The Greatness of HY

 HH

Rabbainu spoke of the importance of contemplating the greatness of HY. This avoda is placed prominently at the beginning of the holy work Sichos Huran. In Likutay Moharan, Rabbainu states that one who has achieved any conception of the greatness of HY will scoff at the greatest temptations of the flesh, and even if he were to be presented with an opportunity to privately fulfill the most lustful cravings, he would not even consider it.

In the story of ancient times, of the son of a king and a son of a maidservant who were exchanged, the son of the king comes to a certain level of understanding of the greatness of HY when he says, on the contrary - "Just the reverse. If it is so, that Hashem Yisburach can indeed do such a thing, that they should exchange a king's son, and such things should befall him - do I turn myself to behave this way?! Is it right, what I have done? Does it befit me that I should behave thus, the way I have done?" And he began to have great anguish and strong remorse over the evil deeds he had done. 

[certainly today we can see HY's greatness, with JB et al...]

When contemplating HY one can interject every so often a technique used in hypnosis, stating in the mind or out load, double or ten times stronger.

One chasidic master upon contemplating the greatness of HY was seized with so much fear, all but two of his teeth fell out, and he referred to those teeth as the wicked ones....

Rabbainu was always shaking from fear of HY, so much so, that when he rested his hand on the table, it also shook, as did the people leaning on it.

May we merit, in merit of the holy Petek Na Nach Nachma Nachman MayUman

The Praises of Rabbi Nachman 17-19

HH

Shivchay Huran

17-19

17. He also said, that the conjugation of the true tzadik is a very difficult matter for him; and not only does he not have any desire whatsoever, just on the contrary, he has suffering from this, mamash (-literally) like the suffering of an infant during circumcision, because mamash suffering such as this the tzadik has during conjugation, and more than this, because the infant doesn't have intellect, therefore his suffering is not so great, but the tzadik who does have intellect, his suffering is greater then the infant, and this was an obvious matter by him. And he said, that every person can merit to come to this level, and it was apparent from his words that his own holiness was yet very extremely higher.

18. And he said, that by him a man and a woman are equal, that is, that no facet of thought occurs to him when he sees a woman, just everything is the same by him in his eyes, as if he sees a man. And one time he said, that he has no fear, not from a woman and not from an angel. And with this there's a lot to explain, because someone who still has any facet of fear whatsoever from thoughts of women, even if he is chaste in this regard, just that he's not immaculate in the utmost purity, and he still has some fear at all with this, he needs to fear from an angel; but he (Rabbainu) boasted that he has absolutely no fear of this, therefore he has no fear of an angel. This is slightly alluded to in the words of our Rabbis of blessed memory (Kedushin 81a): "I am flesh, and you are fire - but I am better/stronger than you," which Rav Amram Chasiduh said to the angel, and it is brought down in his words of blessed memory in the Torah-teaching "Tikoo (blast the shofar) - memshalu (dominion)" Torah 1 in the second volume of Likutay Moharan, see there well, and understand.

19. He was also very accustomed in his early childhood and in his youth to run over all the time to be by the grave of the Baal Shem Tov za.tza.viku.l. to request of him that he help him draw close to Hashem Yisburach. And he used to go there at night, and in the winter when it was extremely cold he would go there at night and from there he returned and went to the mikvah. And there was a mikva outside the bathhouse and one mikvah inside the bath house, and he chose the mikvah that was outside the bathhouse, when the cold was great and he was already very cold from being by the aforementioned grave, because there was a great distance between his house and the cemetery and also from the cemetery to the mikva, besides for the lengthy stay that he spent by the grave, even still after all this he would specifically go to immerse in the mikvah which stood outside, in order to mortify himself - and all of this secretly at night. And I heard from someone who said that he heard from his holy mouth, that when he performed these practices he was just six years old.

And he was so secretive from people in his devotions, to the extent that one time he went to the mikvah in the morning in the winter, and he came from the immersion, and his pehyos (sidelocks) were wet from the water, and everyone wondered at the oddity that in the winter a person would wash his head, because it did not occur to them that he had been in the mikvah, they just thought that he washed his head, and they wondered at his peculiarity that he washed his head in such cold, and they held it to be an act of his immaturity, because he was very, very secretive in his devotion. Also all the very many fasts that he fasted, absolutely no one in the world knew about them, even his father and his mother and his relatives, just his wife alone knew of it, and he would swear her that she should not reveal it to anyone, and he would do many (many) ruses to hide and to conceal all the fasting that he fasted, in such a way that no one would know of them.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman!

Vessels

HH

A vessel has walls which shut out the whole world and thus it is able to receive the amount it can hold. HY is Ain Sof - infinite - anything and everything that He desired to be able to seen in Him is going to be just a vessel which HY empowers the walls of this vessel to shut out His infinite presence, so that the vessel can actually show something particular to itself, what it contains. This is true at every level, even the highest height - the main thing to achieve is the shutting out of the Infinite so that one can attain what he is focused on.

In Likutay Moharan (#49), Rabbainu revealed further that a Jewish heart is Ain Sof, and from there on a person must build the constraints. That means a person already has such holiness, even higher than all the greatest tzaddikim ever, except that he is so overwhelmed and swamped that he is lost and unaware and detached, and in all likelihood he will find some tiny - probably bad - idea and latch on to it, and completely derail himself GF from the infinite and imprison himself GF in a vanity - mirage - of this world. By studying the Torah and screaming out to HY, one concentrates his focus and builds the walls of his vessels to shut out - even the immense light and goodness - until he can successfully achieve clear perception of holy concepts B"H.

This is what Rabbainu says in LM Torah 5, that the main thing is Yira - fear - which is the vessel, and even though the Ahava - love - is stronger, the Ahava comes automatically with the Yira. As soon as one has the vessel, the Love is already filling it up.

When a person is to receive a sum of money - a check - he needs a bank account, otherwise the check doesn't mean anything to him.

The currency is da'as (realization of knowledge) and the vessel is fear - Yira. [This is the secret of the revelation in the Ain Sof, the secret of AHYH ashehr AHYH].

If a person doesn't go out to the fields and communicate with HY - he doesn't have the vessel - he has no way of hearing HY. So unless he does some unbelievable act of G-dliness which will merit him to a complete metamorphosis - that HY gives him a transformation of special vessels so that he can even experience and live the Divine in his regular life - he doesn't stand a chance of catching even a ray of light from HY. He simply is not plugged in to the circuit.

A teacher gave out a test. Before starting the test the teacher instructed to turn the test over - with the blank side up, and then let the class proceed - setting a two hour time limit to finish. The teacher never told them to turn the paper back over, but most people do just that, they don't follow the real instructions, and they might answer some or even all of the questions - but they failed miserably.

The Ramchal says that all the yichudim - unifications/kabalistic meditations - must be done in the field - they simply aren't designed to work in a house or settlement. Most people don't pay attention to this - if they go to the field, then how can they proceed with the devotions. But the real devotion is to follow the real instructions.

There's a great deal more to be said, but B"H at least I got all of this down.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!