Upgrading

 HH

If a person goes from being color blind to being able to see full color, he will see everything so much better - both good things and bad things.

If a skier picks a much steeper slope, he will have much more exhilaration, but will also be faced with much greater challenge and risk.

So when a person rises to a higher spiritual level, it is not all roses, he will also have much greater  perceptions of evil and will be faced with much greater trial tribulations and challenges.

Thus Rabbainu revealed that often a person feels that he has had a terrible descent and fall, and in reality he is being introduced to a higher level.

And thus Rabbainu revealed that no higher level of Torah conception can be achieved without first undergoing a new onslaught of forbidden sexual desires.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MayUman

Breaking free at the brink of utter capitulation to the evil inclination

HH
Yesterday I met with a good Nanach friend who will remain anonymous, and I couldn't help but notice some swelling and bruising, and he had no choice but to tell me what happened. He was hit very hard by a deluge of improper thoughts which took control of him and were just about to sink him completely G-d forbid, so rather to succumb Gf he struck himself extremely hard over and over again sending immense pain signals to his brain and thus banishing the overpowering lust. Badges of honor. And as Rabbainu revealed, he who overcomes such a test will merit miracles.

The Chasam Sofer used to bleed himself out, and a certain chasidishe Rebbe used to burn his thumb or one of his fingers.

We must not forfeit the eternal goodness of Hashem Yisburach for a fleeting indulgence of animal flesh.

On Shabbos parshas Pinchas, a few days after writing this, it occurred to me that this can be the explanation of what we are instructed in the Talmud (Brachos 5a):

א"ר לוי בר חמא אמר ר"ש בן לקיש לעולם ירגיז אדם יצר טוב על יצר הרע שנא' (תהלים ד, ה) רגזו ואל תחטאו. אם נצחו מוטב ואם לאו יעסוק בתורה שנאמר אמרו בלבבכם אם נצחו מוטב ואם לאו יקרא קריאת שמע שנאמר על משכבכם אם נצחו מוטב ואם לאו יזכור לו יום המיתה שנאמר ודומו סלה.

Incidental to the verse, “Tremble, and do not sin,” the Gemara mentions that Rabbi Levi bar Ḥama said that Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: One should always incite his good inclination against his evil inclination, i.e., that one must constantly struggle so that his evil inclination does not lead him to transgression. 

If one succeeds and subdues his evil inclination, excellent, but if he does not succeed in subduing it, he should study Torah, as alluded to in the verse: “Say to your heart.” 

If he subdues his evil inclination, excellent; if not, he should recite Shema, which contains the acceptance of the yoke of God, and the concept of reward and punishment, as it is stated in the verse: “Upon your bed,” which alludes to Shema, where it says: “When you lie down.” 

If he subdues his evil inclination, excellent; if not, he should remind himself of the day of death, whose silence is alluded to in the continuation of the verse: “And be still, Selah.”

Reminding oneself of death doesn't mean to to simply just remember that eventually he will die, but to actually give oneself an acute taste of that death. As Rabbainu revealed in Likutay Moharan, Torah-lesson 193 that a person can picture in his mind death so well that he can actually feel the pain of death and must be careful to not actually die Gf. So that would be the ultimate reminder of death, but being that the Talmud is talking about when a person is inundated with the craziness of the evil inclination and is probably not in any frame of mind to avidly picture for himself death as described above, therefore his only final recourse would be to bring upon himself some real physical pain which is also an aspect of death.


Na Nach Nachma Nachman Me'Uman

Pride brings to hom*s*xulity

HH

Rabbainu revealed in Character - The Aleph Bet Book of the Traits (https://www.createspace.com/6062519) that through excessive pride one will be sod*mized like a woman (Humility 2:2), and that through arrogance one comes to hom*s*xual desires (Arrogance 2).

Elsewhere we have already expounded upon this. Recently I've seen people writing about how they were born this way, and they fought it but were completely overwhelmed until the came to the conclusion that this who they are. So here I just want to point out that this is their utter pride and arrogance as if the trial and tests that they were up against were more difficult and challenging than the challenges everyone has - for after all everyone came into the world precisely to take on this exact challenge of s*xual purity, as Rabbainu made this very clear. So everyone undergoes tremendous battles, ups and downs, wins and losses, in this very field, and everyone, according to their pride will G"F be led to think that maybe he/she is different than others, and is entitled to certain things - maybe to watch clean movies - which is an aspect of being raped G"F, for the eyes bring upon the watcher the ravages of the emptiness of the film, and so on and so forth, every person according to their pride and assertion that they are different, place themselves into a position of extreme danger.

