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Rebbe Nachman didn’t come to make us “more religious.” He came to make us more real.
Rav Shlomo Katz opens the “treasure chest” of Rebbe Nachman’s Torah — teachings that heal the inner storm, settle the mind (yishuv hadaas), and draw down peace and truth into our homes, our relationships, and our own hearts.
We are learning in the month of Adar l'ilui nishmas Levi ben Yosef, l'ilui nishmas בתיה פיגא בת ישראל, l'ilui nishmas ישעיה שלום בן יצחק אייזיק, and l'ilui nishmas לוי יצחק בן ירוחם חנן זלמן and for shemira for all of our chayalim hatzadikim and for refua sheleima of דוד נתנאל בן אילה אהובה, for refua sheleima of טוב שמואל בן אביה נוה, and אברהם יעקב בן דבורה פיגא. The week is sponsored by Daryl Lev memory of her sister on her yahrtzeit, on her third yahrtzeit, חנה בת שרה ושמואל הלוי. When's the actual yahrtzeit? What day is the yahrtzeit? Heh, it was a few days ago. And Michael and Cindy Levy in honor of the bat mitzvah of their granddaughter Ayala Eisenstock.
Okay. In the in the learning that we have today, we have a very, very beautiful and important mahalach. A mahalach is more than just a teaching, it's a frame of thought, it's a directive, it's a very clear instruction from Rebbe Nachman that Reb Nosson and students explain, and this today's teaching is leading a person to a real opportunity to live a life of tranquility as big of a it's a big statement but it's mamash mamash kacha. Because one of the things that takes a person out of a state of tranquility, out of a state of inner peace, are obviously when they're not mechaven el ha'emes, when emes is not really something that's in front of them all day or at least part of the day.
But there's also emes that hides itself in or there's a sheker I'd say that hides itself in many different ways that plays with our mind. To understand how we're going to develop this, we first going to see the first the first source that you have in front of you, which is the hakdama, which is the intro to the letters of Reb Nosson. They have a sefer called Alim L'trufa, healing leaves, highly, highly recommended. And this in the hakdama, there's a hakdama from Reb Nosson's top pupil.
Reb Nosson's top pupil was a tzadik named Rebbe Nachman of Tcherin. I'll just give you a little bit of a basic, I think we did this a few weeks ago, but a little bit of a basic line like you know how you have on this map over here all the lines of the Rebbes and everything so in Breslov it's more or less like this. The Baal Shem Tov's here, his great-grandson was Rebbe Nachman, right through his daughter and his daughter's daughter, then you have Rebbe Nachman and Rebbe Nachman's top student is Reb Nosson of Breslov, Reb Nosson Sternhartz. And Reb Nosson's top student is Rebbe Nachman of Tcherin who we're speaking about today.
Rebbe Nachman of Tcherin's son, his name was Rabbi Avram Chazan, we'll speak a lot about him, he's an unbelievable, unbelievable eved Hashem and a tzadik and he is one that made aliya and he was close to Rav Kook, there's a lot of stories about him. And from רב אברהם ברבי he's known as רב אברהם ברבי נחמן, so Rabbi Avram the son of Reb Nachman. From him afterwards are the we have a line from Reb Levi Yitzchak Bender who's a name that we have to speak about as well. And then we get to people to tzadikim that are more or less in our dor, which hopefully we'll have a lot of time to speak about these people.
I always had this dream to write a book about these giants called the humble giants because they were giants but they were so humble. Rebbe Nachman of Tcherin is one of them and he is writing the hakdama for Reb Nosson's Reb Nosson's letters. Now you know that Reb Nosson was a prolific writer, he wrote so much. He didn't just write down, he wasn't just a scribe that wrote down for us most of Likutey Moharan.
Reb Nosson's work Likutey Halachos, Likutey Tefillos, and the letters, we have so much from him. He was so busy, he got so much done. So this is speaking about how was he able to get so much done, especially while being persecuted, both by Misnagdim and other Chasidim that were not into what was going on in Breslov. If you read the book Through Fire and Water you'll see there's some crazy things about his life including the attempts to assassinate him.
He had he mamash went through hell, in this he mamash went through hell. But he got so much done. How could that be? So in this hakdama, Rebbe Nachman Tcherin writes like this: שכל מי ששמע קצת מסדר למודו whoever heard a little bit about his daily routine, his daily learning schedule, היה משער בלבו כי בלתי אפשר דבר זה it's impossible. It's stam.
making up Chasidishe bubba maises. There's no way when you'd hear about his seder hayom that it's possible to think that any human being could accomplish this, אם לא שכמו רק בסדר לימודו. The only way he could accomplish this is if he didn't eat, sleep, talk to people, have anything to do with this world. Maybe then you could say he may have been able to fit that in.
But we know he did eat, he did sleep. He was busy. He opened up a printing press. He was very, very busy in that, and dealing also with a lot of the needs of the Breslever community who was then left without a rebbe, without a physical rebbe.
But then he continues, he says: גם היה עוסק הרבה בכל יום שתאמר שיומם ולילה אינו לפרש שיחתו לפני השם יתברך. You know what else took a chunk of his day? Hisbodedus. How did he have time for that?
