Quantity verses Quality

HH

Quantity verses Quality

In the Torah, almost always quality is more important than quantity, as we find the rule, better a little with kavana (intention) than a lot without kavana (and many other manifestations of this, e.g. on Chanuka we are thanking Hashem for giving victory to the quality over the quantity. However, Rabbainu many times promoted quantity over quality (e.g. he said that he is jealous of the simple Jews who recite a lot of Psalms and prayers). See Likutay Nanach (380:6) that this fits into the scheme of the tikun (rectification) of the saifu (end) revealed by the Ramchal.

When the quality is just quantity, that is, when the achievement is great only because of its amount, almost certainly that amount is best achieved in quantity. This is what we find by the mitzva of charity. In Shivchay Huran – The Praises of Rabbi Nachman, article 13:

And in the beginning, in his childhood, he was accustomed to taking some large coins and he would change them for small ones, and he would enter the synagogue surreptitiously through the window and so forth and he took with him the book "Shaaray (gates of) Tzion (Zion)," and he would say the lishaim (for the sake of) yichud (unification) for doing a mitzva[1], and he took one small coin and threw it into the "matan (given) bisaiser (in secrecy) (i.e. a charity box designated as such)." And afterwards he made himself as if he was abstracted from it, and afterwards he returned and said the aforementioned lishaim yeechud and returned and threw one penny into the "matan bisaiser." And so he returned and did many times until he threw all the pennies into the "matan bisaiser," and upon every single penny he said the aforementioned lishaim yeechud. And his intention was in order to do many mitzvos[2], because his devotion was with absolute simplicity without any smarts ("chuchmos") whatsoever.

The main intention of this post was to include the final part of the footnote which I deemed unworthy of including in the soon to be published book.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!

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[1] A declaration stating one's intent in doing the deed is for the sake Heaven to unify the Divine Names with proper fulfillment of the deed with love and fear and in the name of all of Israel.

Today already we know from Rabbainu to include in this declaration that we are binding ourselves to the holy tzadikim and specifically Rabbainu Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman.

[2] It is interesting to note that the Rambam in his commentary to the Mishna in Ethics of Our Fathers (3:15) that all is in accord to the deed/s, asserts that a single act of donating a thousand gold coins does not have the same merit were he to give a thousand donations of one gold coin, because each act of giving has merit of itself (see there, as this is beyond the scope of this note), and this in fact is exactly what Rabbainu acted upon in his early childhood.

In almost complete contradistinction, it is told (Derech Tzadikim quoted in Mi-eeras Ainayim in back of Tzavus HaRivash, page 67) that Rabbi Pinchus Kuretzer o.b.m. said, "This elder (the holy Rabbi Yakov Yosef of Polnoa) printed a thousand books, and took for them 1000 adumim, why did he need to do this, he could have printed one book, and I by myself would have given him 1000 adumim."

Quality verses Quantity

HH

In Likutay Nanach I have already shown how in Judaism quality is predominantly more important than quantity (once there is a bare minimum). Recently I learned that even when Rabbainu told Rabbi Nussun that he must be happy always - that is how Rabbi Nussun translated it into Hebrew, but in the Yiddish he presents in brackets it is clear that Rabbainu didn't say always, but "unusually"!

In Kabbala we learn that there are eegulim - circles and yoasher - straight direct verticle lines. Circles are continuous, but the vertical lines "bring it on".

In Likutay Moharan, Torah-lesson 54:2 Rabbainu revealed even great tzadikim who understand the lofty allusions in their life and environment, and can serve Hashem this way, even still this is a way fraught with danger and a low equilibrium. See there.

It is amazing to note, that in all the extensive recordings and letters we have from Saba Yisroel, I don't seem to recall anywhere where he exhorts people to fulfill what Rabbainu says in Conversations of Rabbi Nachman (Sichos Huran 297) that he desires very much for people to go (-live out) with his Torahs, see there. In Likutay Nanach I propound that this was perhaps a manifestation of how Saba rose above all the contemporary Breslovers who very much were inclined to the lamdunus (intellect, reasoning) of the awesome teachings of Rabbainu, even though they were obviously very very adherent to the practical fulfillment of the holy teachings, having basically mastered the path, they aimed to live Rabbainu even more, and were thus very inclined to really merit to the infinite wisdom. Rabbi Avrohom ben Huran was known to have lived his life in the venue of each one of Rabbainu's teachings in Likutay Moharan, and Shmuel Horowitz was very keen on the very in depth study of Likutay Moharan, and he credits Rabbi Avrohom for this. However in Likutay Moharan, Torah-lesson 31, Rabbainu revealed that there are two levels of bris (covenant) - Tzadik, and lamdan, and the main thing is to aspire and keep at being a tzadik, see there. And thus Saba, never really talked about pursuing the goal of lamdunus. All this I elaborated upon in Likutay Nanach. Now I see even more, based on the above, why Saba didn't focus on promoting the teaching of going with the Torahs, because not only is there the danger of lamdunus, there is the danger of making this the main focus, when it should only be in one's periphery of avodas Hashem. It is most certainly vital and critical, but it is not the lead.

There is more to this, because in Likutay Moharan I show that with Nanach it seems that quantity is in fact more important than quality.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!