Rebbe Nachman’s Journey to Eretz Yisrael | The Bizarre Childlike Behavior

Why did Rebbe Nachman act like a barefoot child skipping through the streets of Istanbul?

This shiur dives deep into one of the most mysterious chapters of Rebbe Nachman’s life — his legendary journey to Eretz Yisrael. Disguises, self-imposed humiliation, childish games, and life-threatening danger made every step of his journey its own form of spiritual combat.

Drawing from the writings of Rav Nosson and the teachings in Likkutei Moharan, we explore why Rebbe Nachman insisted on entering the Holy Land through קטנות (smallness), ביזיונות (disgrace), and complete self-nullification. What did he know that we don’t?

Rebbe Nachman's story is a roadmap for anyone trying to grow in their Yiddishkeit, to strip away ego, to embrace the fall before the ascent, and to walk the strange, beautiful path toward real spiritual transformation.

What is The Wisdom of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov?

Rav Shlomo Katz delves into the wisdom of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov zy"a

Okay. We are we are in a in the middle of the whole story of Rebbe Nachman's journey to ארץ ישראל. Last week we began about his decision to go. How much, or was it last week? No, two weeks ago we we spoke about his decision to go.

How much it was a struggle, how much it was a big shock to the community and to his family. And we saw his determination. We saw that and we we learned a piece from ליקוטי מוהר"ן based on בחירה חופשית, that when a person realizes that a חסיד once asked Rebbe Nachman, what does it mean to have free will? He says, very simple. If you want something, you do it.

If you don't want it, you won't do it. And רב Nosson said it was very important to write these words down because quite often we think, I just, I want to do something so badly, but it's not, I can't. Rebbe Nachman says if you want to do something so badly, you you you will. You will.

You will end up doing it.And Rebbe Nachman sets out on his journey to ארץ ישראל, on ל"ג בעומר of that year. I think it was 1798, if I remember correctly. But I just wanted to give you two quotes today. Two important quotes from Rebbe Nachman on ארץ ישראל in order to just get our heads, to get our get our heads in the right place.

I'm sorry I don't have this printed for you, but just two short quotes from Rebbe Nachman from from ליקוטי מוהר"ן. Rebbe Nachman speaking about ארץ ישראל. And one of them is from תורה רל"ד, the 234th teaching in ליקוטי מוהר"ן. Rebbe Nachman says, כי ארץ ישראל הוא כלליות הקדושה שבכל הדורות.

It is the generality, the general sense of holiness that's in all, שבכל הקדושות. That's in all holinesses. זאת אומרת. That whatever in the world you could imagine and think about קדושה and whatnot.

That is, ארץ ישראל is the headquarters of of of of כל הקדושות. And then he says in תורה קנ"ה, וצריך כל אדם לבקש מהשם יתברך. And this is very important. Hopefully we'll see a whole תפילה that רב Nosson wrote on this statement.

צריך כל אדם לבקש מהשם יתברך, שיהיה לו כיסופים וגעגועים לארץ ישראל.So Rebbe Nachman said, I'm not talking about getting to ארץ ישראל, but every Jew has to דאווען to השם that they should want to want to come to ארץ ישראל. That they should want to want to come to ארץ ישראל. That that's a כלל. Every ייד has to דאווען for that.

וגם, he writes, שיהיו את געגועים לכל הצדיקים לארץ ישראל. And we should דאווען that צדיקים should long to want to to want to come to ארץ ישראל. It's a pretty, in my opinion, one of the most prophetic statements in the world. שיהיו לו געגועים לכל הצדיקים לארץ ישראל.

That there should be געגועים amongst the leaders and the righteous people that they should have כיסופים, that they should be longing to go to ארץ ישראל. And then finally, the last quote, ליקוטי מוהר"ן כ. מי שרוצה להיות איש ישראלי. That doesn't mean whoever wants to be Israeli the way we understand it, you understand.

איש ישראלי, Rebbe Nachman referred to a ייד quite often as איש ישראלי, an Israelite person. I'm sure there's תורות on this also. Why דוקא he chooses this wording of מי שרוצה להיות איש ישראלי and not מי שרוצה להיות יהודי. מי שרוצה להיות איש ישראלי, whoever wants to be a real ייד, which means, what does it mean to be a real ייד? היינו שילך מדרגא לדרגא.

That you're you're climbing the ladder, that you're growing, you're there's an evolution taking place. Rebbe Nachman says, אי אפשר אלא על ידי ארץ ישראל. You can't be a real איש ישראלי, and you can't be one that's in constant motion of growing, of evolving, going from level to level, you can only do that through ארץ ישראל.You know, it's very, it's very, um, um, it's very rare by the writings of the חסידישע Rebbes of his time, um, בכלל, in general, to speak like this about ארץ ישראל. There was no one that spoke about ארץ ישראל from the חסידישע Rebbes the way that Rebbe Nachman did.