עד שכל מי ששמע סדר עבודת התפלה שלו, anyone that heard about his order, his, what do you call this? A regimen. A regiment of both davening and learning, היה משער בלבו כי אי אפשר דבר זה, that his davening and hisbodedus could only be possible אם לא שמבלה כל ימיו ולילותיו על תפלה ותחנונים כנזכר.
So he's saying the only way someone could say that it would have been possible for Reb Nosson to daven and to do as much hisbodedus as he did would only be if that was the only thing that he was doing. Same thing regarding the learning. The amount of hours that he put in this.
ששמע וידע קצת מענין סדר כתביו והנה, and if a person would hear a little bit about how much he was writing, what would a person come to? The conclusion היה משער בלבו כי בלתי אפשר דבר זה.
So again, only the amount that he was writing could have only been possible if that's the only thing that he was working on. The question is, how could it be that someone could accomplish so much? Now, there are people that are naturally very big accomplishers. We usually don't like them. But there are people that are able, you just look at them and they're like, I really don't understand how it's humanly possible to accomplish as much as this person has accomplished.
They have a spouse, they have children, they have a job that's not necessarily this, they got a bunch of things going on. What's the secret of this? How does a person accomplish so much? But that's not really the question of today. The question more is, how do I do, how do I accomplish what I need to accomplish in this world? How do I be busy with what I need to be busy with and not get shterred away, not get moved and bothered and feel that I could be an accomplishing person while I maintain a state of calmness in my heart and while I have shalom, while I have peace and tranquility still taking place inside of me. The generation is stricken with a heavy dose of being overwhelmed.
We're constantly overwhelmed. We're not just overwhelmed with what's going on in the world, we're overwhelmed with our own lives, and WhatsApp doesn't help, even though we think we get a lot more done, most of the avenues that enable things to get more done add much more to the plate and there's always more that needs to be done. So we're, generally speaking, very overwhelmed, kimaat kol hazman. Right? That's the state of most people.
I don't know many people that are underwhelmed. Like, I really don't. If I really stop and think about, let's just say this week of conversations with people, it wasn't anybody that said, I need to do more, give me something to do. One person actually.
There was one truth is there's one person that said that, and that's a whole parsha, but they actually are more overwhelmed. They're crazy overwhelmed. I don't know why they asked me for a task. They're crazy overwhelmed.
Most people are pashut crazy overwhelmed. It it is what it is now. This teaching from the Tzadik, from Rebbi Nachman, from, oh thank you, from Likutei Moharan inside. This is one of my favorite teachings in Rebbi Nachman's Torah.
This is a teaching I had the privilege of learning this with the chevra by the tziyun like ten years ago, ma shekaze, maybe even more. This was the Torah we learned sitting by the tziyun of Rebbi Nachman. And I remember when we learned it then I said to myself, if there's one teaching in the world that I attach myself to with all my heart and soul and I stick to it, then it has to be this one because this is the gateway for real calmness and yishuv hadaas. It really, really is, which is what we all So if you have a Likutey Moharan and you want to look at this inside, that feels, it feels geshmak, it feels great.
It's the 272nd teaching. Now the weird thing is that, not weird, but in the look for תורה רעא, okay that's 271, and then the run after it should be Resh Ayin Bet but they switched the words from hunger to Arev. So it's Ayin Resh Bet. Okay?
ליקוטי מוהרן ערב.
In the first part. Okay? Do you guys see it inside? Dalia do you have it? Go to Resh Ayin Alef, it would just be easier for you, if you go to Resh Ayin Alef and then you look at the one right after it. Hayom. You see it? Hayom.
Yeah. Dalia you have it? That's very good. Okay. So רב נחמן בן פיגא זכותו יגן עלינו ועל כל עם ישראל says like this: היום אם בקולו תשמעו.
It's a Passuk in Tehillim. When do we say this? When do we say this Kapitel Tehillim, all of us? Kabbalat Shabbat we say this. In the beginning of Kabbalat Shabbat.
היום אם בקולו תשמעו אל תקשו לבבכם כמריבה כיום מסה במדבר אשר נסוני אבותיכם בחנוני גם ראו פעלי.
So Dovid Malka Meshicha, Dovid HaMelech says היום אם בקולו תשמעו, today if you listen to His voice.
זה כלל גדול בעבודת השם. Says Rebbe, a very important Inyan. A Klal.
So we learn something tremendous from here when it comes to Godly service.
שלא ישים לנגד עיניו כי אם אותו היום. What should you place before your eyes? Only one thing: today.
כי אם אותו היום, Hen be'esek haparnassah, both regarding Inyanim of Parnassah, not just Ruchniyus, בצטרכותו צריך שלא יחשוב מיום לחברו כמבואר בספרים.
You should not be worried and thinking about how am I going to eat tomorrow or what do I need in order to eat tomorrow, I have to only think about what do I need in order to eat today, just on the level of eating for instance. Or clothes or anything you need. All of, all you should be thinking about is what you should be, what you need today. No one's like that.
I don't know anyone that lives like that. I don't know anyone that doesn't have a pantry. I don't know anyone that's not in their mind, even if they don't have a pantry, they're not thinking about tomorrow as well. So a person can read the first two lines in this teaching and come to a very nervous emotion saying is there neglect going on here? There's not like planning.
