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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.
Alright.
בוקר טוב, שנה טובה to everyone. This שיעור that we're going to be doing right now will hopefully, it's for both really the חבר'ה that are going on the trip and also for those that are that are that are learning that we learn every Wednesday. It was, what was it last? It was Tuesday, now it's every Wednesday, the teachings of רבי נחמן מברסלב.
And I think that a lot of different pieces of of the story of רבי נחמן, רב נתן and אומן get lost and are missing and are just unknown. We don't really know them. We don't really know them that much. And it'd be impossible in one session, I mean, I shouldn't say impossible, I'm sure greats can do this, but in one session to piece all the pieces together of what is going on over here.
How did this become what it what it what it what what what it's become? And where does רבי נחמן fit into the big picture of what we're talking about, of חסידות, בכלל of יידישקייט? It's massive, massive, massive. It's a whole world on its own. Really, there's everybody, and then on a certain level there's just, it's רבי נחמן. There's something else going on over here.
The more you learn his תורות, the more you feel a connection to him, the more that, you know, when you talk about him and his life, there's there's there's this element of יראה. I don't know how to explain it exactly. I, at least I feel like this. Like talking about him, telling stories about him, וכולי, it's a, an awesome thing.
It's an awesome thing. So, for our, for what we're, you know, בכלל to learn about the life of a צדיק is always very important. What I wanted to do first of all is to explain how he fits in just on the map. Alright? Just to explain, just very literally speaking, where who רבי נחמן comes from, his ancestry, so that that plays a very big role in in, in what we're doing.So them said that this type is, this is very, very small, but it'll explain to us something.
I want to start from the top left when you have it. I am also very excited because my wife's family just, my my my mother-in-law just traced herself to one of the direct lines. I'll show you in a second, coming from here. Okay.
So if you look at the top left, you see where it says אליעזר and שרה? Okay. So אליעזר and שרה are the parents of ישראל בן אליעזר. They're the parents of the בעל שם טוב. The truth is we're probably going to have this this, something similar to this in the booklets when we go as well, just to make sure that it's in front of us.
אליעזר and שרה are the parents of of ישראל בעל שם טוב. The בעל שם טוב is born 1698, 1760, I'm sure you learned that. And the בעל שם טוב's wife is a woman named לאה רחל. Know very little about her.
They have two children. One, so this is the בעל שם טוב's children. They have two children. One of them, as you see right beneath, is צבי הירש, where I am so excited that I finally, I found it, his mysterious ספר about the life of רב צבי, the בעל שם טוב's son.
It's mind-blowing. Very, we're going to, we'll share, hopefully on the trip or the rest of our lives. He was very, very mysterious, and there's stories about him whether he was going to be a רבי or not a רבי. He he wasn't.
But anyway, he, that's the בעל שם טוב's son, his name is רב צבי. Now here's where things get really interesting. Okay? It's the page down there. Here's where things get very interesting.
The בעל שם טוב has a daughter, and did you go, did you talk about her? You, I'm sure you heard about her.
אודל was something else. She's, she was a huge, huge, huge צדקת, holy, holy woman, and she marries רבי יחיאל אשכנזי. Okay? Now they have three children.
So now we're talking about the בעל שם טוב's grandchildren. The בעל שם טוב's daughter, אודל, they have three children: רבי ברוך ממז'יבוז', the page is down there, רבי ברוך ממז'יבוז', רב משה חיים אפרים from סדילקוב, if you want to write, if you if you want to take notes of it, this is just pretty interesting.
רבי ברוך ממז'יבוז', רב משה חיים אפרים, he has a ספר called the דגל מחנה אפרים. Since I was never inside the בעל שם טוב's קבר, I I think I remember that he's buried right there next to him, the דגל.
this grandson, the דגל מחנה אפרים. And then they have a sister. These two brothers have a sister. And the sister is פייגא.
Okay? So the בעל שם טוב has three grandchildren from this line, from through אודל, through his daughter, ברוך, משה חיים אפרים, and פייגא.פייגא marries a person named ר׳ שמחה, and שמחה is the son of a very big צדיק as well, ר׳ נחמן מהורודנקא. He plays a very big role, he's a תלמיד of the בעל שם טוב.
רבי נחמן of Horodenker. And obviously that's where the name came from, of the person that we're dealing with, the צדיק we're dealing with.
So now let's continue.So it's interesting. They they there's two versions of how they word his name in in the לובאַוויטש side. Sometimes they call ר׳ מנחם, נחום, נחום, נחמן. Sometimes ר׳ מנחם מענדל.
I think possibly I I do think so, yeah. Yeah. It's funny, in in the תניא שיעור of um, שלומי, was saying a story about ר׳ נחמן נחמן מהורודנקא, and in לובאַוויטש, the מסורה is just, it's just the לובאַוויטש context. I said to them, you know that's, that's רבי נחמן's grandfather.
He says, they don't even know about it. It's a different, it's like, this is but you should just know, I just want to explain something. When you go to a לובאַוויטש שיעור on חסידות, right? In a לובאַוויטש ישיבה, this doesn't really exist, or it's not really relevant to the בעל שם טוב. By the בעל שם טוב, in in a in a more לובאַוויטש setting, for for beautiful reasons, for whatever the reasons are, is the בעל שם טוב, the מגיד, and the אלטער רבי.
And then the next six נשיאים, the other six רבנים in חב״ד, right? The seven רבנים in חב״ד, including the אלטער רבי. What we're doing over here is very, very different, and it's very different than anything else because when it comes to the spreading of חסידות, since ר׳ צבי, the son of the בעל שם טוב, did not take on the mantle of leadership, all other continuations in the form of leadership were not יחוס, it was not משפחה. It was students. From the מגיד of Mezritch comes ר׳ לוי יצחק מבארדיטשוב, the נועם אלימלך, the רב ר׳ אלימלך, ר׳ זושא, ר׳ שמואל שמעלקא מניקלשבורג, and the אלטער רבי.
Even the מגיד's son, ר׳ אברהם המלאך, he doesn't really continue it as like the main thing. What makes רבי נחמן different is on the on the one hand, even though he said it didn't have anything to do with how he became who he became, but it's this.
רבי נחמן is family.
רבי נחמן as you see now, פייגא and ר׳ שמחה, they have a few children.
And one of them, and I'm just going to go straight into in only to focus now on רבי נחמן, is רבי נחמן מברסלב.
רבי נחמן is the great-grandson of the בעל שם טוב.
רבי נחמן's mother is the granddaughter of the בעל שם טוב.
פייגא's mother is the daughter of the בעל שם טוב.
So it's father, daughter, daughter, son. That's how it works in on a יחוס lineage, just to get things explained to us things.Painfully enough, as you see רבי נחמן, he has two wives because the first one died, and we'll we'll talk about that in a second. His first wife is Sasha, a second wife, I don't know what her name was. And they have, and this is this is so painful.
Look at that. Daughter one, died in infancy. Daughter two, died in infancy.
שלמה אפרים, who we spoke about a lot, his son שלמה אפרים, died in infancy.
יעקב, died in infancy. And then the rest of the children. There were eight children from the first wife. Yeah, there were eight children from the first life.
And I it seems here, how many more? Four, five. Sorry. It was just eight.
נכון.
נכון. Ah, that makes sense because of what we're going to do right now. But I really wanted you to see this to understand how this works on the chart to get us a give us a clear understanding of who רבי נחמן is, and now to be able to go a little bit into his life as well. I'm not going to try to explain who he was.
