Shame and humiliation

HH

Some people are into the whole fire and brimstone thing, many evangelicals and lihavdil (-to separate) baalay mussar (-masters of ethics) go to great length to give over the utter horrors and fearsome pain and agony that awaits the sinner in hell, may HY save us. Rabbi Nussun writes in a few places that usually this has an adverse effect, since it is too much for a person to deal with it just throws him into despair which in turn gives him license to sin. This is something I think many people can relate to and is empirical.

However recently I came across something with a different approach to driving home the gravity and punishment of sin. There is a short little video of a dog, its head lowered in shame, and it is cowering and almost whimpering with very sad eyes, until it finally sinks to the ground with its head resting there, looking up now and again utterly ashamed. Then the video veers off the dog just for a brief second before returning to capture the dog's histrionics, to show the viewer what the dog is so ashamed of - there it is on the floor, the dog broke the rules of its training and had defecated in the house right there, and now was completely at loss, completely ashamed and humiliated.

This is what sin is, and what sin does, and a very good reason why you don't want to sin....

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MayUman!

The Praises of Rabbi Nachman - Introduction

HH

Introduction

I saw fit to explain and relate a little, a tiny bit of the holy conduct of Rabbainu (-Our Rebbe) Hakadosh (-the holy) vihanoaruh (-and the awesome) of blessed memory, from the day he took hold of his faculties until the day of his passing in peace; a little - what I heard from his own holy mouth, and the little - from other people who knew him from his inception, and a little - what we saw with our eyes.

And even though I know very well that there will be many who will not believe these things, because many rose against him; even still I could not hold back, from the utter force of the imploring and the desire of the many people and wholesome (in greatness or united conviction, see Rashi on Nahum 1:12), who implored to the furthest limit to print a little of it. Also my thoughts answer up to me (Job 20:2) and my kidneys advise me (Talmud Brachos 61a) that behold in any case the practices explained here are holy and very good practices, fortunate is he who holds to them, and it is befitting to inscribe in a book these practices, whomever it may be who performed them, in any case these practices are very good and holy, and how can I withhold the good from those who traverse in unfeigned wholeheartedness, whose souls desire to find in a book these upright ways(?). And also the truth is its own witness, and whoever looks with a true eye at the books of Rabbainu o.b.m. will understand for himself that these things are impossible to attain with human intellect, only by someone holy and pure with exceeding holiness and purity like him; and it is not possible to elongate on this, because it is superfluous, as the world says: either it won't help or it isn't necessary. Therefore my heart went one/once here and one/once there on this matter, and I said: be what may, I will present these words in order that the last generation know, they will rise and tell their children, and from it they will see and they will do, to go in these paths and to traverse in their tracks, because this doesn't need ratification/explanation that practices such as these are holy and precious practices, and each and everyone can draw close to Hashem Yisburach through such practices, because they are equally pertinent to every soul, small or big, and even the least of Israel, if he desires to have mercy on his life and to consider his ultimate eternal tachlis (purpose, end), and he accustoms himself to go in these path and ways which are explained here, certainly he will merit eternal life, and he can come to lofty and holy heights/virtues like one of the binay aleyuh (those who ascend - very saintly people who serve Gd on a very high paradigm), if he will have strong resolve to always hold to his good way like a stake that won't budge, as it is all explained here further on.

However, this should be known, that everything explained here, is not even a drop in the ocean from the utter magnitude of his holiness and his superlative virtue/level, which rises above in the place where the hands of human intellect has no reach. And also it is not our desire to explain a little of the awesome miracles that we saw from him, because we are not engaged in relating his holy praises just what is pertinent to the fear of Hashem. I said: let them see those things, they will take mussar (-ethics), because all the people that see these things in writing by us, all of them will thank, and praise, and glorify them, and their hearts will be touched with great arousal for Hashem Yisburach, and everyone is asking and imploring me to bring them to print. Their words have come upon me as a substantial plea, until I was forced to fulfill their desire. And Hashem Yisburach should have mercy upon us that we merit to go in the ways of our fathers, who did the will of their Creator with fright and fear, until the building of Zion and Jerusalem, and Israel returns like doves to their (window) roosts, speedily in our days, amen.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman

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 Praises of Rabbi Nachman 4-7

HH

Shivchay Huran

4-7

4. Also in his childhood he began to study with very tremendous diligence in his studies, and he would pay the teacher from his (own) pocket three large coins for every daf (-two sides of a page) of Talmud that he would learn with him, besides for the tuition of the tutelage that is father paid the teacher, he himself of blessed memory would give the teacher from his own (money) three large coins for every single daf, in order that the teacher would force himself to learn with him many dafim (pages) of Talmud every day. And so it was, that the teacher would learn with him many, many dafim every single day, and he would pay him as mentioned previously three large coins for every single daf besides for the tuition of tutelage.

