Nachman of Breslov

“ And the praise of the splendor of greatness of these stories ought not be prolonged, because they are exalted above our knowledge, and whoever additionally speaks in praise of their greatness and depth, detracts; we have only spoken in order to somewhat alert the heart of those of our faith in order that they not forget their wonder which he showed them from afar, like one who shows with a pointer how far these things reach, via a few hints which he revealed to our eyes after telling each and every story. ”

“ An intelligent man will understand them on his own, because virtually all of them arouse and pull the heart very much to Hashem Yitbarakh, to return to Hashem Yitbarakh in truth for truth's sake, to delve only in Torah and devotions constantly, and to turn his face away from vanities of the world completely, as one who sees will see with the eyes of his intellect if he gazes into them in truth. ”

“ 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. All will be satiated and delight from his goodness; their souls shall be satisfied as with grease and fat, and with shouting lips their mouths shall praise. ”

“ For if even here you cannot bear the sound and must all wail — when you will come there you will surely be unable to stand it at all! And by day one cannot stand the joy there, for by day the birds gather together by each of them separately, that is, to him and to her, and console them and make them happy with extremely great joys, and they tell them words of consolation: "You will still find each other," making them very happy, so much so that by day it is impossible to bear the joy there. And the sound of the birds making them happy is not heard from afar, but only when one arrives there. ”

“ And behold, when one gives the sick person into the hands of the doctor, behold he is like one who gives him to an actual murderer. For his treatments will certainly harm him more than a murderer's blow, and why would one want to kill the sick person with one's hands? ”

“ But much more did we see this with this awesome story of the Seven Beggars which is wonderful awesome high revelations without bound. As an understanding person will understand by himself if he puts his heart to them with an eye of truth to understand and perceive holy wonders of the boastings of each one mentioned there each day, and in particular the greatness of the holiness of the boasting of the seven beggars themselves who boast each day: that the blind one boasted that he doesn’t look at the world at all, therefore he is actually blind to this world ”

“ My opinion is that it clearly must be that there is no king whatsoever in the world. That the entire world is mistaken in this foolishness; that they think there is a king. See! Understand — how can it be possible that the entire world should give itself over to depend on one man, that he should be the king? There is certainly no king in the world at all. ”

“ And the Mountain with the Stone and the Spring stands at one end of the world, while this Heart of the World stands at another end of the world, and the Heart stands facing the Spring, desiring and hoping continuously, exceedingly, that it should come to the Spring, and the longing and desire of the Heart to come to the Spring is just extraordinary. ”

“ Namely when a rich person lost his money he already became a non-human — a man became an animal, because he already had no money for himself; and conversely when someone won money, so an animal became a human; and so on with the other classes, which by them was all according to money (it was that way too, as sometimes one became a non-god because he has already lost the money) . And they would have the figures and portraits of the gods (that is, those who had much money) , and everyone had the portraits, and they would hug and kiss them, because money was their entire devotion and religion. ”

“ Inasmuch as there is a garden that is left over from a king who had been, who was a very great sage, and the garden is quite an extraordinary novelty — metal instruments grow in it (that is, tools of ironwork) , silver instruments and gold instruments — so it is an extremely wild novelty: However, one cannot go in the garden, for when a person goes in the garden then immediately they begin chasing him. So they chase and he screams and he doesn't at all know and doesn't at all see who is chasing him, and so they chase him continuously until they make him run away from the garden. ”

“ So a very great celebration took place there, and there were all types of festivities there: song groups, drama groups and so forth, as well as everything useful just for merriment — it was all there at the ball.
And when they had waxed very merry, the King got up and said to his son, "Being that I am a stargazer, I see that you will at some time fall from the kingship. Therefore see to it that you have no sadness (that is, no grief) when you fall from reign; just be happy. And if you will be happy, I will also be happy. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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; even simple folk can also get some glimpse of hints of mussar. So a person should very well examine what is the world's purpose, and not just rely on this world. He should pray day and night, and deliver himself from the world's nonsense; let him be privileged to be as Hashem Yithbarakh wants. ”