And therefore he sets out on that journey on חי אייר, and the חסידים said we we we we could try to stop him, but we see there's no way. There's no way he's stopping, there's no way he's not going.Now we again to put things into context, back then back then, there were massive long world wars non-stop between countries and nations and especially all over this region and the region north of here that was, it was an, it was really, really a סכנת נפשות. It wasn't like, oh I hope he like takes care and he sleeps well so he has כח to get to be alive when he gets there. It was סכנת נפשות.Now, the today, to be a little bit different than we usually do because there's there's so much there's so many details that I want to share with you that have a common theme about Rebbe Nachman's journey to ארץ ישראל.

And there's there's so much written about this in שבחי הר"ן in the writings of רב Nosson writing this and documenting everything that he heard, both from the person that was with Rebbe Nachman, who's still a mystery, who that תלמיד was. Although I I actually was shocked that I I learned this week that there's a whole מסורת in ברסלב that it wasn't the רב, this תלמיד רב שמעון that we mentioned before, but rather that he lost the gig, I'm not sure how he got disqualified, but there was a ייד named רב יצחק who was, wasn't one of the biggest תלמידים of Rebbe Nachman, which is part of the whole mystery of this trip. And he was the brother of ר' חייקל. ר' חייקל was a a big figure, I hope we get to speak about him as well.

And he plays a very interesting role in Rebbe Nachman's journey to ארץ ישראל.Now, there's there's just so much, I I'm going to give over a lot בעל פה today. So I want I just want you to pay attention, but we'll hopefully also get to see something inside. So the journey, Rebbe Nachman was was starting out in a place called Medvedevka, like we've mentioned before. That name will pop up in the middle of the story again.

And from there they set their their their their journey to the town of Nikolayev. That's where the, that's where back then that you had to get there in order to then travel to the way to get to ארץ ישראל then was mainly through Istanbul, through Turkey. Mind mind you, they're not in Turkey, they're in Ukraine, Russia, whatever you want to call it. These are long, long journeys.Um, sorry, there was one stop there that before that, which was Odessa.

From Nikolayev, they had to go to Odessa, and then from Odessa to travel to Istanbul. Now Rebbe Nachman tells his שמש to make sure, buy a lot of paper. Make sure you bring a lot of paper with you. And as soon as they got, as soon as they got onto the boat, Rebbe Nachman goes into his, I don't know.

It it's beautiful to say he went peacefully into his cabin where there was a cup of tea and a lamp and some spa music on the surround sound. Rebbe Nachman goes and sits down and starts writing and writing and writing, writing תורות, but he warned the person with him, traveling with him, 'You can't look at anything that I'm writing in here. I'm warning you. I know you're going to be tempted to.

You're not allowed to look at anything that I'm writing in here.' And he had to promise him, and then he promised him, and then Rebbe Nachman gave him the key to the room as well. But only once he promised that he will not look at anything that Rebbe Nachman's writing in there.Now, as they were leaving Odessa, this is very beautiful. At that time in Odessa, his name was already א שטיקל known. People knew about him.

And he had, there was an entourage there. A lot of people came, he was the grand great-grandson of the בעל שם טוב. Maybe he also, maybe he had, thank you. May- maybe maybe he had some חסידים as well with him.

I'm not, his own חסידים. But the the לשון is נסעו אחריו כמה עגלות. Some wagons were following him. וליווהו אותו בשיר במשקה ושמחה גדולה מאוד.

They escorted him with ניגונים, with singing, with dancing, with לחיים'ס, as he went onto the boat in Odessa and from there, from there they traveled to the, uh, ים השחור. How do you say ים השחור in English? The Black Sea.And of course, what's the first thing that takes place? I'm not saying every single detail, I'm going to give you the the basic story. What's the first thing that takes place when they're on the Black Sea? There was a רוח סערה. There was a סערה for four days where people were fainting, people were getting very, very sick.

Many people there felt like this is like whoever was on this boat felt like this is this may be the end. Rebbe Nachman doesn't stop for one second to to keep his eye on the prize. There's no הסח הדעת. Rebbe Nachman continues to stay very focused on the journey.

Rebbe Nachman knew, and we we spoke about this two weeks ago, Rebbe Nachman knew that there were there was going to be tremendous בלבולים and מניעות to get to ארץ ישראל. So this was no shock to him. I guess it was no shock to his תלמיד as well that came with him. But Rebbe Nachman spoke about this, that the path to ארץ ישראל is filled with בלבולים and מניעות.

Maybe you'd say today, and the path to stay in ארץ ישראל is filled with בלבולים and מניעות as well. But it the the this boat was כמעט overturned and and and nothing happened. Like he didn't he didn't stop, he just stayed in his room. There was a huge פחד and he people couldn't sleep at night.