It's it's too, we're just going to go through his life a little bit to give us context of the trip and of our learning as well. And we believe that you get to learn the most about who the צדיק was through his תורה anyway. So it's a plug for our Wednesday morning שיעור on רבי נחמן as well, to keep on coming because his תורות are a different world. something happens.
Okay. So that was for the timeline of the of of his of of his genealogy, of his descendants of the בעל שם טוב.Okay. So now look at, look at the timeline.
רבי נחמן is born in this place, is a very interesting thing.
רבי נחמן's born in 1772. You all know that he died when he was 38, right?
רבי נחמן?
רבי נחמן died when he was 38 years old.
רבי נחמן's born in 1772 in Medzhybizh. Now, when did the בעל שם טוב pass away, his great grandfather? 12 years prior, 1760.
רבי נחמן never met his great grandfather, the בעל שם טוב. But רבי נחמן was born in the בעל שם טוב's house.
רבי נחמן was born in Medzhybizh.And, do you want a chair? Is there is there space there? Or would you rather? Come sit here. Come, come, come.
Come sit over here.One of the things that רבי נחמן spoke about is what it was like to grow up in the house of his great-grandfather. Even though he was not alive, but the חסידים, the old חסידים, the first חסידים of the בעל שם טוב, those that spent time by the בעל שם טוב, on יום טובs and certain special occasions, they would come back to that house in Medzhybizh.
רבי נחמן was a very little kid and he would listen to the way they used to reminisce and speak about what it was like to be by their, by his great-grandfather. He said that those stories played a very big role in his life.
We find very interesting things that רבי נחמן does from a young age. And for us that are going to be by the קבר of the בעל שם טוב, I'll remind you then as well, that's a place that רבי נחמן used to go to as a little kid, four, five years old. He used to טובל in the מקוה in the middle of the night, and he would go and cry for hours and say תהילים on his great-grandfather's קבר. Four, five years, six years old.This begins to explain to us that we're simply not dealing with your average יוסל.
This is a different ball game what we're talking about. It's a נשמה, it's a soul that comes from a very illustrious, high, high, high world. In the tradition of ברסלב, and if we had enough time, it's it's so crazy that we even have a very, very clear מסורה regarding the, the, the, I don't know how to say this, but the, and I hope, please just don't don't misunderstand what I'm saying, we have a whole מסורה regarding the atmosphere around his conception even. It's these are stuff that that this thing these things are written down actually.
The whole story of his, of his coming into the world is filled with קדושה and טהרה like never before. And the בעל שם טוב plays a very big role. Obviously not at the time, but in the picture, in the big picture of how רבי נחמן came comes into this world. But at the young age, like if he's born in 1772, 1776, 1777, רבי נחמן is going and crying on his great-grandfather's קבר.
I mean, it's very, very, it's very different. We're talking about something very, very different over here.1772, he's born in Medzhybizh. Now, the next number should, the next nekuda here shouldn't freak anybody out too much. It was very common back then.
1785, at the age of 13, רבי נחמן gets married. The story, there's a story used to always say, רבי נחמן at his own wedding, at his own wedding, he would ask everyone that came into the wedding, what are you doing here? Meaning they thought he meant, who's side are you on? Like, right? What do you, "Oh, I'm that side, I'm that side." Till there was one תלמיד, I think his name was רבי שמעון, who understood what רבי נחמן was asking, and he said to him, I have no idea what I'm doing here, right? And again, a lot of the stuff we're going to say about רבי נחמן is just very foreign to us because it's we're not dealing with, it's a different world today. But that was the night, that night after the wedding, that was when רבי נחמן found his first תלמיד. That was his first real student.
And רבי נחמן is 13 years old.We continue on. 1791, so רבי נחמן now. was 19. Assuming he was בר מצווה before that.
He was בר מצווה at his wedding. Probably. What's that? Double something. Yeah, double something.
Save some געלט. Was it common in that time? Very. To marry at 13? In the Jewish community or? Very. On the חסידיש community.
Back then there were the, the שידוכים were happening even before that, I think. Like you were saying you're, you know, being, you're for this, I don't know how, I don't know like how the שידוך worked here, but it was very common back then. Yeah. To get married at such a young age? Yeah, but basically what would happen was you lived by your father-in-law for a few years.
That was it was always the case, כמעט always the case. You live by your father-in-law until you were able to either learn a trade or continue learning by your father-in-law, whatever it was. But yeah, that was common. And the time, the ages as the age as well.
Sorry? She was his niece? Rebbe Nachman married, so this would be his brother, right? No, no, no. I I I don't I don't want to get into it right now. It's not, it's just gonna take us on the side. In 1791, at the age of 19, Rebbe Nachman moved to Medvydevka.
Now these are some names, he lived in a few different places. But דוקא here in 1791, at the age of 19, he begins to attract, people start to realize there's some, this is a this is a different thing we've ever we've seen. He's not coming from the, from the table of the מגיד of מעזריטש, who really continued the בעל שם טוב's חידוש in the world. And he's not coming from any of the תלמידים of the מגיד of מעזריטש.
His תורות were very, very different. On the one hand, Rebbe Nachman could tell you something and you felt that he knows every deep, dark secret you ever had. And on the other hand, he would be he would sometimes talk about horses and medicine and you're wondering why in the world did I have to hear this story? But then you spent like three, four months realizing that in a story that Rebbe Nachman told, he was also talking about your deepest, darkest secrets, but it was just in a more נסתר way, completely hidden. So he starts to attract a following.
But to be a חסיד of Rebbe Nachman, to follow Rebbe Nachman meant you really put a lot of faith in a 19-year-old. That's that's one. On the other hand, it meant like you were willing to go for on a different type of trip, different trip, different journey.So in 8, in 1798, Rebbe Nachman now is 26, 27. Rebbe Nachman comes to ארץ ישראל.
He's in ארץ ישראל for about six months. Rebbe Nachman's taught a lot of תורה since then. Rebbe Nachman's time in ארץ ישראל, I always feel this when we go to רמות for פסח, whenever we're up there, I always tell my חבר'ה that are there, when you look out, you see basically all of טבריה up to צפת, that whole area. That's where Rebbe Nachman was.
They tried to go in in ירושלים, in Jaffa, the port there. The French were at the time, I think it was the French or the Turks. Forget who was at that point. No, of course it was the Turks.
They were, they were giving ממש צרות צרורות to any Jew that tried to dock in Jaffa. So they went up at the end, that boat, that boat had to then travel north and it docked in Akko, I think. And that's where he gets off. And he spends six months here.
What I'm saying to you right now, there are huge volumes and books written about this. That's why it feels weird saying this. But there's a point that I want to say this about about about this נקודה. Comes to ארץ ישראל 1798, 1799.
He's teaching תורה for a long time already at the age of 29. Rebbe Nachman comes back after his pilgrimage and he says, forget everything I ever taught you.
ארץ ישראל gave me completely new מוחין, new intellect, a new way of understanding anything that I thought I knew until now. What we have from Rebbe Nachman's תורות in the ליקוטי מוהר"ן, aside from either six or nine teachings in Rebbe Nachman's magnum opus, none of the תורות are from before his pilgrimage to ארץ ישראל.
Rebbe Nachman's קשר to ארץ ישראל is different than all, almost all the other רביים of the time. He speaks about ארץ ישראל extensively, speaks about the קדושה of ארץ ישראל. Sometimes you're reading him, you think he's like ממש talking, it's like Rav Kook. Last week we said Rav Kook sounded like Rebbe Nachman.
