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THE WRITINGS OF REBBE NACHMAN
In
this volume I have collected and arranged a shortened version of the practical
elements
of Likutei Moharan which was revealed with holiness and purity from the mouth
of our great, holy, teacher, the hidden treasured light Moharan from Breslov,
of blessed memory. He commanded me to write this volume for his main holy
intention in all of the teachings and
all the wonderful and awesome discourses he revealed to the chosen people was none
other than the deeds for the learning (theory) is not the main thing etc. It
could clearly be seen by anyone who merited to shelter under his holy wing that
all his yearning and purpose of his desire was to bring people to correct
deeds, to open their blind eyes and take prisoners out of their bonds, saying
to them, ‘go out’, to extract them from
their prison, the prison of physical cravings; they are trapped in the nets of
vanities. His purpose is to teach them the pathways upon which to go and the
deeds they should perform; the deeds a person should perform and live in, an
eternal life. That was his intention in all his discourses and writings which
he revealed and all the conversations, stories and things he said to people.
Every single thing was for this intention. That was the reason he told me to
collect from his wonderful writings and wonderful discourses for they contain
very, very all encompassing and deep subjects and are full of wonderful advice
and worthy forms of behaviour. There is no form of advice in the world which
cannot be found within the holy words of Rabbeinu for all his words are of
very, very great comprehensiveness. Someone who is intelligent about it can
learn out from his words honest behaviour and proper advice for anything they
need and whatever their soul asks for. The Rebbe’s words are as deep and as
wide as the ocean but they will not be distant from a person. However not all
people are equal and not every person can engage in this, therefore we will
arrange most of the practical things that can be learnt from the words of the
Rebbe according to their simple meaning. Therefore, I will write at the
beginning of each Torah the subject of the teaching upon which the Rebbe built
and founded his discourse in the big Likutei Moharan from the Torah or
teachings of the Sages. They are from a holy place and flow from a source of
living waters.
Someone
who wants to add may add, for someone whose understanding is complete can learn
out many things from each Torah discourse in the big book. The words of the
book are very deep and each Torah can be divided into several explanations and
wonderful, awesome subjects; it is full of advice, worthy behaviour and very
wonderful, awesome spiritual arousal in the service of G-d. This one should
know, that most of this volume was shown to Rabbeinu and was found worthy in
his eyes.
Since
it does not escape our eyes or the eyes of the community of Israel that,
because of our sins, truth has become scattered into flocks and controversy has
arisen with words of disagreement in our gateways, there is no one among us to
reproach us who can put his hand on our scorn until a righteous teacher comes
to our community. For this we have decided to put a barrier to our mouth and
suffer our scorn putting our souls in our hands until a spirit comes upon us
from above to renew our days like an eagle such that we know and pursue the
knowledge of G-d, truthfully and straight forwardly, such as we have in our
hearts; until Shilo (Meshiach) comes to gather together all those souls
scattered in exile. May it be speedily in our days. Amen.
Rav Natan’s Introduction
Rav
Nachman warned us any times, in various ways, to make prayers out of the Torah
discourses. He said that, from this act, great delight is created in Heaven and
he said that no such delight has ever come before the Creator as the delight
caused by these prayers made from Torah discourses. He spoke of this time
and again with several different people.
However,
he did not clarify fully what his holy intention was in this matter but we
understood from his words that his main intention was simply that we try to
delve into his holy, awesome Torah discourses which he revealed to us, to
understand what he intended practically from each discourse (for this is the main thing – the learning is
not the main thing but rather the deed, as has been stated clearly by us many
times, that the primary intention of our holy, awesome Rebbe [Rav Nachman] in
all the Torah discourses that he revealed was for the practical deed, that we
try and make an effort and strengthen ourselves with tremendous might to
observe, to do and to fulfill all that is said in each and every Torah
discourse). We should consider our ways [ and perceive] how far away we are
from the things mentioned in each discourse, then pray and plead to G-d, with
many entreaties, requests and supplications, that He have mercy upon us and in
His bountiful mercy, bring us closer to Him and that we merit to fulfill
everything stated in that Torah discourse. Then we should pour out our hearts
before the Holy One about all the things mentioned there, asking that we merit
to fulfill them and ascertain them perfectly.
A
person who merits to engage in making prayers from Torah discourses, as
mentioned above, can certainly always express himself before G-d and talk out
everything that is in his heart by using each Torah discourse. Even though at
first it may appear to him that this Torah does not speak about his own needs
and about his own weaknesses and flaws, when he starts to talk using that
discourse, G-d will certainly help him and he can put all he wants to say into
it; everything that is on his heart he can express by using each Torah, for the
words of our Rebbe, may his memory be blessed, are very, very all-embracing.
Each Torah discourse comprises the entire Torah and the generality of Israel
and the generality of all things in the world. Each person, whoever he is,
whether on the very highest spiritual level or whether on the lowest spiritual
level, no matter what, from the top of all levels to the bottom of all levels,
each one can find himself in all his aspects within each Torah discourse of our
holy, awesome Rebbe, may his memory be blessed. Therefore, by each Torah
discourse, every person in the world, at all times, can somehow express
himself.