Rebbe Nachman sticking to his own.Four days later, they finally reach Istanbul from Odessa. And they had no idea once they got there, like where do you go from here? I guess they had to wait then, I'm not sure how long, but they had to wait until another boat would come and take them to ארץ ישראל.Um, the reason why they were nervous to try to figure out how to rent a place or find a place to lodge is that back then, they couldn't tell the difference between who's a ישמעאלי and who's a ייד. The לבוש was very much common. It was the same thing.

When you look at pictures of Jews back here in the ישוב הישן, also the Jews, if you look at pictures of יידן back in like the late, you know, unless they had פאות, right? And maybe they if they had a long beard, I don't think ישמעאלים necessarily have long beards, there's an ענין. Um, there's there was this was the way of the culture. This the culture was, they looked the same. And the Rebbe didn't know who's they couldn't tell who's a ייד and who's not a ייד.

They didn't know what to do.Um, but they did find an interpreter. They found a מתורגמן while they were there. Rebbe Nachman and his תלמיד. And he was the one that came and brought them to a place and say, this is a good place for you guys, which I and they they Rebbe Nachman felt this person's trustworthy.

And this was a long journey and they were so tired and it took a while to find this place, but they finally found the place. And after a few minutes, Rebbe Nachman says, yeah, this is not going to do. This this it's not שייך for me to stay in this place. The Rebbe says, so the תלמיד listens.

They didn't he really couldn't he didn't really explain what was going on. But then this person, this מתורגמן said, you know what? There's a there's a place in the city of Istanbul that like within the city that it's an all-male zone, there's no women there. Rebbe Nachman's like, yeah, that's that's where I'm going to go. I guess that area was filled Rebbe Nachman, you know, what do we understand again, I honestly feel ridiculous sharing a lot of this without saying or learning with you like deep, deep תורות on every single detail of the story, like they do in ברסלב.

But just to remind ourselves, we're speaking about Rebbe Nachman of ברסלב. We don't understand anything.But this we could actually understand. If he's not used to living in a mixed crowd of people, and the guy is telling him there's an all-male section within the city, so Rebbe Nachman says, yeah, that's the one we're going to go to. And the person also said, you should know there's some שלוחי דרבנן מארץ ישראל.

There are משולחים that are from ארץ ישראל that are also there. And they're about to go back to their home in חוץ לארץ and they're Rebbe Nachman's going to ארץ ישראל, they're leaving ארץ ישראל. That was the way to leave to ארץ ישראל, to stop in Istanbul, and they're meeting in the middle of the way.And um, Rebbe Nachman when he heard that there are שלוחי דרבנן that are traveling back to, I'm not sure where, somewhere in Ukraine, somewhere in Russia. So Rebbe Nachman went back to his תלמיד and said to him like this, אני מזהיר אותך, I'm warning you.

לא תגלה אותי כלל. Do not reveal who I am to anybody here. ולא תגיד כלל מי אנוכי אם ישאלו עלי. And if anyone asks me who I am, or you ask they ask you who I am, you cannot reveal my identity to anybody.

Again, very mysterious. But this was just like he told the תלמיד, do not look at anything that I write in these תורות. He says to him also, do not reveal my identity to anybody. That's what the Rebbe wants.

That's what ended up happening.Right as soon as they got to the city, they got there and they met these two שלוחי דרבנן. And of course, right away, they asked the משמש, these these שלוחים these these משולחים asked the תלמיד. They said, what what what are you doing here? So they said, so because I ah, the story was is that the שמש, let's say it was רב יצחק, he was identified by some of these שלוחי דרבנן some of these משולחים, they recognized him, they knew him. So he said, hey, what are you doing here? So he said, oh, I'm traveling with this young man, with this ינוקא, with this young, כאילו kid.

He wasn't that old, right? He was in his 20s. I'm traveling with him to ארץ ישראל. And then they asked him, who is this guy? And he said, um, oh, it's a person that has a, he has an Austrian, um, he's representing the the the Caesar of Austria, something like that. And he didn't want to reveal who he was, just like Rebbe Nachman said.And then they smelled that something's fishy here.

So they started to have a טענה. Now this טענה that they have on him is interesting for the when we're when we're learning the history of חסידות. Remember we learned that the first two pioneers that made עלייה from the תלמידים of the בעל שם טוב was רב Mendel of Vitebsk and רב Avraham of Kalisk. רב Avraham Kalisker.

And a מחלוקת erupted at that time regarding חלוקת מעות, the distribution of צדקה to people that are that are in ארץ ישראל. There was a מחלוקת in terms of the distribution where it went to who was in charge וכולי. These these משולחים that just came from ארץ ישראל, they had a sense that this young person over here is coming to wage war, not real war, but to basically come and have a טענה on רב Avraham of Kalisker, which Rebbe Nachman had nothing to do with that whole פרשה at all. בכלל.

It has nothing to do with him. And they started having טענות on him because he was so mysterious and not answering any questions that they asked him in a clear manner.And they asked the שמש, does your, does your friend over here, the person that you're traveling with, have any documentation that that he's traveling with to come and show support against רב Avraham Kalisker? He says, no, he has nothing like that over here. So they said, so why is he traveling? Finally the the תלמיד said, I I I I I don't know. I I פשוט I פשוט don't know.

