Nachman of Breslov

“ And if we would have indeed known, and had it not been hidden from our eyes, that many had arisen against him — nevertheless the truth is witness for itself, and we are obligated to do his will, and Hashem will do what is good; the one who hears will hear and who refrains will refrain. And also because, praise God, until now His mercies have helped us, for his holy compendiums have spread out within the Holy People, in the community and the assembly and Yisrael, and his words have been joy and happiness to them, and have been sweet as honey in their mouths. ”

“ And even completely simple people and the masses who do not know their right and left, nonetheless they too if they are privileged to go on the straight path according to their determination, namely to shun evil and do good — because even a completely simple person knows that the Torah forbade, and if his eyes look straight ahead to shun evil and choose good — then all the repairs in the upper worlds are accomplished automatically through him, and he merits to establish the Shekhinah from its fall, in proportion with how much he merits to sanctify and purify himself. ”

“ In the story tales that the world tells, there are many hidden things and very lofty matters — but the stories have been spoiled because much is lacking from them and they are also mixed up, and they do not tell them according to the order, telling at the end what belongs in the beginning and vice-versa and so on. But really in the stories that the world tells there are very lofty concealed matters. And the Baal Shem Tov, memory of the righteous bring blessing, was able via a story tale to perform yichudim/ unifications. ”

“ Is it not his honor, our lord, our master, and our rabbi, crown of our glory, pride of our strength, the holy and the awesome Rav, the major luminary, the upper light, the honorable and holy light, of holy renown, our master Rav NACHMAN, mention of the righteous and holy bring blessing, great grandson and nephew of the holy and awesome Rav the Godly Baal Shem Tov, mention of the righteous and holy bring blessing, whose light Yisrael have already enjoyed in his holy and wonderful compositions which have already come to light. ”

“ There you will see the point a bit clarified in that story, that the main purpose is to go in simplicity without any sophistries, so take a good look there at each and every utterance and find wonderful clues for strengthening yourself in the ways of simplicity, which is the main goodly purpose even in this world; all the more so in the coming world. ”

“ And there has already been printed the story of the Baal Shem Tov obm, at the end of the book Toledoth Ya`akov Yosef, of the trader and his wife who were at sea, etc., which is founded on this predicate that the “woman who fears Hashem” is the assembly of Yisrael.
Now that Hashem has informed us of all this, through our early prophets and tzaddikim and sages, according to these words the understanding reader who wants to gaze into these stories with the honest eye for its own sake can easily understand and be enlightened by them, to find wonderful awesome things. ”

“ And whoever reads this with an honest eye will thoroughly understand just how much a person needs to make himself valiant in the service of Hashem, and how and to what extent he needs to be very stubborn in service of Hashem: without bounds, limit, and number, each and every man according to his level and his ascents and declines, and even if what has happened with him has happened. ”

“ Foreword in Yiddish from the first printing, 5575/1815, Ostroh:
...that the stories in this book contain great secrets of the Torah; they contain very great things. There is no trivial word in them and even simple people can take great mussar [practical life guidance] from the stories. For these stories have a great power to awaken all people from sleep so that a person should not, Heaven forbid, sleep through his days for nothing. And whoever will look into the stories with an honest eye can see and understand a little of God’s greatness ”

“ And after he had many more hard toils and travels and sought the mountain and castle, he found a giant man with a big tree, etc. and this man dissuaded him that surely the mountain and castle do not exist, and wanted to incite him and dissuade him so that he should go back. But the viceroy did not listen to the obstacles and discouragements and said that the mountain and castle surely exist, until the big man was forced to call and assemble all the animals etc., but they all answered that it does not exist. ”

“ So it is evident that all our Rabbis obm called the inclusion and the connection of the worlds into their root, by the terminology of groom and bride, for in the image of God He made man, and all the limbs of the male and female are all the image of God, as written, “wayivra Elohim eth ha'adam betzalmo, betzelem Elohim bara otho, zakhar unkevah bara otham/ And God created the man in His image ”

“ And behold, since the second time too he did not endure the test and tasted from the wine, again a long sleep fell on him and he slept very long, namely seventy years. And the concept of sleeping the whole seventy years is clear from the instruction-lesson Pathach Rabbi Shim`on/ Rabbi Shim`on in the chapter #60 mentioned above, that there are people who fall away from all the seventy faces of the Torah, which correspond to seventy years, etc. — see there; that it is impossible to arouse and awaken them except via story tales of Ancient Years etc. ”

“ And it is proper to believe that he had additional, secret reasons, for it is known from his holy books that he was superbly eloquent, yet here he brought himself down to simple language; therefore it is proper to believe that he had a profound intention in this; and a man of faith will abound with blessings [19] , Amen, so be His will. ”

“ For although truly some of the hints were recorded which were heard from his holy mouth, nonetheless it is clear to any intelligent person that one who hears from the mouth of a chakham/ sage himself is not like someone who sees the things in a book. ”

“ And this story is about every man and at all times, for even in each individual man almost this whole entire story passes over him, for each member of Yisrael needs to be involved in this repair, to raise the Shekhinah from the exile, “le'ukma shekhintha me`afra/ to raise the Shekhinah out of the dirt,” to take the malkhuth dikdushah/ kingship of holiness out from amongst the idolaters and the Sitra Achra where it has been going around. ”

“ Also he whose heart is whole and who is thoroughly expert in the books of holiness, and particularly in the books of the holy Zohar and writings of the Arizal, of blessed memory, can understand and know a little bit of the hints in some stories if he puts his heart and mind to them very well. ”