The Praises of Rabbi Nachman - part 2 - The Order of His Voyage to the Land of Israel 13-14

HH

Shivchay HuRan

Part 2

13. And Rabbainu o.b.m. said, that he got so into the puerility, and got so used to the childish things, so much so that afterwards when he came to the land of Israel and he wanted to discard it, he was forced to force himself with strengths (of his character) to break and to discard the aforementioned childish things, because it was already difficult for him to discard it because of the great regularity - so much he had gotten into the puerility at first. Also afterwards, when he came from the Land of Israel, he was a wondrous novelty in this matter.
And the enormous superlative greatness of his wisdom in this matter (was) - deep, deep, there has not been heard nor has there been seen such as this, because it is known that before one departs from one level to (the next) level, there needs to be a descent before the ascent etc., and then one needs matters of puerility, to be a completely simple person etc.; and he o.b.m., because all his days he did not stand any time on one level, just every time, everyday and every hour, he would ascend always from level to level, therefore his wisdom in these matters was extremely lofty and deep; "deep, deep, who can realize it (Koheles 7:24)."

14. And then, at that time, it was the war of France (the French Campaign in Egypt and Syria ( 1798–1801) by Napoleon Bonaparte), that France went to the land of the Togar (Ottoman Sultan, as explained previously), to Egypt, and to the land of Israel, and so forth, as is well-known, and when the people of Istanbul heard that the aforementioned war is awakening, and the French are on the way on the sea, thence the holy community of Istanbul did not want to allow any Jew to leave the walls of the city and go out to put out to sea, but Rabbainu o.b.m. did not pay attention to this, and he wanted to act with abandon ("mafkeer") of himself, and he said to the man that was with him: "Know, that I wish to endanger myself even in great and enormous dangers, however, I do not wish to abandon your soul (-life); therefore, if you want, take money for expenses, and return peacefully to your home, and I will travel alone in secrecy and in concealment from the people of Istanbul, because myself I abandon, be what may be etc.." And the aforementioned man refused this, and said, "In the place where my master will be, whether for death or for life, there your servant will be;  and where you go I will go as well."

And Hashem Yisburach in His mercy "He turns around inductions (Job 37:12, a very reoccurring theme in the books of the Ramchal)," brought about in His mercy, that after a day or two it was heard: Being that there in Istanbul was staying a Great Sage from Jerusalem, who collected by hand donations for the poor of the holy city of Jerusalem, and he had been planning on staying there for another year, and suddenly he was aroused and said to the people of Istanbul: "Know, that it has been revealed to me, that I must travel immediately to Jerusalem, because I see, that the days are impending ("stirring and coming") for the (-my) departure from the world, and you (-plural), do not fear the French nation, and you have nothing to worry about for an Israelite to go there (-to Israel), because certainly there will not occur to them any harm, with the help of Hashem, and Hashem will guard them with His mercy until they arrive there, because the place of my burial is already inscribed to be in Jerusalem." 
And immediately they heeded his words, and they went and chartered a large boat, and they announced: "Whoever wants to go on the boat - should board." And many men, and women, and children went, both from the sphardic people and from the ashkenazic people, and Rabbainu o.b.m. also traveled with them on this boat to the Holy Land, and Rabbainu o.b.m. spoke with the aforementioned sage from Jerusalem that he should take him to Jerusalem, because he said, that he does not want to be, not in Tsfas (-Safed) and not in Tiberius, and so they resolved secretly between them.

And as they traveled on the sea there was a very great storm wind which is called "a very great afirtineh (-this word was also used earlier in article 9, it is the Turkish word firtina, and can mean a gust, tempest, hurricane, storm etc.)," and the boat was in great danger; "they rise to the heavens, they descend to the depths etc. (Psalms 107:26)," and no one retained in their heart  (conception) that they would be saved from death, and they were all screaming to Hashem; and it was one night like Yom Kippur mamash, with everyone crying, and confessing, and asking for atonement for their souls, and they said slichos ("veniality"- liturgy special for repentance) and other items of prayers and beseechings; but Rabbainu o.b.m. sat silently. And some people started to tell him, why does he remain silent in a time of such a plight, and he did not answer; however, the wife of the Rav of the holy community of Chutin, who was educated, and cried and screamed the whole night, also began to tell him like those, why is he silent - and presumably, he cursed her, and said to her: "If only you (-plural) would also be quiet, it would be good before you; this is the test: if you will be quiet - the sea will be quiet from you as well." And so it was, and they ceased from screaming and they were quiet, then immediately at daybreak - "He stood up the storm making it silent and their waves were quiet/still. And they were happy etc. (Psalms 107:29-)."

Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman

Float Your Boat

HH

Rabbainu revealed in his Stories of Ancient Times (of the Seven Beggars, the Blind Beggar), that our bodies are like ships which our souls sail (This is in fact a well established allegory, also alluded to in the agadatta of Rabba Bar Bar Chana, of those who go down to the sea, in other words, human souls who board their ships and sail around in this world).

The secret of all the Kabala, the Ramchal revealed, is pinneemiyews (inner) and cheetzoaniyews (outer), these are the aspects (lined up in Likutay Moharan Torah 37) of body and soul, material and form/function, knowledge and ignorance, light and darkness.

Every inner layer is humble and modest in face of the outer layer that clothes it, it hardly shows itself at all. The inner element has great haughtiness the free reign it grants the outer layer which clothes it.
[ה' מלך (על הבריאה שכביכול מלביש אותו) גאות לבש לבש וכו'' ועוד כתיב ישראל אשר בך אתפאר, שישראל שהם מציאות שבו מתגלה יחוד ה', השם יתברך מגאה בהם]

In this world of 6000 years, our bodies have reign, and conduct the main functions of our existence, they host our souls who are like guests. Even in the seventh thousand year, the body will be the main player, but it will be with the full force of the soul. In the eighth thousand year, the soul will be the main player, and the body like a guest etc. as explained at length in the Ramchal's Da'as Tevunos  (76-84, Klalim Rishonim 9). Soon it will be very very apparent how ridiculous all the attention to the body is. The body is of foremost importance as a wick for the flame that is our soul - and the soul of our soul, and the soul of the soul etc., and most be cared for properly, but any attention given to it as a means of its own, working out, and the competitions surrounding the feats of the body, are utterly rediculous and stupid. When HY will allow for the soul to shine forth with, not even in full force, just with much less restraint, the body will be seen as powerless and almost completely inconsequential. It will be impossible to comprehend how one could be so foolish to have pursued any bodily concerns and pleasures whatsoever. There will be great embarrassment.

HY is infinite - Ein Sof (without end - i.e. we don't even call him infinite, because any positive description we have is limited in its definition (as anyone familiar with algebra will know that infinite can be caught in very small fractions), so we describe HY as bereft of any limit, Ramchal), and the way of HY is to hide himself in infinite layers, each one more material than the next, and HY is infinitely hiding in the humility of more and more esoteric existences. This is the way of HY, this is His Glory.

Rabbainu revealed (Likutay Moharan Torah 6) that our role in the month of Ellul is to go in this way of HY. First we must appint the king, and gain complete conviction, we must be strong in our ideals and decisive in what is right and what is wrong. This is our first teshuva. One could easily get stuck here, as many sensationalist do, getting caught up in self-righteousness of all types of worthy causes and campaigns. Kings have great honor. But this honor is so external, it is so full of cracks and disallusion. It is just a shell, and in fact quite puny. So we must not get stuck there, but must look further, to realize that everything that we see, all the Jews and the actions, are all the glory of HY, we gain complete embarrassment from our own course, myopic, mundane understanding of existence -- how we percieved that we were players -- going after such an external approach ignoring the true reality, from this shame, we can drain out our own ego which pumps through our blood, distorting our vision and perception -- we cleanse ourselves of all the constrictions of the cravings and lusting of the seventy nations, and we can proceed to build a holy conception to house Divine Inspiration in ourselves. This Divine Spirit is utter humility which delights and takes pride in allowing it's surroundings to have full expression and atonomy. This is a taste of the future world.
[Notice in the Story of Ancient Times of a Prayer Leader, the Kings men who were finding each other and celebrating with tremendous joy, while those accompanying them had no idea what the joy was about, just like Rabbainu said that two people could be sitting next to each other; one delighting in Gan Eden, and the other completely confounded. It is not enough to get to the tzaddikim physically, as long as someone is attached to a fraudulent leader - i.e. a represntation of a some sort of society and course of life - like those who were accompanying the king's men, they will never figure it out, what it is, the reality. But even still since they stuck to them till the end, they got their tikkun].

When Rabbi Nussun once got an inkling of the enormity of the awsome level Rabbi Nachman was on, he almost went berserk, he shouted, "GEVALD! What is the world thinking?!" He wanted to run into the world and try to knock sense into them to get with the program. Rabbi Nachman had to physically hold him down, and told him to stay put, going out there screaming would not help. If we would have any conception of the real reality staring straight out at us, we would be on fire. We gotto get there, for ourselves and for humanity.


Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!