Sometimes Rebbe Nachman sounds like Rav Kook, the way that he's speaking so personally, intimately, and beautifully about ארץ ישראל, much more than what was the norm back then. So really, he, we have a very, our our relationship to Rebbe Nachman through ארץ ישראל is also very different. He's like, I'm not going to start calling him the Zionist Rebbe, but he has, ארץ ישראל played a very big role in Rebbe Nachman's תורה. So what we have from Rebbe Nachman, we don't have that much from all those years before he came to ארץ ישראל.
because he told his students get rid of them. Some say that תורות was burned. That's a whole another subject. Some say that everyone just made sure we just got rid of those teachings.
But our connection to רבי נחמן wouldn't have been possible till something that happens after רבי נחמן comes back from ארץ ישראל, and that was the move to the town of Breslov. We're going to be in Breslov.Breslov he moves there in 1802, and that's also the year that he meets, he meets his רב נתן. I always get very emotional just even thinking about that meeting. We're going to read about that meeting in a second.
If it wasn't for רבי נתן of Breslov, none of us, none of us would know who רבי נחמן was. We wouldn't know, have no, maybe we'd know the בעל שם טוב as a great-grandson. We wouldn't know who רבי נחמן was.
רבי נתן, רבי נחמן referred to רבי נתן as his pen, his scribe.
He was his ישועה.Now, continue. In 1807, רבי נחמן's first wife, mother of his eight children, dies to tuberculosis in 1807. He himself contracts tuberculosis a year later. In 1810, on חול המועד פסח, רבי נחמן's house in Breslov burned down, and he moves to Uman, which is about a two-hour ride, two-and-a-half-hour drive.
And six months later, in 1810, on October 16th, on חול המועד סוכות, רבי נחמן dies from tuberculosis himself, at the age of 38.So, it's, you're sitting there and if you don't know anything about anything, you think, oh, so he has a short life, 38 years old. Wow, it's so sad that no one really, you know, knows so much about him or, you know, it seems like he was such a big, big soul. How could it, what happened? And we see today what's going on in the world. It's not to believe.
I was at the כותל for ראש השנה. You couldn't hear anything but נחמן. They drowned everybody out. I'll explain.
You're probably wondering, what do you mean? They're not in Uman? They couldn't make it. So, there's two of them, two versions. One is there are those that that couldn't make it and they bought fake tickets. There's a whole story there.
I feel bad for those like 2,000 tickets that were lost. The other is a group, is a sect of in Breslov that does not go to Uman. They believe רבי נחמן should be here and that his bones, his body should be transported here. And there were attempts over the years.
Oddly enough, Jimmy Carter was once involved in an attempt to relocate. I know, it's very, listen, when it comes to Breslov, everything is just whack, wacky, right? Jimmy Carter, רבי נחמן. Anyway, I know there are a lot, a lot of questions about this. I don't pretend to have all the answers at all.
I can only give over a little bit of my taste, my connection, my feeling, my, my a little bit that השם has blessed me with. But there are a lot, a lot of questions. And as much questions as you'll have about בכלל חסידות or Ukraine, when you show up in Uman, be prepared for anything. It is absolutely the most confusing place in the world.
That's what I think. The most confusing place in the world.The whole story of רבי נחמן's קבר. Why do we go there and why do people go there on ראש השנה? What is it about רבי נחמן? How come there was never a successor?
רב נתן was not a successor. He was his scribe, but he was not a successor.
What's going on over here? So much mystery. Who are the נ נח נחמ נחמן? What's that about? There's a lot of questions. So, before we move further, okay? And we will. Does anyone have any really questions that are really irking you by now? Even a little bit irking you about this whole, this whole trip? Not not the whole trip, this trip.
This רבי נחמן world. Yeah? Why would he tell people to burn his first teachings? Okay, that's a good question. What else? That's a good question. Why didn't he stay in Israel? Why didn't he stay in Israel? I'll add to to your קשיא.
How, why did he say that after he walked here for ד' אמות, he was willing, he was ready to go back home? What else? I'm not answering any of them right now, by the way, I'm just wondering what the, what other questions? There are a lot of questions. What else comes up with with this whole רבי נחמן Uman thing? Why did he go to Uman to die? everybody, I'm saying everybody from around the world and Israel on ראש השנה to come to his grave. You're saying what, why did he say that? Why did he, yeah. To come to his grave? Yeah.
and you followed it, right? Well, that's the thing. The question is, let's even sharpen the question, did he ever say that? That's a bet, yeah. Okay, well that we're definitely going to get to. But you want to say? Why did he go to אומן particularly? Why did he דוקא go to אומן to die? Very good question as well.
What else comes up? I don't know, it might be so so obvious, but we have הר הבית here. Right, so why don't why aren't they all going to הר הבית? I don't know, it's what what about רבי נחמן is pulling us there? Right. I mean, I know that's happening, but I don't know why. Why is what's happening happening? That's what you're saying.
Yeah, נכון. I'm sorry? The connection to him. Yeah, so that I, you know, when I found that out, I got really happy, because for me I want to connect, I want to see how all the worlds are connected. So they met twice.
And because of חב"ד, which documents everything, the actual the conversations, and we'll learn that on the trip. The actual conversations and the exchange of words and the and the relationships between רבי נחמן and the אלטער רבי are all documented. They met twice and they knew each other. So we'll find that, definitely.
Yeah. When we when you think about רבי נחמן now, you you can feel and see that the large following. Did he have that in his lifetime or is that posthumous? Not at all. Not at all.
It grew a little bit. It grew a little bit. Nothing, I mean, the first, I think the first ראש השנה after he died, there were 60 people there.
משהו כזה.
משהו כזה. Yeah, Jessica. Why, if he was the actual descendant of the בעל שם טוב, why isn't he the heir apparent as opposed to there being another? So that's a question about חסידות. Should it be, how would you say, what do you say in Lubavitch, געזע? Is that what they say?
געזע, which means גזע really, that means branches, it means, does it have to be the trunk, right? Or can it be, you know, can it be not family? Right? It seems, it's very interesting.
Sorry? The story that that I shared, that that I've heard is that צבי הירש was the leader for for a year, approximately after the בעל שם טוב died. And then he had a dream, and he he said, he gave over that in his dream his father told him, give the mantle to Baer, which was the מגיד. Right, right. So in in Breslov, there's a tradition that רבי נחמן said as follows: I don't want you to think that any level that I've, I'm just going to say a warning now.
Whenever we quote רבי נחמן, it's very important that you all hear this. This is very, very important for me that everyone hears this. Whenever we quote רבי נחמן, anything you read, I don't want anyone to read ahead a sentence here because it'll be confusing without the following statement. Whenever we read anything from רבי נחמן, there's two ways you could take it.
If we don't understand who we're dealing with, you might think this is the most arrogant individual that ever lived in this world.
רבי נחמן says about himself, חידוש כמוני לא היה מעולם. There was never a חידוש like me ever in this world. When you learn רבי נחמן, you realize that only the most humble person in the world can say a statement like this.
How does that work? How how could that be?
רבי נחמן said about himself, that's what I was getting to. I don't want you to think that any level I have attained has anything to do with the fact that I'm the great-grandson of the בעל שם טוב. It's because I worked so hard on myself from such a young age. So there's a lot of for for those that are looking at it with, you know, our our regular, the way we the way we normally usually look at things, a lot of statements from רבי נחמן are going to be are very puzzling, very, very puzzling.