There's not, you have planned parenting, you have planned eating, planned shopping, like but we're not supposed to be thinking, we're not supposed to be planning anything? Well, when push comes to shove and that usually happens when you come home from a funeral of someone that died young or someone that you didn't have a chance to let them know how much you loved them, that's when you start living and thinking like this. Because you say to yourself, that mortality comes and strikes and you're like, hmm, so that whole thing of like not talking about it but subconsciously the train of thought of I'm eternal and I'm going to live here forever, that when you go to a funeral you realize you're not. And then the question is, so what am I, how am I spending most of my time? Am I busy worrying about tomorrow? Not worrying as a nervous wreck but even thinking too much about tomorrow and the next week or am I thinking about the privilege that I woke up today and today is what I have? Rebbe Nachman is telling us when you're able to do that, you're tuned into a כלל גדול בעבודת השם. This is a, this is a big deal, this is a big thing.
It's a game changer. Game changer. And he continues and he says like this. That's true about Parnassah.
Vechayn ba'avodaso yisbarach. So too when it comes to spiritual achievements, spiritual desires, spiritual accomplishments. All these things I want to take on, all these Sefarim I pull off my shelf that I want to learn. All these Avodas that I want to be plugged into and make sure that I accomplish like we keep on saying.
וכן בעבודתו יתברך לא ישים לנגד עיניו כי אם אותו היום ואותה השעה. All you should put in front of you is now. Like what's a great example for this? When a person... is a shiur, all they should be thinking about is just the shiur.
Not how do I implement it, not any of these other things, but just that when they're in a davening, all they should be thinking about is this tefilla right now. When they're doing hisbodedus, all that they should be thinking about is that hisbodedus, not comparing it to yesterday's or preparing for tomorrow's. We all know that we don't have yesterday and tomorrow isn't here yet. We know that on a certain level of consciousness, but on a certain level of consciousness or subconsciousness we haven't bought into that.
We have not bought into the fact that yesterday doesn't exist anymore and tomorrow's not here yet, because we live in a world that yesterday or tomorrow are so much more alive in my brain and in my heart than today. So much more alive, they- it takes up so much more space than today. Isn't this the definition of anxiety? Sorry? Isn't this the definition of anxiety, where you're too much in the past or you're too much in the future? And then you start getting anxious over being anxious. Right.
Probably is. I mean, it's probably the root of it. Meaning what am I anxious about- like when a person seeps, unfortunately, into anxiety, what is it that they're anxious about? That they're about to have a heart attack? That means it didn't- like that's not now, right now you're not. And it's easier said than done, chevra.
I'm not downplaying this at all. I've gone through it, it's- it's- these are- I mean people have, should have refuah sheleima. This is a very, very important yesod in avodas Hashem. Because when I master this, be careful world, I'm really alive.
Halo chai ani. I'm mamash alive at that moment. Reb Shlomo used to say in the name of the Baal Shem Tov that our greatest slave drivers are our yesterdays. They are our slave drivers.
Most of the things I struggle with have nothing to do with today. Most of it has to do with the slave driver of yesterday and I would say also the slave driver of tomorrow as well. Just yesterday's a bit more stark because we've been there already, so we have a- a stronger taste of what that was. So again, Reb Nachman says over here, וכן בעבודתו יתברך לא ישים לנגד עיניו כי אם אותו היום ואותו השעה.
Why should you just be focusing on right now when it comes to avodas Hashem?
כי כשרוצים ליכנס בעבודת השם, when a person wants to enter this world called being a servant of God, נדמה לאדם כאילו הוא משא כבד. It feels like a heavy, heavy burden.
ואי אפשר לו לישא משא כבד כזה. And this person- it's very hard to carry such a burden.
Imagine a person's getting into Yiddishkeit around now, so he goes to a few shiurim and he learns the luach, and he learns about the next month of Yiddishkeit. What is he- what is he carrying with him? Purim and Pesach.
מאיפה יתחיל משא כבד כבד. Even us Frumies are- we feel like this even when it's not like our entering into it, we always get in this.
But imagine a person that's starting it in, starting in the beginning and then this is what they- it feels like such a heavy burden and they can't carry such a heavy burden. But Reb Nachman says, אבל כשיחשוב שאין לו רק אותו היום, but when I realize, wait a second, Shabbos Zachor has not happened yet, Purim is not here, Pesach's even further, I have a Thursday in Adar, which may turn out to be a very, beezras Hashem, extremely miraculous day in Thursday in the month of Adar that'll change the setting for- for humanity and pave the way straight to the Beis Hamikdash, beezras Hashem. Amen. That's all I have today.
אין לי משהו אחר. When a person goes into the art of really internalizing and being in tune with their breath, they- they- they're led to this description physically. Right? All I have was that. Like all I have, if you notice, just- I'm going to- I'm going to ask you again or maybe not in like four minutes to notice like two breaths that you took.
That's all you really had in order to be- to be able to continue to be alive right now. And when I notice what I have right now, it puts things into perspective, it puts things into order, and it removes from me many of my slave drivers and the massa. and burdens that I've took upon myself. What does it mean that people get short of breath? What is that due to? What do you think? If a person has to go like what is that not a physical ailment, but what do you think that that's the trigger for that? Panic.
From what? Anxiety. Not presence. Not presence. Not presence will lead to that shortness of breath.
Okay. Now the Rebbe continues and he says like this: אבל כשחשב שאין לו רק אותו היום. But when you realize all I have is today, לא יהיה לו משא כלל. You don't feel like there's a burden anymore.