May HY have mercy on us.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!

Know the Enemy

HH

Imagine you are hit with an onslaught of lust which drives you to the edge, and then you discover that it is your itzy bitzy nerd neighbor who is doing voodoo and all types of black magic on you GF. You would no longer feel so helplessly overcome and inundated, you would take it in stride and you wouldn't allow yourself to be knocked out of control into the degradation of bodily desires simply because some imbecile wishes your downfall. To a certain decree many of our trials and tribulations are instigated by lowly evil spiritual forces that seek our detriment. Big tzadikim would be very aware of who and what was confronting them and would name them aloud and battle them precisely with holy incantations and so forth. This is something we can't even begin to do, even if we would get lucky here and there, that would just open us up GF to much worse GF. Even still we must bear this in mind, that lowliness of the forces seeking our downfall, seeking to slump us into depression, sin, and even self abuse GF, and to register this strong in our faculties that there is no reason why we should let such a lowly thing dominate us or issue us any inconveniences whatsoever. The prayer of the high priest Rabbi Yishmuel gives a few paragraphs of invective to put such lowly evil forces in their place. Ultimately however everything is exactly how HY wants it for us, so that we have free choice, and without Divine help and intervention we can not surmount the new attacks of the evil forces which charge us.

Amazingly two years later to the day I found myself writing again on this vein: https://naanaach.blogspot.com/2020/02/fight-back.html

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!

Making Our Ways to Hashem Yisburach - A parable

HH

This is a beautiful parable which I didn't do justice to in writing it up, for the time being here it is in a skeleton form, maybe one day I or someone else will merit to develop it and write it up properly:

What is involved

A king sent a message to one of His subjects commanding him to come to the palace. The message explained that the palace was under siege and was only accessible by a certain route, which the message described partially and vaguely. Upon receiving the message, the subject embarked to find the route and get to the palace. He had to wander about a great deal until he finally found the correct way. Along the way he was attacked by a swarm of bees and wild animals. Once while scaling a cliff he fell and nearly killed himself.

When he finally made it to the king, the king received him with love and affection. The king explained to him how his adventurous expedition had in reality saved the kingdom. At first, when he was blundering about the enemy feared that he had mapped out all their positions, and retreated from their attacking positions. The swarm of bees that he had instigated, proceeded to attack the enemy, and when he fell from the cliff he caused an avalanche which caused great destruction to the enemy army.

The upshot is that by making his way to the king as he was commanded, this person brought down the entire army that was attacking the king. And so it is with our devotions and seeking out HY, everything we undergo has enormous ramifications that we may know nothing of, and as we get closer to HY so too we liberate the forces of good and demolish all the forces of evil.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!

Crying to Hashem

HH

The Holy Baal Shem Tov said that when one enters the devotion of Hashem Yisburach he will be attacked viciously by the Yetzehr Hura (evil inclination), with such an onslaught of belligerent thoughts and temptations that he will be left with no option but to cry incessantly to Hashem Yisburach to save him, he will have to cry so much, shed so many tears,  that he will be in danger of losing his eye sight G-d forbid, and will have to pray and cry to Hashem Yisburach not to lose his eye sight due to the copious crying incumbent.

May we merit to cry our hearts out to Hashem Yisburach and fully achieve His love and affection.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!