5. ‎And so he entered into the devotion of Hashem, and all his devotion was with very extremely great secrecy/modesty, to the extent that absolutely no one new of him at all, because he was very concealed and hidden. And all his devotion was in concealment with great privacy. And his main devotion at first was with great simplicity without any smarts whatsoever, just with absolute simplicity, and every single thing that he did, everything was with great exertion and with great force and mesiras nefesh (self-sacrifice). And there is no matter of devotion which came to him easily, just every single thing came to him with very great exertion, that he would exert himself many times for every single matter of the devotion of Hashem. And he had many, many ups and downs, thousands and myriads beyond measure and reckoning.

And it was very extremely difficult and heavy upon him to begin to enter the devotion of Hashem to accept upon himself the yolk of His devotion blessed He. And he would frequently begin for a few days to engage in the devotion of Hashem, and afterwards would fall from it, and would return to begin, and would return and fall. And so it was many, many times until one time (t.n. there is a dream regarding this) he gained conviction that he would be very strong, that he would hold to devotion of a Hashem forever, and he would not look upon anything in the world. And from then on his heart was strengthened in Hashem, but even still even afterwards he constantly had very, very many ups and downs, just that afterwards he was strong that he would not let up His devotion blessed He forever, even though at times he will have a descent, even still he would strengthen himself in the devotion of Hashem Yisburach as much as he can.

6. And he used to begin each time anew, that is when he would sometimes fall from his level he would not despair of himself because of this, rather he would say that he would start anew as if he did not begin yet at all to enter His devotion blessed He, just now he is starting new. So it was every single time, always he used to begin anew, and he had many beginnings in one day, for even in one day sometimes he fell from his devotion and would begin anew, and so forth many times in one day.

7. And he studied with tremendous diligence and he learned a very great deal; "shas (Talmud)," and "poskim (halachic deciders)," and "Ta.Na.Ch. (Torah, Neveim-prophets, Kesuvim-scriptures)," and "Ain Yaakov (an anthology of the agada of the Talmud with commentaries)," and the books of the Zohar, and Tikunay Zohar, and all the "Kisvay (writings of) Hu-Ari (The lion, also acronym Rabbi Isaac (Luria)) o.b.m., and a vast amount of the other books, and "sifray (books of) mussar (ethics)," very abundantly.

And he said: that all the small books that speak of mussar (ethics), all of them where in his father's house. And he studied from all of them. He also learned a lot of "Raishis Chuchmuh (Beginning of Knowledge, a work of ethics authored by a disciple of the Ramak, based on Kabbalah)," and he said explicitly: that he learned the book Raishis Chuchmuh countless times (t.n. see the Words of Yisroel Dov Odesser where he tells over about R' Tzvi Hersch Rosenthal who was very keen on this work).

And the greatness of his vast proficiency in all the books as can be seen ostensibly somewhat, was without limit, and especially in the books of Ta.Na.Ch. and Ain Yaakov and all the Kisvay Hu-Ari and the books of the Zohar and Tikunim there is no one in the world to be found of his caliber. Because the whole Torah in its entirety was ready before him, fluent in his mouth, like a set table mamash, like something placed before the person before his eyes so that he could take for himself what he desires, similarly all the holy books were mamash set before the eyes of his holy intellect whenever he desired. And a bit of this can be seen and discerned in his holy books.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman!

Blossoms of the Spring - Letter 58

HH - special thanks to MW for doing the initial translation.

Letter 58

B.H. 11 Eyar 721 (27 April, 1961), Tiberius.

My dear Mr. Z. Shazar, member of the holy group of the Master of Prayer, who is the wonder of all wonders of the Creator, may He be blessed, upon whom depends all of the salvations of all Israel. Peace, and life, and all goodness.

