celebrities invariably show them smiling and self-confident, as if to say worldly happiness is for real. Reb Nachman taught otherwise: "Whether you are rich or poor, your life will be filled with struggle and suffering. The fact is that man's lot is suffering and pain." Grim? Surely it's better to be forewarned: disappointment is less when hard times strike. Reverses and obstacles can be accepted with equanimity as part of the necessary suffering of this world.

Reb Nachman taught that the only way to find genuine happiness is by learning to take delight not in material pleasures, most of which are in any case imaginary, but in the only things that endure forever: Torah, mitzvot and good deeds. For him, each little prayer, each act of kindness and charity and every other good deed is a "good point" or "good (musical) note." Our task in this world is to seek out these good points or notes and gather them together one by one. This way we create a melody. Each person has his or her unique good points and unique song. This is the music of life that banishes depression and negativity, bringing vitality and joy into the soul.

This idea of slow, measured change is brought out in Reb Nachman's famous parable about a prince who went out of his mind and thought he was a turkey. He took off all his clothes and went to sit under a table. None of the doctors could cure him. One day, a wise man came, took off all his clothes, and sat under the table next to the prince. Instead of trying to impose drastic, all-encompassing lifestyle changes on the poor boy, the wise man befriended him and then handed him a shirt, saying, "You can wear a shirt and still be a turkey if you want." One small act - a good point! Later on the wise man gave him pants to put on. Another good point! Afterwards he gave him regular food instead of crumbs and bones. Each time the wise man helped the prince take simple steps to put more goodness into his life, helping him to dispel the negativity that was making him sick. In this way he eventually cured him completely.

Among the thousands who annually make the pilgrimage to Reb Nachman's grave in Uman, and the many more who are uplifted by his stories and teachings, very many see Reb Nachman as the wise man who helped them make the transition from their own form of insane living to a life of greater balance, depth, wisdom and true simchah.
London-born, Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum is a Cambridge classics/social sciences graduate and served as a BBC radio commentator and producer. He has published over twenty books including translations of Rebbe Nachman, "Under the Table and How to Get Up," a handbook of Jewish pathways of spiritual growth, and "The Wings of the Sun," a major study of the Jewish healing tradition. Rabbi Greenbaum lives in Jerusalem with his wife and children and is director of the Azamra Institute, an independent non-profit organization devoted to communicating Jewish spiritual teachings.

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The Powerful Teachings of Reb Nachman - Jewish Action

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The great allure of Reb Nachman combined with his physical absence makes it inevitable that a variety of fringe elements should be trying to project their own ideas onto Breslov.

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The Times of Israel (Maurice Ruben Hayoun) 'Wiesel et le hassidisme. Le cas de Rabbi Nahman de Bratslav'

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The Times of Israel (Maurice Ruben Hayoun) 'Wiesel et le hassidisme. Le cas de Rabbi Nahman de Bratslav'

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Dynastie hassidique de Bratslav (Wikipedia  en français)

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Dynastie hassidique de Bratslav (Wikipedia  en français)

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Dynastie hassidique de Bratslav — Wikipédia

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Un article de Wikipédia, l’encyclopédie libre.

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SEFARIA: Sippurei Maasiyot Additional Tales

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SEFARIA: Sippurei Maasiyot Additional Tales

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https://www.sefaria.org/Sippurei_Maasiyot%2C_Additional_Tales.1?lang=bi

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Chabad article by Menachem Posner: 18 facts about Rabbi Nachman

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Chabad article by Menachem Posner: 18 facts about Rabbi Nachman

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https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/5175337/jewish/18-Facts-About-Rabbi-Nachman-of-Breslov.htm

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/15 - Wikisource, the free online library

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SEFARIA: In Hebrew - talks following Sippurei Maasiyot

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SEFARIA: In Hebrew - talks following Sippurei Maasiyot

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https://www.sefaria.org/Sippurei_Maasiyot%2C_Talks_Following_the_Story_Tales.2?lang=bi

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Sippurei Maasiyot, Talks Following the Story Tales 2

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מַעֲשֶׂה אֶחָד הָלַךְ מֵאָבִיו וְהָיָה בִּמְדִינוֹת אֲחֵרוֹת יָמִים רַבִּים אֵצֶל אֲחֵרִים וְלִזְמַן בָּא לְאָבִיו וְהִתְפָּאֵר בְּעַצְמוֹ שֶׁלָּמַד שָׁם אָמָּנוּת גָּדוֹל...

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Reb Dovid Sears for Breslov Research Institute on the role of the tzaddik

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Reb Dovid Sears for Breslov Research Institute on the role of the tzaddik

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https://breslov.org/the-role-of-the-tzaddik/

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/10

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/10 - Wikisource, the free online library

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The King Who Decreed Forced Conversion (Wikisource)

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The King Who Decreed Forced Conversion (Wikisource)

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/4

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/4 - Wikisource, the free online library

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Shop: Tradition and Fantasy in the Tales of Reb Nahman of Bratslav by Ora Wiskind-Elper

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Shop: Tradition and Fantasy in the Tales of Reb Nahman of Bratslav by Ora Wiskind-Elper

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https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781438424286/html?lang=de

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Tradition and Fantasy in the Tales of Reb Nahman of Bratslav

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Considers the tales of Reb Nahman of Bratslav within a broad cultural milieu, including the romanticism of Reb Nahman’s time, contemporary feminist hermeneutics, and the fantastic in various contexts. One of the most radically innovative of Hasidic masters, Reb Nahman of Bratslav transformed images and concepts basic to Jewish thought into new and compelling forms. Tradition and Fantasy in the Tales of Reb Nahman of Bratslav uses comparative literary criticism, a range of Hasidic commentary, and original exegesis of the source texts to bring the complex artistry of Reb Nahman’s thought to light, making it accessible to a wider audience.

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From Tales From Reb Nachman (Artscroll / Mesorah)
Retold for children and illustrated by Dovid Sears

A long time ago, there was a poor clay-digger. Every few days he went to the mountains. There, he dug clay and piled it onto his wagon. When the wagon was full he drove to the village. The potters in the village bought his clay and turned it into jugs, dishes, and urns.

One summer day, while working in the mountains, the clay digger found a beautiful stone. He put it into his pocket and continued filling his wagon. The next morning, he took the stone to a jeweler in the village. The jeweler peered through his magnifying glass, and smiled. He shook his head and said, "This is not an ordinary rock. It is a very rare and valuable diamond. No one around here is rich enough to buy this diamond. If you want to sell it, you must travel to London, the city of the king."

But London was far away, and the man didn't have enough money for the trip. He sold his horse and wagon and everything he owned, but he still didn't have enough money. So he went begging from house to house. Finally he collected enough money to travel as far as the sea-coast.

When he arrived, he found the port city teeming with people. They were buying and selling everything from candlesticks to false teeth. The smells of fish and fresh bread and salty sea-air fought for his attention. The ragged beggars in the marketplace also fought for his attention, but by that time he had no money left.

The man searched until he found a ship going to London. He asked to see the captain. Soon, he was greeted by a giant with a thick moustache. The captain was dressed in a blue velvet coat with brass buttons, and a long sword was swinging from his belt. When the clay-digger went to shake the captain's hand, he noticed that two fingers were missing.

"I don't have any money right now," the clay-digger said. The captain scowled as if was going to throw him down the gang-plank.

"B-But I do have this," the poor man stammered.

When the captain saw the jewel, his eyes lit up. "You can pay me later! " he said, clapping his new passenger on the back. The captain took him aboard with great honor and gave him a special first-class cabin, with all sorts of luxuries.

The cabin had a window that overlooked the sea. The traveler would sit there happily with his diamond near him, watching the sunlight flicker on the waves. One day, he sat down to eat, putting the diamond on the table where he could admire it. Soon he fell asleep. A waiter came along and cleared the table. Then he shook the crumbs - and the diamond - off the tablecloth and into the sea.

When the man awoke, he realized what had happened. He became so upset that he didn't know what to do. "The captain will kill me if I don't pay my fare!" the man thought. Finally, he saw that nothing could be gained by worrying. So he forced himself to be happy, as if nothing had ever happened.

The captain used to speak to the traveler for a few minutes every day. When he came the next morning as usual, the man acted very happy, so the captain wouldn't suspect that anything had changed.

In the course of conversation, the captain asked his passenger for a favor. "I know that you are very wise and honest, " the captain began. " I want to buy a shipment of grain and sell it in London for a great profit. But if the officials discover that I have such a large amount of money, they will think I stole it from the king's treasury. Let me buy the grain in your name, and I will pay you well for helping me."

This sounded good to the traveler and he agreed. When they came to London, the captain bought a warehouse full of grain. He then went straight to the tavern with the other officers. After hours of drinking whiskey and wine, they began to quarrel. The drunken men reached for their swords - and during the fight, the captain was killed.

The grain that the captain had bought was worth many times more than the diamond. And now it belonged to the clay digger. He sold it all to a grain merchant and returned home a rich man.

Hashem never really gave the diamond to the poor man in the first place -the proof is that it didn't stay with him. He was really supposed to get the grain - the proof is that it did stay with him. However, he deserved to receive what Hashem wanted to give him only because he continued to be happy.
© 1987 Mesorah Publications

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From Tales From Reb Nachman (Artscroll / Mesorah) Retold for children and illustrated by Dovid Sears A long time ago, there was a poor clay...

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Article on ‘The Diamond and the Grain’ or ‘A story of a pauper who supported himself by digging clay’ by Anna Morvern

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Article on ‘The Diamond and the Grain’ or ‘A story of a pauper who supported himself by digging clay’ by Anna Morvern

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https://tsavtaquest.wordpress.com/on-the-story-known-as-the-diamond-and-grain-story-but-also-as-a-story-of-a-pauper-who-supported-himself-by-digging-clay/

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Article by Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum at Breslov.co.il on The Narrow Bridge: This is Rebbe Nachman’s classic teaching about courage in the service of Hashem.

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Article by Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum at Breslov.co.il on The Narrow Bridge: This is Rebbe Nachman’s classic teaching about courage in the service of Hashem.

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https://breslev.com/341285/

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Q&A with Rabbi Dovid Sears on how to learn Sippurei Maasiyot (the stories)

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Q&A with Rabbi Dovid Sears on how to learn Sippurei Maasiyot (the stories)

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https://web.archive.org/web/20170615063210/http://www.breslov.org/is-there-a-specific-method-to-learn-sippurey-maasiyos-rebbe-nachmans-stories/

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Is there a specific method to learn Sippurey Ma’asiyos (Rebbe Nachman’s Stories)?

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B.R.I. The Story of Our Lives: The Lost Princess #1 (Yaakov Klein)

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B.R.I. The Story of Our Lives: The Lost Princess #1 (Yaakov Klein)

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https://breslov.org/the-story-of-our-lives-the-lost-princess/

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Words of Introduction

It is my absolute honor and privilege to embark on this journey together with you, my dear readers. In this series, we are going to traverse the marvelous universe contained within the stories of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810). During his short lifetime, Rebbe Nachman produced an entire body of original Torah thought containing a revolutionary worldview which served as a guide to the few hundred chassidim he attracted to his court over his years in the public arena. In the decades and centuries following his lifetime, his worldview of Emunah, simplicity, joy, personal prayer, song, and positivity caught on like wildfire. Bouncing back after almost utter decimation during the Holocaust, the number of those who count themselves as Rebbe Nachman's followers and admirers continues to grow by leaps and bounds. The number of Jews from across the entire spectrum of orthodoxy who travel to his gravesite to spend Rosh Hashana with their Rebbe who, through his wisdom and guidance, is alive to them as ever before, increases by thousands each year.

This growing interest in the message of a relatively young man from a small backward village in 17 th century Ukraine who identified with particularly intense and sheltered sect of Jews bespeaks more than merely spiritual greatness or intellectual brilliance. Everyone you speak to who has been set aflame by the torch of Rebbe Nachman has the same word on their lips: "relevance".