We're simply not dealing with with with, I mean I'd go so far as to say, we're not really dealing with a normal human being. We're just not. This is a different soul, a different type of נשמה, coming from a completely different place, coming down, bringing down תורות, the fountain, the באר that are saving thousands of people's lives and their connection to השם and to יהדות today.
רבי נחמן is everyone's therapist today.
The more you learn רבי נחמן, and the more that you you knew that you're a deep נשמה but you didn't feel like anyone ever understood you, you look at רבי נחמן's story and you're like, I can't believe what he's saying. He's saying exactly what I'm going through. But wait a second, why does he sound so pompous and arrogant on the other hand? So for that, we we have to continue learning רבי נחמן all year long to understand how such statements could be made. And I know that I'm not doing it justice at all.
Like I told you in the beginning, in the beginning when I would hear these kind of statements, what?
מה זה? What's going on over here? And the more you learn about רבי נחמן's life and the more you understand his.
תורה, the more you realize this was a person that ran away from any ounce of כבוד possible. And in fact, רבי נחמן teaches in the sixth teaching in ליקוטי מוהר"ן, תשובה really means to run away from כבוד. Because someone that runs away from כבוד, כבוד runs after him.
One who runs after כבוד, כבוד runs away from him. It's a classic teaching by רבי נחמן.So there was a lot of different things to try to understand, to attempt to understand as this is a both a preparation for the rest of the year of learning and also for our trip. And obviously the questions that you raised like ראש השנה, why אומן, and for us, it's a a bit a big one is, who was רב נתן? To me that, to me that's the that's the most most exciting. I'll just personally speaking.
When I think of רבי נחמן and רב נתן and I want to connect to their תורות and if I'd want to have a conversation with one of them, I'd never go to רבי נחמן. I wouldn't know how to I wouldn't know how to talk. I wouldn't know how to relate. I wouldn't know how I'd feel.
I'd run to רב נתן, to רבי נתן of Breslov. And the book that changed my life is this one which I recommend everyone, everyone, everyone to get. Through Fire and Water. Does anyone have this book? You have? This is this was a for me, this was the my entry.
Many many years ago. This is my favorite ספר, Through Fire and Water. This was done by Breslov Research Institute. By the way, all these books will be available for purchase while we're there in אומן.
And live to carry them all home. You could read it on the book. You could read it on the plane. You're more than welcome to purchase it before you go to אומן.
They sell them in ארץ ישראל too. I'm just saying, when we're there, בשמחה, you can grab these there in B.R.I. headquarters in the building that we'll be we'll be in as well. But this ספר, this book was, whenever I see Chaim Kramer, I just have I always have הכרת הטוב for what he did in here.
Do you guys have the ספרים? The ספר? It's a it's not just a translation of one book in Hebrew called ימי מוהרנ"ת, which means the days of מורנו הרב רב נתן. It's taken from a lot of different sources in different places, many years of research, piecing together all the pieces of רב נתן's life. And what's interesting is that דווקא through understanding רב נתן, רבי נתן שטרנהרץ, that was his last name, you really find a way into רבי נחמן. And this is what I want to do just for a few minutes.רב נתן did not start off as a חסיד of רבי נחמן.
רבי נתן of Breslov started off as a חסיד of רבי לוי יצחק מברדיטשוב actually. He was a חסיד of the ברדיטשובר. And רב נתן knew that as much as he felt that רבי לוי יצחק was holy, and by the way, רבי לוי יצחק and רבי נחמן were best friends. As much as he felt that רבי לוי יצחק מברדיטשוב was holy, something in his שורש נשמה told him, this is not my place.
And the story is that on מוצאי שבת, רב נתן was sent out to go and buy bagels for מלוה מלכה in ברדיטשוב, literally, you'll see it inside. And as he's walking to buy the bagels, he says, I don't know if this is my, I don't know, I know it's holy to buy, I mean, and what would you do to buy a bagel for רבי לוי יצחק? As if it was for as if he ate, right? For the חסידים there, whatever. As he's going to buy the bagels from רבי לוי יצחק מברדיטשוב, something inside says to him, משהו פה לא, I think this is not my עניין. This is not really my עניין.
So, he searches, and he searches.
רב נתן is from a town called נעמרוב. We're going to be driving through all these towns while we're there. I didn't make copies of all of this, because I wasn't sure we're going to we're going to share it.
But I must share with you the meeting of רב נתן and רבי נחמן to explain to us a lot of everything that we've been talking about. And this is very important.Of all the encounters, this is probably begins this ספר. Of all the encounters in Jewish history, the meeting between רבי נחמן of Breslov and רב נתן is surely one of the most significant. That's if I don't know if everyone would, if you're into Breslov and into חסידות, maybe you'd agree with that, but you understand what I'm saying.
The truth is for today's day and age, that that's a very true statement.
רב נתן was to become the רבי's closest student and he devoted his life to following and spreading his רבי's teachings, laying the foundations for the steady expansion of רבי נחמן's influence until the present day. The רבי himself, the רבי, when he says this here, we're talking about רבי נחמן. The רבי himself testified that without רב נתן, not a single page of his teachings, stories and sayings would have survived.
After רבי נחמן passed away, it was רב נתן who built up the Breslov חסידי movement. movement, almost single-handedly. Despite relentless persecution and an endless succession of obstacles, mainly by other חסידים, not by מתנגדים. He was, they tried to kill him.
They put him in jail.
רב נתן went through hell.
רב נתן printed all of רבי נחמן's writings. He also wrote works of his own.
He established, rather he established regular gatherings of ברסלבר חסידים, and he built the first ברסלב synagogue. He encouraged countless Jews to put all their strength into following the path of תורה and prayer with uncompromising sincerity and truth. What's the date today? What's the English date today? September? It's interesting, right around now. At the time of their first meeting on Sunday, כ"ב אלול, September 18th, 1802, רבי נחמן, who was 30, was already an outstanding, unconventional, and highly controversial חסידי leader with a network of devoted followers spread over wide areas of the Russian Ukraine.
רב נתן, who was then 22, should have been looking forward to a golden future. His honesty and sincerity made him loved by his friends. His family was wealthy and had excellent יחוס.
רב נתן was married to the daughter of one of the great and greatest and most saintly rabbinic leaders in the area, and רב נתן himself was an excellent תלמיד חכם.
But רב נתן suffered from one of the most modern, from one most modern problem, a problem that cast everything else into shadow. He was haunted by a sense of futility. Each day he would sit down in the בית מדרש to start learning, but he found it impossible to immerse himself in his studies. Sometimes the interference came from business matters.
Bless you. Other times, he simply felt preoccupied. It was enough for one small distraction to throw him off course for the entire day. Well, what would happen today? He would be cooked.
He struggled to attach himself to השם and pray with devotion, but each time a sense of heaviness descended upon him, blocking all his efforts to concentrate. Day after day passed with no feeling of accomplishment. With Europe in the throes of the Napoleonic wars, the old order of kings, priests, and peasants was being shaken to the roots together with all its beliefs and assumptions. The Jewish world was also in turmoil.
It was 40 years since the בעל שם טוב died. The conflicts between the חסידי movement and its opponents were now at their height. Not so to speak, not to speak of the conflict within the movement itself. At the same time, a new menace was beginning to eat into the very heart of the תורה tradition: התבוללות, assimilation.