Don't get into something that can't end well - that you can't take all the way

HH

Yesterday I was inundated with bad thoughts, and I was desperately calling up all my little tricks to escape but was not fairing well. B"H one thing snapped me out of it, I thought of what I would look like if I actually went full out with bad thoughts and even acted upon them G"F, and I got a pretty scary (-i.e. utterly disgusting) image, and with that B"H I got right out. This is probably the same with many things, like drugs, hitting up even once has to be understood in the context of the big picture - what is the tachlis (-end-ultimate purpose), to get high, and if this high is a good thing, so it would be done more and more, ultimately ending in the person G"F being a junky, hence this high is actually a piece and part of a very nefarious ordeal. The desire for money on the other hand, although we know that our Sages obm revealed one who has a hundred wants two etc., even still there is a certain satiation point or goal where a person is providing for his needs, just like eating. The highs from drugs or the gratification from sexual desires are not the same, because they are not intrinsic to a persons life -- a person does need highs and does (if he is not a tzaddik) need a sexual outlet, but those have a kosher scheme which in and of itself means that they are are being used intrinsically for his life, and not some external quest. Quests for holy highs are very intrinsic and satisfying, yet even they are surrounded by great dangers, for at every new level one is faced with more powerful needs of gratification, and if he is not constantly on guard and aspiring to the holiness he has become accustomed to, he will be hit very hard for vitality from the other side G"F.

There's a great more to be said about all of this, and of course it is much better to read about these things directly from the holy teachings of Rabbainu, but B"H it is good to at least write a little something and not let it go unmentioned.

May the Holy Merciful One G-d help us have holy thoughts and only holy thoughts and holy consciousness.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!

Holy Brazenness -- ויגבה לבו - עזות דקדושה

ב"ה

Rabbi Nachman says that sin is so disgusting, especially sexual sins, for a true tzaddik even fulfilling the mitzva of having children is excruciatingly painful - because the tzaddik lives the da'as - the true intellect, and this act involves a person with parts of the body which are the vessels and conduits of the body's waste and gore, and all the more so, sexual sin G"F, is completely repugnant and disgusting. So a person must have holy ego and brazenness to hold himself upright and not to fall to what does not behoove and become of him. And so with all matters of holy aspirations, one must be very strong and resolute in self esteem and confidence, and not be meek and humble (- this is a little complicated, because true resolution and holy brazenness will actually be humility, but I cannot explain this here), Just when it comes to general matters one must be utmost humble. So we find by Yosef, when he was accosted by the wife of Poateefar, the holy Torah records a whole speech in which Yosef asserts his prestige, and in so doing he refused to acquiesce to fall into sin.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman. 

טבע של האדם מהיצר הרע, להיות כאילו ענו בעניני עבודת השם, מי הוא בכלל שיזכה להשיג את התורה וצדקות וכן בענין הנסיונות של שמירת הברית, האדם לא אוחז מעצמו, ונופל לדברים מכוערים רחמנא ליצלן. אבל בעניני חול יש לו כל גאוה בריאה מאד השם ירחם. וזה צריך להיות הפוך לגמרי. אצל יוסף הצדיק כאשר אשת פוטיפר תבעו לדבר עבירה, פתאום הוא מאריך בגדולתו, והתורה מקדשת כל דבריו, איננו גדול בבית הזה וכו'. כאשר באים לידי נסיון, צריכים הרבה גאוה, עזות דקדושה להיות חזק בדעה שמעשים מכוערים הם לא מתאימים ולא ראויים לך, וכן לענין כל דבר של קדושה, צריכים להיות תקיף בדעה שזה שייך לך, ואילו בדברים של חול, צריכים תכלית הענוה.

נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן

Nanach Fellowship

HH
Rabbi Nachman's Stories of Ancient Times

Of The Prayer Leader

"So the Prayer Leader with his people dwelled outside of civilization, and were involved only with prayer, songs,and praises to Hashem Yisburach, and confessions, fasts, afflictions, and penances."

Rabbainu is the Prayer Leader, his men are the Nanach. Although it is not the custom of the Nanach to deliberately self afflict themselves etc. the fact of the matter is that they are no strangers to punishment, to say the least, every Nanach I know can write at least one volume of accounts of his trials and tribulations, some can write many volumes. Rabbi Nussun said, that even though the Rebbe revealed many Torahs about fasting, the tradition in Breslov is not to fast (R. Yisroel Karduner asked Rabbainu, and Rabbainu showed him a small piece of bread, meaning, don't fast but suffice with the very bare minimum), but when we have to fast for one of the fast days accepted by all of Israel, this is a great opportunity to take advantage of, to merit all these things Rabbainu divulged. So it is with the Nanach, although they do not invite the hardships, when they are in fact visited by them, the Nanach should accept them with love and see them as an opportunity to gain atonement, purity, and adhesion to HY.

NNNNM!