Even in their original form, many of his teachings can be mistaken for paragraphs out of any one of the millions of self-help books that have published over the last 10 years to help us find comfort in misery, meaning in the bizarre, and joy despite our confusion. Long before Howard Glasser and the Nurtured Heart Approach, Rebbe Nachman was teaching his foundational lessons on the " Nekuda Tova", the "Drop of goodness" each person contains[1]. Long before it became one of the most common mental illnesses[2], Rebbe Nachman waged a full out war on depression, suggesting various strategies with which to combat it. Long before anyone would dare mention that religion practiced in the improper fashion way could lead to mental illnesses at worst and general misery and dissatisfaction at best, Rebbe Nachman warned against neurotic worship and stressed the need for patience and joy regardless of circumstance; physical, intellectual, or spiritual[3].

Rav Yoel Teitelbaum, the saintly Satmar Rav, once said that of all of the Chassidic Masters, the one who saw until the end of time and revealed the spiritual and emotional remedy for the maladies of that time was Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. Indeed, Rebbe Nachman testified to this himself when he famously declared "My fire will burn until Moshiach will come"[4], a statement whose fulfillment is being witnessed by our generation.

One of the many ways in which Rebbe Nachman was unique from other tzaddikim was his method of teaching. Aside from the classic conveyance of deep psychological understandings and practical life-lessons in the form of Chassidic discourses (which make up his magnum opus "Likutei Moharan"), Rebbe Nachman sought to convey his messages in a radically different form; the telling of original tales. A favorite educational tool used by the Baal Shem Tov and the masters who succeeded him, storytelling had always been a part of the Chassidic tradition, but Rebbe Nachman's tales were an altogether different story (pun intended). These weren't mere parables or whimsical accounts of miraculous salvation brought about by the incantations of this or that Tzaddik. Rebbe Nachman's tales were a universe onto themselves: entire structures of epic drama from which both the deepest insight into the spirituality underlying human nature and the most esoteric secrets of Kabbalah regarding the spirituality underlying the physical realm could be discerned. Rebbe Nachman's stories are viewed as classics of world literature and are widely read for their entertainment value. However, largely overlooked is the guidance toward an inspired existence that peeks from behind each and every word.

Though the moral and spiritual lessons that emerge from his tales are many, it is the body of Kabbalistic thought concealed within that was undoubtedly the primary focus of Rebbe Nachman's storytelling. The tzaddikim have revealed that for many of the spiritually ill, it is only the Godliness conveyed through the teachings of kabbalah that can provide the proper tikkun, the necessary healing. Transported by the lofty concepts contained in the words, the great spiritual light illuminates the deepest and darknets recesses of their souls. Still, not every mind is capable of comprehending these transcendent concepts and not every heart is an appropriate vessel for the light.

To bypass this obstacle, Rebbe Nachman veiled these ideas in what appear to be simply amusing stories with universal appeal. This way, whether or not the listener is aware, the deepest light of the Torah is sneaking past the guards in disguise, reaching his heart safely and providing him with the cure to his maladies.[5] After revealing his first tale, Rebbe Nachman declared: "The world tells stories to put people to sleep. I tell stories to wake people up."

We will leave decoding the mysteries of these stories to the kabbalists. Together, we will study the first of the Thirteen Tales of Rebbe Nachman, entitled "The Lost Princess" and attempt to extract some of the remarkable advice and encouragement that emerges from this epic story. We will be stunned at how soon we begin to see the story of our personal journeys reflected in the epic search of the viceroy. We will be amazed to find that although he was speaking to all Jews until the end of time, Rebbe Nachman seemed to have each of us in mind.

To close with a few words from Elie Weisel:

" His (Rebbe Nachman's) tales? Each contains many others. Imagine a series of concentric circles whose fixed centers are buried in man's innermost being: the I inside the I, conscience become silence and peace, memory inside memory. And all are inhabited by princes and sages. By haunted creatures seeing one another, one in another. By survivors of calamities, refugees, fugitives, messengers and innocent children, orphans and beggars endlessly roaming the world only to meet again in a cave or in a palace, reunited and fulfilled in ways that go beyond the experience they have gone through or have been subjected to, perhaps unwittingly. Following them, we plunge into the supernatural and yet the word miracle is never pronounced. For in the Breslover's universe, everything is miraculous, even the most common event. On his lips, the most deprived, most primitive of men are endowed with powers; his objects have the gift of song, just as his forests, his trees, his animals and his morning breezes all have the gift of laughter.
Rebbe Nachman is more concerned with man than with mankind. Because he reacts more directly to the individual. His relationship to earth and heaven is filled with as many secrets as are contained by earth and heaven. Rebbe Nachman tightens the episodic events and lets the canvas flutter because he prefers the moments to years, the infinitely small to the infinitely large, the jolts of a life to a lifetime without surprises...
Rebbe Nachman - or flight directed inwards."[6]

[1] See Likutei Moharan 282

[2] Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Results from the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Mental Health Findings, NSDUH Series H-49, HHS Publication No. (SMA) 14-4887. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014.

[3] See Likutei Moharan Tinyana, 44

[4] Chayei Moharan 306

[5] See Likutei Moharan 60

[6] Souls on Fire pages 180-182

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The Story of Our Lives: The Lost Princess #1 - Breslov.org

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Words of Introduction It is my absolute honor and privilege to embark on this...

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Rabbi Nahman and dreams (newspaper article by Rabbi Wein)

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Rabbi Nahman and dreams (newspaper article by Rabbi Wein)

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What dreams are made of | The Jerusalem Post

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Last Shabbat afternoon I took my traditional Shabbat afternoon rest. I slept more soundly than usual and I dreamed a dream that was so visibly etched in my mind that I awoke with a start.

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Rabbi Efrem Goldberg PPT of Boca Raton Synagogue on Rabbi Nahman (biographical)

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Rabbi Efrem Goldberg PPT of Boca Raton Synagogue on Rabbi Nahman (biographical)

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https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/studybooklets.rabbiefremgoldberg.org/Jewish%20History/Rebbe_Nachman_Of_Breslov.pdf

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Article at Foreward by Dan Friedman on Discovering Kafka and Rabbi Nahman 

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Article at Foreward by Dan Friedman on Discovering Kafka and Rabbi Nahman 

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https://forward.com/culture/132817/discovering-kafka-and-rabbi-nachman/

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By Dan Friedman November 3, 2010

Arts and culture editor Dan Friedman interviewed award-winning poet and author Rodger Kamenetz, whose new book about his physical and spiritual pilgrimage, "Burnt Books: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and Franz Kafka" (Schocken/Nextbook), charts a path between literature and religion. The Arty Semite is now featuring excerpts and reviews from Kamenetz's Psalm 151 series.
Dan Friedman. This book is very much a journey for you. It seemed to me, just reading the book, that you went in more a disciple of Kafka and came out more of a disciple of - I mean that in a very loose and "multi-quoted" way - a disciple of Rabbi Nachman.
Rodger Kamenetz. "Multi-quoted" in the sense that we don't want anyone to think that I'm Orthodox or a member of a particular Hasidic group. I just want to make sure that's clear. Yes, I think that's an interesting way to put it, Dan. I would say, look, I think we're all disciples of Kafka.... The Kafka-esque has become a cliché in that we've so completely absorbed his sensibility that we've taken it into ourselves. So I think we all start out as Hasidim of Kafka. To bring Kafka to Nachman - to bring the Kafka in myself to Nachman - was the project, and for me, Nachman was the great discovery. Because to go more deeply into his life, and to contemplate what it means to be Haredi and what it means to live a life in which every gesture and every word is deemed significant, not only by yourself but by those around you, it's a powerful contemplation for me, because I think such figures are really rare.
Why Kafka and Nachman of Bratslav?
R.K. I was struck by two things. One, I was teaching a course on literature and Jewish mysticism at Louisiana State, and I was interested in the idea of considering mystical literature as literature. So "The Zohar" is once described as a romancero, a Spanish picaresque novel with rabbis roaming through the landscape. What happens if you start tracing a line through Jewish mystical literature, and you come to Rabbi Nachman, who's actually in a certain way a literary figure - the inventor of the Yiddish tale (even though these tales are infused with Jewish mysticism)? Then you cross over the secular line; the next writer up in Kafka, who is clearly a literary writer but whose stories are full of theological content, as Gershom Scholem would say. And in fact, as Scholem indicates, if you want to understand Kabbalah in our time, you'd have to read Rabbi - You'd have to read Franz Kafka.
D.F. What does he mean by having to read Kafka?
R.K. I try to explore that theme throughout the book, because it's not an obvious statement on his part. If Kafka was a kabbalist, he was the first who didn't fully master Hebrew; [he] had no particular Jewish practice. So externally, it's difficult to understand the statement. I think what he really means is Kafka was haunted by the absence of God - and haunted by the feeling of being judged. This emotional state, I think, replicates the feeling-state of the medieval kabbalist.
D.F. Talk a little bit more about how Kafka and Nachman of Bratslav embody modernity and the medieval life-state.
R.K. Clearly, Kafka is the major modernist writer of the 20th century - the most emblematic in terms of themes of alienation, of absurdity, of the huge bureaucratic systems that make no sense, of the individual caught in these things. So I think Kafka clearly speaks to that. As far as the medieval, I really feel that Kafka was an individual who was haunted by the sense of being judged by an invisible tribunal. It's almost like every day for him was Yom Kippur.
You pointed out that "The Judgment" was written the day after Yom Kippur, which I never realized.
R.K. Correct, and it was the first time that he had not gone to synagogue with his father, so it had that guilty feeling of, "Oh my God, I didn't go to shul this year, even on Yom Kippur."
You say that one of the problems that Kafka saw with his own writing was that he was a bit worried it was poisoned?
R.K. Yes. Well that's an interesting question. The conversation with a young writer named Gustav Janouch, where Janouch presented Kafka with [Kafka's] stories in leather and gold letters on them. Kafka is so dismayed, and basically says, 'You mistake me. I'm not the fire, I'm not the burning bush. I'm only the thorns.' His sense that: What is the use of creating stories if the stories actually harm people and discourage them? Maybe he understood that he would be interpreted - as he often is - as a pure nihilist. Whole schools of readers view Kafka as the prince of nihilism, and of despair.
Is that not how you read him?
R.K. No, not at all. I think I read him as someone who is a spiritual seeker, as someone who feels the absence of God - or who feels the pain of the absence of God - which is, to me, really the most important first step to having a spiritual life. If you don't feel that longing and that absence, you'll never see the gleam of light. And I think for a lot of people, they're very happy not to enter into that search. I don't see him as a pure nihilist. Neither did Scholem or Max Brod, who probably knew him better than anyone.
And I suppose that Scholem, if not Kafka, saw that absence of God in kabbalistic terms?
R.K. Right. He spoke of the borderline between nihilism and mystical nothingness, which is a kind of fine distinction for most of us, I suppose. But I understand that to mean that (even atheism is a religious position, in a certain way) - that if you don't ever feel the absence of God, then you really can't begin to look for the presence of God. I don't want to get simplistic; [these are] pretty weighty matters.

But to go back to your question. The medieval piece for Kafka is this haunted sensibility, this sense of the demonic. Kafka felt obsessed with the demonic, which is part of what went into his statement to Janouch - that maybe his work was the work of the devil. This is certainly not a thing for a modern writer to say. So I think Kafka really ventured into this stability and these realms that were quite familiar to medieval Jews, where demons are real, where the divine is real, where judgment is real. We'd like to live in a world where none of those things are real.
Nachman of Bratslav, he was living more clearly in modernity.
R.K. Nachman was a man who saw modernity coming, and in his own way was quite prophetic about it. You might say he was doing outreach in an extraordinary way. I would have trouble getting 15 people to come to my house even if I provided entertainment, and he's getting 15,000 people to come every year to his grave, so there's some kind of pull there. That's pretty extraordinary.