רב נתן's family, who cherished the highest hopes for a youth of such promise, had a simple answer to the challenges of the times. It was to press forward along the traditional תורה path as they knew it, with observance to the core of all its details and to strive above all for excellence in תורה scholarship. Yet, try as he might, רב נתן could find no way to lift himself above the turmoil in his own mind. Can anyone connect to that?
רב נתן had grown up in an atmosphere of hostility to חסידות, especially from his father-in-law, the big צדיק, ר' דוד צבי אויערבאך.
But when רב נתן saw the intense devotion of the חסידים he encountered, he was filled with envy. He felt compelled to search wider a field for inspiration. Despite strong opposition from his family, he went to visit a succession of חסידי leaders. Eventually, he came to ר' לוי יצחק מברדיטשוב in the summer of 1801.
That's what we just said.
רב נתן was sitting with some of the other חסידים at a מלווה מלכה, and they needed to buy some bagels and cast lots to see who would go out to buy them.
רב נתן was chosen. But as he was on his way, he fell into a mood of deep dejection.
Even now that he'd become a חסיד, he still had so many ups and downs in serving השם. "Was this what I was created for?" he asked himself, "To buy bagels?" רב נתן felt at a loss. He had seen true sincerity in some of the older חסידים, but despite all his searching and efforts, the contentment he knew existed was always just beyond his grasp. He fell down again and again.
One day, רב נתן went to a secluded section of the synagogue and started saying תהילים. He was so broken and in anguish that he fell to the floor, crying bitterly as he read פסוק after פסוק until eventually he fell asleep. Now listen to this. And please remember this for the rest of your lives and definitely for the next month.
He dreamed that he saw a ladder. stretching from earth up to heaven. Reb Noson began to climb the ladder, but he fell down. He tried again and climbed a little higher, but then he fell again.
Each time he climbed higher, he kept falling. The higher he climbed, the lower he fell. Still he tried, and almost climbed to the top, but then he fell again, and this time he despaired of ever reaching the top. Just at that moment, someone appeared at the top of the ladder and said to him, טראָפּ זיך און האַלט זיך.
Climb, but hold yourself. Climb, but hold yourself.This dream became indelibly etched in Reb Noson's mind. It was about a year later in mid-September of 1802 that Rebbe Nachman moved to the town of Breslov, only a few miles from Nemirov, where Reb Noson lived. Residents of Nemirov who went to the market in Breslov returned home with reports that Rebbe Nachman despised the way so many חסידים had made eating and drinking the main focus of gatherings instead of devotion to השם.
Rebbe Nachman spoke of nothing but תורה and תפילה. He had his followers pour out their hearts to him in honest confession of their sins.What's interesting is that that's also a statement that can be completely taken out of context because obviously, all you hear there is Christianity. But then when you learn הילכות תשובה of the רמב''ם, וידוי is a very real thing. Confession, not just in your mind or in your heart, to actually confess.
And then taking, Rebbe Nachman took it to the next level of confessing before your רב, your צדיק, is a very, very big thing.Someone came up to me before יום טוב and and and I didn't, I didn't know what, they just wanted to talk and then they started doing this. And I was, I I ממש was at that moment, I had to be like, Jeff, just shut your mouth, just. But I saw what it does to a person that they this this ability of of וידוי. This was a חידוש.
No, they no one else did this back then. It was a completely empowering experience for for this new group of חסידים.Even if Reb Noson had wanted to travel to Rebbe Nachman prior to his move, the long journey that would have been necessary would have posed serious familiar problems, familial problems, which they really did. But now that Rebbe Nachman was so near, Reb Noson felt he might finally be able to find a mentor who would help him escape his inner turbulence. Reb Noson's חברותא, his name was Reb Lipa, who had been a חסיד for many years, visited Rebbe Nachman on his first שבת in Breslov.ראש השנה was approaching and the סליחות began the next day.
Reb Lipa, who came back to Nemirov on מוצאי שבת, had been so inspired by Rebbe Nachman that he stood in a corner of the שול and fervently recited the סליחות in a loud, strong voice. Reb Lipa was something of an old חסיד, but seeing now how he had been renewed, Reb Noson thought to himself, "Now maybe even I can become a good ייד."The very next day he traveled to Breslov and came to Rebbe Nachman. After Reb Noson introduced himself, the רבי said to him, "Now I'm no longer alone." That's what Rebbe Nachman told Reb Noson. He continued, "We've known each other for a very long time, but we haven't seen each other for a while."And then Rebbe Noson recognized the רבי's face.
It was the face he had seen in his dream the year before. It was the face of the man who told him, "Climb, but hold yourself." And from then on, as Reb Noson wrote, Rebbe Nachman took me under his wing and brought me close to him, and he carried me as a nurse carries a suckling child.Rebbe Nachman moves to Breslov in 1802 and he meets Reb Noson there, and that's when things start to become, I would say, established. Rebbe Nachman told his חסידים that no matter where they end up or wherever they go, they want them to be known as Breslover חסידים.
לב בשר.
In Hebrew, Breslov, there's no way, there's no right or wrong way to write a name of a Ukrainian town, right? So even though we usually write לב בסר with a סמך, it's probably לב בשר with a שׂין. Rebbe Nachman said that was really his his whole thing. His whole thing was to remove the heart of stone from his חסידים and give them a heart of flesh. A heart that feels.
Just warning you, the latest shawarma joint in Uman is called לב בשר, actually. I got so mad when I saw it because it's exactly, I felt like, are you kidding me? You know, you're, but you know, the בעל שם טוב once said, to make a few rubles for פרנסה, we should be happy for him. So it's right on the corner, it's ממש right behind רבי נחמן's ציון that there's a shawarma joint called לב בשר. But the point that רבי נחמן was trying to make, רבי נחמן's שיטה is very clear.
It really, what does it boil down to?
דאווענען and learning and then דאווענען. And then learning and then and then דאווענען. His ענין was that your עבודת השם, and that's why is so crucial for it, must remove your heart of flesh, a heart of stone and give you a לב בשר, heart of flesh. So many people that eventually were exposed and and went into the תורות of רבי נחמן, if you had to ask them, what was how do you describe yourself differently? They will say this.
They will say, I knew I was always from, I was alive, it was fine, but my heart was a heart of stone. The Rebbe's תורות did ממש a circumcision on my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh, a לב בשר, a heart that feels. Now, because I realized that this should be a three-hour session, I'm going to try to just say a few things as clearly but as fast as possible.Why Uman? Because Uman plays a big role. We're going to be in Uman, we're going to be in Breslov.
Why Uman? What is Uman?He was there for such a short time.Exactly. And why it's it's so funny. He's not רבי נחמן of Breslov. How long was he in Uman for? Six months.
But he did pass through Uman one time before that. And when he passed through Uman one time before it, he was exposed to what you what what really is in Uman. The Chmielnicki massacres, Shoshana, what years were that?1648, 49.48, 49.
ת"ח ות"ט, that's what they say in Hebrew.
The the Chmielnicki massacres were very, have a very strong קשר to Uman. In Uman, 20,000 אידן who were given the choice of the cross or the sword were שחוט during that time. It's a long story. They all died, were killed על קידוש השם.
And and they are all buried right beneath where רבי נחמן is buried.
רבי נחמן is buried in the midst of a 20,000 אידישע cemetery. There's another Jewish cemetery in Uman that's not from the Chmielnicki massacres, it's something else. This cemetery in Breslov, in Uman, for כהנים, for me, there's you'll see like like paved, like paved yellow lines around a whole massive area.