…Therefore,
he who wants to have mercy on his soul and to really and truly consider his
eternal purpose in life and who wants sincerely to come closer to the Holy One
[should know] that it is well known and very clear that it is impossible to
come closer to G-d, that is to say to break and nullify all the bad qualities
and merit to all the good attributes and to progress in the pathway of G-d,
other than by prayers, supplications, cries for help, imploring and shouting to
G-d, for many days and years. All the tzaddikim and really kosher people
merited to their spiritual levels only by this, by prayers and supplications as
we have explained several times. However, to say many prayers and supplications
is also very hard for a person because usually he does not have the words to
speak out and express himself. By this method, mentioned above, of making
prayers from Torah discourses, a person can easily express himself about
everything that is in his heart, as explained previously. However, there are
also many weighty obstacles against this also, for not every person is so
familiar with the Rebbe’s words such that he can make prayers from the Torah
discourses, and so it is with other numerous obstacles. Therefore I made a
point of copying from the prayers that I wrote for myself, as the Rebbe told
me. He said that it is good to record for oneself the prayers when one merits
to [compose] a well arranged prayer so that one can say it on another occasion.
That is what I did. Afterwards I saw that it is good to copy them in a general
language so that they will be equally valuable [useful] to each person and then
to give them to our followers so as not to ”withhold good from its owners,” I
saw that the [the prayers] are of great generality and that they [speak of]
matters which each person needs, every single person according to his spiritual
level. Everyone needs them, from the greatest to the smallest. There is nothing
that a person lacks in the matter of serving G-d that will not be found in
these prayers. When I copied some of them and gave them to a few people they
liked it very, very much and pleaded with me to copy all of the prayers for
them. Although I was uncertain in my heart about this, nevertheless I gave
myself into the hands of the Holy One alone; I relied on Him alone. According
to His good desire and the desire of our Rebbe, so will I do.
Any
wise person, who really and purely wants to, will understand the virtue of
these prayers. Prayers such as these have never existed in the world. They are
full of good for the House of Israel – prayers, supplications, requests,
entreaties, words of pardon and appeasement, confessions, claims, pretexts;
great shouts, cries for help and imploring to G-d, to arouse His bountiful
mercy upon us and asking that He bring us close to His service very quickly
indeed. These prayers also contain great spiritual arousal that a person should
use to speak to his soul, in order to awaken himself so that his life should
not go by in a state of sleep, Heaven forbid. The power of speech has great power
to arouse a person, therefore, when a person speaks out things, even though he
knows them full well in his heart, he will arouse himself. By this he will
strengthen himself, become full of determination and yearn even more to come
closer to the Holy One, may His name be blessed, until he merits to really
perfect repentance. A person who says these prayers regularly with truth and
simplicity will certainly merit to the Eternal Life.
It
is good to do both things, 1) to engage in meditation every day and speak to
G-d about everything that is in one’s heart, using one’s mother tongue and 2)
to make prayers out of Torah discourses, as mentioned previously. It is
impossible to clarify in writing all the details about what a person needs,
especially since all sorts of changes occur to a person all the time. The
Rebbe, may his memory be blessed, warned us several times to say many
supplications and requests every day, all sorts of supplications such as these
which can be found in the big prayer-books, or the prayer-books Sha’arei Zion,
or in other places. Even more so one should use the Book of Psalms. And he who
wants to fulfill the Rebbe’s holy words, to engage in saying prayers, to merit
to the Eternal Life, his soul will certainly find these prayers very, very
sweet [pleasurable] for there are no prayers in all the world in which a person
can find himself such as these which talk of all virtues and all the things in
the world, as a person can see for himself. Happy is the person who uses them.
May
G-d hear our cries for help and hearken to our voices and to our prayers. May
we merit to always engage in prayers and supplications, whether those written
and arranged which are in our possession or whether those that a person has
to speak out by himself from his heart in his own language every day, as our
Rebbe warned us many times, for this is the main thing, as is clarified in
his holy books many times. By this, let us merit to really return to Him in
complete repentance, as is His good desire, until we merit to rise up and be
included in Him, in the light of the Ein Sof
(The Eternal One) and “to behold the beauty of the Lord and visit His
Temple” (Psalms 27:4). In the merit of our prayers, bring us our righteous
Meshiach very speedily, in our days, for the principle weapon of the
Meshiach is prayer, as is explained in the Torah discourse ‘Emor’ –
“Say to the Priests” – (Likutey Moharan 2). One needs to strengthen oneself
very much in the matter of prayers and supplications, no matter what happens,
until G-d looks down and sees from Heaven. “After two days He will revive us:
on the third day He will raise up and we shall live in His sight” (Hosea 6, 2)
that we “may walk before G-d in the light of the living” (Psalms 56, 14). Amen
and Amen.
The
one who waits for salvation, Rav Natan, son of Rav Naftali Hertz, Nemirov,
son-in-law if the famous Rav, Gaon David Zvi.
Na Nach Nachma Nachman MayUman
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