His storytelling, in particular, is clearly designed to reach out to people who otherwise would not be interested in Jewish mysticism or in serious religious Judaism. I think what's most modern about Rabbi Nachman is his consideration of the problem of extreme doubt and extreme nothingness - of descending into states of mind where he felt that he knew nothing, which he frequently proclaimed to his followers.... To dramatize and live out the reality of doubt is an extraordinary feat for a figure like Rabbi Nachman, who clearly was deeply devout and deeply religious.
We are not privy to possibly any of Kafka and Nachman's most important works, and therefore we can project on them what we would like to see. Isn't that some part of what we like about them? ... It's the hidden-ness of these two that makes them probably cultic.
R.K. I'm inclined to agree with you to some extent, but I'd have to correct it just slightly. First of all, Rabbi Nachman did leave behind extensive commentaries... and they're now being put out in English and numerous volumes by BRI, Bratslav Research Institute, so they're available to anyone who wants to study his Torah. And he was very careful to make sure that happened. He also directly asked that his story be put out in dual versions, in Yiddish and Hebrew, so I think in Rabbi Nachman's case, it's true that certain works were burnt, and the mystique of that is very important - the notion of the burnt book, obviously. I think you're right: that creates a kind of fascination and wonder. What did he withhold from us?

With Kafka, I think he left enough behind for us to understand what his project was. But again, the notion that he burned so much of his work certainly adds a mystique. What I argue is that in a certain way, a reader is a kind of Hasid of the author.... The first Hasidim of these two writers were Rabbi Nathan, who essentially shapes the publication of it 30 years after Rabbi Nachman's death, and Max Brod, who does the same exact thing for Franz Kafka. So I'm fascinated by this idea that the reader's devotion, in a certain way, does create the writer. And that it's a religious devotion. Whether the writer is secular or religious, the devotion of the reader to the book is a mystical devotion.
We talk about a body of the future. Kafka, I think, says, "I am literature." And I think that Nachman also said something very similar - the distinction between the physical body and the written word. That distinction is not drawn as clearly as a rationalist, perhaps as you did when you were writing your columns for the Forward.
R.K. What Nachman said at that point was, "What am I but the holy teachings my soul pours forth?" Which is a really a very beautiful thing to say. ... At the very moment when the physical book is disappearing (or so some people claim), the materialistic attitude toward "the book," or towards literature, is more in charge than ever. I think these two writers stand very much. And I think maybe one slightly elegiac purpose in writing a book at this moment, writing a book called "Burnt Books" in the age of the e-book, is to look at - well wait a minute, maybe the book is not the physical object; in fact, it's what the soul puts forth and it needs to be understood in that way.

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Arts and culture editor Dan Friedman interviewed award-winning poet and author Rodger Kamenetz, whose new book about his physical and spiritual pilgrimage, "Burnt Books: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and Franz Kafka" (Schocken/Nextbook), charts a path between literature and religion. The Arty Semite is now featuring excerpts and reviews from Kamenetz's Psalm 151 series.

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Shop: Encyclopedia of Mental Imagery: Colette Aboulker-Muscat's 2,100 Visualization Exercises for Personal Development, Healing, and Self-Knowledge

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Shop: Encyclopedia of Mental Imagery: Colette Aboulker-Muscat's 2,100 Visualization Exercises for Personal Development, Healing, and Self-Knowledge

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https://www.abebooks.com/9781883148102/Encyclopedia-Mental-Imagery-Colette-Aboulker-Muscats-1883148103/plp

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Encyclopedia of Mental Imagery: Colette Aboulker-Muscat’s 2,100 Visualization Exercises for Personal Development, Healing, and Self-Knowledge: 9781883148102 - AbeBooks

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The Encyclopedia of Mental Imagery contains over 2,100 original mental imagery exercises drawn from the work of the great 20th century spiritual master and healer, Colette Aboulker-Muscat. It is both a manual of spiritual teaching and a rich treasury of powerful healing images that can be used as a…

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Quotes: the essential Rabbi Nachman, translated by Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum at Azamra

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Quotes: the essential Rabbi Nachman, translated by Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum at Azamra

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Article: Who was the Baal Shem Tov? by Anna Morvern, on Rabbi Nahman's great-grandfather

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Article: Who was the Baal Shem Tov? by Anna Morvern, on Rabbi Nahman's great-grandfather

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PDF, Rav Kenig zatzal's teachings, translated by  Mrs Talya Lipschutz of Tsfat, on Rebbe Nachman's "A Tale of Trust."

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PDF, Rav Kenig zatzal's teachings, translated by  Mrs Talya Lipschutz of Tsfat, on Rebbe Nachman's "A Tale of Trust."

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We are pleased to present a booklet of some of Rav Kenig zatzal’s teachings, translated by Mrs Talya Lipschutz of Tsfat, on Rebbe Nachma…

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SHOP: Book - A Children's Treasury of Rebbe Nachman's Tales

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SHOP: Book - A Children's Treasury of Rebbe Nachman's Tales

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A Children’s Treasury of Rebbe Nachman’s Tales - Of Breslov, Rebbe Nachman; Mykoff, Moshe; Mizrahi, S.C.; C. Levin, C.: 9781505590708 - AbeBooks

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A CHILDREN?S TREASURY OF REBBE NACHMAN?S TALES is an ongoing project that takes Rebbe Nachman?s memorable stories and retells them for children. Together with lively, inviting illustrations, each presentation, whether of a short parable or a full-length tale, seeks to highlight in simple fashion…

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https://www.fnac.com/livre-numerique/a5850608/Moshe-Mykoff-The-Gentle-Weapon

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Shivchei Haran, praising Rabbi Nahman (Wikisource). Rabbi Nathan.

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Shivchei Haran, praising Rabbi Nahman (Wikisource). Rabbi Nathan.

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Shivchei_Haran

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I had in view to explain and tell a little tiny bit of the holiness of the conduct of our holy awesome Rebbe, of blessed memory, from the day he became conscious until the day he went up in peace; a little of what I heard from his holy mouth himself, and a little from other people who knew him during his life, and a little of what we saw with our eyes...

שבחי הר"ן (הרבי נחמן) ראיתי לבאר ולספר קצת מעט מזעיר מקדושת הנהגת רבנו הקדוש והנורא, זכרונו לברכה, מיום שעמד על דעתו עד היום שנסתלק בשלום. קצת מה ששמעתי מפיו הקדוש בעצמו, וקצת מאנשים אחרים שהכירו אותו מעודו, וקצת מה שראינו בעינינו: ואם אמנם ידעתי גם ידעתי כי רבים יהיו אשר לא יאמינו בדברים האלה כי רבים קמו עליו, עם כל זה לא יכלתי להתאפק מעצם הפצרת ותשוקת אנשים רבים וכן שלמים אשר הפצירו עד בוש להדפיס קצת מזה. גם סעפי ישבוני וכליותי יעצוני כי הלא על כל פנים ההנהגות המבארים כאן הם הנהגות קדושות וטובות מאד, אשרי שיאחז בהם. וראויים לחוקקם על ספר הנהגות אלו, יהיה העושה מי שעשאן. על כל פנים ההנהגות הללו הם טובים וקדושים מאד ואיככה אוכל למנע הטוב מהולכים בתמים אשר נפשם אותה למצא בספר דרכים ישרים הללו. וגם האמת עד לעצמו: ומי שיביט בעין האמת בספרי רבנו, זכרונו לברכה, יבין בעצמו כי דברים כאלו אי אפשר להשיג כלל בשכל אנושי כי אם לקדוש וטהור בקדושה וטהרה יתרה כמותו ואי אפשר להאריך בזה, כי הם אך למותר, כדרך שאומרין העולם או שלא יועיל או שהם שלא לצרך. על כן לבי הלך אחת הנה ואחת הנה בענין זה, ואמרתי ויהי מה ארוצה דברי אלה (תהלים ע"ח ו): "למען ידעו דור אחרון יקומו ויספרו לבניהם", וממנו יראו וכן יעשו לילך בנתיבות הללו ולדרך בעקבותיו. כי זאת אין צריך לפנים שהנהגות כאלו הם הנהגות קדושות ויקרות וכל אחד ואחד יכול להתקרב להשם יתברך על ידי הנהגות כאלו כי הם דברים השוים לכל נפש כקטן כגדול. ואפלו הפחות שבישראל, אם ירצה לחוס על חייו ולחשב על תכליתו הנצחי, וירגיל עצמו ללכת בנתיבות ובדרכים הללו המבארים פה, בודאי יזכה לחיי עולם ויוכל לבוא למעלות גבהות וקדושות (א) כחד מבני עליה, אם יהיה חזק בדעתו לאחז דרכו הטוב תמיד כיתד חזק בל ימט ככל המבאר פה לקמן: אך זאת לדעת כי כל המבאר פה אינו אפלו כטפה מן הים הגדול מעצם קדושתו והפלגת מעלתו העולה למעלה במקום שאין יד שכל אנושי שולטת שם. וגם אין רצוננו לבאר קצת מופתים נוראים שראינו ממנו, כי אין אנו עוסקים לספר בשבחיו הקדושים כי אם מה שנוגע ליראת השם. אמרתי אך יראו אותם הדברים יקחו מוסר. כי כל האנשים הרואים דברים הללו בכתב אצלנו כולם יודו וישבחו ויפארו אותם ונוגע בלבם התעוררות גדול להשם יתברך וכולם מבקשים ומפצירים בי להביאם לדפוס. יחזקאל ל"ה י"ג) העתירו עלי דבריהם עד שהוכרחתי למלאת רצונם. והשם יתברך ירחם עלינו שנזכה לילך בדרכי אבותינו אשר עשו באימה וביראה רצון קונם עד יבנה ציון וירושלים (ישעיה ס' ה) וישובו ישראל אל ארובותיהם כיונים במהרה בימינו אמן:

When he was a youth it came to his mind to separate from the world and he wanted to break the craving for eating, but he was still in a small intellect and it seemed to him that this was imposible to leave his eating according what he was accustomed to eat in the morning and afternoon etc. Therefore he decided he would swallow whatever he eats i.e. to not chew what he eats, only swallow as it is in order that he should not feel any taste from his eating. And he did so and got an imflammation in his throat (which they call geshwellen). And he said he was only six years old at that time. And this practice I heard [spoken of] as a huge thing by a very very great tzadik who did so, who swallowed his food without chewing, but he of blessed memory did so when he was six years old.

אות א.

בהיותו בימי קטנותו בא על דעתו לפרש מהעולם ורצה לשבר תאות אכילה, אך עדין היה בשכל קטן ונדמה לו שזה אי אפשר שיניח מאכילתו כפי מה שהיה רגיל לאכל בבקר ובצהרים וכו'. על כן ישב עצמו שיהיה בולע כל מה שיאכל דהינו שלא יהיה לועס מה שיאכל רק יבלע כמות שהוא כדי שלא ירגיש שום טעם באכילתו. ועשה כן ועלה נפיחות בצוארו שקורין (גישוואלין). ואמר שהיה אז רק בן ששה שנים. והנהגה זו שמעתי לדבר גדול מצדיק גדול מאד מאד שנהג כך שהיה בולע אכילתו בלי לעיסה, אך הוא זכרונו לברכה נהג כך בהיותו בן ששה שנים:

אות ב.

גם בהיותו יושב לפני רבו ללמד בימי קטנותו היה רוצה תמיד לקים (תהלים ט"ז ח): "שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד" והיה מתיגע לציר נגד עיניו שם הוי"ה ברוך הוא, ומחמת שהיתה מחשבתו טרודה בזה לא היה יודע מה שלומד והיה רבו כועס עליו. ואף על פי כן כל ימי ילדותו היה עושה עניני מעשה נערות הרבה מאד דהינו עניני שחוק וקפיצות וטיול שקורין (פאר שייט) והיה רגיל בזה מאד:

אות ג.