When my first year I got there, they put they gave me the house I slept in. And then I went to sleep and then in the morning I'm walking outside, I'm like, oh what's what's what's this over here? What are these lines over here? Till a Breslover told me, he's like, oh man, this is a, this shows you where the cemetery is. It's buildings that are built on top of the of the old cemetery. So I grab my bags, a minute before יום טוב I had to pay someone to to I had to explain to them, my bags are in there, and I'm like standing over here.
My bags are there. Can you please carry my bags are right there, but I couldn't go back into the שטח of the cemetery.
רבי נחמן comes through there years before he moves to Uman and he says it'd be good, it'd be a big זכות to be buried over here, דוקא here. He says he designated Uman.
When his house burned down, he was invited by the residents of Uman to come and move there.So that's how it that's really the draw to Uman itself. And you should do some, we'll have reading for you as well, but you should do reading about this as well, the whole story about how the 20,000 אידן were killed.
רבי נחמן moves to Uman last six months of his life and he's meeting people, he's meeting Jews that are acting the exact opposite of what those 20,000, how those 20,000 Jews who were killed were acting. What's the opposite? What's infused unfortunately, and ממש spreading its poison into עם ישראל of that time?Assimilation.Assimilation and השכלה, and the enlightenment movement.
But רבי נחמן was sitting down his last six months, he would sit and play chess with assimilated Jews in Uman. He would sit and tell them jokes. He would never ever talk to them תורה. And the חסידים were very puzzled by רבי נחמן but they already knew to be puzzled by רבי נחמן.
That was not a shocker. They trusted the Rebbe's working and operating on a much deeper, deeper level than what they could understand. After he died, those assimilated Jews said to רב נתן and to the תלמידים, you think he never was talking to us תורה, right? Because that's what it sounded like. The truth is our Rebbe is gone.
Our תורה is gone. He got to them as well. He got to everyone he came in contact with. So why Uman?
אומן, meaning I don't we can't understand why דוקא אומן, other than he himself giving a reason as to why he wanted to be buried there.
This is what he said.Why ראש השנה? That's a big one, right? Look at the page in front of you. Two quotes from רבי נחמן himself about ראש השנה.My ראש השנה is greater than everything. I cannot understand how it is that if my followers really believe in me, they are not, this is like, it's amazing that he's saying this because this is stuff like everyone has these questions, he actually said this, right? If my followers really believe in me, they are not all meticulous about coming to me for ראש השנה. No one should be absent.
My whole mission is ראש השנה. So, this answers one question. What's the one question this would answer? Why did you go to... Why, well it answers, no.
Well, it answers whether... Right, it answers one question, which is why did everyone go to ראש השנה when he was alive? No? If he said this. That's one question.Everyone without exception who counts himself as one of my followers or takes heed of what I say should come to me for ראש השנה. Anyone who is worthy of being with me for ראש השנה should be very happy.
Go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. That's what we say, חדות ה' מעוזכם.That's one quote. The other quote: My ראש השנה is something completely new.
קרליבך has a beautiful song to this.
ראש השנה שלי הוא חידוש גדול. And God knows it is not something I inherited from my fathers. God himself gave me the gift of knowing what ראש השנה is. That all of you are dependent on my ראש השנה goes without saying.
The entire world depends on my ראש השנה.I wanted to דוקא take these statements because I wanted to clear the air. I know I'm very, it's very clear that these are not statements we're used to hearing, and if someone got up today and started talking like this, we'd run very, very, very far away. I don't want, and you're going to, the more you get exposed to רבי נחמן, the more you have a choice. These statements can confuse the daylights out of you, or you could say, wait a second, he said many, many, many other things as well.
Let me first see the תורות that he's saying, what else is going on over there. But I wanted to explain this. There's 50,000 people that traveled to a hole. It's, it's, it's, it's disgusting.
אומן is just, you'll see. I mean, now it looks like, it looks gorgeous compared to what it was, which will really scare you. Which will really scare you. It's, it's, it's disgusting.
It's ממש, it's, how could it be?In ברסלב, more than in other חסידיות, ודגש על צדיק אמת. The emphasis, the role that the true צדיק plays is much larger, much greater than in any other place. Yes, you need a רבי. There's a נשיא of the דור, there's a leader of the דור, but the emphasis, the stress that's put on the role of the צדיק is greater than any, anywhere else.And when they try to explain this in ברסלב, they bring the following quotes from all over the גמרות.
The role of the צדיק. Even for the sake of one צדיק was the world created. The earth stands on one pillar, the צדיק. These are all גמרות, this is יומא and חגיגה.
God decrees and gives the צדיק the power to nullify his decree. The צדיק decrees and God fulfills his decree.
מועד קטן. In the future, the angels will see the צדיקים and exclaim קדוש, just as they now exclaim before השם.
בבא בתרא. If the צדיקים would so wish, they could create worlds.
צדיקים draw down and reveal God's divine presence in the world.
שיר השירים רבה.
All blessings in this world come about in the merit of the צדיק. Great are the צדיקים, for even after their passing, their merits last for generation upon generation. Were it not for the prayers of the צדיקים who have passed on, the world could not survive for even a single moment.Pretend that we read those, all those statements were in front of you and there were no sources for that. Would anyone buy that? You see, רבי נחמן's forcing us to deal with a lot of the statements that חז"ל said, that we never really had to deal with.
If there were no sources to all the statements we just said right now, and you never heard of them before, how would you respond and be honest about it? Huh? No. It'd be like, no, this is not Judaism. Comes רבי נחמן and through his teachings and say and says, we understand why we are very naturally inclined to move away from people that say stuff like this, but רבינא and רב אשי and רבי חנינא בן דוסא, and רבי עקיבא, and השם himself say statements like this. What do we say at the crossing of the Red Sea? Right, every single morning.
What's the last statement we say before we start to say שירת הים?
ויאמינו בהשם. That we're all fine with, but then there's two more words.
ובמשה עבדו. What does that mean to believe in משה עבדו? What does it, I'm asking you.
What does that mean? You, I'm sure you've said it about 700 times this year. What does it mean to believe in משה עבדו? That I believe, we believed in God and we believed in משה עבדו, his servant. His עבד. What does it mean to believe in משה רבינו? What's belief? I think משה רבינו was the chain between השם and us.
Without him we couldn't have access to השם's way of thinking. Very, very, very good. Let's call him another name for that, for that, צדיק.
רבי.
צדיק גדול. Whatever it is. But when you usually say he's the chain, he's the connection, so what, there's another voice that comes, and it's this, it's the anti-חסידישע voice, right? That says what? Only God. We don't know משה's קבר because we're not supposed to worship.
That's, well that's already the second level, but let's say even before that, by, when you say ויאמינו בהשם ובמשה עבדו, that's, is that a form of worship? Could it be? No, this is good. Depends on how open you are to that idea. Correct. But no, no, no, not even to the idea.
The words, the words themselves. What does it mean? We say it every day, ויאמינו בהשם ובמשה עבדו. What does that mean? What do those words literally mean? A פשט. We believe in השם and his servant, משה.
What does it mean to believe in his servant, משה? That's what we're trying to get to. What does that mean? That he was chosen. That he was chosen to what? To be the link, to pass on השם's… Is that what, is that the statement that we say, that we're saying? I think the fact that they use the term עבד to describe him makes us not worship him. Right.
He's not the deity. Right. I don't think there's any worship that has to do with משה or any צדיק, God forbid.
חס ושלום.
Trust. Like, but the צדיק himself, not that God forbid we should ever ask the צדיק to answer our תפילות, that's what we spoke about last week's שיעור.