“ For when a person makes himself happy with a thing that he himself did, which is a perfect thing to do, in this it is possible to find sadness in any joy, for lackings will find him in any thing, not letting him raise and cheer himself. But in this, "that He has not made me a heathen," which is only from Hashem Yithbarakh, since Hashem Yithbarakh did so and had mercy on him and did not make him a heathen, how is it possible to find a lacking in this joy, which is the sole work of Hashem Yithbarakh? ”

“ And certainly in truth there is a vast difference between the palace of the king and the palace of the servant, but nevertheless it is possible to mistake one for the other, for there is a connection formed by many souls that bind to each other so that they become a house and palace, for one binds to another, and one to another, until they become a foundation, and then a covering, until they constitute a house and an abode. ”

“ But there is a whole story:
[The Heart and the Spring] For, the Truly Gracious Man is in truth a very great man. And I (that is, the speech-impaired who is telling all this) go about, gathering up all true generosities, and bring them to the Truly Gracious Man. And the root of time's genesis (that is, that [such a thing as] time should exist, for time itself, that is, the very existence of years and days in the world, is itself also created by Hashem Yithbarakh) is solely through true kindnesses. ”

“ They replied to them this shriek is: someone has slaughtered his father and mother. They spoke up, 'Where else can one find such a stronghearted and angry murderer, that he should murder his own father and mother? This here man has reached the purpose (that is, the one who has slaughtered father and mother) !' And they were extremely pleased by him and they accepted him as a king over them. And they sought for themselves a country that causes (that is, brings about) murder and they chose a place among mountains where killers abide and they went there and settled there with their king. ”

“ A faction said that a beautiful woman is fit to be king, for the main object is, after all, that the world should be inhabited with people, since for that reason the world was created. And since a beautiful woman brings about that desire, through which the habitation of the world grows greater (since more people come about) , it follows she brings the world to the goal. Therefore a beautiful woman deserves to be king. They chose for themselves a beautiful woman and she became king over them. ”

“ He began to beg him and beseech him greatly, "I'll give what I'll give you!" (Except, in the wilderness certainly no gift helps at all for bread) ." He answered him, "What can you give me for bread in the wilderness?" He said to him (that is, the horseman who begged for the bread said to the herdsman, who is the king's true son) , "I give away myself entirely; I will sell myself to you as a servant for the bread." He (that is, the herdsman) decided: "To purchase a man it's worth it to give him bread," and he bought him as a permanent slave. ”

“ That is, I know such a thing that I've received from the forebears of my forebears, that through this thing one can make inference. When somebody says just any utterance, one knows, through that which I have received, one should discern something from one thing (that is, one thing from the other) . And I have not yet spoken out the thing before any man in the world. Therefore, I will teach out to you this certain thing, and you will give me this here instrument for that."
He decided (that is, the king's true son, who had the instrument) it is truly a great wonder to be an extrapolater. ”

“ They answered him that they do not know of the mountain and the castle. He told him, "Don't you see it is certainly not here in the world? If you will listen to me, turn back, because it certainly is not here." And he pressed him and said, "It certainly is here in the world!" He told him, "Further in the wilderness is my brother; he is appointee over all the winds and they run over the whole world; perhaps they know."
He went many, many years seeking him and again found a large man, as before, who was also carrying a large tree and also questioned him, as before. ”

“ Even though after death one no longer wants any money and the dead person certainly has no desire for anything, nevertheless they are particular about the dead's honor and they guard his honor. Therefore it is honor that is the main object. They continued saying more such conjectures and deductions of that sort, that honor is the main object of the world, until it became settled among them that the main purpose is honor. ”

“ So how can the Spring exist in the world? (For in the world nothing can exist without a time.) But all the Spring's time is simply the Heart giving the Spring a day as a gift. And when it comes time for the day to be let out and terminated — and should the day go away the Source would no longer have any time and would depart from the world — then when the Source is no longer, the Heart itself would also expire, Mercy save us, then the whole world would become nil, Mercy save us, as mentioned. ”