אחר כך נתגדל יותר וכשנעשה בר מצוה (ב) קרא אותו דודו הרב הקדוש מורנו אפרים זכר צדיק לברכה (ג) אב בית דין דקהלת קדש סידילקוב ואמר לו הפסוק (תהלים ב ז): "אני היום ילדתיך". (כי זה נאמר על היום שהאדם נעשה בר מצוה כמובא בספרים [עין רש"י שם, זהר חדש י]) ואמר לו קצת מעט דברי מוסר והיה יקר בעיניו מאד מאד (תהלים קי"ט): "כמוצא שלל רב". אחר כך נכנס לחופה (ד) ותכף ביציאתו מן החופה היה מתלהב מאד ומתגעגע מאד לעבודת השם יתברך ונכנס בעבודת השם מיום אל יום:

אות ד.

גם בימי קטנותו התחיל להתמיד מאד מאד בלמודו, והיה משלם להמלמד מכיסו שלשה גדולים בעד כל דף גמרא (ה) שהיה לומד עמו מלבד השכר למוד שהיה אביו משלם להמלמד היה הוא בעצמו, זכרונו לברכה, נותן להמלמד משלו שלשה גדולים בעד כל דף ודף כדי שהמלמד יכריח עצמו ללמד עמו הרבה דפין גמרא בכל יום. וכן היה שהיה המלמד לומד עמו כמה וכמה דפין בכל יום ויום והוא היה משלם לו כנ"ל ג' גדולים בעד כל דף ודף מלבד השכר למוד:

אות ה.

וכן היה נכנס בעבודת השם וכל עבודתו היה בהצנע גדול מאד מאד עד שלא ידע שום אדם ממנו כלל כי היה סתום וגנוז מאד. וכל עבודתו היה בסתר ובהצנע גדול. ועקר עבודתו בתחלה היה בפשיטות גדול בלי שום חכמות כלל רק בפשיטות גמור, וכל דבר ודבר שעשה הכל היה ביגיעה גדולה ובכח גדול ובמסירות נפש. ולא היה לו שום דבר עבודה שבא לו בנקל רק כל דבר ודבר בא לו ביגיעה גדולה מאד, שהיה מיגע עצמו כמה זמנים בשביל כל דבר ודבר מעבודת השם. והיה לו כמה וכמה עליות וירידות אלפים ורבבות עד אין שעור וערך: והיה קשה וכבד עליו מאד מאד להתחיל לכנס בעבודת השם לקבל עליו על עבודתו יתברך. והיה רגיל להתחיל איזה ימים לעסק בעבודת השם ואחר כך נפל מזה וחזר להתחיל וחזר ונפל. וכן היה כמה וכמה פעמים עד שפעם אחד נתחזק אצלו שיהיה חזק מאד שיאחז בעבודת השם לעולם, ולא יסתכל על שום דבר בעולם. ומאז והלאה נתחזק לבו בה' ואף על פי כן גם אחר כך היה לו תמיד עליות וירידות הרבה מאד מאד רק שאחר כך היה חזק שלא יניח עבודתו יתברך לעולם אף על פי שיש לו ירידה לפעמים אף על פי כן יהיה מתחזק עצמו בעבודת השם יתברך בכל מה שיוכל:

When he [R' Nachman] heard this, he sent a special envoy to Acco to hire a boat from Regaz which was at peace with all the nations. Meaning, there's a country Regaz and they're at peace with all the kings, and when that boat hoists its flag then they don't take it in capture. For the way of war ships was to snatch on the sea a ship with the people on board in capture. And when this ship from the land of Regaz puts out its flag then they don't take them in capture. And so it was, that they hired such a ship, and when this tzaddik moreinu haRav Abraham heard that Rabbeinu obm wants to lead a trip home, he sent a special envoy to him with his letter, and another letter encompassing it, and he obm make himself very quick and didn't want to wait for the letter of the rav the gaon of the kehillah of Shpitkovke. He departed erev Shabbat kodesh parashat Zakhot, and the walked that whole night up to three hours before kabbalath Shabbat, then they arrived at the border of Acco, and they dispatched to the trip agent [הַטַּאלְמֶאטְשׁ] to bring them on the ship, and he came and replied that it's impossible in any way to take them, since the ship was already full with people that had got on board there overfilled. Rabbeinu obm with the man accompanying him were forced to enter in the city of Acco and spend Shabbat there parashat Zakhor. They went to the abovementioned gentleman to whom was the letter frm Rav Kalister, and they were guests by him. There are very tremendous fear fell on them, since there were approximately 15,000 Ishmaelite [Turkish] troops and more, with all their weapons. And they closed the gates of the city wall, and on Shabbat morning at prayer time the trip agent came and said it's impossible to find any other Regazer ship, only Turkish merchant ships going to Istanbul with wares, and even though there's a fear of traveling with them due to navies located at sea who take capture, nevertheless it's better to take that danger than be here, because the order had come that there would be war in two or three days, and presumably they'll kill a great portion of this city. Why do you need this crisis? Therefore let his great Torah honor permit me to go and hire a ship for you on Shabbat, for danger to life suspends Shabbat. And so it was. The trip agent went and hired a ship for them paid an Adrup, one gold idnar. Meanwhile many more ships came with [English] forces also to Acco, and the fear there grew greater and greater, and there was tremendous pressure in the city, For they had little space to fit so many armies, so it was a great terror there that Shabbat. [And all the house members where Rabbeinu obm was staying spread their hands (to Heaven)]. But still for Rabbeinu and the man with him had some consolation, that they had already hired a ship for them. They were also afflicted that this hadn't prepared for themselves at all any food or drink to take on the ship, because this was sudden. And they recalled for themselves that when they went on the ship from outside Eretz Yisrael that had on the ship all the goods for four or five months, as the seafarers do, and now they had nothing. In the morning on Sunday Rabbeinu obm sent the man with him to go with the trip agent to buy provisions to take on the ship, as usual, but he didn't find for sale in the market, and he came back to the residence and Rabbeinu obm was standing then wrapped in tallit and tefillin and said nothing at all to him, and this man passed out and fell asleep under the great pain and terror, and Rabbeinu didn't know he was in the house. Meanwhile the big alarm sounded there, for the order came from the Pasha that he's giving just two hours, whoever's unable to fight should be sure to flee to the sea, for there's not gate open for leaving the city except by the sea, and whoever's found inside the city after two hours will be killed, for the Turks of the city wanted to expand in the city to have less constraint from the great population, therefore they wanted to kill whoever's found there to clear out for them space to not be so crowded. So there was a great alarm and shouting in the city, a tremendous fear and terror, and during this enormous tumult Rabbeinu obm fled to the sea and didn't at all see that man that was with him, but he was passed out as mentioned. Later this man woke up and saw Rabbeinu isn't in the house, and waited till it was late [Judges 3:25] then went in the yard and saw and heard from men, women, and children screaming and crying with tremendous bitterness, and the cry of the city rose up to Heaven. and when the lady of the house saw the man of Rabbeinu obm she came to him and said, "Oy Vavoy, I pity your youth that you'll be killed here! We have received nonetheless good here, now we need to also receive what's decreed on this place, but on you it's such a pity because you'll be lost from your family etc." and other such words. Such a great fear fell on him that couldn't feel his fingers, and he asked her about Rabbeinu and she replied: It seems he's fled to the sea. And because of the great uproar in the city, almost like people sticking knives in each other, it was impossible to move in the city, however by Hashem's kind grace there was a reason from Hashem that at that hour the Turks stopped on the roof of the wall and announced some good news and many people gathered to them, and on account of this he had a path to get through the city and get to the sea. When this man arrived at the sea he saw many ships and didn't see Rabbeinu there, and he was asking and looking there a great deal, search after search until he found Rabbeinu obm on board a ship. And the ship was full of Turks and Rabbeinu obm sat in the middle, and when Rabbeinu obm and this man of his were reunited they were so happy, because before they were very, very afflicted since they didn't have knowledge of each other. And first they were in a small boat called a Barkes. Then they went went with this boat until they went on a big ship called an Arkena that was moored close to Haifa, and they saw the ship was surrounded with cannons [and they wondered at this but the thought because it was war time therefore the merchant ship also goes with cannons, but in fact this ship was a war ship with soldiers and weapons. So it was definitely a very great and enormous danger to be together with them, especially with Turkish soldiers who are pere adam (vicious). And especially to go faring with them at sea. And Rabbeinu obn when he fled in the middle of the tumult didn't not intend to board the ship they hired for him, for he didn't know where he was, and he entered in alarm aboard this ship and didn't know at all that it's a war ship. And the Turks took them and put them in the big ship and gave them a special room and also gave this man accompanying Rabbeinu obm a loaded rifle, and they were unable to ask them anything for they didn't know their language, and they had no food or drink on the ship. And after two or three hours at night they closed the door of the room and they lay down to sleep and they had eaten nothing for the had no food as mentioned. After an hour or two someone opened the door and said to them in the foreign language of our land (Russian), "What are you doing here? This is a battle ship, and you'll get killed here, God forbid. Don't you see this ship is surrounded with loaded cannons? They woke up from their sleep and grabbed him by his garment and the garment was of simple fabric however his form they could not see, and they asked him to help let them escape from the ship to the border of Eretz Yisrael, and they already say they are in danger close to losing life, for they saw cannonballs flying close to the ship, therefore they thought, it's better to stay in the Holy Land, that their bones will remain in the Holy Land, for they saw it's hard escape getting killed, and he said they have to give some amount of Thaler for this and he said he'd go to the captain. This man went and opened the box to get the Thaler, and he waited a bit then went to the captain, and put out his hand to give the money to the captain, for he thought the one who spoke [Russian] to them had already asked the Captain for them about letting them go. The captain yelled at him a big yelling and didn't listen to him at all. Then they were looking for the one who spoke [Russian] to them. They looked and looked and didn't find anyone there who spoke Russian, only Turks and Arabs, so a big fear fell on them and great trembling gripped them, until they were unable to lie die due to the body trembling from such great fear, for then they understood they're on a battle ship, called a "Krieg Ship," and it's an unbounded danger, and they still don't know who it was that spoke Russian with them and informed them it's a battle ship.

In the morning soldiers came to the ship who were called Brandwach (like border patrol), and Rabbeinu obm with the man that was with him still wanted to come and stoop at the feet of the captain and beg him to let them return to the border. But meanwhile they pulled up the anchor and they sailed off in the direction the wind took them due to fear, for the battle started up immediately and their sound was very audible, and they heard there on the ship the loud sound of the artillery and bombs and other such sounds of battle, for its sound could be hear from very far. The great danger and terror and fear they had at that time is inestimable. The two of them lay down and didn't even have water to drink for they prepared nothing as mentioned. But H' in his great kindness and mercy gave them favor in the eyes of a Turk who was a chef for the captain and snuck them a cup of black coffee for each one, morning and night. On account of their weakness they lay infirm, God save us. And had no idea where they were, for they were shit in their room lying in beds. And this they heard, there there's a storm wind and it carried the ship and they didn't know where it took it. When they heard the ship arrived at some border they went out of the room to see what place they've arrived. They saw it's not Istanbul and they asked that Turk and he said that country is called Ada. And they'd already heard what they do: when they find a Jew their first "mitzvah" is to sacrifice him as an offering. When they heard it's Adal they immediately went in their room and closed the door after them and hid inside. They had a great fear while the ship remained there three days, and it may have been the captain's intent to stay there longer but suddenly came a storm wind that severed the anchor ropes leaving the anchors in the sea and the ship tossed out of control. There was a big outcry among the Turks ( Haman haman! meaning Woe!). The ship flailed in the sea all night till morning, then the wind subsided and they rejoiced for the quieted down. But they were not led to their desired haven, for the storm wind brought them back within a day's travel from Acco. Then after noon again whipped up a great storm wind that carried off the ship. The ship ripped and wandered several days and lights in a row, "rising to heaven and descending to depths," and the seamen had no tactic to escape it. "They reeled to and fro, and staggered like a drunken man, and all their wisdom was swallowed up" (Ps. 102:27) On Thursday at 12:00 they started purging water from the ship's third deck (orlop?) using the pumps as the sailors do. And usually they'd pump fifteen minutes every twenty four hours, but now when they started pumping, they were pumping until night, and there was water all over the ship because of the pumping, and the water even got in the room of Rabbeinu obm (and his attendant) so they could not lie on the bed there, because the water was so high, and Rabbeinu had to get up to some high place to lie. And the man who was with him got up to some other place, because they didn't want to stick out and be seen by the Turks. And the water on the ship kept growing...