Because all you will set yourself for is being realistic in what should I be involved with today. What should my time be what should my time what should my time and my kochos be dedicated to today? Just today. And the Rebbe also says: וגם שלא ידחה את עצמו מיום ליום לאמר מחר אתחיל מחר אתפלל בכוונה ובכוח כראוי וכיוצא בזה בשאר עבודות. Part of this leads a person to not - what does it mean lidchos et atzmo? To not procrastinate.
We're going to get back to this. Don't push things off to the next day, saying tomorrow I'll start. Why? Because you don't know - the emes is that you have no idea if you have tomorrow. That's the truth.
You barely really know if you have right now. But let's work with that. Like you have now, but none of us know if we're going to be here tomorrow. So saying I'll push this off to tomorrow is basically being very, very unrealistic.
That's unrealistic. The things that need to be started today, start them today.
כי אין לאדם בעולמו כי אם אותו היום ואותו השעה שעומד בו. All you have is the day and the moment that you find yourself present in.
כי יום המחרת הוא עולם אחר לגמרי, היום אם בקולו תשמעו, hayom davka. The Torah says it's really all about if today, היום אם בקולו תשמעו, if you listen to the voice of Hashem, just today. And then tomorrow say just today. And we have this very strongly in the twelve steps when they say - when people give accounts of how many days they're clean and sober.
So I think they always end off by saying I am whatever 317 days sober today, just today. Mashehu kaze because that's all they have. That's all they have. But that's true about all of us, that's all we have now.
In Shivchei Moharan. Now we could speak a lot about this teaching, that's the whole teaching right now. We could speak a lot about this teaching. I think it speaks for itself.
But I want us to see how this teaching gets developed. Now in Shivchei Moharan, which is a book of the praises of Rebbe Nachman - we have this also about the Baal Shem Tov, שבחי הבעל שם טוב it's a sefer that describes like a lot of the behind the scenes of what it was like in Rebbe Nachman's life, what did it seem like. A lot of additional information that was handed down in massora. So in the 14th letter in os yud dalet, it says like this about Rebbe Nachman: ורק על ידי עצה זו.
Only through this eitza, meaning the teaching we just read, נשא עליו עול העבודה. Rebbe Nachman was able to be who he was. He was able to do what he ended up doing only because of this teaching. This teaching enabled - imagine a tzaddik like Rebbe Nachman.
It's very hard to. Honestly, I never - like I've shared this with you before, I never really imagine him, because it's too beyond me. Reb Noson, if I dare say so, I feel like he's more approachable. Rebbe Nachman is me'al, like they say about an עיר וקדיש מן שמיא נחית, he's an angel that descended down upon us from the heavens.
It's hard to - like I always say, if I had to if they said to me you can take a walk with Rebbe Nachman or Reb Noson, I'd never take a walk with Rebbe Nachman. I'd be I would cease to exist, meaning I would melt, I wouldn't be able to I would just - imagine I take a walk, imagine we would take a walk with Rebbe Nachman. Just imagine that for a second. It's petrifying.
I don't even know how to begin. Reb Noson, I don't know, there's a little bit more of a of an opening of being like... Or Reb Noson would start the conversation saying: You're also from the ones that feel messed up? Like, you're also here for this? Like, how was Rebbe Nachman able to do anything in the keilim of Olam Hazeh is beyond me. He's not from here.
This is not another neshama. He was a human being, very much so. He died. He's buried.
Like all of us בעזרת השם עד מאה ועשרים, like he went through similar physical things we went through. But how is a person like that with such a moach, with such a mochin and such a lev able to contract all of that into Olam Ha'asiyah? I have no idea. But this explanation gives me a little bit of an insight into it.
ורק על ידי עצה זו נשא עליו עול העבודה.
He was only able to do what he did because of the Torah of Hayom. He lived this Torah.
היינו שבכל יום היה חושב בדעתו שאין לו רק זה היום בלבד. Reb Nachman was just thinking every single day about the reality of all I have is right, all I have is this day.
ברוך אתה ה' אלהינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו. Amen.
ולא יסתכל ליום המחרת. And he didn't look at tomorrow.
ועל זמן של להבא כלל. Or about the next period in life.
רק כאילו אין לו רק זה היום בלבד. He lived this life that he really only had the day that was in front of him.
And what happens to you when you only have the day that's in front of you? You actually get so much more done than you could have ever imagined.
וכשגמר העבודה של זה היום אזי ביום המחרת חזר וקיבל עליו העבודה של אותו יום המחרת. And then that which was waiting for him on, let's say it was a Thursday, right? And all he was was in Thursday.
היום יום חמישי בשבת.
This was his thing. All I have is right now. I have this shacharis, I have this mincha, I have this maariv, I have this piece of food, I have that person that's in front of me. There's no one else that's in front of me now.
I shouldn't have to save kochos because I'm going to be tired later. I don't know if I'll be alive later. That's the truth. None of us know.
I say these statements to give us koach, not to freak us out, you understand, right? Not to make us like scared, just to really give us inner koach. So Rebbe Nachman was finished with Thursday, then Friday morning he woke up and he's like all I know is that I woke up in Friday. He probably didn't wake up on Friday, he probably stayed up all night, but whatever it is, he came to Friday and Friday was saying to him: You realize you Baruch Hashem you have Friday. He's like, yeah yeah, all I have is all I have is this day.
So today's going to be the day that I do everything I need to do for today. Not everything I need to do in my 30s or in my 40s. He didn't reach 40s but he passed away in at the age of 38 and a half. So all I have is right now.
And he lived it. It wasn't just a mantra, it was a way of life. And in this sefer Shivchei Moharan, they're saying over here: This is really how he this was it was only this eitzah that enabled him to function the way that he functioned. Because if not, a Tzaddik with a moach like this, talk about becoming overwhelmed, Hashem yishmor, Hashem yerachem.
What do we know? It's almost impossible. Now turn the page. We have today many amazing, amazing authors, many big thinkers in the Israeli scene that got very into Rebbe Nachman. And we've like, for instance, we've heard before, we've learned a lot of Torah actually from some of them, one of them mainly רב ארז משה דורון, who just sent me his latest book that I think he spent I think I was told he spent 10 years on it just on Azamra.
Wow. Yeah. We're going to get there. We're going to get there bezrat Hashem.
Not today. No. And not tomorrow either. And not next week.
But we'll get there, right? To say that without that that pressure is gevalt, right? We'll get there, not today, right? One of them, one of these young, one of the younger chevra that is writing like very powerful stuff, really infusing, integrating, taking in Rebbe Nachman's teachings and giving it to us in a language that we could understand is if you've heard of Rav Michi Yosefi. Have you heard of him? Rav Michi Yosefi. He taught us this pasuk. In Shirat Shlomo in Cheshvan, rainy day like today, was a night.
Do you remember this? Wait, this year? No, a hundred years ago. Not a hundred, twenty, okay? It wasn't even twenty. Fascinating. So, so good because he's gonna...
well, the truth is, the person that's writing it is not Rav Michi Yosefi. The person that's writing it is a guy named Ran Weber. Have you heard of him? Ran Weber? He's put out a lot of books, fascinating books, like bestsellers, I think. So he describes here a meeting that he had with Rav Michi Yosefi, who's one of the, is another humble giant of our time, who they bumped into each other in Uman and they started talking about this, this teaching from Rabbi Nachman.
And what I love so much about all the Breslover books that I have that aren't like the actual teachings, but it's like sichat chaverim, sichot, dibburim, is that whenever talmidim of Rabbi Nachman would meet each other and they wanted to talk about life, somehow a deeper exploration into the teachings of Rabbi Nachman became the topic of their conversation because all they... all they want to do is try to integrate the teachings that they learned into their life in a way that could really change them. So listen to this. This is very interesting and deep.
פגשתי את הרב מיכי יוספי באומן והוא אמר לי כמה נקודות יפות על התורה הזאת Torah Ayin Beit Be-Likkutei Moharan. So what are some of the things he pointed out?
אחד הדברים היה שלא ידחה את עצמו. So this, I don't know if you noticed, Rabbi Nachman didn't say שלא ידחה את עבודתו. When he was talking about don't push things off till tomorrow, he wasn't talking about things.
The lashon of Rabbi Nachman is שלא ידחה את עצמו. What's the difference between the two? A world of difference. Let's see how he explains it to us. Ha-adam, Rabbeinu לא כתב כאן שלא ידחה את המשימות שלו אלא שלא ידחה את עצמו.
Rabbi Nachman didn't say don't prolong, don't procrastinate with your tasks, but rather don't procrastinate yourself. What does that mean be-khlal?
האדם דוחה את עצמו. A person, doche, can mean... so there's a few things here.
Doche means, you could... in modern Hebrew, uff, eize doche, that means repulsive, right? Or it could mean to push off, right, lidchot. And over here it means you end up getting repulsed by yourself when you keep on pushing not things off, but yourself.
ולא רק שהוא דוחה ולא מקבל את עצמו.
He's saying it's not just that you reject and you don't mekabel, you don't accept yourself, אלא חוזר שוב ושוב ודוחה את עצמו מיום ליום. But that you do this repeatedly. Could it be that he's saying over here that Rabbi Nachman means... Rabbi Nachman says stop rejecting yourself.
And how do you reject yourself? Sorry? Holding yourself back from your potential. But based on the teaching that we're speaking about over here? By not being present. You're not living. By not being present with who you are today, you're rejecting yourself.
So the... and this happens repeatedly. Because you have things you want to do and you're doing them, so it gives you a sense of accomplishment, presence, that you're doing what you came in the world to do. Nakon.
Nakon.
ותפסיק לדחות את עצמך. He says this is what it means. Stop...
stop procrastinating who you are, your self-acceptance.
תתחיל לקבל את עצמך במקום שבו אתה נמצא. Start to accept yourself in the exact place that you're in right now. Which is so true because in our minds we say, let's say someone's trying to lose weight, they say, I'll accept my...
I'll be able to look in the mirror or accept that this is me once I'm not like this. That's an easy example. But there's... there are many examples like this.
Yeah. So I think like it applies a lot to what you just said, but that like those goals, and it could be applied to spirituality or whatever it is, that they're not linear. That it's not just, oh you're going in a straight line, that like whatever the goal is... If you didn't do it yesterday, it doesn't mean you can't do it today, and just because you did it today doesn't mean that you're going to do it tomorrow.
Right. Mamash. That's very strong. Very good.