I shall go wholeheartedly (Psalms 26:1) to perform my obligation, to remind you and to encourage you at every instance to run away to the Tzadik and to think about the true tachlis (ultimate purpose), because I am obligated to serve the Tzadik and to fulfill his command and his desire, that he yearns to bestow from his goodness to all of Israel — but you have free choice. And Hashem in His mercy will help us and incline our choice for the good, that we may merit to begin from now to spend all of our days to look for and to seek the True Tzadik, who dug and revealed wells of living water to heal sick souls of Israel, for us and for our generation and for all generations of the seed of Israel; and anyone who wants to merit to draw from these holy wells words that vitalize the soul forever and for all eternity, shall come and merit.

And if the obstacles spread out before him like iron bolts and copper doors, it is already known to us that it is impossible to draw close to the Tzadik except by breaking powerful obstacles. Remember well all of this, and pull yourself together and be strong, and don’t be what they call a shlemazelnik (good-for-nothing, luckless, dysfunctional).

The awesome story of the Master of Prayer - an extraordinary and awesome story, wonder of wonders. And besides the roots of the matters and the great inner meanings that are in all of these stories, which are extraordinary and greatly hidden from human intellect, also according to the simple meaning there are sensible ethical lessons (mussar haskel – Proverbs 1:3) explained in each and every topic, wondrous and very powerful mussar (ethics), and it greatly arouses the heart to draw close to Hashem, may He be blessed, and it speaks generally about nearly every type of mistake and distortion and false reasoning of fallacy and error that is found in the world, and about the clarification and fixing of them.

Everyone acknowledges that the main thing is the tachlis (ultimate purpose). And everyone must acknowledge that anyone who tries harder and is closer to the ultimate purpose, [he] deserves to be head and king over all. However, from the time that the great storm wind confused and overturned the world completely, from sea to dry land and from dry land to sea, and from desert to civilization, etc., and the king, and the queen, and the princess, and the infant, and the entire holy assembly of the king and his men were separated and scattered, then all of the worlds were confused and their true order upset, and all the people of the world were confused, and separated, and divided into various groups according to the matter of the investigation of “what is the ultimate purpose?” And each group erred and became greatly confused by their wicked desires, by their strange viewpoints and reasonings fictitious and fallacious, until they became distorted and erred greatly and overturned the truth to its complete opposite. Some of them said that the main tachlis is honor, to chase extremely, Heaven forbid, after honor and to attain it. Because there are people who are overly inflamed after honor, and chase ardently after honor, and lose their eternal world and also this world for the sake of a little honor that they want to attain. This one wants to be honored and esteemed through his wealth, that he should have fame and glory among noblemen, and officers, and the elite of the land etc., and this one wants to be honored and esteemed through his Torah and his avoadu (service of HY), and tunnels all of his days to be accepted as a rabbi and a leader. Which, in truth, is to the contrary — this matter is the actual opposite, because the main purpose of all the creation is only the glory of Hashem, may He be blessed, and His Torah and His True Tzadikim, which is impossible to merit this only when one minimizes his own honor completely and flees from honor completely, in truth, and is aware of his own smallness and lowliness, and he; "the despised in His eyes is disgusting, and he honors those who fear Hashem (Psalms 15:4)," and he strives and exhausts all of his days to increase the glory of the Omnipresent One, which is the glory of the Torah and the True Tzadikim, and truly nullifies his own honor completely - and they reversed the truth to its complete opposite, and they strayed from viewpoint to viewpoint and from rationale to rationale, until they said that the main purpose is honor, and they had evidence, and proofs, and great rationalizations about this - that the main goal is honor - to chase after honor exceedingly, may the Merciful One save us from this view.

And so too, the other group erred in their wicked reasoning and veered from rationale to rationale, until they went crazy and said that murder is a mitzva (divine commandment), and it is the tachlis (main goal), and they had evidence and many proofs of this. And really, even though it seems far-fetched to believe that there could be found people like this, who would have rational that murder is a mitzva (divine commandment), still, there actually are errors like these in the world, to the point that it is possible to be mistaken by them, into saying that murder is a mitzva, until they came to anger and actual murder. And similarly with the rest of the factions, (and) each one had for themselves many rationales for their errors, until it was possible to really be mistaken in them.

To be continued, with the help of Hashem.

The scribe, who sacrifices his soul for the sake of the good and the salvation of your soul in truth, and may your peace (-well-being) grow for lengthy good and healthy days.

Yisroel Odesser