ולא יכלו לשכב על המשכב שם, כי גאו המים שם,
והכרח רבנו לעלות על איזה מקום גבוה לשכב,
והאיש שהיה עמו עלה למקום אחר, כי לא רצו לצאת להתראות בפני הישמעאלים.
והמים שבספינה הלכו
ונתרבו בכל פעם יותר
ויותר עד שהכרחו הישמעאלים לעיקר הפלומפין,
ועשו גלגלים,
ושאבו על ידם מים עם כלים גדולים.
והרוח סערה הולך
וחזק מאד.
ומגדל התגברות הרוח סערה עלו הגלים כמעט עד לב השמים
והיו כמו הרים גבוהים
ובקעות גדולות.
והיה כך כל הלילה גם כן.

וכשהאיר היום בא האיש שהיה עמו זכרונו לברכה.

ואמר לו רבנו זכרונו לברכה, שיש לו חלישות הלב מאד מגדל הפחד, כי אני רואה בלבי שאני עכשיו בסכנה גדולה כי אין זה דבר פשוט, אף על פי שאין אני רואה מה הם עושים אף על פי כן הלב רואה.
והאיש הנ"ל כחש לו
ואמר לו אל תפחדו כי ברוך השם הכל על נכון.
והלך האיש הנ"ל להסתכל בהמבר במקום שהם שואבין המים,
וראה שכבר יש שם כמו גלים קטנים כמו על הנהרות שלנו כי הספינה נעשה טעונה ממים לבד. כי דרך הספינה להיות טעונה עם משוי שני חלקים,
וכבר השליכו הישמעאלים כל המשאות
ונשארה הספינה טעונה עם מים לבד.
ומה שהיה שם עוד יותר מים ממשקל המשוי הראוי להיות בספינה, אלו המים שאבו לחוץ,
וגם על זה לא היו מספיקים לשאוב.
ואז ראה האיש שאי אפשר עוד על פי דרך הטבע להינצל.
ובא אל החדר שלהם,
ומחמת גדל הצער
והפחד לא היה יכול לדבר כמעט.
ואמר לו רבנו זכרונו לברכה מה זאת
ואיה פיך אשר אמרת שאין זה כלום
ועכשיו אתה בעצמך מתפחד כל כך?!
והשיב לו ששוב אין סברא על פי דרך הטבע להינצל, כי המים מתרבים
והולכים בספינה,
ואין ביכולתם לשאוב הכל כי כשל כח הסבל. כי זה קרוב למעת לעת שלא אכלו
ולא שתו
ולא ראו שנה בעיניהם.

ואמר לו האיש שעדין לא התפלל. השיב לו רבנו זכרונו לברכה אין אתה צריך להתפלל עכשיו, רק תקבל על מלכות שמים בפסוק ראשון,

ותאמר שלש ראשונות
ושלש אחרונות
וכו'.
ואמר לו קח כל המעות עד פרוטה אחרונה
ותחלק לשנים. מחצה תקשר אצלך על גופך,
ומחצה אקשר על גופי.
ושאלו האיש למה זאת, הלא הדג שבים יוכל לבלע אותנו בלא המעות. השיב לו עשה כך כמו שאני אומר לך. ישראל היו על הים
ולא טבעו,
ואנחנו עדין בספינה
וכו'
ועשה מה שעשה.
ואמר להאיש שילביש את עצמו
ויחגר בחגורה על הטילופ (מעיל פרוה)
וגם הוא עשה כך כמו אחד שמוכן לילך בדרך.

ושאל אותו האיש

ואמר לו אני איני יודע להתפלל אפילו תפלה הסדורה מאנשי כנסת הגדולה מכל שכן עכשיו בעת צרה הזאת. אבל כבוד תורתו יודע להתפלל בעד כלליות
ופרטיות, מפני מה אין אתם מתפללין עכשיו?
והשיב שעכשיו מחמת המחין דקטנות אני מרחק מהשם יתברך. אבל עצתי אמונה, מחמת אין בררה מחמת גדל הסכנה שאנחנו עכשיו בסכנה נוראה
ועצומה כזו, השם יתברך יודע שכל ימי חיי עדין לא הייתי משתמש מעולם בזכות אבות רק מחמת ההכרח מוכרח אני לבקש מהשם יתברך שיעשה זאת למען זכות זקני רבי ישראל בעל שם טוב זכרונו לברכה,
וזכות זקנתי אדל,
וזכות זקני רבי נחמן מהרידנקא.
ויתר מזה לא הזכיר עוד.

ואחר זה ראו מרחוק כמו ענן גדול אפל מאד,

ונפל עליהם עוד פחד גדול, מחמת שלפעמים כשהענן מתאסף
ומתקשר לשאב המים מהים, נעשה שם כמו בקעה,
וכשהספינה יורדת לשם אזי נטבעין שם.
והתקנה לזה לירות בקני שרפה
והורמאטעס כדרך המלחמה כדי לשבר העננים.
ולהם לא היה פנאי לזה מחמת שהיו צריכין לשאב המים מהספינה כנ"ל,
והיו הצרות צרורות זו לזו כמו זבורא
ועיקרבא. אך בחמלת ה' מחמת תקף הרוח סערה היה הליכת הספינה במהירות גדול
ופרחה הספינה כמו חץ מקשת ממש,
ובאה הספינה למקום הנ"ל שהענן שותה משם.
והיה שם כמו שער
והרים סביב לה,
ועברה הספינה משם בשלום.

ובתוך כך האיר ה' עיניהם,

ומצאו החור שדרך שם נכנסין המים בספינה,
ושחטו תיש,
ולקחו העור שלו
ותקנו הספינה
ונצלו בשלום מסכנות גדולות
ונוראות הללו.
והיה זאת בערב שבת קדש.
והיה להם שמחה גדולה,
ואמר רבנו זכרונו לברכה, אז הודו לה' (תהלים ק"ז) בשמחה גדולה. משם הלכו דרך מקומות הרבה מאד.
ואכילה שהיה להם על הספינה היה רק מה שנתן להם הקכער הנ"ל מצד רחמנות מהמגיזאן (מחסן) שלהם סוחרעס (צנימים)
ותולעים היו מרחשים עליהם.
והיו הולכים
ומבקשים
ופורשים ידיהם בהכנעה בכל יום כעני בפתח,
והיה נותן להם מאלו הסוחרעס
ואכלו זאת לבד.

ויהי בעלות על לבם שהוא סמוך לפסח היה להם צער גדול, כי היו דואגים מה יעשו בפסח כי אי אפשר להתענות כל ימות הפסח.

ואחר שעה או שתים באו אל כרך גדול העומדת על ההר של אבנים באמצע הים,
ושם קנו הישמעאלים פרות הרבה
ולהם נתנו בעד טאלער אחד חרובים שקורין באקסערן הרבה, בערך טשעטווירט,
ואמר רבנו זכרונו לברכה לעת עתה גם זה טוב מאד, כי יכולין לחיות שמונת ימי הפסח עם חרובין לבד, אך מי יתן שיזכה אותנו השם יתברך לקים מצות אכילת מצה
וארבע כוסות.

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Shivchei Haran - Wikisource, the free online library

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I had in view to explain and tell a little tiny bit of the holiness of the conduct of our holy awesome Rebbe, of blessed memory, from the day he became conscious until the day he went up in peace; a little of what I heard from his holy mouth himself, and a little from other people who knew him during his life, and a little of what we saw with our eyes...

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Article by Yehudis Golshevsky on "Spiritual Awakening" at B.R.I.

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Article by Yehudis Golshevsky on "Spiritual Awakening" at B.R.I.

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https://breslov.org/spiritual-awakening/

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BRI's NarrowBridge.Org sends out twice weekly inspiration providing a regular dose of hope, meaning and courage. These emails include small doses of Rebbe Nachman's wisdom, enabling us to get through the week in a more spiritual way. If you would like to receive these emails click here.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov taught...

Spiritual awakening begins with inspiration coming from Without. Then, once you are already on the road, the real work begins. Keep at it and inspiration will come from within.
(The Empty Chair, p. 41*)

What does this mean to me?

In the Kabbalistic and Chassidic works, the two parallel forces at work in the entire universe and in the microcosm of our personal Divine service are called "arousal from above" and "arousal from below." Throughout Jewish history-and in our own private histories-we find that G-d tends to provide us with a dose of inspiration from above to get us started, and after that we need to pull ourselves up bit by bit, from our end. The arousal from above inspires a corresponding arousal from below, where our work is. A model of this process can be found in the exodus from Egypt, which was then followed by forty-nine days of struggle and purification - Sefirat Ha'Omer - so that we could be worthy of receiving the Torah.

The Torah was given to us in the month of Sivan, whose astrological sign is Gemini-the Twins. The symbol of the twins expresses the duality of the inspiration from above and the awakening from below. Together, they comprise a whole that makes the descent of Torah to the world possible.

Master of the universe,
may my words race on toward You.
Maybe, just maybe, they will find favor and grace in Your eyes,
so that You will do something truly wondrous for me.
Please, carve a pathway for me beneath Your throne of glory
so that I can find my way back to You in complete repentance.
May my return to You be so wholehearted and true that, from now on,
I will begin to pursue the purpose in life for which You created me...
and grab hold of it.
(Likutei Tefillot II:1)

We encourage hearing your feedback and may anonymously publish your remarks. Please send email to: [email protected]

*"The Empty Chair: Finding Hope and Joy - Timeless Wisdom from a Hasidic Master, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov" by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Adapted by Moshe Mykoff and The Breslov Research Institute, 1994. Permission granted by Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, VT, www.jewishlights.com.

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BRI's NarrowBridge.Org sends out twice weekly inspiration providing a regular dose of hope, meaning...

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/16

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/16 - Wikisource, the free online library

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There was once an astrologer king who saw in the stars that if the grain would not be harvested by a certain time, it would all spoil.

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The King's Son And The Maid's Son Who Were Exchanged (Wikisource)

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The King's Son And The Maid's Son Who Were Exchanged (Wikisource)

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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Tales_of_Rabbi_Nachman/11

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A Tale. There once was a king. In his home there was a bondmaid [Yid./Heb. shifchah] who served the queen. (Generally no cook may enter in the king's presence, but this bondmaid had some other service, a minor service.) The time came when the queen was supposed to have a child, and the bondmaid had to give birth at that time as well. The granny [Yid. bubbe, Heb. meyaledeth, midwife] went and switched the babies to see what will happen; what will arise from this. So she took the king's child and put him down next to the bondmaid, and the bondmaid's son she put by the queen.

Afterwards the children began to grow up, and the king's son (that is, the child who grew up at the king's whom they thought was the king's son) they promoted (that is, made great) and kept raising higher and higher until he became extremely great and was a very important person. And the bondmaid's son (that is, he who was reared by the bondmaid, who in truth was the king's son) also grew up at the maid's, and both children studied together in one schoolroom. And the king's true son (who shall be called "the bondmaid's son"), his nature was drawn to the manners of royalty, except that he was brought up in the home of the servant. Conversely, the bondmaid's son (who shall be called "the king's son"), his nature was drawn to a different deportment not like the bearing of a king is, except that he was brought up in the king's home so he had to act according to the manners of a royal person, because those were the manners they brought him up with.