חס ושלום, and not that we have any worship, חלילה, to anybody but the רבונו של עולם. But the צדיק plays a very, very, very big role in our lives, very big role in our lives.
The גמרא is saying over here, צדיק גוזר והקדוש ברוך הוא מקיים. That a צדיק can make decrees and so to speak השם has to לקיים what the צדיק is saying. That's not a בעל שם טוב חידוש. That there's no one that opposes such statements.
These are statements that were put out throughout the whole, it's just that there weren't emphasis put on them, and I think for right reasons. Why? Because we've lived in a world with plenty of false Messiahs. I think it's very, I don't know if you discussed this a little bit about the context of חסידות, שבתאי צבי, Jacob Frank, meaning we were, we've had this before of people putting their faith in a human that was so enticing. What's that? Do people, do people confuse רבי נחמן for משיח? Is that… I don't know.
What?
משיח? רבי נחמן... No.
רבי נחמן… I'm just saying. He had a statement, he said, האש שלי תוקד עד ביאת המשיח.
He said my תורה, my fire will be burning until משיח comes. But never were there statements about him being, no, that's not, that's not the thing. The emphasis though, though was on the צדיק אמת, on connecting yourself, binding your, your soul to the soul of the צדיק אמת, of the true צדיק. In ברסלב it's just emphasized more than in other places.
But really, I mean, throughout, throughout the תנא, I don't have to tell you, you have references to this all the time.
צדיק יסוד עולם, which is what we brought up from here.
צדיק is the foundation of the world. I know for us growing up in a, in a more modern world, especially those of us that grew up in modern Orthodoxy, these, these statements seem very strange.
foreign. Very, very strange and foreign. But it really is because we had to shelter ourselves to a certain extent from being so vulnerable again to false messiahs for many, many years. A lot of the התנגדות to חסידות comes from sensing that it's the same exact thing.
So by Rebbe Nachman's Torah, that might cause even more of a, I would say, התנגדות. Not his Torah, his personality. His Torah is his Torah is a sea of love, of compassion, of depth, of connection to הקדוש ברוך הוא. It's all about השם.
But it's making sure that you bind yourself to the צדיק in every generation. And that is something that the זוהר הקדוש says that what there's what's called התפשטותא דמשה בכל דרא ודרא, which means there is the equivalent, the aspect of the משה רבינו in every single generation.So, who's confused now?A live one?Sorry?A live one? It occurs to me why not just connect yourself to the ones in the Torah that we know for sure, אברהם יצחק יעקב משה?For sure you have to connect yourself to those as well. So the question is, does it also mean someone that's alive today? Is that is that your question?What's that?The אבות says yes, yeah.עשה לך רב literally means you must find someone today. And Rebbe Nachman said that when you're looking for a רב, we learned it a few months ago, I think, never compromise.
Go for the highest one that you could find. Go for the strongest, most knowledgeable, most compassionate, most closest to what your concept of being an עבד השם is all about. It's both, the אבות and who's alive today.Connect to them personally or to their Torah?You know, by the real צדיקים there's absolutely no difference. They are their Torah.
Their, the גמרא says שיחת חולין של תלמידי חכמים. They call it שיחת חולין. Regular mundane conversations of the צדיקים, it's filled with with Torah.Right, but do you have to actually try to go to them and connect to them? Or can I just listen to them and read their books?It's a good question. It's, I can't tell you.
I can tell you what I think about what I what I need. I don't think that there's commandments here. What do you feel?I mean, I think if the the female one, so not so much for that.נכון, נכון. Absolutely.
Look, when it came, להבדיל, when it comes to musicians, I've learned already after thinking I need to go and meet them, like really, that's really not true at all. Even the holy ones, by the way, even the holy ones, there was one of them that that I was I loved so much, after I met him, I realized like coming to try to be with him makes him nervous. And I don't want to have that. I just want to keep on receiving what he gives me from the distance of the stage and the, and I'm fine with that.
That's for musicians.They sound much better than recordings.No doubt. No doubt. Absolutely. Absolutely.
So, listen, by the, like people say, oh, you're going on the Uman trip. No, no, no. We're not going on an Uman trip. We're going on the Ukraine trip.
It's a very it's a very, very big difference. There's a lot of, I mean we restructured a lot of things for that reason, but we have no ענין. We haven't even gotten into why דוקא come to his קבר and what he said to do at his קבר. That'll be for the trip.
That's a whole another thing. Or maybe we won't. I have to decide, we'll decide. The point over here is the Torah of the צדיקים.
It's not to get anyone hooked onto any truths, this and that and that. It's an exposure to our world, to a massive part of our tradition, and to a huge השפעה in the soul and the pulse of עם ישראל today. This is what happened. Ask your parents or grandparents who were Breslover חסידים.
They were known as the טויטער חסידים.
טויטער means dead. Oh, there was once, there were once חסידים like that. They were around in the 1800s and early 1900s, but it's over.
That's what they would have said 50, 60 years ago. 50 years ago, how many Breslover חסידים were there in the world? Maybe a few hundred. Literally. The fact that this Torah, it's his Torah that has penetrated ממש and gone everywhere in the world, says to us, wait a second, something's happening here.
Don't just don't ignore it. Don't knock it off. And also, don't take everything like either, like, you know, at face value. No, there's something going on over here.
This is the בעל שם טוב's great-grandson. There was no successor. There's a world of Torah here, there's a connection to ארץ ישראל, and there's specific guidelines. to make that that'll help us transform our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.
It's כדאי to open our hearts and see what else is in there with proper caution. That that that's what I feel, in a healthy way, in a really real way, and together, and to not be embarrassed to ask the questions that need to be asked. There are people within Breslov I would tell you to ask, and there are definitely people I would say, don't ask, just like in just like everywhere. There's no difference.
But I I really say that I think it's I'm I'm honored and I feel very empowered by by so many people that are going with all the speculations and doubts, but with openness. And that's what it's about anyway in the big picture. That's the point of what we're doing here. With openness and with trusting each other that בעזרת השם growing together, the goal is not like like someone called me last night after ראש השנה from אומן.
שלמה. Yeah. So he he said, I I he said to me, how was יום טוב? I said, wow, I was like like thinking I maybe I would say like, oh I really wanted to, you know, I mean I I've been there before. I I went ראש השנה many years ago and it was like I said before.
So he said, I said, how was it? He said, רבינו. I said, no, השם.
השם. That the only reason רבי נחמן came to this world is for השם.
And we have to keep that focus and I don't see any סתירה. I don't see any contradiction in taking in the teachings about the צדיק אמת, and every time you read about the צדיק אמת, saying השם and not צדיק, הצדיק. It's about הקדוש ברוך הוא. It always was.
בעזרת השם we should be privileged, it always should be, but we should take advantage of the tremendously powerful gifts who are called צדיקי אמת, הרבי'ס, who really make it make make the confusion of this world and how everything adds up or doesn't add up, that much more clearer. And we're here to take advantage, I'm saying it straight out, to take advantage. By connecting ourselves to these צדיקים, we're taking advantage. They're here, remember the which רבי was it that I think it was one of the לובאוויטשער רבי'ים came to see a doctor and he was very very very weak.
And the doctor said to him, what what what do you do for a living? You look so weak. He said, I build bridges. It was like an old רבי. He said, you build bridges? What kind of really? He's like, yeah, the real hard ones, the ones that take years.