I don't know his real כוונה. But they didn't trust him. And they thought that Rebbe Nachman and this guy were cheating them.Um, and they said, you know, we knew you to be a כשר'ער איד, but you're acting very strange. They told this רב יצחק.

We're not sure how much we could we could trust you. And they had to spend some time together. But they knew that he was a תלמיד of a ייד named Rebbe Nachman of Medvedevka at the time. It wasn't, it was before he got to ברסלב.

So these משולחים asked him, they said, did you ask רשות from your Rebbe, Rebbe Nachman, to travel with this guy? Right? They said, absolutely I did, right? But they didn't trust him because they really saw this person who was Rebbe Nachman as really as a very shady, shady guy and that he's going to ארץ ישראל to bring מחלוקת.Okay? This is what Rebbe Nachman began to go through on his journey to ארץ ישראל. So they said, you know, forget the שמש, let's go to Rebbe Nachman himself and ask him a few. Well, let's go to this guy. Let's go to this young, skinny, frail, mysterious guy and ask him what what's up? What's the story? We'll ask him where he's from, where is he from, and but he didn't want to reveal anything.

And they tried to then speak in learning, and they saw they're not getting anywhere anywhere like that. And he when they started when they started trying to get him in תורה, they realized he's outsmarting them on every question they're asking. Which was again a big, big פלא. But they felt like he's just bring he's just manipulating them mentally and it just got to them even more till they just like they they kept on saying we're giving up now, but they had in them, they need to reveal, they need to find out who this guy is.

So the problem was every time Rebbe Nachman appeared as a different person. Like one day they asked him if he's a כהן. And he said, yes. Then the next day at קריאת התורה, they called him up for שלישי and he accepted the the עלייה.

Then he wasn't a כהן. So they came to they said to him, excuse me. You told us yesterday you're a כהן, but today you got שלישי עלייה, right? He said, well, a כהן is the מידה of חסד, and ישראל is a different מידה. And ברוך השם, I have both of those מידות inside of me.

Meaning these were the things that were happening the whole time. It drove them crazy.And they would also, they started hating him and they were starting to מבזה him, to disgrace him and humiliate him. And Rebbe Nachman didn't stop from what he was doing because he knew that this, as we'll see in a second, this meant that he was on his way to really get to ארץ ישראל. Because of all these מניעות and because of all these בזיונות.So finally, when he saw that they're struggling so much trying to crack the code of who he is, he says the following statement to them: זאת תדעו, שבוודאי לא אגלה עיקר כוונת נסיעתי לארץ ישראל.

Just know, I will definitely not reveal the main purpose of my journey to ארץ ישראל. כי מלבי לפנימי לא גיליתי, because it's not been it hasn't been revealed from out of my heart. But nonetheless, ואף על פי כן, מה טוב ומה נעים שבת אחים גם יחד. Why do you have to know everything? Isn't it just beautiful that brothers are sitting together right now? Rebbe Nachman says, אף על פי שלא ידע אחד עיקר כוונת חברו, even if the brothers that are dwelling together don't know exactly the כוונה that's with every other person that they're sitting with, isn't that thing on its own just a valuable, beautiful thing about life? I don't know how they took that, but that's what Rebbe Nachman said.

I don't know how they took it.And he continues to suffer so much and um, he kept on again this identity change. They kept on, he kept on saying uh, you know, once he said he was an he was from Italy, then he said he was from the Himalayan mountains, meaning they kept on, he kept on saying different places non-stop.Um, one time he spoke to them and it sounded as if he was describing himself as the son as the קאמארנא רבי. And um, the whole story about that that קשר, but as he was talking about the קאמארנא רבי describing that he was like the son of him, he started like cursing the קאמארנא רבי. So they stopped me and said, isn't he your father? And he walked away.

And then they realized, this guy is this guy is driving us nuts. But that that was really something they really and they really was was irking with them.And they kept on, he kept on saying different names of who he was, but they knew the son of the קאמארנא רבי, his name was ישעיה. So they wanted to check to see, you know, when you call someone by their by their name, they naturally move, right? They naturally מתאימים את עצמם. So um, they said, ישעיה! And he right away showed up and and like right away he came and showed up and they said to him, oh, you you are, you actually are the son of the קאמארנא רבי.

And he looks at them and he says, no, I'm I'm I'm really not. This was happening non-stop.So רב Nosson says, כל מה שעבר בענין זה יקצרו המון יריעות לספר. There's not enough paper, there's not enough ink in the world to describe what really took place on this journey. But all I could tell you is that um, sometimes he would wake these people up while they were sleeping and started talking to them about different ענינים and that really drove them crazy as well, till they reached the place that they would just sit there and curse this guy.

They would curse out Rebbe Nachman. They were so sick of him.Now, there's a whole story about I want to get to like, I'm debating what to do like when שבת came, they they they didn't agree for him to come and sit and eat with them. Um, only they had a שוחט. So Rebbe Nachman had to go through a whole שבת without without eating any בשר.

Again, I can just imagine the portion of Rebbe Nachman's פליישיג שבת meals when he had בשר. We're not talking like about anything remotely close to what we're used to, but there's an ענין of eating ברבורים אבוסים וסלו ודגים. So that שבת, they mentioned he didn't have anything, he just ate מאכלי חלב, he just ate מילכיג.And on שבת they had a big מחלוקת on him because they want they just wanted to push him out of that whole area, but he would show up and start sitting at the table that they made clear he's not invited to. And they started to fight with him and they and they just פשוט kept on trying to get him out of their sight because he drove them crazy.But רב Nosson says, you have to understand.

כלל הדבר, הוא עשה בכוונה. He did all this by purpose. והניח עצמו לבזות בכל מיני בזיונות. And he בכוונה made himself suffer all these different mockeries and בזיונות that he had to go through.

And he told his תלמיד that was with him, he says, understand something. אלו הבזיונות יהיה לי טובה גדולה בהליכה ובחזרה. What I'm experiencing right now will provide a tremendous help and good for me while I go to ארץ ישראל and while I attempt to travel back home. This will this will more or less pave the path that'll be available for me to get to ארץ ישראל and to go to and to go back from ארץ ישראל, back back to back home.So רב Nosson says, לא היה לו באפשרי לבוא לישראל כי אם על ידי קטנות זו.

רב Nosson says, it was impossible for Rebbe Nachman to get to ארץ ישראל unless he started acting like this. He needed to act like this. כאשר נשמע אחר כך מפיו בפירוש, that he speaks about this later on, saying the only way I was able to get there was when I started acting like crazy. ואמר, שאם לא היו לו אלו הבזיונות והקטנות, לא היה לו באפשרי לבוא בשום אופן.

ראה שהוא מוכרח להישאר שם באיסטנבול. He saw that there was a decree on him that he's going to die in Istanbul, that he's not going to be able to continue the journey. But this קטנות and בזיונות that he took upon himself is what saved him and eventually got to ארץ ישראל.Now, in ברסלב, there is this whole פרשה is a very big פרשה. There's a lot of learnings that we do here.

The question of course arises, is there ever a time for us to voluntarily act like this? If is this the is this the way that someone, is this the only way that someone's able to achieve higher spiritual great achievements? Like is this the only way? So some in ברסלב have acted like this, that where where they invite upon themselves השפלות, humiliations. It's interesting, they used to do this in other מוסר'דיגע ישיבות, like in uh, what was the story in סלבודקה I think? There's many stories where there in order to really מטהר המידות, you have to go through real big humiliation. So we know life provides that on its own quite often, but sometimes when you you do it בדוקא, it invites it even even greater.But Rebbe Nachman's whole energy and behavior is what's known in ברסלב as הצורך בקטנות, the need sometimes to voluntarily start to voluntarily כאילו like go down, make yourself small, make yourself like a child, make yourself look like you're משוגענער.So, there's there's I'm going to we're going to learn this. It's just כאילו a story about more details about what happened.

Um, and it was put together really nicely where Rebbe Nachman, we'll we'll we'll see over here just a few more sides of this story that will explain to us I think a little bit better how this worked and and really next week when we learn we'll already get to his arrival in ארץ ישראל, but this was taking place the whole time that he was in that he was on his way, mainly in Turkey, in Istanbul.It's very easy Hebrew. בדרכו לארץ ישראל שהה רבי נחמן בעיר איסטנבול. ובכל אותם הימים התנהג רב נחמן בצורה משונה מאוד. He acting strange.

ועשה כל מיני מעשי קטנות. He would act like a child. הלך יחף, he would walk around barefoot. בלי חגורה, without a girdle.

בלי כובע לראשו, without a hat. על גופו לבש מין בטנה שנפרמה מאחד מבגדיו. He would on his clothes he sewed something like a patch that wasn't needed onto his clothes. וכך היה הולך בשוק כדרכם של נערים הרצים בשוק ומצחקקים.

And when he'd go to the marketplace, imagine him hopping or skipping, right? Acting like a like a kid. גם היה עושה מלחמות ומשחק עם רעיו בתכסיסי מלחמה. He would like meet people and he'd say, hey, you want to play war? היו מכנים את האחד צרפת, my name is France, what's your name? You know, Germany, whatever the names were back then, right? כשם שאומות שהיו מלחמות בפולין באותן השנים, just like that's what was actually happening, like we'll see we'll have a direct effect on Rebbe Nachman's arrival to ארץ ישראל. Napoleon's משוגעת is taking place then.

וכך היו משחקים, and he got people to to to to play.באותם הימים הגיעה לאיסטנבול ספינה עם יהודים וביניהם רבם של עדת חסידים. Oh oh, his cover is going to be blown. Because at that time to Istanbul a boat arrived, and amongst them was the רב of of a חסידות. His name was רבי זאב וואלף מטעשערני אוסטראה.

כששמע רב זאב כי רב נחמן נמצא בעיר, somehow word got out, I don't know how, that Rebbe Nachman was in this town, שלח לקרוא לו שיבוא לאכסניה שלו, ויקבל שם את פניו באהבה, וכך יוכלו לגור יחד. He invited him. I my חסידים set up shop for me here. I'm sure I have much better accommodations than him.

So he sent a message out to find him and to invite him to come and live with him. ולא רצה רב נחמן לבוא אל מקומו של רבי זאב, he didn't want to come, אלא נותר בביתו ואמר כאן טוב לי. He stayed at home, he said, no, it's good for me here in the all male section over here that he that he got, right? לא עברו ימים רבים ומגפת הדבר היכתה בעיר. Uh, how do you say דבר? Pestilence.

No, one of the 10 plagues. Pestilence, yeah. Pestilence. Okay, we'll stick with דבר, yeah.

Not a lot of these passed and the דבר came, a plague came to the דבר, והגיעה גם אל החן, האכסניה שבה שהה רבי נחמן. It reached Rebbe Nachman's lodging as well. And because of that, בשם כך נאלץ לעזוב את המקום ולבוא אל האכסניה שבה שהה רבי זאב. And that's what got him to come to this Rebbi Ze'ev's place.

When he came, כשבא עשה רב זאב סעודה גדולה לכבודו ונהג בו כבוד גדול. He comes. opens up such a feast for him and gave him so much honor. But למרות זאת, עשה רבי נחמן כמה מעשים שהיו נגד רצונו של רב זאב.

But he was doing things against the will of רב זאב. ואולם, I can't even imagine what he was doing there. Maybe throwing food across the table or jumping on the chair, we don't know exactly. But like it says in the מדרש אהבה מקלקלת את השורה, love basically, when you love someone, they could act משוגע.

There's a place in your heart for them. ובשל האהבה לא הביט רב זאב במעשים האלו אף שהתפלא עליהם מאוד. So this רב זאב is sitting there he's like, I know you and I know you this isn't you. This is strange.

But my love for you will not end and that's it.וכן נהג רבי נחמן בכל עת שהיה רב זאב מתפלל ועובר לפני התפילה כחזן בימי השבת. Whenever the Rebbe would get up and be חזן. הוא היה מתיישב בחדר התפילה ואוכל. He would be sitting down there eating.

נוהג היה להתפלל מוקדם יותר. He would דאווען much earlier. עד שבשעת תפילתו של רב זאב היה רבי נחמן יושב ואוכל את סעודתו באותו החדר. וכך עשה בסעודת דיל שבת ובסעודת שחרית ובסעודת שלישית.

Every meal on שבת, when they were דאווענען, רבי נחמן eating. I'm sure this רב זאב at a certain point realized, this is a don't look too much too deep over here. This is a צדיק יסוד עולם. There's something going on here, I can't understand.And he says like this, בשעת סעודה שלישית לקראת צאת השבת, Shabbos is ending.

During שָׁלֹשׁ סְעוּדוֹת. הזדרז רבי נחמן לסיים את הסעודה ובירך ברכת המזון. באותה שעה החלו רב זאב לערוך את סעודת השבת. you know רבי נחמן is like acting like, well actually לטבישער חברים have, do they eat שָׁלֹשׁ סְעוּדוֹת? Yeah? No, I'm not talking about like the the the the שָׁלֹשׁ סְעוּדוֹת that you have in in שולן in America that's sponsored by, you know, you know, you know what I'm talking about? Like I grew up, my father was the cantor of these synagogues, I used to have to always go and like it was always people you never, you've never seen before, but they wanted to give something a donation to the שול in memory of their of their loved ones.

So these people show up out of nowhere and they have their names of their deceased announced and they're there and they're given כבוד and you know, מי שברך דוד, געפילטע פיש, דברי תורה and גמרנו. I'm talking about like real שָׁלֹשׁ סְעוּדוֹת where you sit, ניגונים. So by חסידים you כמעט no one ends on time. No one's running checking to see if there's three stars out, to see if שבת is out.

רבי נחמן was acting like that that שבת. He he finished right before שבת even came out and then he went to דאווען מעריב בזמן. This רב זאב is just sitting down now to start his שָׁלֹשׁ סְעוּדוֹת.So again, באותה שעה החל רב זאב לערוך את סעודת השבת באריכות וביישוב הדעת. כדרכם של צדיקים חסידים מפורסמים.

Just like it was known that חסידישע יידן sit down to eat a סעודה for שָׁלֹשׁ סְעוּדוֹת. בינתיים שלח רבי נחמן לבדוק אם כבר יצאו הכוכבים ושבת יצאה. And over here רבי נחמן is sending his שמש and saying, check to see if there's three stars out and if שבת is finished. He never did that.

