The Praises of Rabbi Nachman 8-10

HH

Shivchay Huran

8-10

8. And he related that all his learning came to him with great exertion, because at the beginning he studied mishnayos, and he didn't understand what he was learning, and he would cry copiously before Hashem Yisburach that He should enlighten his eyes. And he would cry and cry so much until he merited that he was able to learn mishnayos. And so too afterwards he learned other books and he also didn't understand, and he would cry and cry as well very copiously until he merited to understand them. And so too with the study of Zohar and Kisvay Hu-Ari o.b.m., he would also cry copiously until he merited to understand.

And he said: that at the beginning with every single book that he studied he did not understand and it was extremely difficult for him and he was unable to figure out the simple meaning of the context. And he had great suffering from this, and his learning was with great exertion, and even still he learned a very great deal. Because he would strengthen himself immensely, and he merited to everything through his prayers and his crying as mentioned above.

9. And he would fast very profusely, and many times he fasted from Shabbos to Shabbos, and all this was in his very youth before he was 20 years old. And sometimes he fasted twice from Shabbos to Shabbos continuously from one to the next. And even though he was a "yel-ed (-a child of) shaashoo-im (delight/spoiled) (Jeremiah 31:19)," and was raised pampered, and was an extremely delicate person, even still he did not have any mercy on himself whatsoever, and he fasted and mortified himself tremendously, and he fasted 18 ("chay") times from Shabbos to Shabbos in one year (-that is the maximum feasible amount, because there are days in the year which are forbidden to fast on).

10. However, his main devotion through which he merited what he merited, was just the abundant prayers, and the beseeching, and the supplications, and the conciliations, and the appeasements that he was very accustomed to pray and beseech before Him blessed He. And he would placate and appease Him blessed He with all types of beseeching and supplications that He should merit him with His Mercy to draw him close to His service blessed He. And fundamentally what availed him were the prayers that he prayed in Yiddish, for he would very often designate for himself someplace that he found where there were no people, and he would express his words before Hashem Yisburach in the vernacular, that is in Yiddish. And he would placate and appease Him blessed He, and supplicate and beseech before Him blessed He with many, many types of argumentation and reasonings that it was befitting for Him blessed He that He should draw him close to His service, and he would do this very extremely frequently, and he spent days and years at this.

He would also hide himself on top of his father's house under the roof, where there was the likeness of a room with partitions of reeds for storage of hay and fodder, and he would hide himself there and recite Psalms and he would scream silently to Hashem Yisburach that He should merit him to draw him close to Him blessed He.

And in general all the various supplications in the world that are found in any book that is available by us, absolutely everything, he did not leave any beseechment or supplication that he did not say many, many times, whether it be Psalms, or the book "Shaaray (gates of) Tzion (Zion), or the supplications printed in the large prayer books, or the other types of supplications and beseechings, and even the beseechings printed in Yiddish - all of them, he did not leave out from saying them, and he would frequently say all the beseeching which are printed after the maamudos for each day, and he would frequently say all the beseechings in their entirety of all the days in one time (t.n. since the prayers are specific to the day of the week it is my belief that Rabbi Nachman would have introduced the prayers of each day accordingly: On Sunday this is..., On Monday this is...).

He was also accustomed at times to say from Psalms just the verses which speak in beseeching and supplication and screaming to Hashem Yisburach, and he would say just these verses and not say the rest. And he would say all these verses from the whole book of Psalms in one time.

And aside from all of this, the main thing was what he would pray from himself, that is, what he was accustomed to speak from his heart before Hashem Yisburach in Yiddish, that he would pray and argue before Hashem Yisburach with many, many types of argumentation and beseeching and supplications that he would say from his mind and his heart as mentioned above that Hashem Yisburach should merit him to His service. And this was the fundamental which availed him to merit to what he merited, so we heard from his holy mouth explicitly.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman!

The main importance of charity is faith!

HH

Rabbainu Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman reveals an amazing novelty which after consideration one will realize is really the simple truth. In Likutay Moharan, torah 31, Rabbi Nachman writes that the main importance of charity is faith. This is seemingly a very odd statement, for if anything one would be inclined to base the importance of charity on the kindness put into it or that it achieves - as the Talmud says: Charity only pays (-probably referring to reward in this world) according to the gemilas chessed in it, so where does faith come into this?

 Now, true, there are always powerful criminals that cultivate certain charities, and certainly there is great injustice in that - for people to have dependency and sustenance from such ill gotten provision, however that seems to be a radical element, and not something to scale the merit of all charity. Yet here we can already see that charity can produce a lack of faith, at least by the recipients, and in truth, every recipient may be faced with challenges of faith, seeing how they are being provided for by other people.

The Talmud says that if a person has 'daas' (realization of knowledge) he lacks nothing, and if he lacks 'daas' than he has nothing. Basically a person's real wealth is relative to his daas. The Talmud also revealed that a person who gives charity is blessed with 6 blessings, whereas appeasing the pauper earns 11 blessings. Appeasing brings daas, it is real giving. Rabbi Nachman says more, that these blessings are not simply rewards, rather a person who approaches to give charity opens up these great channels of blessings (in the same way our Sages ob"m said that one who prays for someone else is answered first, and Besh't explained etc.), and as he himself is blessed he blesses the pauper with his charity and appeasement. In many places Rabbi Nachman elucidates that the root of daas is faith, as e.g. Rabbainu taught that one must constantly concretize one's faith establishing it for himself as actual knowledge, and attain even higher faith in what is beyond his daas. And in this teaching too, Likutay Moharan 31, Rabbainu lays down that the root of all the blessings is faith, that is why the perfection of charity is only on Shabbos, see there. So in effect when one comes to give charity, he reaches up to the source of all blessing - faith (-even at a simple level - a person before parting with his money is forced to strengthen his faith that he will not lose by this, and if the person is in tune with the reality of Hashem, obviously he is reading this and will have these intentions B"H), and opens up channels of blessing -- daas, and bestows from this on the poor person in front of him. Ultimately the poor person has free choice to believe as he will, but the higher and holier the charity is the more the faith is apparent - even as it is apparent that the world has a creator and didn't just appear - and thus it is quite clear, that the main importance of charity is the faith - that is where it begins, from which comes the blessing, donation, the daas, and ultimately that's what we are hoping to achieve to fill the world with faith.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!