The Praises of Rabbi Nachman - part 2 - the order of his voyage to the land of Israel - 10-12

HH

Shivchay HuRan

Part 2

10. The general matter is that these two aforementioned men denigrated him o.b.m. with all types of degradation etc., and he bore it all, and did not want to reveal to them in any way who he was, and he deceived them intentionally and confused them very, very much, until they would degrade him every time for his changing accounts each time. One time he spoke with them, until it seemed clear to them that he was from Lagorna (-a city on the Italian border), and afterwards they saw that it was not so, and they degraded him very, very much; and one time he spoke with them, and it seemed to them that he is the son of the Kamarner, that is, the son of the Maggid of Kamarner, who was in a great quarrel then, as is well known, and afterwards, in middle of the conversation, he o.b.m. began to curse the Kamarner. And they scolded him: "Behold he is your father!" And they saw that they still have not figured him out. And every time he had a different name, and with every name they called him, he answered them and came to them. Suddenly they would let out from their mouth and call: "Yishayuh," in order to test him if he is the son of the Kamarner whose name was Yishayuh, and he of blessed memory came immediately to them, and it seemed to them that certainly he's the son of the Kamarner, and they said to him: "You are certainly the aforementioned's son." And he replied to them and proved to them that he is not his son.

In the meantime they began to speak of the gift that the Kamarner sent to his son, and he o.b.m. began immediately to request and implore there that they should show him his gift, and they saw again that he is his son, and afterwards they spoke with him more, and he (Rabbainu -in the Hebrew there is a typo - they) cursed him, and they were very very shocked/confounded, and they came with great anger, and they degraded him very, very much; and when they asked him: "Why do you say now that your name is such, and afterwards - a different name, and so too with the name of your origins (-place)?" And he answered them likewise, "That every single name is according to the attribute and the Sefirah (-Divine attribute) which it incorporates etc., and I, Baruch Hashem, am replete with all of them.

And everything that transpired in this matter, vast amounts of pages would not suffice to relate it. And he o.b.m. would wake them up sometimes from (their) sleep, and begin speaking with them, until they came to great anger, and they began to curse him more and to degrade him severely. And on the day preceding the holy Shabbos they came from the Mikvah ("house of immersion"), and he o.b.m. was lying on the bunk barefoot, without a belt and without a formal ("top") hat, and he asked them: "Why is it that the whole week my body is light and I do not have heaviness, but now I have very great heaviness, to the extent that I can almost not get up from this spot?" 

And they answered him: "Because every erev (day proceeding) Shabbos Kodesh (-holy) this neshama (-soul) ascends above, and the extra neshama comes down, but by you your neshama went, and the extra neshama you do not merit to receive,  therefore your body remains like a stone."

And he replied to them: "Oy (-woe) upon you! That even on a simple matter like this you do not know what to answer."

And he requested from them that they should receive him for Shabbos by them, but they did not want. And on Shabbos they received the man that was with him, by them for Shabbos, but him they did not want to receive, and he was forced to eat dairy foods, because they did not want to eat meat there; just they (-the two men) had some shoachet (-ritual butcher). And also on Shabbos they had a very great dispute with them, and they wanted to push him out, because he entered by them even though he did not eat with them, and they started to fight with him, until they wanted to push him out, and there was a great commotion there; and also in the morning, it was also like that.

The general matter was, that he o.b.m. acted intentionally, and he allowed himself to be degraded with all types of shaming, and he said to the man that was with him that these degradations would be a great benefit for him on the way there (-to Israel) and on the way back, because the greatness of the enormity of the huge impediments that he had in going to the Land of Israel, is impossible to fathom, or to measure, or to relay, and it was not possible (for Rabbainu) to come to the Land of Israel except through this littleness, as was heard afterwards from his mouth explicitly. And he said, that if he did not have these degradations and the littleness, it would not have been possible for him to come there in anyway; and he said, that he saw that he was forced to remain there in Istanbul, that is, to die there, but this littleness and the shaming saved him, because before one comes to the Land of Israel etc. as mentioned above.

Afterwards Rabbainu o.b.m. ordered the man that was with him, that he should give to the aforementioned men who denigrated him as mentioned above, from their food, and beverages, and various dishes, that they had with them, to give them from everything. And these men traveled to their homes, and they did not want to take a letter from Rabbainu to his home, just from the man that was with him they took a letter, and Rabbainu placed his letter inside the letter of the aforementioned man, and these men wanted to open the letter of the aforementioned man, perhaps they will be able to understand from it some matter of Rabbainu o.b.m., who he is and where he's from, but they were not able to find the letter by them, because it disappeared from them (from) where they placed the letter, and the letter did not come to their hands until they came to the kamer (-inspection room) in Volichai (-a city on the Romanian border), when they found the letter by them, and they saw from the letter, that this had been Rabbainu o.b.m.. They saw and were positively astounded and very confounded (-Psalms 48:6); and that man who degraded him copiously as mentioned above, came to his home and passed away very close to his arrival.

11. And immediately after they (-the two men) embarked from Istanbul, the aforementioned agent came to him (-Rabbainu) and showed him many letters from the tzadikim of the generation which they sent to him with the request that he should help the people that travel from here to there (-Israel), because he is influential in the eyes of the royal ministers.

