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Now, in these times, it is very, very difficult
for a kosher person to have money, because it is necessary for him to have a
very great descent Heaven forbid until he attains money. And even after the
descent Heaven forbid from His devotion blessed He, still not everyone attains
money. Because even the wicked and the frivolous (of the world), not everyone
that teens money, however, a truly kosher person, it is extremely remote that
he should have wealth.
Because know, that from the day the
Temple was destroyed the wealth fell to
the depths of the klipos (husks, exterior evil forces), in the aspect
of: "and she fell wondrously {pla-im} (Lamentations 1:9)," 'pla-im'
{wondrously} - are the letters 'alaphim' - thousands. That is, that the
(monetary) thousands of wealth fell wondrously, that is, a great and wondrous
descent. Therefore, it is
ineluctable that he should have Heaven forbid a very great descent before
coming to wealth[1],
that is, thousands in cash, and it is still uncertain as explained above[2]. However, a truly[3] kosher person - it is
extremely difficult for him to have wealth, and even though there are also
found tzadikim and kosher people that have money[4], however, it is very, very
onerous and difficult. And also, the wealth that
the tzadikim have, it
damages them, in their devotion[5]. Also, in reality, even
though they have a little wealth, however, even still they do not have great
wealth ready at their disposal as do the frivolous (of the world), who have
thousands and tens of thousands of adumim (-a valuable gold coin) cash. Because
now it is extremely difficult and onerous kosher people to have wealth as stated
above.
And like they say in the name of my
grandfather Rabbi Nachman[6] o.b.m., who said[7] on what our Sages o.b.m said
(Shabbos 63a), "Length of days is on/with its (the Torah's) right (Proverbs 3:16)," and our Sages o.b.m. said, "Length of days there
is, wealth and honor there isn't?" And they said: "All the more so
(there is) wealth and honor!" And Rabbi Nachman (the grandfather of
Rabbainu) o.b.m. said, that it is just an "all the more so," that is,
that certainly it is an a fortiori and an 'all the more so' that
they will have wealth and honor, however not explicitly[8]. Because even still they do
not have ready at their disposal many thousands of adumim (-valuable
golden coins), as explained above.
For more English Breslov Literature:
[1]
Also when the Israelites came
to Israel, some of the houses they conquered would be smitten with leprosy, the
Zohar (Tazreya 50a) says that this was because the locals would verbally commit
their possessions and work to idolatry in complete contradistinction to the
very same holy practice that the Israelites had when building the Temple, that they
would verbally consecrate everything. Thus the impurity of the leprosy is
literally the aspect of the fallen holiness of the Temple. And thus, when the
house with leprosy would be demolished, as commanded by the Torah, the
Israelites would find the treasures the former inhabitants had hidden there.
[2]
In the beginning of this article
Rabbainu spoke of these times, yet when he came to give an explanation he based
it upon the destruction of the Temple which was almost two thousand years ago.
Perhaps the reader was meant to understand on his own that in these times we
are suffering more than ever from the destruction of the temple.
There is a different way of understanding this,
base on what the Ramchal revealed in Daas Tevunos, that HY has two ways of
conducting the world. One is the way of reward and punishment, that righteous
conduct is rewarded, and wicked conduct punished. If the world would only be
run with this scheme there would not be free choice, because it would be so
blatantly obvious and compelling to do what is right and abstain from anything
else, like not jumping into a fire. The second way is that of the Unity of HY.
In this scheme HY manifests His absolute unity, and does so by allowing for the
development and galvanization of all the possible forces which have the
illusion that they are outside of Gd, and He allows them to run their course
and grow to their utmost, even as they can give the appearance that they are a
stronger and more opposing force G-d forbid, and then HY will show how all this
illusion of bad is in reality part of the goodness and unity of G-d, revealing
the perfection of G-d’s oneness. The Ramchal writes that according to this
scheme, specifically the righteous would be visited by all evils of the world,
whereas the wicked would enjoy all that is good, and a person would really want
to choose to suffer all the evils, knowing that they would be turned around to
infinite eternal goodness when HY will reveal how it is all just One. This
being almost the complete opposite of the first way, where the righteous is dealt
just good, and the wicked dealt just bad. Hashem intertwines these two systems
in a way that not even a prophet can figure out (see Klalim Rishonim 34. This is
the paradigm of the Raisha Diloa Isyaada which was discussed in the notes to
article 3, see there). Furthermore the Ramchal writes that in the end of the
exile Hashem resorts more to the latter scheme, because there is a need then to
bring a “tikkun klali” (throughout his works the Ramchal uses this term, which
today is synonymous with Breslov and the ten Psalms Rabbainu selected) – a general
comprehensive rectification to the whole world, and this is best done by the
way of Unity, taking the greatest obscurity and reverting it to the greatest
revelation which will bring the world to perfection, see there. Thus we see
from the Ramchal that specifically at the end of exile Hashem will be favoring
the conduct that withholds wealth from the righteous.
Perhaps the need to favor the way of Unity at
the end of the exile is only because of the absence of the Temple, because with
the presence of the Temple there are much less harsh ways of manifesting the absolute
unity of G-d. Thus ultimately the reason why it is hard for the righteous to
have wealth is because of the destruction of the Temple, which calls into play
the need for much more conduct by the way of Unity, which is what Rabbainu says
makes it altogether uncertain a person will attain wealth, and particularly in
our times it is unlikely because since there is no Temple and we are at the end
of the exile, there is the need to invoke the tikkun haklali as
explained above.
[3] The inference here by “truly” is
that someone who doesn’t have such a falling from holiness.
[4]
In Likutay Moharan,
Torah-teaching 200, Rabbainu addresses the fact that the tzadikim (-probably referring
to the Chasidic masters) of the time were wealthy, and revealed that this is
because in their previous lives they fulfilled the Torah in poverty, and the
Mishna says, whoever keeps the Torah in poverty, in the end they will keep it
with wealth, see there. It is possible that is what Rabbainu means here, “but
it is very, very onerous and difficult,” because the whole scheme of reincarnation
is known and termed as extremely difficult.
In our times it seems that there are kosher
people who have vast wealth, this might already be evidence of the imminent
rebuilding of the holy Temple (Also see the Mishna, Kaylim 1:6-9, there are ten
holiness, the Land of Israel is holier than the other lands etc. etc., from
here and other places we see that the holiness of the Land of Israel is the
beginning of the holiness of the Temple, and being that there is thank G-d such
a huge resurgence of Breslov today in Israel and Jerusalem, this itself is an
aspect of the Temple being pulled out of its wondrous fall).
[5]
See The Life of Our Leader
Rabbi Nachman, articles 499-500 where Rabbainu spoke of the practice of many
tzadikim of not keeping any money from one day to the next, and he praised
highly this practice for simple folk (-even still he recommended otherwise, see
there article 501), but he said that for the true Tzadik it is more virtuous
and harder for him to hold on to money, as we see that our forefathers retained
great wealth.
[6]
Rabbi Nachman of Horedenka was
one of the leading disciples of the holy Baal Shem Tov, his son, Rabbi Simcha
married Faygeh, the daughter of Adel, the daughter of the Baal Shem Tov. These
were the parents of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. Thus, Rabbainu’s mother was a granddaughter
of the Baal Shem Tov, and his father was the son of Rabbi Nachman of Horedenka.
Rabbi Nachman of Horedenka visited the Holy Land for the third time in 524
(1764) and passed away there a year later, and he is buried in the old cemetery
of Tiberias with other great Chasidic leaders. When Rabbainu made his
pilgrimage to the Holy Land he was by his grandfather’s holy tomb.
[7] Brought down in Toldos Yaakov Yosef,
Portion of Chukas.
[8]
Toldos Yaakov Yosef words it this
way, that from the power of the “all the more so” they will have the means to
live well just like the wealthy, but they will not have all the extra wealth,
see there (note also, that the Torah forbids a King to amass and retain wealth for
show, just what is needed).
Na Nach Nachma Nachman MayUman