“ She gave him the peltz and he ran to greet him. Now the clever man was riding pompously in a horse-drawn carriage; the simple man came out to greet him and welcomed him joyously, with great love, "My dear brother, how do you do? Blessed is God for bringing you and giving me the privilege of seeing you!" And the clever man, for whom the entire world was like nothing, as was stated above [that everyone and everything in the world was insignificant to him, for he considered himself above all the world] — all the more so such a person as [the tam] who seems crazy. ”

“ You are already a minister! Give you money? You have money! Say what honor you want; I will surely do it for you." The anoos answered, "But will you really do what I say?" The king said, "Yes, I will certainly do what you wish." The anoos said, "Swear to me by your crown and your kingdom." The king swore to him. The anoos replied, "My main honor is to be permitted to be a Jew in public — to put on tallith and tefillin in public." The king was extremely disturbed, because in his entire country there were not allowed to be any Jews. ”

“ Now I give you, derashah geshenk, that you be like me. You think I am speech-impaired. I am not speech-impaired at all, rather: the utterances of the world which are not praises to the Supernal One have no integrity (in other words thus he appears like a tongue-tied person who cannot talk, for he has absolutely no wish to speak any worldly speech which is not praise to Hashem Yithbarakh; since talk that is not praise to Hashem Yithbarakh has no integrity, thus he stammers in his speech) . ”

“ Let me rather go back home, so that people will see what has become of me. I left as a young boy and now I have come to such greatness." And he picked up and traveled home, experiencing great afflictions on the way. For on account of his sophistication he didn't have anything in common with people about which to converse. [He was so worldly and refined that] he found no lodging up to his standards and so, he felt constantly afflicted.
For now, let us set aside the story of the clever man; and we will begin to tell the story of the simple man. ”

“ So from that time on we have all become scattered and can no longer each go to his place to renew his power, for since the entire world has been overturned we now need different paths today; therefore we have no longer gone up each to his place to renew his power. However, the impression that remains by each of us (meaning the token, that is, the little bit that has remained by each one from long ago) is also very great — and if this mighty one (which the country feared) is the King's Warrior, he is certainly a very mighty warrior. ”

“ And at these times, when a man is in the aspect of sleep, God forbid, what happens to him happens, which corresponds to all the troops who passed over the viceroy when he was asleep. And later he woke up and became aware that he slept so long, and he went again to the place of the king’s daughter, and she informed him how much pity there is upon him and her, that because of one day he lost what he lost, and she lightened the prohibition for him, that he need not fast, but only refrain from drinking wine, so that he should not come to sleep. ”

“ For there is a country where they are all expert in the science of music making, and they are all involved there in this wisdom, even little children. There is not a child there who cannot play on some musical instrument. And the most minor person that is in that country is the greatest expert in another country in musical knowledge. And the sages and king of that country, and the cappellas [song groups] , are extraordinarily great masters of that wisdom. ”

“ And among the ministers was one of the anoosim. He decided, "Why did I become an anoos? Because I had pity on my possessions and my wealth. Now if the king will be killed and the country be left without a king, everyone will swallow his fellow alive, for a country cannot exist without a king." Therefore he decided to go and inform the king, without them knowing. And he went and told the king that they had conspired against him, as mentioned. The king went and probed whether it was true, and he saw it was true, and he stationed guards. ”

“ The Prayer Leader began discussing with the Warrior: "What to do with these people!?" That is, with the country that is so fallen into craving money until they have gone out to such extraordinary folly that those who have much money are gods for them; and so forth the other follies the country has.
The Warrior answered the Prayer Leader that he had heard from the King that one can take out from any craving someone who has fallen into it except someone who has fallen in the lust for money; it is impossible to extract him from it by any means. ”

“ The Warrior gave them from these foods and they brought the foods into their country, and as soon as they gave them from these foods they all immediately began to cast away their money and buried themselves in the earth out of disgrace; and the very wealthy and the gods were most ashamed, but even the lesser people who were called "animals" and "birds" by them were also ashamed for having been so little until now in their own eyes because they had no money, because now they knew that on the contrary it's just the reverse: money is the main disgrace. ”