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Rav Shlomo Katz delves into the wisdom of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov zy"a
Okay, let's start חברה. Good morning everybody. We're learning לעילוי נשמת בתיה פייגא בת ישראל, לוי בן יוסף, פנחס מנחם בן אברם דוד, and פרידה שמחה בת יצחק. And the week is sponsored by Michael and Cindy Levi in memory of רבי אשר בן בנימין, דינה בת משה אהרן, and גיטל בת עמנואל.
And that is it for today. Okay. That's it for today. Here, we're going to pass these around.Now we are, we are, this is very, very exciting because for the last two weeks we've been learning about, um, about רבי נחמן's journey to ארץ ישראל.
In the first two שיעורים on this, we're describing how crazy the journey was, specifically one important נקודה, one very important נקודה that we're going to repeat over here again today. I'm, we're just scratching the surface here, there's so much more to, I had to really choose and pick what are the things we're going to be להתעקש on about the journey. And there are mainly, those are mainly things that, like we'll see today, that we could learn that there's a לימוד in, there's a לימוד in every single detail here. But really regarding certain statements that were made once רבי נחמן right before he came to ארץ ישראל and definitely when he arrived in ארץ ישראל.
This is all shrouded in mystery. Again, we're going to the summer of 1798, alright? 1798. And now, uh, the the first paragraph you have up here is what רבי נחמן said about himself regarding the childlike behavior that we spoke about last week, this very bizarre childlike behavior that the רבי was very immersed in during his time in Istanbul, which we saw that actually saved his life. And there was a lot of עבודות behind it, a lot of very deep כוונות behind it.
But again, we're just going to repeat the last thing that we had said in last שיר. ואמר רבינו ז"ל, שכל כך נכנס בהקטנות, ונעשה רגיל בעניני הקטנות כל כך. Do you remember this? He got, he was, he he went so into like קטנות, and he made himself so accustomed to acting like this, עד שאחר כך, כשבא לארץ ישראל, ורצה להשליך זאת, היה מוכרח להכריח את עצמו בכוחות, לשבר, ולהשליך את עניני הקטנות הנ"ל, כי כבר היה קשה עליו להשליך זאת מחמת גודל הרגילות, כל כך היה נכנס בהקטנות תחילה. Meaning that he was so accustomed to living like this that when he came to ארץ ישראל and that wasn't the עבודה anymore to act like this with this childlike bizarre behavior, he was so accustomed to it that it was hard for him to to to strip it off and go back to being what was again, it's a very relative thing to say, normal רבי נחמן behavior because that's also pretty out there as well.
But you understand what we're saying over here. גם אחר כך כשבא מארץ ישראל היה חידוש נפלא בענין זה, ועוצם הפלגת גדולת חכמתו בענין זה עמוק עמוק לא נשמע ולא נראה כזאת, writes רב נתן, that when he came from ארץ ישראל, he was a completely different חידוש. As I as we mentioned before, from the ספר ליקוטי מוהר"ן that you have in front of you, 99% of ליקוטי מוהר"ן are teachings that רבי נחמן said um only after he came back from ארץ ישראל. זאת אומרת, his whole התחדשות of תורה, which is the עיקר of what when we say a חידוש, his תורה learning that we have from רבי נחמן is תורת is really תורת ארץ ישראל.Now רבי נחמן taught a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot before then.
He's starting to teach at a very young age. In 1798, how old is רבי נחמן? 26. נכון? 26 years old. He's already been teaching for quite some time.
So we see that when we say that it was a big חידוש for him, his life was completely, completely renewed. His whole מציאות was completely, completely renewed in ארץ ישראל.As we also said last week, in the third paragraph here, כי זה ידוע, שקודם שיוצאין מדרגא לדרגא, צריך שיהיה ירידה קודם העליה. When a person is climbing this this this ladder called עבודת השם, אין מה לעשות. You always, always have to have a descent before you have an ascent.
That's the כלל of life regarding all things that matter when it comes to growth. There's always going to be a descent before there's an eventual ascent. ואז צריכים לעניני קטנות להיות איש פשוט לגמרי. So רבי נחמן says, therefore, while you're experiencing a descent, that is where that behavior stemmed from, to act in קטנות because he was, he was literally had to like come down a bit before there'd be a future ascent.
And that's where during that period of down is where רבי נחמן was acting like this in that behavior because he knew that whatever he experienced in his life up until then, and he's the great grandson of the בעל שם טוב, and wild things were happening to רבי נחמן from the from the time he was born, but he knew, he was aware, that is all nothing in comparison to what's waiting for him once he would בעזרת השם merit to come to ארץ ישראל. And that's why I think just on a very, just want to make a statement about many of us that have made עליה, and חבר'ה that בעזרת השם are learning with us that will make עליה, everyone should say אמן. Is that what works for us there just doesn't work for us here. And you can't explain this to anybody.
זה לא יבין זאת. Our יידישקייט, our תורה learning, our everything about the way we relate to things that are important to us, the way it is there, it just doesn't cut here. It's something else that's going on over here. רבי נחמן is very very aware of this before ever stepping foot there.Just the last paragraph on top over here to reinforce this point.
והוא זכרונו לברכה, מחמת שכל ימיו לא היה עומד בשום פעם במדרגה אחת. רבי נחמן was in constant motion. רק בכל פעם בכל יום ובכל שעה, היה עולה תמיד מדרגה לדרגה. He is constantly evolving.
He's constantly in movement, gradual upwards. על כן היתה חכמתו בענינים אלו גבוה ועמוק מאוד עמוק עמוק מאמצאנו, says רב נתן. When we speak about this concept about the behavior that one has once they're about to ascend, take it from the pro of ascent, of ascending. רבי נחמן was in constant motion.
He's always going up and up. So he describes what happens to a person before they have another עליה, it's going to be something, you have to go through something inside. Don't freak out. Act בפשטות.
Act בקטנות. Okay. Now, now, so now, that was just to repeat, just to going over how we ended last week's שיר. But today, רבי נחמן is going to get to ארץ ישראל.Now, this is very, very exciting because as we've learned for the last two weeks, what what what he went through was craziness what he went through in in in the whole journey.
And we didn't even do the whole journey. I just chose pieces that I thought would be most relevant for the flow of our שיר.But remember what's happening back then. There was a French leader. I'm sure you've heard of him.
And he's very interesting because his influence on the חסידיק movement is very interesting because it brought about a big מחלוקת amongst the חסידיק leaders. There was a big מחלוקת between the leaders of the חסידיק movement at the time whether they should support or they should go against Napoleon. Many said you should go with Napoleon because he's not raging war against the Jews, right? And he's even saying that he'll make your life better. Others like the אלטע רבי said, if you agree to side with him, he will make, he will eventually make our lives a living prison hell, both רוחני and גשמי.
It's also one of the reasons, you know, the אלטע רבי died. Where where's the, you know, where's the אלטע רבי buried? Do you know? Well, I guess none of you were on any of those trips we used to do.There were four syllables. Two, two, two, two, two syllables. It's a place called האדיטש.
מה זה האדיטש? Where do we know the אלטע רבי is from? רבי שניאור זלמן of ליאדי. It's called ליאזשנא. But it's not there. Why is he buried in האדיטש? What's in האדיטש? The אלטע רבי was running away from Napoleon.
Napoleon was running after the אלטע רבי. And he died on the way in the middle of nowhere. קרוב דרך באמצע הדרך. רבי נחמן also has this ענין with Napoleon as well.
How? Because look, they're in Istanbul, they're in Turkey, and now we're going to go back into the story. And this is from שבחי הר"ן, the book that רב נתן put together, and I edited it out in a way that will give us an easy flow to see רבי נחמן's arrival and and understand it in the best, in the best of our ability. ואז באותו העת היתה המלחמה של צרפת, שהלכה הצרפת לארץ התוגר למצרים ולארץ ישראל. Where was Napoleon heading towards? Conquering Egypt and then to go and conquer ארץ ישראל.
וכאשר נשמע לאנשי איסטנבול, שהמלחמה הנ"ל מתעוררת, והצרפת הולך וטבע לים. So the יידן and the people בכלל in Turkey at the time, that's where רבי נחמן was, that heard about this war that is starting to creep up, and that the French are already, they're in the sea, they're in the water, they're on their way. אז לא רצו קהילה קדושה של איסטנבול, להניח שום יהודי לצאת מחוץ לעיר והחוצה, לפרוס על הים. They didn't want to let any יידן, the people in Turkey, they did not want to let any Jews sail in because they knew that that was a port where people, Jews that were in, you know, that were in Europe or that were in Ukraine, in Russia, and the ones that are in ארץ ישראל were going back and forth from, that was the port, that was the easiest dock, that was the place of connection.
And they didn't want anyone to leave the city. ורבינו ז"ל לא השגיח על זה ורצה להפקיר את עצמו. רבי נחמן says, I don't care. I'm not taking any safety or precautions.
If we came this far, we're going ווייטער.And this is a quote from רבי נחמן. ואמר להאיש שהיה עמו. Remember, רבי נחמן is traveling with a mysterious assistant. Some say it was his תלמיד רבי שמעון, and some say it was his תלמיד רבי יצחק.
But till today, there's been no exact proof as far as I know who that student was. So he tells his assistant, תדע, שאני רוצה לסכן את עצמי אפילו בסכנות גדולות ועצומות. I want to endanger myself even in with crazy endangerment, right? אך את נפשך, איני רוצה להפקיר. But I can't take responsibility for putting you in trouble, my my student, my assistant.
ובכן, אם תרצה, קח לך מאות על ההוצאות, ושוב בשלום לביתך. Take whatever you need, take whatever money we have, take whatever you need to get back, and I, go go in peace back home. ואני אסע לבדי בהעלם ובהסתר מאנשי איסטנבול. I'll smuggle my way out of here.
כי את עצמי אני מפכיר, יהיה איך שיהיה. You know, there's a there's a phrase in Hebrew that I don't I don't I don't know if they realize how um how wrong it is. But they say that driven people, right? How do you know if like what you're what you're doing is worth like is really what you're supposed to be doing? אם אתה מוכן להתאבד על זה. And I hate that language.
Have you ever heard that concept, that that statement before? Huh? I I've been hearing אני רוצה אני הייתי מתאבד על זה. Which is not a לשון that should be in the mouth of Jewish people or any human being, right? I'm willing to they what they mean to say is I'm going to die for it, right? But they but but להתאבד is like כאילו I'm חלילה, yeah, I'm willing to commit suicide. We don't talk like that.But רבי נחמן over here is saying over here that, you know, through this quote, he's saying, listen, you have to understand, there's no way back for me. There's no way back for me.
I'm going. We've been through all this. I set out this journey. On ל"ג בעומר they started traveling, even though he already said before פסח that this year I'm going to make it to ארץ ישראל.
I'm going. זה לא משנה. But I know it's going to be even wilder and more wild and more crazy. So he tells his student, I I can't put you through this.
I'm not sure if you're in this place where you're like מוכן למות על זה. But I am and I have to go and I'm going no matter what. Like many women tell their husbands when they first get married. I hear this all the time.