Now the granny, because women are da`athan kaloth [lit. light minded], in other words, they cannot hold themselves back, went and spoke out the secret to some person, inasmuch as she had exchanged the children. Now, every person has a friend, and that friend has another friend, thus one person told the other until the secret was revealed, as the way of the world is, until the world was talking quietly about it, that the king's son was switched. But it was not permitted to speak about it outright, so that the king should not become aware of it, for what will the king be able to do in such a case, since he cannot correct it? For he cannot believe it, as perhaps it is a lie, so how can one reverse the exchange? Therefore one certainly may not say it out in front of the king; however, amongst themselves the public talked about it quietly.

The day arrived when someone came along and told out the secret before the king's son, inasmuch as they say about him that he was exchanged. "However, you cannot investigate this, for it does not befit you. And how can one probe such a thing? Just, I am telling it to you in order that you should know. For perhaps there will once be a conspiracy against the monarchy; the conspiracy will be able to prevail through this, for they will say that they are taking to themselves the king's son as a king, that is, the one who they say of him that he is the king's true son, as mentioned before. Therefore you need to outwit the fellow." (All this said that person to the king's son who in actual truth is the bondmaid's son, as mentioned.)

The king's son (that is, the one who is called the king's son. And the rule is that wherever simply "the king's son" is mentioned, it refers to the exchanged one. That is, he is actually the bondmaid's son, except that he is called the king's son because he was raised at the king's. And similarly with the "bondmaid's son" where a bondmaid's son is mentioned: only where "the king's true son" or "the bondmaid's true son" is mentioned, then the meaning is the actual truth.) went and began to do mischief to the other one's father (who was really his own father), and arranged everything to constantly do him evil. And he kept dealing him mischiefs one after another in order that he should have to be uprooted along with his son. Now the whole time the king himself still lived, he did not yet have so much authority; nonetheless he kept dealing him woes.

Afterwards the king grew old and died, so he assumed the reign (that is, the bondmaids's son who is now called the king's son, as mentioned above); then he dealt even more evil to the other son's father (that is, to the father of the bondmaid's son who in truth was the king's son; and this father was really his own father, of the one who had taken up the reign, for they were exchanged, as above). And he dealt him evil disguised so that people would not know that it's from him, for it's unseemly in front of people, and kept dealing him mischiefs one after another.

This one [the son's father] understood that he is dealing him woes on account of the matter (that is, because the public discusses that the children were exchanged). He (that is, the bondservant, the bondmaid's husband who was constantly dealt woes in order that he should drive out his son because they say that the children were exchanged, as mentioned) spoke up and said to his son and told him the whole affair and said to him, "I have great pity on you, for any way you approach it [ mimah nafshakh, lit. "from wherever your soul (is drawn)," possibly a double meaning here]: if indeed you are my child, of course I certainly have great pity on you; if indeed you are not my child but are in truth the king's son, there is even greater pity on you, because that one (that is, he who took over the reign) wants to expel you entirely, perish the thought. Therefore, you must pull up (that is, run away) from here."

It irritated him very much and he felt very bad about the thing. However, the king (that is, the one who became king in place of his father, because it seemed he is the king's son due to the interchange) meanwhile kept constantly dealing out woes one after another, so the son (that is, the king's true son who was exchanged) decided he must run away. His father gave him a great deal of money and he left. It upset him very much that he was driven out of his country for nothing, for he looked around him: "Why do I deserve it that I should be driven out? If indeed I am the king's son, I certainly don't deserve this, that I should be driven out. And even if I am not the king's son, I also don't deserve this, that I should be a fugitive (that is, one who has run away) for nothing. For, what is my sin? What am I guilty of here?" It upset him very much, and on account of this he took to the drink and went to brothels (that is, to houses where there are whores). And with that he wanted to spend his years, getting drunk and following after what his heart desires, because he was driven away for nothing.

And the king (that is, the false prince, the exchanged one who became king) took over the kingship strongly, and when he heard anything about people murmuring and discussing anything about it (that is, that they were switched, as mentioned) he penalized them (in other words, punished and tortured) and took his revenge on them. So he ruled with force and strength.

And the day came to pass when the king went with his noblemen on a catch ("na ulavi" [<Rus.]: that is, catching animals) and they came to a pleasant place. And a river of water was ahead of that spot, so they stopped there to rest themselves and they wanted to walk around. The king lay down for a little bit, and the deed that he had done, that he had driven away that certain person for nothing, came to his mind. For, any way you look at it: if he's indeed the king's son, is it not enough that he was exchanged? Why should he in addition be driven out for nothing? And if he is not the king's son, he also does not deserve to be driven away, for what had he done wrong? The king thought himself away in this matter, and had remorse over the transgression and the great injustice that he had done. And the king could give himself no advice what he should do here. And to talk about it - one cannot do such a thing with any person at all, to take counsel with him (for one is obviously ashamed to discuss such things with people). So the king became very laden with great worry. He ordered the nobles to turn back, because since worry has befallen him there is no need to tour any more. They returned home. When the king returned home, he of course had numerous affairs and concerns, and he busied himself with his concerns and the thing left his mind (that is, the worry and the remorse that he had over the fact that he had driven away the other for no reason).

And the one who was driven away (that is, the king's true son) - well, he did what he did and squandered his money. One time, he went out alone for a walk; and he lay down and it came to his mind what had happened to him and he thought: "What has God done to me? If I am indeed the king's son I certainly don't deserve this, and if I am not the king's son I also don't deserve this selfsame thing, that I should be a fugitive and an exile." Then he reached settledness in his mind, "Just the reverse. If it is so, that Hashem Yithbarakh can indeed do such a thing, that they should exchange a king's son and such things should befall him - do I turn myself to behave this way? Is it right, what I have done? Does it befit me that I should behave thus, the way I have done?" And he began to have great anguish and very much regret the bad deeds he had done. Then he turned back home, there where he was staying, and further took to the drink. However, because he had already begun to have remorse, the thoughts of remorse and repentance which came to his mind all the time would confuse him.

One time he laid himself down to sleep and the dream came to him to the effect: In such and such a place there is a fair on such and such a day; therefore he should go there, and whatever he strikes first - any gainful service - he should immediately do it, even if it won't be according to his dignity (thus went his dream). And he woke up with a start and the dream was very much in his thought. For sometimes it happens that the matter immediately goes out from the thought. But rather, this dream very much entered in his thought. Albeit, nonetheless, it seemed very hard for him to do this, and he went more to the drink. And the dream appeared to him again several times, and the dream confused him a great deal.

One time they said to him in the dream, "If you want to have pity on yourself, do thus" (that is, he should go to the fair etc. as mentioned), so now he had to carry out the dream. And he went ahead and left the remaining money he still had, leaving it at the inn where he was staying; and the good clothes which he had, he also left at the inn; and he took for himself a simple garment like merchants, that is, a coverall, and he set out for the fair and arrived there. And he got up very early and went to the fair.

A certain merchant encountered him and said to him, "Would you like to earn something?" He answered him, "Yes." He said to him, "I need to drive herds [ behemoth, dumb beasts] here. Will you hire yourself out to me?" And he didn't have time to settle his mind, due to the dream (for the dream had been that he must take on the first gainful work etc. as mentioned), and he immediately answered, "Yes." And the merchant immediately hired him and immediately began to lord over him like a master over his servants. And he began to look around himself, what he had done, for he certainly doesn't deserve such a servitude, for he is a delicate man and now he'll have to drive herds and go by foot next to the beasts. However, one already can't have any regret, and the merchant is lording over him like a master. He asked the merchant, "How shall I go alone with the herds?" He answered, "I have more herdsmen driving my herds. You'll go together with them," and he gave over to his hands certain herds to drive. He led the herds out of the town, and there, gathered together, were the rest of the herdsmen driving beasts.

They went together; he was driving the herds, and the merchant was riding on a horse and going along with them. And the merchant was driving cruelly (that is, with anger and without compassion), and against him he was extra cruel, and he grew more and more terrified of the merchant, since he saw in him that he has extremely great cruelty and anger against him. And he feared in case he deals him a blow with his stick then he'll die instantly (for the king's [true] son was quite a frail person and on account of his sensitivity he was very terrified, thus he thought that way). So he was walking with the herds, and the merchant with them. And they came to a certain spot; they took the sack wherein lies the herdsmen's bread, and he (the merchant) gave them to eat; him too they gave from the bread and he ate.

Afterwards, they were walking by a very thick forest; two beasts from his herds (of this son who had become a herder for the merchant) walked off into the forest. The merchant yelled at him and he went after the beasts to capture them. And the beasts ran away further and he pursued them more; and since the forest was very thick, it was as soon as he entered the forest that they already could not see each other, so he immediately disappeared (that is, became hidden) from their eyes (that is, from the rest who were going with him). And he (that is, the king's [true] son) from whom the two beasts walked off, kept going and still chasing after the beasts and they kept running away. And he chased after them a great deal, until he arrived in the thick of the forest.

He made up his mind: "Either way [lit. be what will be], I'm already going to die, because if I return without the beasts I'll die through the merchant" (for on account of the great fear that he had of the merchant, it seemed to him that the merchant would kill him if he returns without the beasts). And if I'll be here I will also die by the animals of the forest." He decided, "Why should I return to the merchant? How can I come to him without the beasts?" For he had great fear of him. He went and chased further after the beasts and they kept running away. Meanwhile it became night, and such a thing he has never had, that he should have to sleep alone at night in such a thick forest. And he heard the roaring of the beasts which roared in their usual way. He made up his mind and went up on a tree and spent the night there, and he heard the sound of the beasts yelling in their usual way.

In the morning he took a look: he saw that the beasts are standing close by him. He got down the tree and went to catch them; they got away further. He went after them more and they got away more. And the beasts found themselves some grasses to eat there and they stopped to graze. He went further to catch them; they got away further. And thus he kept going after them and they run away, he goes after them more and they run away - until he has arrived in very thick forest where there were already animals that have no fear whatsoever of any people, because they are far from settled places. And again it has become night and he heard the sound of the animals roaring and he was very terrified.

Meanwhile he noticed that a very large tree is standing there, and he got up on the tree. As soon as he was up on the tree he noticed: a man is lying there. He took fright but still he was relieved for the reason that he has found a human here. They asked one another, "Who are you?" "A man." "Who are you?" "A man." "From where have you come here?" He did not want to tell what had happened to him, so he answered him, "By way of the dumb beasts which I tended. Two beasts walked off here, and thereby I've arrived here." In return he asked the other man whom he found there on the tree, "From where did you get here?" He answered him, "I got here by the horse. For I was riding on a horse; I stopped to take a rest and the horse went off into the forest. I chased after it to catch it and the horse ran away further, until I arrived here."

They made up between them that they should remain together, and they agreed that even when they will come into civilization they should also remain together. And the two of them slept the night there and they heard the sound of the beasts roaring and screaming very much. Towards day he heard a very great laughter (" kha kha kha") over the entire forest (in other words, the sound of the laughter went over all the forest), for it was a very great laughter, to the extent that the tree trembled from the sound of the laughter, and he became very terrified and had great fear from it. The other person said to him (that is, the man whom he had found there on the tree), "I already have no fear of it whatsoever, for I've slept here already several nights. All nights are like this; as it gets close to day, one hears the laughter, to the extent that all the trees tremble and quake."

He was very frightened and said to the other, "It seems that here is the place of 'those people' (that is, of the demons), for in settled areas one does not hear such a laughter at all, for who has heard a laughter over the entire world?" Then immediately it became day. They took a look; they saw: the beasts of his are standing, and the horse of the other is also standing. They went down and started chasing after - this one after the beasts and that one after the horse. And the beasts ran away further, and he chases more, etc. as before. And likewise the other keeps chasing after the horse and the horse keeps running away, until they [the two men] have gone off, one from the other, and one already did not know of the other['s whereabouts].

