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

The bliss of giving yourself to only seek Hashem's glory

HH last night at the wedding of Michael Kohler I got to hear from Moshe Newman his personal recipe of how to come to terms with life's experiences and achieve bliss based primarily on Rabbi Nachman's holy teachings in Likutay Moharan, Torah-lesson 6 and II:23, the main point being that one must shelve his own honor and only seek the honour of Hashem, and in this light one should view all his experiences as if he is a third party - being shown and given to feel different phenomena that Hashem is conducting for his benefit.
Moshe figured this out almost 15 years ago in a vague way without a real handle on it while he began to experience these effects, and over the years he gained a grip of what it's all about and a system of how to go about achieving it, and in his clinic he is helping people realize this.
Na Nach Nachma Nachman Me'Uman

The destroyed Rabbis

HH
Rabbi Avrohom Kalisker of Tiberias wrote a scathing letter to the first Lubavitcher rebbe strongly questioning his motives and direction which was against the tenets of the way of Hashem set in the Zohar and by the Baal Shem Tov. Moreover he berated him for destroying his son - the up and coming mittler (middle) rebbe by setting him to be a chasidic master which would entrap him, for even the greatest tzaddikim wouldn't want such a dangerous precocious position and here this mantle was being placed upon a young helpless boy. Rabbi Avrohom Kalisker held the Baal Hatanya accountable, responsible, and culpable for this.
Rabbainu praised Rabbi Avrohom Kalisker very highly, proclaiming that he had achieved perfection, and in fact the Kalisker himself did not leave a dynasty of chasidim following some fraud.
Na NaCh NaChMa NaChMaN MeUman

The guilt of destroying the lives of the chabad dynasty

HH

R' Avrohom Kalisker, whom Rabbainu asserted was the only tzaddik that he had seen whom had attained perfection, wrote letters to the first lubavitch rebbe begging him not to print the book Tanya. R' Avrohom felt that even the chabad rebbe himself would admit that it was a terrible idea to try to make thousands of easy chasidim who were grossly inadequate and would mislead themselves to deluded grandeur with their misconceived understanding of the constructs of holiness and spirituality discussed in the book. R' Avrohom writes in wonderment of how the first rebbe even came to such a thing, as he wasn't suspect till then of seeking rabbinate or followers. R' Avrohom holds the first rebbe guilty of destroying his (the first rebbe's) son - by placing the mantle of the chasidic master on him raising his prestige and high standing, Rabbi Avrohom writes, how can the boy possibly cope with such honors, it is like sending an unarmed man into battle. R' Avrohom writes that even his own rebbe - R' Menachem Mendel of Vitibesk the talmid of the Magid of Mezhritch wasn't willing to stand the test of such a stance, and took strong measures to get out of it. This son went on to become the second rebbe of chabad, he is known as the Mittler (middle) Rebbe - with all the grandeur of the chasidic masters... R' Avrohom Kalisker tried to save him, he had mercy and compassion on him, he wrote to his father explaining to him that he was guilty of destroying his own son GF, but to no avail.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!

Marches and demonstrations, protests and petitions do they really matter?

HH

Our Sages (Talmud Sanhedrin 26) revealed that the connection and banding together of wicked simply doesn't aggregate, they don't add up - קשר רשעים אינו מן המנין. They said this even regarding a scholar who gave lectures and taught Torah to tens of thousands of people, and King Chizkeyahu was worried that perhaps therefore this felon would have clout and merit which could empower his bout for evil, so our Sages simply dismissed him and his antics (Rashi there gives two possible reasons why he was sidelined and written off, from memory - either because he was into sensual pleasures, or he was even leaning towards homose**ality).

Rabbainu revealed in Likutay Moharan, Torah 181 that people can band together to bring down even a very important personage, by amassing their collective honor they can gain more honor than him and knock down his honor. So there are two factors, one is that their aggregate honor has to surmount the honor of the person they are trying to knock down, and second, they cannot be wicked, because wicked people do not have the ability to make a collective honor.

And by the way, where would they knock him down to? Rabbainu provides that information for us as well - they knock him down into promiscuity.

So when I judge some of the crazy demonstrations that took place recently, especially those campaigning for and by means of the most degrading things, I don't see how even millions of such people can amass substantial honor, and they probably also constitute a band of wicked which simply has no cohesive ability, and they remain as individuals.

Whereas even the smallest demonstration - where people get together to honor something even of diminutive status - will have a definite and strong force of empowerment. At least they have a gathering - an actual group. Even a little dance of some holy brothers, a few Nanach infinitely outweighs a billion demonstrators honking and jeering to high heaven.

Be apart of the KEEBOOTZ - gathering - rally honor to the Most High!

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!

Hierarchy

HH

Korach told Moshe (16:13)
המעט כי העליתנו מארץ זבת חלב ודבר להמיתנו במדבר כי תשתרר עלינו גם השתרר
It is it not enough.... that you make take rule (office) over us as well

The Meshech Chuchma (Litvak Rabbi of Dvinsk) says a beautiful insight. We find in the mishna (Yuma 7:1 and Sota 7:7-8) that when the High Priest or King would read from the Torah before the multitudes, the Torah would be taken out by the President of the Synagogue, who would give it to the Assistant High Priest, who would give it to the High Priest, who would give it to the King. All of this was to bring more honor to the King.

This is what Korach accused Moshe, saying that Moshe was creating new offices and positions between him and the people, only to bring himself all the additional honor which comes with the appointment of every new station.

From this one should learn practically to inculcate different progressions of supernal worlds in his meditations and prayers to G-d. Before speaking to HY, or meditating of His existence, one can gain profoundly heightened consciousness by simply reviewing in his mind quickly the hierarchy of the seven heavens and seven heichulos (chambers).

There is another advantage as well, usually in order to fly one needs to first take some small jumps in progression. Similarly, at least for beginners, it might be hard to bind oneself directly to the Ein Sof B"H immediately, but by first grabbing higher cognizance one at a time, maybe B"H he will be able to go all the way to the Ein Sof B"H.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!