תתחיל לקבל את עצמך במקום שבו אתה נמצא and then Reb Michie explained that when you begin to accept yourself in the place that you're at right now, it doesn't mean that you accept, I just want to make it clear, it doesn't mean, we have to be very clear with this, it doesn't mean that if you're really stuck in a very heavy lust, and the Rebbe says accept yourself where you're at today, to be okay with the fact that you're deep, deeply rooted in some type of a lust or something really naughty and bad. Accept yourself, not the action. Acknowledge this is where I am today. This is me today.
I may not be happy with it but I can only be with be-emet who I am right now. And then when you do this, Rebbe Na... so he says that Rebbe Nachman's explaining ותמצא את כוחות הנפש להמשיך הלאה. Then you find the kochos ha-nefesh, then you find what it takes from you on your kishkas to continue to go ולהעמיק במה שאתה באמת צריך לעשות, meaning the tools in order not just to survive but to really accomplish what you need to accomplish are created from a sense of acceptance of the moment of this is where I am now.
I usually try to not acknowledge it because a lot of the things about where I'm at right now are very depressing or they're very disappointing, self-disappointment. But the tools to snap out of that and to grow from these moments and to be able to do what you have to do today and do it even deeper, you gain that set of tools only from a place of לא לדחות את עצמו of not pushing my self-acceptance off till tomorrow. That's one nekuda that Rav Yosefi is speaking about in this teaching. Very simple stuff, right? Ha-davar ha-sheni she-amar, the second thing he said is like this.
By the way, who's been noticing their breath the last few minutes? Okay, good. Only two people. Ha-davar ha-sheni she-amar, hayinu metzapim, we would expect שבמקום משא כבד יהיה לאדם משא קל. We would expect, Rebbe Nachman says, things stop being a heavy burden, they only become a light burden, but that's not what Rebbe Nachman said in the teaching.
אבל רבינו אמר שכשאתה עושה את העבודה הזאת לא יהיה לו כמשא כלל. It's not that your burden becomes lighter. That word burden is removed from your lexicon because it's not a burden. What you have to do in that day doesn't feel like it's a burden.
What does it feel? Is it a burden for anyone to breathe right now? Is it a burden for anyone to, let's be real, we're sitting in Eretz Ha-Kodesh learning Rebbe Nachman. This is a burden? And a bunch of other things we could start noticing and pointing out. But Rebbe Nachman could have chosen to write the words once you tune into the Torah of Ha-Yom, then things that are heavy start feeling lighter. He removes the whole function of burden from the psyche.
And when something's not a burden and you do it, so what is that thing? What does that thing feel like? A pleasure. Oneg, mamash. Are pleasures burdens in any way?
מצוה גדולה להיות בשמחה תמיד. Yeah.
You're doing you're in the present. Yeah, mamash. This is very amazing how different talmidim of Rebbe Nachman see different things in the teachings or why certain words were chosen and not chosen. That's why you have to have sichot chaverim about the teachings that we learn because this is exactly a good example.
Mi-zeh efshar lilmod, from this we could learn שהמשא קשור לחששות שלנו ולתחושת הלחץ. Burdens are associated with our suspicions and our sense of lachatz, stress, pressure. It's just crazy because none of it ever existed. What do you mean? The chashashos, it's only and if, what if, and if.
Right. But it lives rent-free in our brain.
אם אני לא בלחץ, if I'm not under stress, ואני מבין מה שמוטל עלי לעשות היום, and I know what I need to do today, אני יכול להגיע לחוויה שלא רק שזה לא משא כבד, I could reach an experience that not only is this not a heavy burden, זה לא משא כלל, it's not a burden. There are people that you see them before they went through this in davening and after they went through this when it comes to davening.
There are people, they're frum their whole lives and davening, even though they do shachris, mincha and maariv in a minyan, it's a burden. But beseder, we're not here to just have fun. Then you have people that once they tapped into the vitality of tfillah and the air that you receive from tfillah, don't look at davening at all like a burden. They look at it as the greatest pleasure in the world.
There are people that look at pieces of davening like this, for instance, tachnun. When there's someone that comes and is in minyan and exempts the tzibur from saying tachnun, it's mamash like Rosh Hashanah, simchas hachayim, right? Like there is a mohel that davens here sometimes in the mornings and whenever he walks into the room everyone gets really excited because there's a mohel about to do a bris, there's no tachnun in the shul, right? And then like when he just comes because this is just the minyan that's good for him, no one has any big thrills about his presence because he's not relieving us from the burden of, especially on a Monday or Thursday. Then you have tzaddikim like Reb Levi Yitzchak Bender. Reb Levi Yitzchak Bender, I told you in the chain, he comes out to be one, two, three, four, five, like five or six.
Reb Levi Yitzchak Bender was the leading figure of the Breslover Chassidim in Eretz Yisrael after the Shoah, he moved here right after the Shoah and he passed away I believe in 89 in 88, 1988 or 89. And I was watching a shiur recently in a Breslover yeshiva on his yahrtzeit, they invited some guest speakers to speak about him and they spoke about how in certain places and Reb Nosson Seigel, zecher tzaddik livracha, once gave me a sefer of the, he called, he said, here, take this. I said, what's this? He says, it's a tachnun killer. And I looked at it, it was the dates of yahrtzeits of a bunch of tzaddikim because in many places when there's a hilulah, when there's a yahrtzeit of a tzaddik, you don't say tachnun, right? In certain places though in Breslov, it's farkert, it's the opposite, that the yahrtzeit of the tzaddik opens up the privilege that you feel inside to say ה' ה' קל רחום וחנון.