What kind of you really build, you're a build a bridge builder? He's like, yeah. The bridge the the bridges from the mind to the heart. Those those bridges, they take years. And I am the bridge sometime and people have to walk on me to get there.
But that's what I do in this world. That's what the that's what the צדיקים were. So we should all be privileged to remember the רבי'ס עצה to רב נתן in the dream, climb and hold yourself up. Hold yourself to give yourself חיזוק, to מחזק yourself.
If there are any other questions about anything that we said now or other things that we could just say בקיצור now בשמחה. Is are there any other questions? How did he get so big פוסט after he died? That one, right there. That one. That that's that's the whole, that's what we're trying to figure out.
How did how did this happen? When you learn his teachings, how did how did רבי נחמן how did it be? How how could it like, even after רב נתן, meaning remember אומן the the communist they closed the gates of אומן for many years. You couldn't go there.
ברסלבר'ס were gathered together in מירון and in in Poland they would gather together in the ישיבת חכמי לובלין of רב מאיר שפירא מלובלין. How could it be that something so כאילו...
in עין, 88, 89. How could it be? Honestly, מאת השם היתה זאת היא נפלאת בעינינו. It doesn't add up. It doesn't make any sense at all.
I mean I think a lot of the answer is often for things like that, that's when the world is ready. You know what רב נתן said?
רב נתן said about, did you hear what Lisa said? Want to say it out loud? That's a very very I mean, I'm I'm being very like, I'm not saying half the things I actually want to say, but you you just said something that I would I think it's a lot of it's when the world is ready. And maybe when the world but it's the same thing as... Both.
What did you say? Maybe it's when the world needed it more. I think it's... we can look at that as our personal lives also. Like I learn something when I'm 20 and I'll learn, right.
When you learn it when you're older you're like, wow. I I happen to agree. I happen to agree, but I do think that what whatever. Uh...
no no no. I I just personally speaking, I don't think I think you need both. I think you need I think you need the אלטער רבי and רבי נחמן. I...
I think it's I don't think we're living in. I know that this is why sometimes I get מוסר for this, but I don't think, I think that where we are without these rebbes being alive anymore, really, that these gems, their pearls of wisdom and their דביקות and causing us to be in touch with our נשמות, each one has so much to offer. Huh? And the פיאסצנא. The פיאסצנא, of course.
I'm saying we we need all of them. It used to be while the צדיק was alive to really say, this is my דרך, and the truth is it made life a lot more simple. I cried for years over wanting so badly to be this. I I cried for years.
I remember one day I drove, I don't know if I told you, I drove, I got in the car and I said, השם, I know this is so not what I ever saw myself doing, but I drove out to כפר חב״ד. I went there. And I walked in, I went to the ישיבה and I met with I sat with them and I left. I said, there's got to be a way that I could still feel this close by not throwing out the other things.
And I wrote this all in a letter to my רבי. I think I shared it with some of you. I wrote the pain of of wanting so badly this or this. And it kills me because I see people that are like have a דרך and I have such, what's called קנאת סופרים.
I have a, how do you say that in English? Jealousy. Jealousy. Pride? No. No.
It's not jealousy. It's it's holy envy, like like proper envy. It's a concept that... What's that? Could it be holy jealousy? Holy.
Envy's better. Envy's better. Yeah, yeah, whatever.
קנאת סופרים.
Because when I see someone that's like that, it it it makes me want so badly to just be like, you know what, it would be really, also for חינוך. It seems like it would be much more clear. This is our דרך. These are our מנהגים.
If any of you been to my שבת table, behind my head is the most confusing picture of like, wait a second, what is it? So I wrote this all to my רבי, to Rav Weinberger. Literally, I wrote it down and I sent it to him. Not too long ago, I don't know, six, seven years ago. And a few months later, I went to a concert in New York and I went to go see him.
And I asked him, I asked him, did you did you ever get my letter? This is, I'm sitting in his office. And he goes like this. Pulls out, opens the drawer, he picks up the stack of papers. He says, you wrote this? I said, I said, yes.
I got very nervous he was going to, he said, you wrote, you wrote these words? I said, yeah. He said, I'm not sure you wrote these words. This is my letter, he said to me. This is my letter.
I read it, I don't know how many times, he said, and I cried more every time I read the letter, because this is exactly my letter, he said to me. And I think my personal draw to him is because of of that, of the combining of all of those worlds, because I, you know, this is where we're at, it's what happens over here with us. And it's very hard. It's a hard thing.
It's a very hard thing because there was clarity in the world, especially, obviously when the Rebbe was alive, you know, in גשמי, there was this sense of clarity. It's a different, we're we're living in a different world, it's very difficult. And to be able to culminate and combine all worlds is not it's not simple. It doesn't make it more it doesn't make it less complicated, but it makes it a million times more meaningful and and real and deep.
And that's why we're not going on an Uman trip, but I'm not, you know, I used to be scared to say to say those words because it's almost like if you're really into רבי נחמן, it's just Uman, but I I can't, I can't lie. I can't pretend that's who I am and that's the trip we're trying to do. But I also won't pretend for one second that I don't think every single Jew in the world should attach themselves to the תורה of רבי נחמן either. And they don't contradict.
At least not so far. I I hope it never does. And that's why I just like what I'm saying now about חסידות, I would say the same thing about the non-חסידישע world as well. It's just that my משיכה personally is just more with the חסידיש, חסידיק world.
But I would say the same thing about about all the worlds of תורה השם has given to us. I don't understand how anyone can go through this world without immersing themselves in the תורה of Rav Soloveitchik. I really don't understand it. What a gift was given to us.
It's part of it as well. It's just it's a it's a different language, but it's just as important for providing our children, with showing them what אידישקייט is. Again, as long as there's as they're as long as as they are close and stay strict to ד' אמות of הלכה.
רבי נחמן, this is a very important thing you should all know.
Maybe maybe we'll end with this.
רבי נחמן said like this, you can learn any of my teachings any shape, way or form, stretch them out to mean whatever it wanted means to you, right? And it's still me talking to you. But there's one thing. If what I say led you to do something that's outside the ד' אמות of הלכה, רבי נחמן said it's not me talking to you anymore.
That's not me. That's big. Only a צדיק with wide enough shoulders can say such words, right? And also say like such a strict, finite thing, which to us is not finite, it's actually infinite within the framework of of הדיברות וכולי. So רבי נחמן is is huge.
The אלתר רבי is huge, which if we do another women's trip one day, who knows, Haditch, we'll definitely do that. The men are finally after four trips of just that side, the men are finally going to האדיטש. It's a completely different trip and it's very far. Seven, eight hours from אומן.
It's very far. But בעזרת השם I give us a ברכה this new year of learning that our openness and our desire only grow. Our desire to transform any remnant of a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, and all the חכמה and בינה and דעת that השם is putting before us, our desire and openness should just grow stronger and stronger. And since it's become less about this way and this way, it means that the friendships have to become stronger for any of this to work.
You know that, right? It it has to. The שיחות חברים in Breslov is a very, very big component in עבודת השם.
שיחת חברים. Like we think that's just like an option.
It's nice if it happens or not, that friends get together and talk about real things. In Breslov, you need three things. You need התבודדות, talking to השם, you need a צדיק without a doubt, and you need a friend, you need a חבר. Those three components help us grind through the the heaviness of this world and hopefully בעזרת השם the friendships will only get stronger, and our desire to want אמת and be open to אמת should only grow for all of us, for our families' sake, for all of עם ישראל's sake.
All right, שכוח, everyone. Thank you, Rivka.