When we were dating, especially if it's people that date uh a year or so after their second year in ארץ ישראל, they go back to America, they go back to Stern or wherever they are, they meet that guy from YU and they start meeting. And what's the condition to continue? We're going to make עליה, no matter what. And um בעזרת השם, all those like all those statements should become true, but sometimes it doesn't happen until the last kid is about to finish high school, and then you say, remember when we were dated, we said לא משנה מה, we're going to make it happen, right? And ברוך השם many people have made it back. But רבי נחמן is saying over here, אין מצב בעולם that I'm stopping the journey now.
I'm going, לא משנה מה.So, והאיש הנ"ל, this is very apropos to the story of שבועות, the story of רות. So as you see the third to bottom paragraph, והאיש הנ"ל מאן בזה ואמר, במקום אשר יהיה שם אדוני, אם למות אם לחיים, שם יהיה עבדך ובאשר תלך אלך גם כן. Who does this sound like? So it's very interesting that he says to him, we see this connection, like this revelation of the connection between the תלמיד and the רב. Over here, this is like a a peak moment in the life of whoever this person was, who plays a big role throughout the whole story.
He says, come hell it doesn't matter. I'm I'm with you all the way as well. I'm going with you. You go, you stay, you go back, I'm with you.
בסדר.And now we continue with the story. והשם יתברך ברחמיו ומסיבות מתהפך וסבב ברחמיו, שאחר יום או יומים נשמע, היות שיושב שם באיסטנבול חכם הגדול מירושלים, אשר קיבץ על יד נדבות עבור עניי ירושלים עיר הקודש, והיה בדעתו להתעכב שם עוד שנה אחת. There was a שליח for צדקה that was came from ירושלים to Istanbul to raise money from the local Jewish community, and he was there, I'm not sure how long he was there for, but at the time he thought to himself, if I stay here for another year, I'll be able to bring back a lot more money to ארץ ישראל. And that was his plan.
ופתאום, so the story is is that רב נתן says this guy was thinking, I'm here for another year, but something נכנס בלב שלו. So in ברסלב they say obviously this plays a key role in the in the way that רבי נחמן got to ארץ ישראל. פתאום נתעורר ממר לאנשי איסטנבול, bottom paragraph. He wakes up and he tells the locals, תדעו שנתגלה לי, it was revealed to me, שאני מוכרח מיד לנסוע לירושלים.
I got to go to ירושלים right away. כי אני רואה שהימים ממשמשים ובאים להסתלק מן העולם. Because I see that my days are truly numbered. I'm not going to be alive for too long.
ואתם, אל תראו את עם הצרפתים. What's that? Don't freak out from Napoleon. אין לכם לדאוג עבור ישראל שילכו לאתם, כי בוודאי לא יאונה להם שום הזק בעזרת השם. Jews are not going to be the major korban of this war.
Which is interesting that that was like one of the few times that it was kind of true. That it wasn't really, it didn't end up really being about, you know, killing all the Jews. I'm sure יידן got killed along the way of this of of the journey, but it wasn't really about. He says, your יידן, it's not going to it's not don't worry for you guys.
והשם ישמרם ברחמיו עד בואם לשם. כי כבר נרשם מקום קבורתי בירושלים. And it was shown to me that I'm going to be buried in ירושלים. So basically, we're out of here.
How? I don't know, but we're out of here.ומיד שמעו לדבריו, ושכרו מיד ספינה גדולה. His entourage immediately rents a uh they they they they take a big boat, והכריזו, מי שרוצה לרדת על הספינה ילך. Whoever wants to come with us right now, which was a big, big danger to leave Istanbul. They didn't know what was waiting for them on the waters.
But this חכם said, listen, I'm about to die. My מקום קבורה is in ירושלים, I'm going. Whoever wants to come is welcome to come. והלכו הרבה אנשים נשים ותף, הן מאנשי ספרד והן מאנשי אשכנז.
ספרדישע יידן, אשכנזישע יידן, women, children, all as many people that can get on can get on. ונסע רבינו ז"ל גם כן על הספינה הזאת לארץ הקודש. And the mysterious skinny Ukrainian Jew who still didn't really reveal who he was, also jumped onto this boat together with his his assistant.And רבי נחמן becomes friendly with this חכם who was the one that was collecting the money, who had this vision that he has to go back to that he has to get back to ארץ ישראל. They started speaking on the boat, ודיבר רבינו ז"ל עם החכם מירושלים שיקח אותו לירושלים.
So רבי נחמן says, is telling, I've never been there. I need you to take me with you to ירושלים once we dock. כי אמר שאינו רוצה להיות לא בצפת ולא בטבריה. He said, I don't want to be in טבריה, I don't want to be in צפת, I want to just be in ירושלים.
Which you'll see is a very important detail for the rest of his journey. וכן המתיקו סוד ביניהם. That's just a beautiful לשון that says that they were opening their hearts up to each other and sharing secrets and it was a very sweet encounter with this חכם.ובלכתם על הים רוח סערה גדולה מאוד מאוד. Like we saw from the journey from Odessa to Istanbul, the same thing happens in Istanbul, from Istanbul to ארץ ישראל, that the sea was roaring.
והיתה הספינה בסכנה גדולה, יעלו שמים ירדו תהומות. Crazy storms on the sea. ולא היה עוד בלב איש מהם להנצל מן המיתה. They all were sure that they were about to check out, that their time was over.
והיו צועקים כולם אל השם, they're screaming to הקדוש ברוך הוא. והיתה לילה אחת, רב נתן writes based on the memoirs that רבי נחמן shared with him, or the assistant. They said there was one night, כמו יום הכיפורים ממש, that everyone on this boat שהכל בוכים ומתודים, ומבקשים כפרה על נפשם. Everyone's begging השם for mercy and רחמנות on their souls.
ואמרו סליחות ושאר דברי תפילות ותחנונים. The whole boat.Amazing scene, huh?Imagine if that's what they put in one of the scenes of Titanic, that that that people were they actually took that moment to cry out to השם. Maybe they did, what do we know? What do we know? There were a bunch of יידן on that on that Titanic, you know. Maybe they did.ורבינו ז"ל היה יושב ודומם.
But here we see more peculiar behavior. The whole boat is screaming and crying, יום כיפור, סליחות. רב נחמן, sitting there silent. והתחילו כמה אנשים לומר לו מפני מה הוא שותק בעת צרה כזאת? ולא השיב.
How could you be silent right now? Didn't answer. אך אשת הרב דקהילת קודש חטין, there was a רבנית from a town of חטין, שהיתה מלומדת, she was learned. בכתה וצעקה כל הלילה. She's דאווענען and screaming the whole night.
והתחילה גם כן לומר לו כאלה, מפני מה הוא דומם? She's also having תענות. Why are you quiet? ואמר לה, הלוואי הייתם שותקים גם אתם, היה טוב לפניכם. Wow.הלוואי הייתם שותקים גם אתם, היה טוב. היה טוב לפניכם.
ובזאת תבחנו, through this you will be tested. אם אתם תשתקו, ישתוק הים מעליכם גם כן.So again, one of these moments where, you know, listen, רבי נחמן is a חידוש, his whole thing is a חידוש. We don't understand the פשטות when we when we try to approach him as like, you know, on our level of understanding, uh, the appropriate uh social norms, we'll get nowhere, right? But here רבי נחמן says, if you'll be quiet, you'll see the waters will also be quiet. וכן היה.
So that's what happened. פסקו מלצעוק ושתקו. They stopped screaming, they listened to him. ואזיי מיד כשעיר היום, יקם סערה לדממה, ויחשו גליו וישמחו, it's a פסוק מן תהלים.
That the סערה went into דממה. The storm went into silent mode and the waves calmed and everyone was happy.But there was still a problem. ואחר יום או יומים נשארה הספינה בלי מים שרואים לשטיה. They're they're left without water.
כי פסקו עצם המים של שתיה שהיה לספינה, ולא נשאר להם כי אם כלי אחד של מים סרוחים ואחורים ותולעים היו ברוך השם בהם. Sorry about that description. All they had left was like one bucket of basically I don't even know how you would say this in English, but uh. Closer to sewage than anything that helps that you could uh imagine.
ואלו המים, חילקו לאנשי הספינה במידה. They gave it out to each person exact amounts to each person on the boat. והיה להם סכנה גדולה מהצימאון יותר מכל הסכנות. That uh you know, when you're seasick or on the waters, it's so interesting.
On the waters they've they've they've many people know this that the you you develop a certain thirst that you have that's very different than when you're on ground, on land. The thirst you get you get you get the this תאווה of of צמאון, not a תאווה but this this ענין of צמאון, the thirst that you get, you get thirstier than you normally do. And this was what was taking place there. And there was barely any water and that's why he says, the סכנה of the thirst was actually greater than all other dangers.ואז התפללו אנשים ונשים ותף מכירות ליבם.
Again, the דאווענען began. ונתעורר עוד פעם רוח סערה גדולה. Another storm came. But this storm now moved the boat really fast, והביא הספינה, אחר שני מעת לעת, לארץ הקדושה, לעיר הקודש יפו.
And they reached their destination. The port in יפו.Now you'd think now that things would finally get chill after such a journey. And that's what happens to many of us in life. Once we reach what we think is the destination, that's when all the fun only really begins.
נכון? ורצה רבינו ז"ל לרד שם מהספינה ללכת אל ירושלים עם החכם הנ"ל בצבתא חדא. רבי נחמן has one thing, one place on his mind. Get off the boat, go to ירושלים עיר הקודש together with that חכם that he met on the boat. ומאת השם היתה הסיבה.
There was some reason. ולא הניחו הישמעאלים שיכנס אליהם. The governing Ishmaelite officials that were at the time welcoming whoever was coming on each boat, they looked at him and they did not let him come off the boat. כי הסתכלו על מלבושיו, ועל תואר פניו שיש לו פאות ארוכות כנוהגים במדינתנו.
He had long פאות. They never saw something like that before. That wasn't the מנהג in ארץ ישראל that Jews, they knew what Jews looked like. This to them, this guy didn't look like a Jew.
ושאינו יודע לשונם, he doesn't know Arabic or whatever was the dialect, the exact dialect they were speaking then. ואמרו שהוא בוודאי אחד מהמרגלים של הצרפת. They said he's for sure a French spy.They thought רבי נחמן was a French spy. ולא הועיל לו שום פיוס ובקשות.
Kind of like what it's like when you go to משרד הפנים. It doesn't matter how much you're begging or asking for something to happen, זה לא משנה. None of that helped. ונשאר רבינו ז"ל על הספינה.
And רבי נחמן is stuck on the port. Can you imagine after all that and he's still stuck at the in in יפו on the boat?So now this is this gets even more interesting. והיה, last week I read I I just basically gave it over to you בעל פה, but I I'm trying to see even if even though this is not learning pieces inside, I hope the words are going inside deeper. היה בדעת הקפטן להתעכב שם עם הספינה, להיות עומד לפוש איזה ימים.
ואז היה שני ימים קודם ראש השנה. What was the captain of that boat uh כוונה? You ever, did any of you ever fly back and forth on the same 24 hours to America? Did you ever do that?I've had to do it a few times, and I get really nervous when I see that the stewardess, like sometimes you'll take a 10:00 a.m. flight from ארץ ישראל, land at 5:00, you have to be at an event, and then you take the one the 1:00 a.m. flight back, right? A few times. And um when you see that the serving crew is the same that came with you, it's not exactly a גישמאק. And no one's really, you know, whatever.
It's happened to me a few times. I I pray that they don't do this שטיק with the pilots, so there must be an איסור on that. But anyway, here, the captain is saying, I I'm going to wait a few days before we start embarking again on a journey, but this was two days before ראש השנה. This is amazing.I want to remind you of what רבי נחמן said.
רבי נחמן said in April of that year, this year I'm going to get to ארץ ישראל. And he lands in ארץ ישראל two days before ראש השנה. And it it was לא סתם. When he said this year, he didn't mean 1798.
He meant תפ"ק נ"ח, obviously, right? So he gets, so just to remember that because this we learned uh two weeks ago that he has this חשק and he says, I'm going to make it this year. And he gets here ממש two days before ראש השנה.So again, he's two days before ראש השנה, and the captain is like, I'm going to just stay here until I until I go back again. At that point, what did what did רבי נחמן think was going to happen? I have no idea. But look what it says in the bottom paragraph.
אך הספינה לא יכלה לעמוד שם מחמת גלי הים, שרצו להופכה. The waves there were about they were going to turn over the boat. The boat couldn't stay put there. ולא הועיל שום עצה ותחבולה לזה.
They couldn't figure out any trick or any hack how to just keep the waters calm at the area of the dock of the port. And what ends up happening, היה הדבר לפלא גדול בעיני הקפיטן. The captain's like, I've never seen anything like this before. ושאל מה זה ועל מה זה.
So he asked the people on the boat, why do you think this is happening? והשיבו החכמים של הספרדים, this is really interesting, שקבלה בידם איש מפי איש, they have a מסורת, שבזה המקום, this docking spot is the place נשלח יונה בן אמיתי הנביא. This was the place that יונה was thrown into the water. ולא יכלה הספינה לעמוד שם אותה לילה, והוכרחו לזוז עם הספינה משם. They couldn't stay put, they had to move.
והלכו משם, ובאו בערב ליל זכור ברית. They traveled from there and on ליל זכור ברית, זכור ברית is the night before ראש השנה. In ברסלב it's a very big, בכלל בחסידות it's a very big night. The סליחות, as you know, ערב ראש השנה are much longer than the rest of the week of סליחות.
They come to the ערב ליל זכור ברית לעיר הקודש חיפה. ועמדו אצל הר הכרמל נגד מערת אליהו. So רבי נחמן gets to, the first place was חיפה. ובאשמורת הבוקר אמרו כל העם סליחות בשמחה גדולה.
ואחר כך התפללו תפילת שחרית ואחר כך הלכו כולם לעיר הקודש חיפה, אנשים ונשים וטף. And look how look how beautiful. ואז נכנס רבנו הקדוש ז"ל לארץ הקדושה. רבי נחמן is walking through ארץ ישראל.
ובא אל המקום אשר נחשף אליו, and he comes to the place that his heart is longing for. והשתוקק אליו בהשתוקקות בכיסופין ובגעגועים גדולים מאוד מאוד. ומסר נפשו אלפים ורבבות פעמים בשביל זה. What he gave up, what he put himself through, what he put his family through to get here.
והשליך נפשו מנגד עבור זה. וגודל עוצם השמחה שהיה לו באותו הרגע שנכנס ועמד על אדמת הקודש, אי אפשר לשער במוח. רב נתן relates, it is impossible to comprehend on any level of our intellect the level and state of bliss and joy that רבי נחמן מברסלב reached. At this time he wasn't רבי נחמן מברסלב, he was What did we say last week? He was known as רבי נחמן ממדוודיווקא.
That was the last place, right? רבי נחמן ממעדוועדיווקא. But you remember, רבי נחמן grew up with a מסורת in his family that his mother probably put him to sleep with bedtime stories that went something like this. You know, my זיידע, your עלטער זיידע, all he wanted to do was to get to ארץ ישראל. And he dreamed and dreamed about it.
And he set out one time, the בעל שם טוב set out to go to ארץ ישראל and he couldn't make it. Ah, but what a dream it would be if one day his עלטער his his great-grandchild, little נחמן. But who knows what what kind of stories he grew up with, what kind of folklore. But the fact that he made it there, the way that it's written in the ספרים, brought about such bliss and joy, pure joy, things that we can't understand.
אילו כל הימים וכל הדיו לא יספיקו לבאר אפס קצה מזה. And now there isn't enough ink in the world, רב נתן says, that it would be enough to describe the elated joy and bliss with which רב נחמן went into ארץ ישראל.Now, here is where for me is one of the most difficult points in this whole story. I saw this the first time when I was about 17 years old. And till today, till today, I ask everyone I meet, what what do you think this means? Because look what he says now.
כי תכף ומיד השיג מה שהשיג. Immediately, after walking on the land, he got what he wanted to get. כי אמר שתכף כשהלך ארבע אמות בארץ ישראל, פעל מיד מה שרצה להשיג.What do you think that means?That a רוח הקודש in ארץ ישראל, that it just completely changes his whole consciousness immediately. That he was so tuned in spiritually to the the energy, the consciousness of ארץ ישראל, that it just lifted up into a whole another sphere.And therefore, he didn't need to he didn't need to be there longer.He just needs to make that initial connection.And therefore he didn't need to stay.נכון.Do you understand what No, but do you understand the the I just want to make something clear.
I don't understand anything about רבי נחמן. We're learning him for years. I I don't understand. I I I I just know that my heart longs to be close to השם when I learn רבי נחמן.
But to understand the ענין, I don't understand it. So what you're saying, and I I very much connect to it, what what you're saying, is that some level of like of whatever רוח הקודש that שורה in ארץ הקדושה, he was able to tap into it immediately as he walked the ד' אמות in ארץ ישראל. And then he was ready to turn around and go back.This is not a regular human being walking on this.Right. So he was at an elevated soul.
So obviously this he was able to tap into that.So, is it possible to connect today to those that say I get my סוכות fix? I get, no? Thank God, Rebecca, your husband's not in שיעור here today. Right? Get my סוכות fix? Like I come to ארץ ישראל for סוכות. I פעלתי את מה שרציתי להשיג. Right? Is that is that is that possible to to to connect to? Or we're just saying we're dealing with a completely different type of איד, human being.
This is a נשמה from a completely different sphere.Yeah, you want to say something?I'm just thinking, the only thing that that I that I can think of that makes any sense to me is that like maybe for רבי נחמן it was like establishing some kind of צינור that was permanent. You know, and it wasn't about living here or like I was here and then I'm gone, but rather there's this permanent connection now going on now that he's put his feet on the ground of ארץ ישראל. Mhm.Yes, also, definitely. It's just that if we, you know, those of us that grew up in more ציונישע homes and and and you know, בני עקיבא or ארץ ישראל driven, like the journey to get here, right, would mean that once you're here, like with such longing, there's no מחשבה even to leave, right? And the רבי is doing the exact opposite because he's here for three minutes and he says I could leave now.
Because I did what I was able to do. He sees he's not going to, he's not getting into ירושלים. He said already I have no ענין to go to צפת or טבריה. His whole thing was to just step on the land of ארץ ישראל.
והשיג את מה שרצה להשיג. Bless you. He achieved what he wanted to achieve. It's such an interesting לשון.But not leave forever.
Like in that moment he achieved what he wants to achieve. In that moment. But does that mean thatI don't know.he goes away?I don't know. It's it's this is shrouded in a lot of mystery.
I don't know.It doesn't necessarily mean he's done now. Just means for this moment.Done now with the well. Like if you're hungry, you eat something, you achieve what you needed to achieve in that moment, doesn't mean you're not going to be hungry again. That's the question.
Does it that's exactly the question. Was he speaking about the moment or was he speaking about נצח?What what implies that it's forever?Um, because no, you're not going to make another pilgrimage like that in your life. You're not going to come back.Not because he can't, but not because he don't want to, not becauseBecause he can't, yeah. Yeah.It's forever like default, like he did it because it has to be, not because he doesn't want to.Again, I'm I'm this is exactly I'm I'm I'm with this statement for nearly 30 years of my life, באמת.
Nearly 30 years I'm with this statement, going back and forth. This I saw this when I was 17. And I I I I'm with this all the time for so many years, trying to connect deep to deep because I feel like, you know, sometimes you see something when you're very young and it stays with you forever. It has a שייכות to your שורש נשמה, אין מה לעשות.
And this statement has And that's why I wanted to bring it up. Is it נצח? Is it by default? What what is it exactly that he was saying? So we're we're going to we're going to learn more about this statement. But it was very important for me that we as we learned of this journey, we see this is a big moment, because he keeps on coming back to this moment throughout the time that he was here. And he was here for about six months.
And he keeps on coming back to the statement.So he didn't leave right away.Huh?So he didn't leave right away.At the end he didn't, at the end he didn't, but we're going to see why. But even though he didn't leave right away, if that's the first thing we know of his הרגשת הלב when he comes to ארץ ישראל, זה אומר הרבה. זה אומר הרבה מאוד. יש שמה אמרה חזקה.Like someone who's waiting for a big thing, you know, like they're having a baby, like a couple that's like waiting for years and years and years until they have a baby, right? And they're praying and they're doing סגולות and they're going to רבנים and they're And eventually the baby's born.
That moment, they feel that they accomplished whatever they were. But there's another whole journey from there, like to raise it and to It's kind of kind of like reminds me.It sounds like it sounds like um a דיינו kind of thing, you know? Like, like I got here דיינו, but likeBut they But then there'sRight, because we know also from דיינו likeRight, it doesn't right. Like as a first step, right. So it's like aנכון.But shouldn't רבי נחמן have known that?Right.He's on a completely different level.It's it's shrouded, it's a there's so much mystery here.
But it's very very very important to see this in his journey to ארץ ישראל. Um, it's almost as if he we we could say all the תורה that or כמעט all the תורה we have from רבי נחמן, the צינור that you mentioned before was was basically created and formed after walking here for ד' אמות. And then the צינור through which that תורה that is healed and will continue to heal all the lost and broken souls till משיח comes, was manufactured after a few minutes of walking uh around חיפה. Anywhere, you know what I mean? Like that's the whole When was the last time you came out, you know, הלוואי we should have every every place in ארץ ישראל, but mainly, you know, you walked around חיפה and and this was taking place.
Which is also an interesting uh interesting חידוש.I'm thinking maybe maybe he reached the level that his you know, there's five levels of the soul, his יחידה was opened up. Like he was just living that consciousness all the time now. And and before it wasn't, or I don't know. But I'm just saying his highest level of soul was activatedRight.and remained so for the rest of his life.Uh that's for sure, whichotherwise he wouldn't have such influence until this day.A million percent.
רבי נחמן without this journey, without these few minutes, we wouldn't know of him. We would have nothing we we we would have nothing to do we wouldn't have known.Yeah. Like since you mentioned like like a צינור, I was thinking maybe he felt like he had a צינור but it was blocked.Of of חוץ לארץ.Yeah. From wherever yeah.
He felt like there was a station that was the blockage and he needs to just go unblock it.Yeah.And the second he's still here, he just felt like it was all unblocked.Yeah. Totally. So now the So now the question is, so did he, based on what you said, did he mean the way we we understood that statement? Like did he actually mean I I want to leave? Like get me out of here? Or did he sayHe could have justOr did he say I could leave by I could leave now because the צינור was either formed or uh decluttered or you know, I could leave. Or did he say I need or did he mean, יאללה, let's let let let let's get out of here.
Let's learn a few more minutes, you'll we'll answer that question for sure.He felt he could have left without going to ירושלים? Going to the כותל?A million percent. A million percent. He didn't So this is a very good point. I don't know if he thought that before he had reached יפו and they closed the gates on him.
But once he was entered חיפה, then yes. And he never made it to ירושלים. He never made it south of עכו. He never made it south of עכו.
His journey is basically חיפה, as we'll see, טבריה, צפת, מירון. Like when he was in the כנרת, whenever I this is a beautiful thing, whenever we with the kids we go to the כנרת, I always tell my children who looked at these waters? רבי נחמן. He spends a lot of time, spends interesting time in טבריה. Very interesting stories go on in טבריה.
Didn't he want to go to טבריה? He didn't want to go to צפת. It בכלל was not the this was not on the uhitinerary.On the itinerary that the that the uh the company that he hired to set up his his his his pilgrimage uh set up for him. בכלל no.And those were דוקא the places where he ended up. That's what's so interesting.Yeah.He said I don't want to go.Yeah.And that's exactly where he ended up.Oh yeah.
He wanted to go to ירושלים. Can you blame him? He wanted to go to ירושלים. You know, sometimes you see, you meet, it's very beautiful lately, I've seen this, you know, whenever I'm there, more and more, you meet אידן that grew up in ארץ ישראל. They were never Israelis, they were never at the כותל.
Somehow with their school trip that they usually would do in fourth, fifth grade.Not even Bar Mitzvah.יש, יש הרבה כאלו. And you see this, this פליאה, like איפה you know, איפה ה איפה הכותל whatever. You never we never ask like איזה כיוון הכותל when you're standing like in the רובע. Would you ever ask them?No, they say where's מזרח.No, I've I've never heard non-religious חבר'ה ask me where מזרח is.
I'm talking about חבר'ה that grew up here in ארץ ישראל that yeah, it's an amazing thing. So ירושלים he knew he was going to he knew that's Then I I always dream like, and if he came to ירושלים and there was permission for him to go to הר הבית, would he have gone up to הר הבית just like thinking about, you know. Okay, so look at this. Just just a few more minutes.
We're not going to do the whole thing here. The עיקר of what I wanted to really get to today was that statement because that that plays a big role in our unders in our connection to רבי נחמן. And definitely like we do in this שיעור, the connection to the תורה of the רבי. Okay.
ואחר חצות היום, הלכו למקוה, ואחר כך לבית כנסת, ונתמעמעו עד הלילה. So they go after after midday, they go to the מקוה, then they go to שול. וכשבא רבנו ז"ל לביתו לאכסניא שלו, היה לו שמחה גדולה ועצומה מאוד. He he's staying in his wherever place they got for him, or he got for himself.
What joy! ובכל רגע ורגע אמר לאיש שהיה עמו, אשריך שזכית לכך להיות עמי כאן. Praiseworthy are you that you merited being with me here. וציווה לו לקרות ולהזכיר לפניו מהצת"ל כל הנרשמים שם. דהיינו כל הנלווים אליו שנתנו לו צתל"ך משמותיהם.
רבי נחמן took a lot a lot of different people's names before he set out on this journey. They kept through all the tumult and all the storms and all the משוגעתס that we saw and the stuff we didn't even see that happened. They held on to that list of names of people that they would דאווענען for. And they were דאווענען for them.
ואכלו שם סעודת הלילה של ראש השנה. This is first night ראש השנה, ת ק נ ט. This is September 1798. I think it was actually, I saw, it was September 10th, 1798.
I think that was the date. September 10th.What's that?Where was he davening?This is in חיפה. Yeah.Isn't it funny that on ראש השנה people go to there and he came to here?You're you're you're opening up a we're not there yet. Yeah.
We'll get there. Oh boy, will we get there. Okay. ואכלו שם סעודת הלילה של ראש השנה.
והכל בשמחה גדולה עד אחר הסעודה, עד ששכבו שם לישון. ותכף אחר ראש השנה, היה רצון רבנו ז"ל לחזור תכף לביתו. I'm I'm a I'm a I'm good. I want to go back immediately.
ולא היה רוצה כלל לנסוע לשום מקום, לא לצפת ולא לטבריה. I there's nowhere, he knew how far it was. He knew he had relatives in טבריה. He did.
He knew there was already a big big two big צדיקים here that were living here then. He knew he knew ר' שמעון בר יוחאי is nearby. It's all it's very mysterious. He wanted to go back right away.
אך האיש שהיה עמו, היה כספו חזק מאוד, לזון עיניו במקומות ארץ ישראל. Which basically means his assistants like, listen, we got enough געלט to like have a good time. Not not not really, but meaning, we have enough money here that we could טור. We we could see more.
ובא אל רבנו ז"ל ואמר לו שיש שיירה לילך עמם לטבריה. Listen, it's עשרת ימי תשובה. This is already צום גדליה. So, we have there's a uh שיירה, there's a an entourage that'll that that's heading out to טבריה.
We could go with them. ותכף כאשר נשמע לאנשי ארץ ישראל היושבים במקומות, היושבים בצפת ובטבריה, שרבנו ז"ל הוא בחיפה, שלחו הגדולים והצדיקים אשר שם לבקש את רבנו ז"ל שיסע אליהם. Word got out by now. The בעל שם טוב'ס great-grandson, רבי נחמן of מעדוועדיווקא.
His name was already becoming something. They they heard he's there. They sent שלוחים to חיפה to say, in the name of our רב, come to see us in טבריה. In the name of our רב, come to see us in צפת.
ובאו אנשי טבריה על יום כיפור אליו. He's But he he still stayed in, he didn't leave חיפה. The חבר'ה from טבריה came to him for יום כיפור. והביאו לו אגרות מגדולי הצדיקים, שכולם מבקשים אותו לטבריה לחג הסוכות.
All the great צדיקים of the time, big giants said, listen, the the the ear, the city of טבריה is waiting for you to come for סוכות. Come to come to טבריה. והוא לא השגיח על כל זה. He didn't care what they said.
ואמר לאיש שהיה עמו, And all he did was tell the person that he was with, go and buy me some אתרוגים. והלך אל החכם החונה שם ונתן לו עשרים פאריס, והלך אל שדה ישמעאל והביא לו שלושה אתרוגים מובחרים ויפים מאוד. He went to a certain area and his שמש got him three beautiful מהודרדיקע אתרוגים. This is just a wacky story.
Listen to this. בתוך כך שהיה יושב שם בחיפה, As he's in חיפה, בא ישמעאל אחד רך בשנים. A young Arab comes to him, וישב אצלו ודיבר אליו דיבורים הרבה ולא ידע מה הוא אומר. He's sitting there, he has no idea what he's saying.
וכן היה אצל כל סעודה וסעודה ביום ובלילה. והיה מחבב אותו מאוד. רבי נחמן liked him very much. Right? Or maybe it means that the ישמעאל liked רבי נחמן very much.
I'm still not sure, but we'll we'll get to the bottom of this. Even though they didn't understand what each other was saying. ופעם אחת בא אליו בכלי זין בכעס גדול. That means he came, showed up once with a sword or a gun or something.
And he started screaming at him. והתחיל meaning the ישמעאל comes to רבי נחמן. והתחיל לצעוק ולצעוק עליו, והוא לא ידע מה הוא מדבר, but he couldn't understand and didn't really say. אך אשה אחת ממדינת ווליכי הייתה שם.
Some woman from some some country understood the language. ותכף כשהלך הישמעאל, אמרה לרבנו ז"ל למען השם שיברח מהבית הזה. She turned to רבי נחמן and said, you better run. כי זה הישמעאל אומר שהוא ילך עמו ויהרגנו וישחטנו וילחם.
That because he's he's basically coming here and telling you I'm going to kill you. ותכף ברח הוא לבית החסיד המפורסם, מורינו הרב זאב מצ'רני אוסטרה. He he found refuge in the house of this certain ר' זאב, והצניעו אותו בחדרי חדרים. This is all in חיפה and they kept him hidden away there.
ואחר כך בא הישמעאל עוד פעם לבית האכסניא של רבנו. The Arab comes back to where רבי נחמן was staying and he starts asking. ואמר היכן האיש הלז? ידיע להווה ליה שאני אוהב אותו מאוד. Everyone knows, he knows I love him very much.
אני אתן לו את החמורים וגם הסוס שלי שילך עם השיירה לטבריה. I'm going to give him my entourage, my my horses, he'll carry him to go to טבריה. ושוב אין לו להתפחד ממני כלל מה אתה. He has no reason to be fearful from me.
We've heard these stories before by the way. אחי אני ואתה, מה אנחנו? אותו סבא, אותו, right? וכן היה שבא רבנו ז"ל אל האכסניה שלו. So רבי נחמן comes back to that place where he was previously staying where this ישמעאל found him. ובא הישמעאל ולא דיבר לו כלום, רק שתק ושחק.
Didn't say anything, he was just silent and smiling. ואחר כך כיבד אותו זה הישמעאל מאוד באהבה יתרה. And this Arab loved רבי נחמן. Now listen to this.
ועניין זה של הישמעאל היה פליאה גדולה. This whole ענין of this Arab was a big פלא, a big wonder. ואמר רבנו ז"ל, שהיה לו ייסורים מאהבה של ישמעאל יותר מן השנאה והכעס שלו. He suffered more from the love that this ישמעאל had for him than the hatred and the fear that he was putting on רבי נחמן.
This guy was going back and forth, back and forth. He suffered, he he he got so sick from the love that was coming from this Arab onto him, more than the hatred that was shown his way. וכמדומה שנשמע מפיו הקדוש שאמר, Oh sorry. וכפי הנשמע מפיו הקדוש, שהיה בעניין מעשה זו, שהיה להם משמו סכנה גדולה.
This was also a big danger that he embarked on with this ישמעאל. וכמדומה שנשמע מפיו הקדוש שאמר שזה הישמעאל היה הס"מ בעצמו. Wow. Yeah.
Do you know what that means? How do you say this in English?סטן.He was the סטן.סיטרא אחרא.Basically, the רבי נחמן alluded to the fact that this was ממש the the other side itself. Shaped in the form of a man that he that he dealt with. וברוך השם שניצל ממנו בשלום ובחסדי השם. What we're going to be doing next week is we will see that he does get to טבריה.
He does get up to מירון. And he does end up going back, but only around פורים time. So he's here for about five, five and a half months. There's a lot, a lot I it's amazing how everything was documented.
And I'm sure that there's stuff to learn from every single detail over here. But we're really focusing on the ones that were are trying to paint a picture for us in terms of the תורה that came out from this צדיק, according to chronological order. So, again, although there are a lot many more things happened even during the timeline that you have in front of you over here. But בעזרת השם we'll continue this journey and see a lot more things that will מחזק our ענין of what I believe is the פנימיות פנימיות of תורת ארץ ישראל stemming from this journey.
All right. חודש טוב, שבת שלום.