So they were speaking in that yeshiva about how davka they do extra kavana tachnun on the day of the yahrtzeit of this tzaddik, Reb Levi Yitzchak Bender, because I once saw him, I once, I never saw him as far as I know. But I once saw one of his writings where he says that he doesn't understand why people get so excited when there's a p'tur from tachnun. It's like, why, why would you, what, is there like enough rachamim happening in the world that today's a day you don't have to ask for more rachamim? Why are you so, why are you so excited that today you don't have to say ה' ה' קל רחום וחנון ארך אפים ורב חסד ואמת, מה זה? So for people that it's a burden, you understand why they get excited when tachnun's removed from the davening. For people that are already experiencing the avodah of hayom, these things are not burdens, these things are privileges and pleasures.
I'll go, I'll go as far as saying the following: It's like the difference between realizing that you're sitting in business class or sitting in coach. What do I mean? For a person that's sitting in business class, when you're up there, the more time you have, the more geshmak it really is. It's a, like my brother told me, the first time he was flown out to do a concert in business class was from New York to England and the pilot gets on the, and he says, we have great news, we were able to find a faster and quicker and shorter route to Heathrow tonight, so instead of it being six hours and 40 minutes, we figured out it's be five hours and 50 minutes. And all he said is he was sitting there saying, no.
The chevre in the back, the burden of cattle, what we call it, right? Is like, oh thank God, right, shorter. But when you, but so you're, what am I trying to say, like the experience of being in... Eved Hashem is business class. It really is.
Like in the deepest depths it is. And when things get longer, then it's just more of a time to experience what it's like to be in business class. I don't know if anyone ever used that mashal for davening, but whenever we have to find ways for us to- and I bless you all to have business class flights, be'ezrat Hashem. Amen.
ההרגשה יכולה להיות של הנאה ואתגר. This feeling that Rebbe Nachman is speaking about could either be of pleasure and of adventure.
ולא שמשא ומשהו שמכביד עלי. And not saying that it's heavy upon me.
לשים לנגד עיני רק את היום הזה. To put in front of me only this day. Zot mamash avodah. This is mamash work.
Lehit'alem- look at these words, I love this.
להתעלם ממה שלא מונח לפני. To ignore that which isn't placed in front of me. So you're saying, why would you have to ignore something that's not in front of you? I don't know.
You're right. It shouldn't have to be an avodah, but quite often I actually have to ignore all the things that have nothing to do with my functioning in this moment in order to get- in order to live this moment. I have to ignore those things that are not placed in front of me. Do you understand these words?
להתעלם ממה שלא מונח לפני.
להתנגד לנטייה לזרום אחורה וקדימה בזמן. I need to develop opposition towards floating, flowing back and forth in time. Limkomot vera'ayonot acherim to other places and other ideas that are not where I'm at right now. Ulihiyot memukad kan and to be focused on now.
Ma alai la'asot. This just because of lichvod Purim. I remember that one time our rebbe in yeshiva here in Hamiftar, Rabbi Schrader, went around- these were very- he was a talmid of Rav Soloveitchik and a lot of the shita of the learning he definitely from there and the- the closest I'll ever feel to being in the Rav's shiur was sitting in Rav Schrader's shiur. It was very high level and demanding and sometimes after learning a sugya, so he would go around the room and we weren't such a big- the class wasn't- we were maybe fifteen guys.
Maybe fifteen guys, if I remember correctly. And he asked us, okay, I want to know what you think. What are you thinking about? Right? So those were always very pressuring moments of like, oh my god, I have to explain how I- what I'm thinking about with this sugya. But one of the guys was like we called- he was mamash like the nutty professor.
Gaon but very little keilim for this world. So he came to him and he said, and you- I'm not going to say his name- and you, ואתה מה אתה חושב? So he said- and the sugya was in Masechet Nazir, it was a complicated sugya in the Gemara. So my friend said, I'm thinking about what it must feel like to chop wood for a widow in a forest. It had nothing to do with the sugya, but in his head he heard the Rav wants to know, what are you thinking about? So he said what I'm thinking about.
It happened again a few months later where the Rav said, what do you think- so what do you think? He would always do this. What are you thinking about? And again that guy wasn't trying to be chutzpadik, he was being emess. He said, I was- I'm still thinking about how I should have gone up to Yosi Beilin last night in the Laromme and tell him what I think about what he's done to Am Yisrael through Oslo. Ma kesher? What does it have to do with the sugya that we're learning right now? Right? Now we're laughing, he was just being honest.
Half the time when we are in davening, if Hashem would come down and say, and what do you think? What do you think right now? What are you thinking about right now based on this intimate moment between us? What do you think right now? It's the same thing. My friend was just being honest. Rebbe Nachman is saying, if you can- if you can answer the question to what are you thinking about right now and it has relevance to now, life is not a burden. What you have to do is- these- they stop being- They're not really burdens.
It's different. Of course there's always burdens I want to explain there's always burdens in life we have to do but if I really felt that I approach every single thing as this is the only thing I have to do right now, I deburden the moment. It keeps you focused. It's removing kvedut.