"Therefore know: If you reveal to me who you (- plural) are and from which family you are - it is fine, but if not - I have the power to do with you bad which you will not be able to amend, and no fortune of monetary bribes will help; and not only will you not travel to the Holy Land, you will also be in jail," and similar words like these.

And when Rabbainu o.b.m. heard this, he immediately told him the truth, that his name Rabbi Nachman, and he is a grandson of the Baal Shem Tov o.b.m. and of Rabbi Nachman of Hordainke o.b.m.. Immediately the aforementioned agent retreated and left him, and on the morrow the agent came with subservience to him, and he said to Rabbainu o.b.m. in an expression of love and fondness: "Rebbe, Hashem is with you! Know, that all the benefits/favors you will receive from me, and your reward is double for this, that you revealed to me the truth, because if you would not have admitted to me, I would have given you over to the jail, and I would have been punished in this world and in the next world; and I request of you (-respectful plural) to receive goodness from me, whether it be with purchasing passage on the boat, or with other things, because I am ready and prepared to serve you."

12. And on the next day he came and said that a boat came from chutz-lu'uretz (-anywhere outside of Israel) with Jews, and they also have a distinct (-highly qualified and experienced) butcher, and there, on that boat, was the Rav the Chusid (-pious) the famous, our teacher the Rav Zi'aiv Wolf may his flame shine, from Tcharney-Austria, and other important people, and they asked about Rabbainu o.b.m., and the man who was with Rabbainu o.b.m. revealed to them the truth, and immediately the aforementioned Rabbi Zi'aiv sent after Rabbainu o.b.m. that he should come to him to his lodging and he will receive him with love to stay with him together, but Rabbainu o.b.m. did not want to go to be by him, because he said: "Here is good before me," because in Istanbul he did all types of puerile things, and he went about barefoot and without a belt and without a formal hat, and he was dressed just in the "inter-shlack" (-inner lining) that he had from some garment, and he would go about in the marketplace in the way of the youth, who run and play in the marketplace, and he waged recreational battles as the youth do, and they would call one person by the name of France, and another - with a different (country's) name, ‎and they waged war, and it was like actual tactical battle, and he would do very many puerile things there in Istanbul.

Afterwards the plague fell, may the Merciful One save us, in this "chan" i.e. courtyard, and he was forced to flee from there. And he was forced to enter the lodging of the aforementioned Rabbi Zi'aiv, and he (R.Z.) made for him a great feast, and the aforementioned Rav, Rabbi Zi'aiv accorded him very, very great immeasurable respect, and Rabbainu o.b.m. did many things then that were against the desire of the aforementioned Rabbi Zi'aiv, but even still (Beraishis Rabah 55:11)- "love distorts (-disregards) the line (-manner of course)," and because of his enormous love he did not pay any attention to this, even though it was great wonderments in his eyes, because every time Rabbi Zi'aiv would pray before the lectern (-lead the service) on Shabbos, as is the way of the famous rabbis, Rabbainu o.b.m. would eat at that time, because he would pray earlier, so that when Rabbi Zi'aiv was praying, he o.b.m. would eat his meal.

And so it was on the night of Shabbos, and on Shabbos morning, and by the third meal of Shabbos, and when Rabbi Zi'aiv sat down for the third meal, Rabbainu had already blessed the grace after meals (-birchas hamazoan), and ordered the man that was with him that he should see you whether there were stars (-nightfall, the end of Shabbos, is officially determined by the visibility of three medium sized stars. However, in all probability Rabbainu would have been accustomed to end Shabbos 72 minutes after sunset, which in Israel is much later than the appearance of three stars. So this instance is cited by many as a precedence to not having to keep the full 72 minutes), and he immediately prayed arvis (-night prayer) and made havdala (-ritual separation between Shabbos and the weekdays), and he took the pipe and entered into the house of Rabbi Zi'aiv, and he (R.Z.) had recently began the third meal, as is the way of the famous rabbis (-to begin the third meal late (this is also somewhat based on their keeping Shabbos at least 72 minutes after sunset)). And immediately when Rabbainu entered there without a formal hat and without a belt and the pipe in his hand, the aforementioned Rabbi Zi'aiv immediately received him with great honor, and promptly blessed the grace after meals, and prayed arvis, and made havdala, and spoke with Rabbainu o.b.m. almost the entire night, and there was great love between them. And Rabbainu o.b.m. did all types of puerile things there as mentioned above, and there, he was by the grave of Rabbi Naftoli o.b.m. (Katz, author of Smichas Chachumim and many other works including poetry and songs, a huge kabalist and holy saint).

And everything that transpired over him in Istanbul physically and spiritually, many folios would be insufficient to tell it over, and according to what can be understood from his words, he was in enormous and dire danger there, and he thought that for certain he would remain there, that is, he would pass away there, however, Hashem Yisburach did with him many miracles, and he traversed over everything, and the aforementioned puerility availed him tremendously. Also when he came from the grave of Rabbi Naftoli, he fell suddenly to the ground, and he lay that way for many hours, and afterwards they placed him on the bed, and he lay there the whole night until midday of the morrow, and he lay as if he had died, until Hashem Yisburach helped him, (so) that he got up from his bed and returned to his strength. And he had great dangerous, many and enormous, and unlimited impediments there at all times and at every moment, and he said, that the aforementioned degradations and the puerility availed him tremendously as mentioned above.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman