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Reb Nosson of Breslov, the beloved disciple of Rebbe Nachman, carried his Rebbe’s light into the world with boundless devotion. Through his writings, prayers, and letters, we are given a path to live with faith, joy, and strength even in times of struggle.
In this series, Rav Shlomo Katz learns from Reb Nosson’s Torah, weaving together his fiery commitment, his guidance to his children and students, and the timeless invitation to run not away from Hashem, but toward Him. Join us in tasting the sweetness of Likkutei Tefilot, Likkutei Halachot, and Reb Nosson’s letters, and discover how his teachings still burn in our hearts today.
כבודו מלא עולם, מלא עולם, כבודו מלא עולם. משריו שואלים זה לזה. כבודו מלא עולם, מלא עולם, כבודו מלא עולם. משריו שואלים זה לזה.
כבודו מלא עולם, מלא עולם. כבודו מלא עולם, מלא עולם. כבודו מלא עולם, מלא עולם. כבודו מלא עולם.
משריו שואלים זה לזה. איה, יאי יאי יאי, איה יאי יאי יאי, איה מקום כבודו. הוי איה, יאי יאי יאי, איה יאי יאי יאי, איה מקום כבודו. איה, יאי יאי יאי, איה יאי יאי יאי, איה מקום כבודו.
הוי איה, יאי יאי יאי, איה יאי יאי יאי, איה מקום כבודו. נה נה נה נה נה, נה נה נה נה נה נה נה, נה נה נה נה נה, נה נה נה נה נה נה נה. נה נה נה נה נה, נה נה נה נה נה נה נה, נה נה נה נה נה, נה נה נה נה נה נה נה. נה נה נה נה נה, נה נה נה נה נה נה נה, נה נה נה נה נה, נה נה נה נה נה נה נה.
נה נה נה נה נה, נה נה נה נה נה נה נה, נה נה נה נה נה, נה נה נה נה נה נה נה. איה יאי יאי יאי, איה יאי יאי יאי, איה מקום כבודו. הוי איה, יאי יאי יאי, איה יאי יאי יאי, איה מקום כבודו.So if you have the papers, to take them out. And should we want to put this on the side? On the page that has on top, it says אוצר פניני החסידות ויושר.
This is a little piece that I saw this past שבת that caught my eye. And it's like a classic for anyone that ever really learned ליקוטי הלכות inside and learned רב נתן inside. And this was like what a great place to start. Right here with this תורה, with this חברים.
We have we have such a שליח נאמן of of רב נתן by having רב צבי with us. And what רב צבי comes from in his family. Learning it the night, the day before his יארצייט. It's just, it seems like really there's so much bubbling up here that's setting the stage for the perfect place.
So even though it's from, even though it's, it's because of it's from last שבת, it's still very, you can learn this תורה any day of, any day of the year. Really, every תורה from רב נתן you open up and you really do find yourself immediately. The פסוק says ויפגע במקום וילן שם כי בא השמש. So we're gonna jump right into the text.
ויפגע במקום, זה בחינת תפילת ערבית וכו'. We all know that חז"ל derive the תיקון of instituting the דאווענען of מעריב from last שבת. כי תפילת ערבית is, and also we know that תפילת ערבית is not חובה like שחרית and מנחה. כי תפילת ערבית היא מה שתיקן יעקב אבינו להזחזק בתפילה אפילו מתוך עומק החושך.
To strengthen oneself through דאווענען even if he's amongst utter depth of darkness. ש even if someone is בתוקף מרירת הגלות בגוף ונפש. Even when one is physically and spiritually find himself strapped in the bitterness of גלות. שעל ידי זה, that through this of strengthening oneself through דאווענען, עיקר בנין בית השלישי.
שאנו מקווים שיהיה נבנה בזכות יעקב. We all know that אברהם and יצחק's תפילות are כנגד the first two בתי מקדש, but the third בית המקדש by יעקב אבינו is כנגד יעקב אבינו. So רב נתן's gonna get into something over here to explain to us what made, בסדר, it's cute, it works out, אברהם יצחק יעקב, first בית המקדש, second בית המקדש, third בית המקדש. But it can't be like just because there was three, we're throwing in the third בית המקדש because otherwise we would have a bad תורה, right? We'd have a bad, we wouldn't have a good וערט.
It's got to be something much deeper inside. And this is where we're going to. ועל כן תפילת ערבית רשות. Therefore the דאווענען of מעריב is רשות.
Now you, this is, there's a lot of interpretation over here because one can say that שחרית and מנחה are not רשות, because if you tie it to the first and second בית המקדש, they already existed. So there's a חיוה over there by the fact that the first ביתי מקדש, first two, were there. The third's not there yet, so it's kind of like this רשות area. It's not really saying that it already was.
It's kind of open. But he's going to take it to somewhere else. ונראה קשה. אם כן, כשזוהי התפילה של ערבית, היא רשות.
Why should the תפילה of מעריב be רשות? If anything, he flips it around. He says שחרית and מנחה, maybe that I could say, listen, that was the first and second בית המקדש. That was. Those were destroyed.
What are we trying to bring down to the world? The third בית המקדש. אם כן, how can you say that the דאווענען which was instituted כנגד the third בית המקדש should be רשות? That should be, if anything, it should be a חובה. אם כן מה תיקן יעקב אבינו? וכי עלה על הדעת שיש איסור להתפלל בלילה? We're not, so why are we saying יעקב אבינו was even מחדש anything over here? Why would you even even think that there'd be a problem with instituting a תפילה that would be a חיוה at night? Is there any problem with that in the in the first place? So look, this is, this is really talking to us, talking to us in 2017. אך יעקב אבינו צפה וראה עומק אריכות הגלות המר הזה.
יעקב אבינו saw how long it would take till the בית המקדש would be rebuilt. And he also to see how bitter things would get. איך הסטרא אחרא והיצר הרע מתפשטת מאוד מאוד בכלל ובפרט. He saw, so you think he's saying, ah, רב נתן's writing in the times where Jews are being persecuted.
That's what he's talking about about how long and bitter the גלות is. He's not referring to that over here. He does in other places. But over here what he's talking about is how the יצר הרע and the סטרא אחרא come and poison the mind.
And how long and a bitter גלות that is. Like look at us. We're trying so hard to to connect to הקדוש ברוך הוא. But so many of us here are are begging השם, please when I go back to the surrounding that I have, to the life that I have, those things and vices that poison my mind with things that I don't want it to poison me, please remove them.
יעקב אבינו saw this, רב נתן saying. He saw that you'd reach a place, you get closer and closer to the גאולה, and that's what would be taking getting captive. Not necessarily Cossacks. Like German was saying on the bus right now.
It's not, we're we're we're looking at them and saying נייעט, right? It's like a good part. But but can we look in our own סטרא אחרא and say נייעט? That is, that's the נסיון, right? So again, איך הסטרא אחרא והיצר הרע מתפשטת מאוד בכל פרט, בכלל ובפרט. שזהו בחינת חשך, חשכת לילה כנסת לילה. והוא בעוצם כוחו תיקן שגם אז נוכל להתפלל ולשוב אל השם.
He says יעקב אבינו, you know what he did? That guys can come here in 2017, no matter what they did the night before they went on the bus, and they can come here and feel like they can cry to השם. You understand, like that's a, that's a total חדוש in the world. Because it doesn't make any sense על פי טבע. Because על פי טבע, the guy that I can't stand that that that falls into the same routine of שטויות should not be able to cry out to השם and sing a ניגון and feel anything.
Because of, you name it, one of the main things would be... I don't want to feel fake. However, where do we have the holy חצפה to think that we can do this right now? Where? That's יעקב אבינו. He's saying יעקב אבינו תיקן תפילת מערב at night, בחושך הלילה, in the darkest depths of darkness so that you and I can have a פסק פלא ומכללא, that we could still דאווענען no matter what's happening to us in our life and feel real.
That's the whole thing, and to actually feel real about it.שזה בחינת תפילת ערבית, כנס כארי. Where, Yehoshua, we're over here. אבל. אבל ראה, and Yaakov Avinu saw, שמעוצם מרירות התפשטות הסטרא אחרא והקליפות לכל אחד ואחד.
And Yaakov Avinu saw that it gets bitter and bitter and bitter, and this bitterness of the סטרא אחרא and the קליפות spreads more and more on each and every one of us. Therefore, אי אפשר לסכן להטיל עליו חיוב להתפלל ערבית. Then he says, because it gets, it's getting so harsh, and because the times are getting so much more confusing, you cannot institute, you cannot place an obligation on a person in that situation.Now, why do you think that? דוקא you'd think the הפך. Why would you think that? That דוקא because it's getting harder and harder and harder.
So he institutes this thing that you can even דאווענען now. But if you were told, \"You have to דאווענען now,\" then that rebellious סטרא אחרא beast in you would say, it's not real. It can't be, it can't be real. That's why the תפילה of ערבית remains a רשות, according to רב נתן.
Because it's, it's designated for a time of utter confusion and darkness. In that state of mind, anyone that tells me you have a חיוב to do something, I say, לאו דווקא, forget. Not a chance. You, really? That's what you're telling me? Sorry.
That's שחרית, מנחה. I don't wanna hear, but the, but שחרית, מנחה's not so dark. But מעריב is dark. We all understand this.
This is the story of each and every one of us.כי אז בבחינת תוקף מרירות חושך הלילה, הוא בבחינת העדר הדיבור, בחינת יונה אלמת, בחינת נאלמתי לא אפתח פי, בחינת נאלמתי דומיה החשיתי מטוב, שזה נאמר על זמן הגלות. Reb Nosson is saying over here, in the bitterness of the darkness of the night, you know what else happens? העדר הדיבור. I can't even speak. I can't even talk.
There's nothing that I can even really say. So you can tell me I have a חיוב to דאווענען, there's one problem. He says over here, he quotes in תהילים: נאלמתי. אלם in Hebrew means mute.
Yeah, mute. נאלמתי דומיה החשיתי מטוב. I'm, I'm mute. שזה נאמר על זמן הגלות.
Like in the women's שיעור now, we're learning, you should ask some of the women that, the wives that are learning there, we've been learning this incredible piece from Rav Kook called מאמר הדור. Those of you who have learned it will know what I'm talking about. And Rav Kook describes the pain of the generation of the turning of the 20th century was that they couldn't even articulate what was bothering them. And that's what drove them even more nuts, that they couldn't even explain what was the, what what the דור was suffering from.
So, the, the darkness that we feel in life when it reaches the highest level is when I know I'm in such pain, and even if you sit me down and invite me to a cup of coffee, I can't even tell you what's bothering me. But I know I'm in such utter pain. That is what Reb Nosson is saying is חושך הלילה, is I become an אלם. נאלמתי דומיה.
I can't even speak. So you're gonna, you're gonna tell me, \"You have to start דאווענען now\"? I'll tell you A, the rebellious kid in me is going to say, \"The heck with you.\" But B, I'll say, \"And what exactly do you want me to start saying? I don't even know what I'm in pain over.\" So you expect me to be able to articulate what's going on inside of me? I don't even know what's going on inside of me. I just know that it kills. I just know that it kills.
Reminds me, before the חבר'ה came in here, I was sitting with Chaim and I put on some Reb Shlomo. Brings me to, to Reb Nosson in a very personal way, sweet way. And Reb Shlomo once said that he once saw a little girl crying on a street, and she looked lost, she was lost, she couldn't find her parents. So, a cop found her and got her number out of her mouth, and they called home.
And the second that the phone answered and the mother answered the phone, the cop could hear that the, the conversation, it went like this. The mother said, \"Where are you, sweetest? I've been, I've been, I've been worried sick for you.\" And she's crying, \"Mommy, mommy, where are you?\" And she says, \"Where are you?\" And the daughter said, \"I don't know where I am, but you better come and get me right now.\" I don't know where I am, but you better come and get me right now. That's חשכא דלילא. That's מעריב, that's the night.
That's ויפגע במקום וילן שם כי בא השמש. That's the place we're talking about. It would be amazing if we'd be able to say, ריבונו של עולם, I need help exactly in this. And that's why the Rebbe's עצה of התבודדות is so important because you could be מפרש your שיחה to explain, and in התבודדות you learn about where you are.
And therefore you you learn about, you learn, you think you're learning about your ריבונו של עולם, you're learning about yourself by finding the right words to express and describe the place that you're in. That's really what happens in a strong התבודדות. It's not so much about feeling I felt that. It's that משהו התגלה בי, something inside me was revealed.
חשכא דלילא is something else. אילם, אין לי מילים. I have no words.שזה נאמר על זמן הגלות, עד שלולי כח הצדיקים הגדולים בחינת יעקב, if it wasn't for the כח of the great צדיקים which is the aspect of יעקב, כבר היו הכל מתייאשים לגמרי מלהתפלל ולשוב, אז בהתפשטות טומאות רעות כאלה. If it wasn't for צדיקים that gave you the כח to believe that you can open your mouth and cry and דאווענען, even when nothing seems that it's adding up, even when last night you felt like the biggest רשע מרושע, that you can go to שול in the morning, put on תפילין.
Where does this come from? This is this is יעקב אבינו's פתח השער, this is what he opened up. But רב נתן says that the צדיק, the צדיקים אמיתיים and connecting to צדיקים in our lives is because they give us the כח to to be able to connect through that. Michael, I don't think you were in שיעור for this, but but I I heard from רב טרעגער this year that he said that he had his צדיקים, he had, I thought he said three, then he corrected, he said two, that that every year he had two צדיקים that he could look at מוצאי יום כיפור to know if his דאווענען was מתקבל or not. Sounds like the most חסידישע ווארט you've ever heard in your life, right? Obviously he had רב מיטל זצ"ל and רב ליכטנשטיין זצ"ל that something about that the צדיק's energy and their being in this world enables you to feel that you can go there to that place of חשכא דלילא and have אמונה in your תפילה.
It's a it's a wondrous thing.Okay, so let's finish up. בזה תיקן יעקב שהוא בחינת כלל הצדיקים הגדולים, כי ממנו יצאו כולם. יעקב אבינו is the father of the שבטים. From him all this happened, שבעוצם כחו תיקן תקנות נפלאות ונוראות מאד באז שלן שם המקום ההוא.
When יעקב אבינו was lying in that place, he he opened up געוואלדיק תיקונים, fixings, rectifications, openings of the gates while he was lying there that night. וירד למקום שירד בעת שנתו ומשם עלה למקום שעלה. He went down to the place where he went down to while he was sleeping, and he went up to the place that he went up to as well, like the מלאכים, up and down. עד שתיקן שאפילו בחשכא דלילא אפילו ממש יתעורר האדם ברצונות חזקים להתפלל ולשוב להשם יתברך ולא יתייאש מן התפילה והצעקה לעולם.
He is describing יעקב's dream and and he's saying something, this is I'm not sure, this is the way I saw it. If יעקב אבינו is standing in מקום המקדש, and what does he do in מקום המקדש where it's so holy? What does he physically do? He goes down and he sleeps. So רב נתן says, what do you think he was doing there in a place where it's so holy? to go down, lie down and start sleeping. He was doing an עבודה of reaching, looking, looking to us, looking at us right now, saying, there are going to be יידן that they're going to have מקום המקדש in front of them.
ירושלים is going to be given back to יידן after 2,000 years. People are going to come to מקום המקדש, but if they don't feel like they're really צדיקים, like in light, like שחרית and מנחה, they're not going to have a chance. They won't feel that they could open up their mouths. So what does יעקב אבינו do? וילן שם כי בא השמש.
He goes to שלאף. And in his sleep, he's saying up and down, up and down, רצוא ושוב, רצוא ושוב, רצוא ושוב. Sleeping on us. Till today.
And it says this gives a יוד, this is the whole concept of no ייאוש, this is where it comes from. You should hear on the dream. נכון. נכון, it's the same theme.
נכון מאד. אשריך שדייקת. כמו שהזהיר אדוננו מורנו ורבנו זכרונו לברכה ואמר רק שלא יתייאש מן הצעקה. והתפילה.
אבי מ'איז זיך נישט מיאש פון שלאָגן. מ'שלאגט מיט'ן בעט, meaning that that he's saying, to say אוי, that's not like a funny thing. That's like the most serious thing that a איד could do. אוי, that's like, אוי! All together! אוי! That's יעקב אבינו.
That that is the כח of יעקב אבינו giving us כח to to to go there. And look how he ends this paragraph, ואז הכל מתהפך לטובה. You see, when you see and realize that you could scream to השם בחשכת הגלות, everything flips over at that moment because you never imagined in a million years that you could do that such a thing. But when you see that happens, then anything else is קטן עליך, is nothing afterwards.
על כן, bottom paragraph. על כן יעקב אבינו בעצם כוחו הכניס בלב כל ישראל עד סוף הדורות האחרונים האלה, שהם עקבתא דמשיחא. Now Reb Nosson's writing this in the 1830s, these words, right? 1830s, 1820s, 1830s, 1840s, right? We're already 200 years after Reb Nosson's writing this, right? But Reb Nosson was writing this 2,000 years after יעקב, 3,000 years after יעקב אבינו. So even though he's writing it about his time, על אחת כמה וכמה, קל וחומר a million times over, this is for us.
The יעקב אבינו בעוצם כוחו, with his might and strength, הכניס בלב כל ישראל, he inserted into the hearts of all אידן, עד סוף הדורות האחרונים, until the last generations, שהם עקבתא דמשיחא, which are the heels of משיח, שגם אתה, even now במרירות הגלות, with the bitterness of גלות, שהוא בבחינת תוקף חשכת לילה, which is the overcoming sense sensation of the darkness of the night. And we're saying these words right next to Reb Nosson. And you know what it says when you when you quote a צדיק? שפתותיו דובבות בקבר, that their lips, it's like their lips are moving in their, in its קבר. יסתכל כל אחד על האמת לאמיתה.
Each person should look at the האמת לאמיתה. עד שכל אחד יתחזק מכל מקום שהוא ברצונות חזקים וכיסופים טובים להשם יתברך. להכניס בישראל התחזקות, אפילו בעקבתא דמשיחא בעצם ירידתם. To insert into עם ישראל התחזקות, if you, if you can make someone feel a little bit a little bit stronger, just a little bit of חזוק, you gave them the, you gave them everything in the world.
Doesn't take a lot, it really, it takes very, very little. Just to give someone a little bit of חזוק, you're giving them everything in the world. Because then you become a שליח of יעקב אבינו basically. You're ממשיך the the chain at that point.
שגם משם, that even from there, and and someone can tell you their dirtiest secret in the world, that's the whole חביאה. They could tell you the most the darkest things they've ever done. But when you're holding on to the תורה of רבי נחמן and and רבי נתן and understanding יעקב אבינו, you can at that moment, חשכת לילה, חשכת לילה, darkness, nothingness, and you can make them feel that they could still cry to השם. You join יעקב אבינו going to sleep that night, מקום המקדש.
שגם משם, that even from there, from that place of the darkness that each of us have our own פעקאלע in this world. אל יתייאשו מן הרחמים, never despair from mercy, ויתחזקו ברצונות וכיסופים טובים. Strengthen yourself through רצון and כיסופים, good longing, holy longing. I'm not there yet, but I long for it.
עד שיתעוררו לזעוק ולצעוק ולהתפלל, until you wake them up to start screaming and crying and דאווענען and begging לפני השם יתברך תמיד. יהיה איך שיהיה. שזהו בחינת תפילת ערבית רשות שתיקן יעקב אבינו. So just to finish the way he began.
Why isn't this, why is this רשות now? Because there's no way in the world that you can come to such a קוועטש if it was something that was put on you. There's no way. The nature of the of the kid, there's no way. It had to be like this because this is the place, because if I have a חיוב to do something, then I, the תורה says to me, listen, if you're טמא then I know you're exempt from certain things.
So I I have, I'm exempt. I say I can't do certain things. Remember there's a whole חילוק there between תורה and תפילה regarding a person's חזקת טומאה וטהרה. So if I'm if I'm literally טמא, then there's certain things I can't do.
I have every holy, legitimate excuse. See, not just that I can't do it, the תורה doesn't allow me to do it. All right, to this I was mischievous in a place where it's no one's saying you have to do this, then so in that place, I don't have to deal with that like as this big internal guilt trip that goes on in my mind all day long. And in that place, all of us are not just בעלי תשובה, all of us are גרים.
ממש גרים at that moment. These are the words of the צדיק of רבי נתן that continue to penetrate throughout the whole world. And we should hold on to these words and take these words back with us to our מקדש מעט, to our שול, to our שבת table, to our שלום בית. And it would be much more appropriate, obviously, if it was about to be מעריב right now.
But מעריב, מעריב we're דאווענען by the רבי, מנחה we're דאווענען by the תלמיד right now. All right. אשרי ישבי ביתך עוד יהללוך סלה.