Meanwhile he (that is, the king's son who was still chasing after the beasts) found a sack with bread. Now this is certainly very important in a wilderness, so he took the sack on his shoulders and went after the beasts.

Meanwhile he encountered a man. Initially he was afraid; however, still he had a little relief because has he found a person here. The man asked him, "How did you get here?" He asked the other man in return, "How did you get here?" The other man answered him, " I (with an expression of amazement) - my parents and my parents' parents were raised here. But you, how have you come here? For, no man whatsoever comes here from the settled areas." He was very frightened, for he understood that this is no human being at all, for he says his ancestors were raised here and no man from civilization comes at all here, so he understood that this is no human at all. But still he did not do anything to him whatsoever and was welcoming (that is, this man of the forest did not do any harm to the king's [true] son who was going after the beasts).

And the man of the forest said to him, "What are you doing here?" He answered: he is chasing after the dumb beasts. The man (of the forest) said to him, "Stop chasing after your sins already, for it is not beasts at all but rather your sins are leading you around like this. Enough already! You have already received yours (that is, your punishment you've already received). Now stop chasing them any more. Come with me; you will arrive at the thing that is fitting for you." He went with him, and he was afraid to speak with him and to ask him anything, for a man like this may open up his mouth and swallow him down. He followed him.

Meanwhile, he encountered his friend who was chasing after the horse. As soon as he saw him he immediately winked at him (to signal) that "this is no human being at all; don't have any dealings with him whatsoever, because this is not at all a human." And he immediately went and whispered it to him in his ear, that this is not a human being at all, etc. Meanwhile his friend (that is, the horseman) took a look and he saw: he has a sack with bread on his shoulder! He began to appeal to him, "My brother! It is already days that I have not eaten. Give me bread!" He answered him, "Here in the wilderness nothing helps, for my life takes priority; I need the bread for my sake." He began to beg him and beseech him greatly, "I'll give what I'll give you!" (Except, in the wilderness certainly no gift helps at all for bread)." He answered him, "What can you give me for bread in the wilderness?" He said to him (that is, the horseman who begged for the bread said to the herdsman, who is the king's true son), "I give away myself entirely; I will sell myself to you as a servant for the bread." He (that is, the herdsman) decided: "To purchase a man it's worth it to give him bread," and he bought him as a permanent slave. And he swore him in with oaths that he shall be a slave to him forever, even when they arrive in civilization, and he will give him bread, that is, they shall both eat from the sack of bread until it runs out.

And the both of them went together and followed the man of the forest, and the slave walked behind him (that is, the horseman who sold himself as a slave followed after the herdsman, for he was already his slave, and the two of them walked after the man of the forest). And meanwhile now it became a little bit easier for him (since he has a servant already). When he needed to lift up some object or do something else he ordered his slave to lift it or do something. So they followed together behind the man of the forest and they came to a place where there were snakes and scorpions; he grew very terrified, and on account of fear he asked the man of the forest, "How will we get past here?" He answered him, " Ella ma'i (but what then? isn't this too a wonder?) - how will you enter my house?" - and showed him his house standing in the air. They went with him and he brought them over in peace, and he brought them into his house, gave them [things] to eat and to drink, and went away.

And he (that is, the king's true son who had driven the beasts) ordered his slave around for whatever he needed. It upset the slave very much that he had sold himself as a slave for the sake of a single hour when he needed bread to eat, because now he already has what to eat and just for the sake of a single hour he will be an eternal slave. And he made a big sigh and groaned, "What have I come to, that I should be a slave?" He asked him (that is, the king's true son, who was his master, asked him), "What kind of greatness did you have, that you sigh that you have come to this?"

He answered him and recounted to him to the effect: He had been a king; they said about him that he had been exchanged etc., as above (for this horseman was really the king himself, who was actually the bondmaid's son); he drove his friend away (that is, the king's true son). One time it came upon his mind that he has done not right and he regretted etc. Regrets kept coming to him constantly over the evil deed and over the great injustice that he has done against his friend. Once, the dream appeared to him that his correction is that he should throw away the kingship and go wherever his eyes will bring him, and by this he will rectify his error. He didn't want to do it, but those same dreams kept perplexing him constantly, that he should do so, until it remained in his mind that he should do so. So he threw away the kingship and went where he went until he came here. And now he'll be a slave.

Now the other one hears all this and keeps silent (that is, the king's true son who had driven beastsheard out all this that he told him), and he thought to himself, "I will know well enough how to deal with you."

At night, the man of the forest came and gave them to eat and to drink, and they spent the night there. Towards day they heard the great laughter (mentioned earlier), until all the trees trembled; it broke all the trees (the sound of the laughter). He urged him (that is, the slave urged the king's true son, who is his master) to ask the man of the forest what it is. He asked him, "What is this such great laughter, close to day?" He answered him, "This is the day laughing at the night, for the night asks the day, 'Why when you come do I have no name?' The day lets out a big laugh and then it becomes day. And this is the laughter that is heard close to day." This was a big wonder to him, for this is something extraordinary, that the day laughs at the night. (He could already ask no more, when the other answers with such language.)

In the morning again the man of the forest went away and they ate and drank there; at night he came back and they ate and drank and spent the night there. At night they heard the sound of the animals as they all screamed and roared with wild [i.e. extraordinary] sounds. The lion screamed, the leopard roared with another sound, and similarly the rest of the beasts, each beast roaring with a different sound, and the birds whistled and clicked, and so all gave voice with wild sounds. And at the beginning they became very scared; they did not listen correctly to the sound on account of fear. Later, they bowed their ears and listened; they heard it's a sound of a melody; they sing quite a nice tune which is an extraordinary novelty. They listened even more; they heard it's an extraordinarily fine melody that is quite a wild marvel which was an extremely great pleasure to hear, [such] that all the pleasures of the world are completely nothing and amount to absolutely nothing in compare to the wildly great pleasure that one has when one hears this wondrous tune. They discussed between themselves that they want already to remain here, since for eating and drinking they have, and they have such a delight that is such a marvel that all kinds of delights of the world were entirely nullified against this pleasure. The slave urged his master (that is, the king's true son) to ask him (that is, the man of the forest) what it is; he asked him.

He answered him: Inasmuch as the sun has made a garment for the moon, all the animals of the forest have spoken up to the effect that the moon does them great favors, for the animals' dominion is mainly at night only. For sometimes they need to go into a settled area, and by day they cannot, so of course the main time of their dominion is only at night. And the moon does them such a favor by shining for them at night; therefore they agreed that they should make a new melody in honor of the moon, and this is the tune that you hear. When they heard it's a melody they listened even more; they heard it's quite a lovely, sweet melody that is an extremely wild novelty.

He replied to them (that is, the man of the forest) "What - is this such a novelty for you? Ella ma'i [But what then?] - I have an instrument which I've received from my forebears, who inherited it from their forebears' forebears, which this instrument was made with such things, with such leaves and with such colors, that when one takes the instrument and puts it on whatever beast or on whatever bird then it immediately begins to play this melody (that is, the melody that the animals played)." Then the laughter happened again and it became day; the man of the forest again went away and he (that is, the king's true son) went searching for the instrument. And he searched out the entire room and did not find, and he was fearful to go any further. And they (that is, the king's true son with his slave who is the bondmaid's son who before was king) were afraid to say to the man of the forest that he should lead them into settlement.

Later the man of the forest came and said to them that he would lead them into settlement. He led them into settlement, and he took the instrument and gave it to the king's true son and said to him, "The instrument I give to you. And with him (that is, with his slave who before was king etc.) - you will know how to deal with him." They asked him, "Where shall we go?" He said to them that they should inquire after the land that is called by this name: "The Foolish Land with the Wise King ( Das Nayrishe Land un der Kluger Malchus)." They asked him, "To which side [Yid. tsayt; compare with zayt further below; Heb. tzad] should we start to ask after this land?" He showed them with his hand: right here (as someone points with a finger). The man of the forest said to the king's true son, "Go there, to the land, and there you will come to your greatness."

They went where they went, and they very much wished to find any animal or beast to test the instrument, whether it would be able to play (as before). However they still did not see any sort of animal. Then they arrived further into settlement. They found some beast and laid the instrument down on it and it began to play the tune (as before). So they went and went until they came to the land. And the land was walled about and one could not enter in the land except by one gateway. One must go around several miles until one comes to the gateway. They went around until they came to the gateway. When they had now arrived at the gateway, they did not want to let them enter, inasmuch as the king of the land had died; the king's son remained and the king had left a will: "Inasmuch as the land has hereto been called Das Nayrishe Land un der Kluger Malchus ("The Foolish Land with the Wise King"), now it will already be called the reverse: Das Kluger Land un der Nayrisher Malchus ("The Wise Land with the Foolish King"). And whoever will undertake that he should return the land to the first name, that is, that they will once again call the land by its first name, Das Nayrishe Land un der Kluger Malchus - the same shall become king" - therefore they do not let any man into the land except he who will undertake the same, that he should return the land to the first name. They said to him, "Can you undertake this, that you should return the country to its first name?" He certainly could not undertake this, so they could not enter. His slave urged him that they should return home. However he did not want to return because the man of the forest had said to him that he should go to this land and there he will arrive at his greatness.

Meanwhile another man arrived who was riding on a horse, and he wanted to go in but they also did not let him in on account of this (as mentioned). Meanwhile he noticed that this other man's horse is standing so he went ahead and took the instrument and laid it down on the horse and it began to play the very fine melody (as above). The horseman pleaded him very much that he should sell it to him, and he replied, "What can you give me for such a wondrous instrument?"

The horseman said to him, "Well, what can you do with this instrument except perform theatrics and take in a gulden? I however know a thing that is better than your instrument. I know a thing I've received from my parents' parents: to be an extrapolater [ mevin davar mitokh davar]. That is, I know such a thing that I've received from the forebears of my forebears, that through this thing one can make inference. When somebody says just any utterance, one knows, through that which I have received, one should discern something from one thing (that is, one thing from the other). And I have not yet spoken out the thing before any man in the world. Therefore, I will teach out to you this certain thing, and you will give me this here instrument for that."

He decided (that is, the king's true son, who had the instrument) it is truly a great wonder to be an extrapolater. So he gave away the instrument to him and he (that is, the horseman) went ahead and instructed him so that he should be an extrapolater. Now the king's true son, since he has now gotten the ability to extrapolate, was walking around there by the gate of the country, and he understood that it is indeed possible for him to undertake it to return the land to its first name. For he had now after all become an extrapolater; thus he understood it is possible, even though he did not yet know just how and by what way he will be able to do this, to restore the first name to the country. But nevertheless because he had become able to extrapolate, he understood it is possible.

He made up his mind he would order himself let in and he would undertake it that he would return its first name to the country. What would he lose here? He said (to those people who did not want to let him in) that they should let him in and he will take under himself that very thing, that he would return the first name to the country. They let him in, and they informed the noblemen that there is found a man who wants to undertake it to return the land to the first name. They brought him to the noblemen of the land.

The noblemen said to him, "You should know that we too are no fools, God forbid, except the king that had been - he was a very extraordinarily great sage, such that against him we were all fools. Therefore the land used to be called 'The Foolish Land with the Wise Government ( malkhuth).' Then the king died; the king's son remained, and the king's son is also a wise man, except against us he is not at all smart. Therefore the land is now called conversely: 'The Smart Land with the Foolish Government.'