והתפלל ערבית והלך איתה הבדלה. And he דאווען מעריב, did הבדלה. אחר כך הדליק את מקטרתו. He lit his pipe.

ובלי שלבש את כובעו ומעילו כנהוג, without wearing his hat and his jacket, which is the way he always was. נכנס אל החדר שבו ערך רב זאב את סעודתו והמקטרת בידו. This רב זאב is sitting with his חסידים in שבת at שָׁלֹשׁ סְעוּדוֹת, and רבי נחמן comes in with a lit pipe.מיד פנה אליו רב זאב בכבוד רב. רב זאב goes to him with a lot of כבוד, מיהר לברך ברכת המזון ולהוציא בעצמו את השבת.

And he takes, instead of getting mad at him, he kind of got this סימן of like, okay, I think I have to end my שבת now. It's end שָׁלֹשׁ סְעוּדוֹת. ברכת המזון, הבדלה. And right away דיברו ביניהם אחר כך דיברו ביניהם כמעט כל הלילה באהבה גדולה.

And this these two צדיקים spent the night speaking to each other with great great great love.בכל אותם הימים המשיך רבי נחמן להתנהג בקטנות ובדרך בזיון. His whole journey was filled with this behavior. כך נהג גם כשהלך אל קברו של הצדיק רבי נפתלי כץ שנפטר בדרכו לארץ ישראל ונקבר באיסטנבול. Who was a great צדיק of the time, that was traveling to ארץ ישראל, he stopped there in Istanbul and he died there and he's buried there.

רבי נחמן went there to דאווען by this צדיק'ס קבר. וכשחזר מן הקבר נפל פתאום על הארץ ושכב כך כמה שעות. He comes back from the grave of this צדיק and he falls onto the ground for a few hours and couldn't move. אחר כך הניחו אותו על המיטה ושכב כל הלילה ולמחרת עד אמצע היום.

And he couldn't move from his bed all night till midday the next day. כל אותו הזמן לא זז רבי נחמן והיה נראה כמי שיצאה נשמתו. It looked as if he was dead. It looked like he was ממש a dead person.

עד שבזאת השם קם ממיטתו וחזר לאיתנו until it happened that he got his כוחות back and he's all good.אחר כך רמז רבי נחמן, רבי נחמן alluded to the fact that in those days כי בימים שהיה באיסטנבול רחפה מעליו סכנה גדולה עד שהיה סבור שלא יצא עוד מעיר זו אלא ימות בה. רבי נחמן sensed there was such a great danger for him, so much so that he was certain that he'll he's never going to leave the city. He's never going to get out of here. He not only will he not reach ארץ ישראל, he'll never see his family again and he's going to die right there.

That's what was clear to him. והשם יתברך עשה עמו ניסים רבים עד שניצל מן הסכנה. But השם did so many miracles until he was saved from the dangers. וכל מעשה הקטנות שעשה הועילו לו מאוד שישאר בחיים.

And all these acts of childlike behavior is what enabled him to stay alive.So here this last paragraph will illustrate, will explain to us just על דרך פנימי, what is this all about? לאחר מכן המשיך רבי נחמן בנסיעתו אל ארץ ישראל. I don't want to ruin the continuation of the story but you obviously know that he got there. ובא אליה בשלום. לימים הרבים later רבי נחמן said כי כל כך הרגיל את עצמו בכל אותם הימים לעשות מעשי קטנות ובזיון.

He he trained himself, he got so accustomed to acting like this that it became his nature to act like a like a child. עד שכאשר בא לארץ ישראל רוצה היה להשליך מעליו התנהגות זו והיה קשה עליו הדבר מאוד. So much so that when he reached ארץ ישראל, he's like, okay, I don't need this anymore because that was in order to get here. But he How long was he in Istanbul? A month, two months? I think a few months.

Yeah. I'll check. I'm not certain but I think a few months. משהו כזה.

But he said I can't but even if it's a few months and you're acting like this, if you're consciously choosing to act like this in order to achieve a certain ענין and your nature when you're in your when you're a big רבי already, even though you're not an old man and you're married already for 10, 12, 15 years, it's very strange that when you take upon this persona that you can't rid yourself of it. I mean I have heard of this להבדיל אלף אלפי הבדלות by certain actors that when they go into when they go into costume, even when the costume's off, it sometimes the whole persona, you bring it home with you, you you're like this with other people. It's very hard to remove it from yourself. But we're talking about רבי נחמן מברסלב over here and he's saying that when I got to ארץ ישראל and I'm like, okay, I'm done with this.

Now this קטנות, I'm going to strip it away. He it was very hard for him to do that when he got to ארץ ישראל. Which is very interesting.Third line, וכל פרשת נסיעתו והדרך שנהג, the whole ענין of his journey and the way that he acted, הלא ידוע כי לא עמד רבי נחמן על מדרגה אחת. רבי נחמן wasn't standing still for a second.

אלא היה עולה ממדרגה אל מדרגה. That's true about his whole life. He's in a constant state of ascending, always. Even if it looks like it's a נפילה, רבי נחמן is the master of teaching you, that's just a preparation for a stronger עלייה.

You know, I many I have this great memory. One time I performed in a Reform temple in Irvine, California. It was a beautiful Saturday night. I had a concert there.

And I mentioned a teaching of רבי נחמן. I said, you want to do some, would you all be into like some רבי נחמן exercises? Right, and they're like thinking, oh, like great, meditate. I'm like, no, no, no, I mean like an actual exercise. Do you want to all do this right now? I said, sure.

It was בסיעתא דשמיא. I didn't I didn't I didn't think about this. I just felt like, let's get it like let me give them רבי נחמן, the little that I understand, still this is like 25 years ago. And I was I'd like to think I'm still young but 25 years ago, I was very, very young, just starting to do these things.

So I said, friends, I would love you all to please stand up. The whole, you know, these these חבר'ה, they all got up. They all stood up. I'm like, okay, I would like you all to jump right now without move bending your knees.

Just jump without bending your knees. Um, so they all tried and they saw you could barely move, right? I said, I would like you all now to bend your knees, like go down and then jump. So they did, and then they all jumped high. I said, thank you.

Please sit down. You've just you've just experienced one of the greatest fundamental teachings of a great חסידיק master who explained that in life there is no other way sometimes of getting higher to the next level without first ascending, uh descending before that. And it was it stuck with me if you know and then I I uh it's so much easier said than done, you know, those because when you're ממש in it and someone comes and tells you, when you're ממש in the dumps and someone comes and tells you, you know רבי נחמן said you want to smack them. You don't want to hear that.

But it is the truth. אין מה לעשות. We we see it all the time. The real the real ones are the ones that while they're suffering so much and they're they're bending their knees, they they know I'm about to jump much much higher.So רבי נחמן's in a constant state of of up.

He never stopped. וכדי שיהיה וכדי שניתן יהיה לעלות אל מדרגה גבוהה יותר, in order to go to a much higher level, יש לרדת תחילה ולהיות איש פשוט לגמרי. רבי נחמן says, listen, ארץ ישראל, the מוחין of ארץ ישראל which we'll talk about next week. What ארץ ישראל is all about.

I need a a a tremendous jump in wherever I am right now. And whatever I think I've become and all that, that may work in חוץ לארץ to do what I have to do. But ארץ ישראל, I have to come down completely, not just down in suffering, but even in my mannerism, even in every way that I understood what it means to be a a cultured human being in this world. I have to go back to a younger age, to a younger age.

ובשביל כך היה עושה מעשי קטנות כי חכם גדול היה בעניינים האלו. That's this is where it's coming from. He was such a חכם in these matters. ועמוק עמוק מי ימצאנו.

The פסוק of קהלת, this is basically the deepest depths. This is the deepest depths. Now this teaching is this this common theme we've see in רבי נחמן'ס journey towards ארץ ישראל ties very much with the concept of that רבי נחמן says in six teaching in ליקוטי מוהר"ן, a person has to have, you know בקיאות is? להיות בקיא. thoroughly knowledgeable, right? So רבי נחמן says that a person has to have two schools of בקיאות where you're thoroughly knowledgeable of the matter.

בקיא ברצו, בקיא בשוב. רבי נחמן speaks about this all the time. And as חנה שרה'ס dear husband רב דוד עליו השלום whose יארצייט is coming up would always say, he would always, he would sing the teaching that רב שלמה would sing about there's three things a person has to know, right? How to do. And and I have this amazing recording of רב שלמה doing this and I I I was once with with רב דוד at the קבר, close to the קבר of רב שלמה on one of the יארצייטס.

I took a beautiful view of the second יארצייט. Yeah, I have to find it. The second יארצייט of רב שלמה is 96 and I was there and he sang it there and it was so beautiful. I'll send it to you if you if you'd like it.

But רבי נחמן speaks about like this world is not about mastering the art of grow of of of interpreting growth as this. Growth in this world means it's going to be like this. But you and if you know that, that means you already have to learn how to fall. Not that you have to fall, it's going to happen anyway.

But you have to learn how to fall and come back down again and you have to learn how to get back up again.What רבי נחמן I believe with this description of his journey to ארץ ישראל is teaching all יידן all over the world what it means to come to ארץ ישראל. What's waiting for you here in ארץ ישראל. It's different than anything that we knew of before coming here. And we will see but I have to end.

We will see בעזרת השם next week that even when they got onto that that that boat in Istanbul and they're traveling to ארץ ישראל, which isn't that far, oh boy, what happens to רבי נחמן. How crazy it was for him to actually get into the country and why did he never make it to ירושלים. He travels all the way and he never made it to ירושלים. Okay, we'll