It removes weight, which then allows me to breathe and think and focus and now. Which obviously results in removal of anxiety and elements of stress. And a lot of assiya. Well, that's what he's going to say right now.
Hahargasha yechola, I'm going to say again from the beginning.
ההרגשה יכולה להיות של הנאה ואתגר ולא של משא או משהו שמכביד עלי לשים לנגד עיני רק את היום הזה זאת ממש עבודה להתעלם ממה שלא מונח לפני להתנגד לנטייה לזרום אחורה וקדימה בזמן למקומות ורעיונות אחרים ולהיות ממוקד כאן Ma alay la'asot רק את זה אני צריך לעשות עכשיו. Only this I need to do now.
וכמובן שבצורה הכי טובה שאני יכול aval beli lachatz.
I can only do what I'm doing now to the best of my ability, but the best of my ability entails without pressure, without stress. Beli ha'ashama atzmit. Without, this is the hardest, without how you say ha'ashama atzmit? Self-criticism, self-guilt. Uveli shiputiyut, without being judgmental on myself now.
What Zahava said is the key over here to answer the question, how could Reb Nachman, how could Reb Nosson, how could they have accomplished all what they did? Because when they sat down, what Reb Nosson sat down to write one of his sefarim, he didn't wasn't thinking, I have to write a sefer. He was thinking, I have to write this today. And it stopped being a burden. When people go into something saying, I have to do this, it feels like a burden and you don't get that much done.
But when you say to yourself, all I have to do is what I have to do today, the level of accomplishment, the amount of assiya you do grows tremendously. Yeah. I was reading something about that you should really slow down because when you're doing stuff like in a rush like getting the kids out of the house and you're like, let's go we gotta go, like you're in survival mode, like your body can stay in survival mode. When you slow down you really can end up accomplishing so much more.
Much more. So what so here I think the wording for slow down would be what's that? Present, being present. It would be remove that which you don't have to do right now that's not in front of you and you will naturally develop a completely different pace of life. Yishuv hadaat, living with yishuv.
Which is yishuv hadaat, which is one of the main things we're here to learn in these shiurim. Like the shiurim we're doing in in this time is they're focused on to attain peace of mind and tranquility for the sake of being the most accomplished ovdei Hashem that ever existed, not for the sake of how long we could sit in zen. That's not the avodah, you know. That's we're here to we're here to work.
We're here to we're here to work. So if like we carve out fifty minutes a few mornings a week to to focus on these things, the day becomes much, much bigger. The day itself, that day, becomes much, much bigger and a lot more is done. Okay, so the end...
yeah... author Eckhart Tolle... he must have learned Rabbi Nachman. Power of Now he calls it.
Yeah? Remember Ram Dass? Richard Alpert? What was his big thing? Be here now, as if that was his chiddush. Right, as if that was his chiddush. It came from our rebbe. Huh? It came from our rebbe.
This was it came you know where it came from? Moshe Rabbeinu was told at Eleh HaMishpatim, we read it a few weeks ago, to go up and go up on Har Sinai and Hashem says aleh elai hahara and then he adds these two magic words. Hashem told him to go up to the mount, aleh elai hahara, veheyeh sham, and be there. The Mei Hashiloach says it's a whole Torah in Mishpatim. We've learned it.
We've learned it many times. Why does it have to say and be there? Because you go quite often, you go to a shiur, you're not there. Quite often you show up to davening, you bichlal did not... that was not where you ended up, but you went there.
So Reb Nosson ends here over here with in Likutey Halakhot, Hilkhot Orlah. Look what he says here. Ikar Hakedusha, Ikar Hakedusha, real holiness, היא בבחינת היום אם בקולו תשמעו k'mo shemevo'ar adoneinu moreinu ve'rabeinu zichrono livracha, like our Rebbe taught us in the piece we learned.
ועל ידי אלו שזוכין לעבוד את השם ולקים זאת, in the merit of those, through those that merited to serve God like this, based on that teaching, he says על ידי זה יבוא משיח.
Why did he say such a thing? So in the Gemara, רבי יהושע בן לוי meets Moshiach and he asks him, right, the Baal Shem Tov was the second one to meet Moshiach in the higher chambers and ask him when are you coming. And the Baal Shem Tov's answer was when you spread your wellsprings out there, right? But רבי יהושע בן לוי met Moshiach in the Gemara, it says this, met Moshiach in the higher chambers and he asked him, Eimatai yavo Mar, when are you coming? And what was the answer that he told him?
היום אם בקולו תשמעו. That's the answer that he told him. And Reb Nachman's trying to reveal to us the secret of Moshiach, of what did Moshiach tell רבי יהושע בן לוי.
This is a very beautiful thing, Moshiach will come through those that are fully, fully concerned with the most important thing in the world, and that is today. So he gives us a bracha, just for today, to live like this. I don't care about tomorrow at all because I have no, none of us know if we'll be here. But we know we're here now.
So today, to live like this today, be'ezras Hashem should bring upon all of Am Yisrael a shefa of tranquility in their heart, calmness, stillness, and peace in their hearts. And maybe like that when we don't have to feel that we have to do everything, we'll actually start doing something. And we'll start doing a lot more than whatever else we thought we could ever accomplish. Yasher koach.
I feel weird saying Gut Shabbos also because today is only Thursday. Good Thursday. Good Thursday.