"The king left a will: when there will be found such a wise person that he should return the land to the first name, he shall be king. And he commanded his son that when such a man will be found, he shall step down from the reign for him: that is, when there will be found such a wise man that he will be such an extraordinarily great sage that against him everyone will be fools, he will become king, for this man will surely bring back the land once more to its first name, 'The Foolish Land with the Smart King,' for they are after all fools against him. Therefore you should know what you are taking under yourself here." (All such did the noblemen say to him.)

In addition they (that is, the noblemen again; this is all a continuation of their words) said to him, "The test will be whether you are this wise: Inasmuch as there is a garden that is left over from a king who had been, who was a very great sage, and the garden is quite an extraordinary novelty - metal instruments grow in it (that is, tools of ironwork), silver instruments and gold instruments - so it is an extremely wild novelty: However, one cannot go in the garden, for when a person goes in the garden then immediately they begin chasing him. So they chase and he screams and he doesn't at all know and doesn't at all see who is chasing him, and so they chase him continuously until they make him run away from the garden. Therefore, we shall see whether you are wise; if you'll be able to go into the garden."

He asked whether they beat the person who enters. They said to him: the main thing is they chase him and he doesn't at all know who they are that chase him and he has to run away in very great panic. For thus people who had gone in there told them. (All thus did the noblemen say to the king's true son.)

He got up and went to the garden. He saw there is a wall around it, and the gate is open and there aren't any guards there, for one certainly doesn't need any guards for this garden (for no one is able to go in it, as mentioned)! He (that is, the king's true son) was walking by the garden and he took a look: he noticed that standing there by the garden is a man. That is, a man was portrayed there. He looked some more and he saw that above the man there is a sign, and there it is written that the man - this was a king several hundred years ago, and in the king's times there was peace, for until this king there were wars and likewise after him there were wars but in the days of this king there was peace.

He understood, because he had already gotten the ability to extrapolate, that it all depends on this man. When one enters the garden and they start to chase him, he needs not run away at all but just put himself next to the man; thereby he will be saved. Moreover even if one takes this man and inserts him inside in the interior of the garden then every man will be able to enter in peace into this garden. (All this the king's true son understood because he had become able to infer.)

He got up and went inside the garden, and as soon as they started chasing him he went and put himself next to the man standing by the garden from the outside, and thereby he emerged in peace and it did not harm him at all. For, others when they entered in the garden and they started chasing them would run away in very great panic and were consequently battered, but he emerged in peace and tranquility by placing himself next to the man.

And the noblemen saw this and were astonished that he got out safely. Then he ordered (that is, the king's true son called) that they should take the man and insert him inside within the midst of the garden. They did so and then all the noblemen entered inside the garden and they passed through and got out safely.

The noblemen spoke up to him, "Still, even though we have seen from you such a thing, nevertheless for the sake of one thing you do not yet deserve to be given the kingship. We will try you further with one thing. Inasmuch as there is a throne here from the king who was, and the throne is very high and by the throne stand all sorts of animals and birds carved out of wood: And in front of the throne stands a little bed, and by the bed stands a table, and on the table stands a lamp. And from the throne emerge paved roads and the roads are walled and the roads go out from the throne to all sides [ zaytin; see above where it is spelled with a tzaddi], and no man knows whatsoever what it is, the matter of the throne with these roads. And these roads, when they go out and extend for some piece [i.e. distance] - a golden lion is standing there. And if some man should go to it, it will open its mouth and swallow him down. And beyond this lion the road extends even further, and likewise with the rest of the roads that go out from the throne. That is, with another road that goes out from the throne to another side it is also like that: when the road extends away a piece, a different animal is standing there, namely a leopard [Yid. lempert, Heb. lavi' lion] of ironwork. And there too one cannot go to it (as before, because it will swallow him down). And beyond the leopard the road extends further, and so it is with the rest of the roads. And these selfsame roads extend and go throughout the entire land, and no man whatsoever knows what is the thing of the throne with all these things and the roads. Therefore you shall be tested with this, whether you will be able to know the matter of the throne with all these things."

They showed him the throne and he saw that it was very high, etc. He went to the throne, took a look and understood that the throne was made of the little box's wood (that is, the instrument that the man of the forest had given him). He looked some more and he saw the throne is lacking some little rose at the top [ rayzile, Heb. shoshanah], and if the throne would have this rose the throne would have the power of the little box (that is, the aforementioned instrument which had the power that when one would lay the instrument on some beast or animal it began to play, as mentioned). He looked some more and he saw that this rose which is missing at the top of the throne, this rose is lying at the bottom in the throne. One needs to take the little rose out from below and seat it above and thus the throne will have the power of the little box. For the king who had been had done everything with wisdom and had disguised everything in order that no one should understand the matter - what it means - until there would come such an extraordinarily great sage who would surmise and would be able to hit upon interchanging everything and arranging all the things as needed.

And so too the little bed: he understood that one needs to move it a bit away and back from the place where it's standing. And also the table: one also needs [to move it] a bit away and back from [its] place; and one also needs the lamp a bit away and back from its place. And so too the birds and animals: one also needs to relocate them all; one should take this bird from this place and put it on that place. And thus with everything; one must reposition everything. For the king had purposely disguised everything cleverly in order that no one should know what is meant, until there would come the wise man who would be able to understand he should arrange everything properly.

And so too the lion that stands there, where that road goes out: one needs to put it yonder. And likewise all of them; one needs to relocate all of them. He ordered that they should arrange everything as needed: they should take out the little rose from below and seat it above, and likewise all the things - they should reposition all things and arrange them differently (as needed; in the way he called for).

As soon as they did so, they all began playing the exquisite melody that is quite a wild novelty, and they all did what they needed to do. So they gave him the kingship (that is, the true king's son who demonstrated all the clever things, as above). He spoke up and said to the [actual] bondmaid's son: "Now I understand that I am indeed the real son of the king and you are really the bondmaid's son."

This story largely features people running away out of great fear. The bondmaid's son(king's son) was chased away from his home, the bondmaid's son's animals run away in the forest and he chases after them to catch them, and people run away out of fear from the garden made of music instruments. Also, the King goes on a hunt to catch wild animals. The bondmaid's son hears the growling of the wild animals and he is in great fear of them. At one point in the story, a man in the forest gives him a music instrument made of wood that he places on wild animals. When he does, it magically plays the same sounds music the wild animals made. At a later point in the story, the man enters a king's throne with several carvings of wild animals that threaten to eat him. The throne is made out of the same material as the music instruments. And the carvings of animals are made out of the same material as the music instruments in the garden. And the carvings of birds are made out of wood, the same material of the music instrument. When he repositions the wood over the animals, they all begin to play the same music as before. Because the animals are made out of the same materials of the music instruments, that means they are the music instrument itself that plays. Also since they originally sang the music themselves. These animals in the king's throne normally do not go to settled areas during the day because they are afraid of men that would catch them. And would run away from them. But can only go at night time when everyone is asleep. When they can go, they begin to play the tune as before. The same way that men run away from the garden of music instruments out of fear. Which is a settled area. So they are linked. That means that when the bondmaid's son's animals make the bondmaid's son chase after them, it is really music instruments that make him run. This is all a hint to alarm pheromones. Alarm pheromones are chemical signals that animals make to warn other members of its family of danger. They are a communication "music" that animals make. In order to save them. When the animals are exposed to the alarm pheromone, it causes them to run away in great fear.

Translator's note: "Y" indicates notes that appear after the Yiddish text, "H" indicates notes that appear after the Hebrew text, and "YH" indicates notes found in both.

H: (These too are the words of Rabbeinu n"y [ nero ya'ir, "let his light shine"]; after he told this story he spoke up and said these words:)

Y: In former generations when they would discuss kabbalah it would be talked about in such language (as this story is). H: For until Rashbi they would not discuss kabbalah openly; only Rashbi disclosed kabbalah openly; and before, when the friends would speak kabbalah they would speak in such language: "When they placed the ark upon the oxen they began singing." Now understand this.

H: For there are new states of the moon, when the moon receives innovations from the sun, and this is the aspect of when they bring the Ark to Beith Shemesh [lit. "House of the Sun," I Sam. 6], and then all the creaturesbearing the Throne make a new melody, the aspect of " Mizmor shiru laShem shir chadash/ A Song: Sing to Hashem a new song," which is the song that the cows of Bashan sang. And this is the aspect of: bed, table, chair and lamp; they are the restoration of the Shekhinah. And the aspect of the garden: for Adam haRishon was driven out of the Garden, and Shabbath guarded over him, as is brought [in the books of kabbalah]. And Shabbath is the aspect of "the king unto whom peace belongs," the aspect of the aforementioned man, who is the king during whose days there was peace; and therefore he stationed himself by Shabbath. And the rest he did not explain.

H: (He spoke up and said after telling this story, in these words:) YH: This story is a big wonder, and it's entirely one: the herdsetc., the throne etc. and the garden; it's all one. At times it (the aspect hinted to in the story) is called by this name, at times by this name; H: all according to the inyan/ interest and the aspect.

H: And the things are very, very deep, wondrous and awesome. (These too are the words of Rabbeinu n"y.) And there is more, but there is no need to reveal everything. There is also that the king that was in that land did something corresponding to the sun and something corresponding to the moon (that is, that these things alluded to the sun and the moon), and the moon was holding a lamp in its hand, and when the day arrives then the lamp does not shine, for " shraga betihara/ a lamp at midday" etc. [is superfluous]. And this is that the night said to the day, "Why is it that when you arrive I have no name?" (as expressed above), for in the day a lamp does not avail whatsoever.

YH: The explanation of the story is like the throne which the king made, as mentioned, as the main wisdom is that one needs to know how to order the things; therefore whoever is adept in the books and his heart is whole can understand the explanation; however, the things have to be ordered well, for sometimes it is called this and sometimes it is called that, and likewise with the rest of the things, that is, with the explanation of the story, sometimes the man of the above story is called by this name, and sometimes by a different name, and similarly with the rest of the things. Fortunate is he who will be privileged to understand these things to their truth. Y: All this he himself a"h said after the story. H: Barukh Hashem le`olam, amen ve'amen/ Blessed be Hashem forever, Amen and Amen. (These are entirely Rabbeinu haKadosh's words, a"h ztz"l.)

1. Pl. Behemoth, sing. behemah. In essence behemah means "dumb beast" but behemoth usually denotes "cattle" (large or small, e.g. cows or sheep); in other words, quadruped domestic animals, especially of a horned species. Figuratively, behemah denotes a beast as opposed to man. Since it is clear in this story that the behemoth here are symbolic of a person's animalistic desires, and no English word can convey all these meanings, we leave it untranslated here.

2. Pl. chayoth, sing. chayah. This is the most common general term for "animals" so it could be translated as "animals" or "beasts." In Hebrew, however, chayoth does not usually denote livestock, birds, fish or insects; indeed, sometimes the author refers to chayoth and birds together, as complements, indicating that chayoth in such contexts refers to land animals. In this first occurrence the "chayoth" seem to be wild beasts of the forest; but generally, domestic animals which are not livestock, such as dogs, cats, gerbils, etc. can also be called chayoth. Thus we render it "beasts" or leave it untranslated.

3. keli, not necessarily a "musical instrument" per se. Keli is synonymous with "tool" or "device" and a musical instrument is a keli-zemer.

4. Tsayt with a tzaddi - an unusual spelling for "side" which is usually zayt as per Ger. Seite. Translator's note: there is a hint here.

5. כשהניחו הארון על הפרות התחילו לשורר

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman/11 - Wikisource, the free online library

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A Tale. There once was a king. In his home there was a bondmaid [Yid./Heb. shifchah] who served the queen. (Generally no cook may enter in the king’s presence, but this bondmaid had some other service, a minor service.) The time came when the queen was supposed to have a child, and the bondmaid had to give birth at that time as well. The granny [Yid. bubbe, Heb. meyaledeth, midwife] went and switched the babies to see what will happen; what will arise from this. So she took the king’s child and put him down next to the bondmaid, and the bondmaid’s son she put by the queen.