"PARSA AND PALGA", OR HOW RABBEINU SHOWS THE WAY FOR EVERYONE

 "... I saw a one-day-old urzilla (mountain goat). <...> The length of its outstretched neck was parsa and palga (a mile and a half)". 

This is part of the story of Rabba Bar Bar Chana that Rabbeinu explains in Torah 14. Recently I realized that the second sentence I've just quoted holds the key to this entire Torah.

In this Torah Rabbeinu says that, to achieve peace, it is necessary to elevate the kavod of Hashem to its source. And then he proceeds to map out what I feel to be two very different "routes" to that goal. I would call them "the parsa route" and "the palga route".

The "parsa route" is for people who are whole and who feel whole. Their main tasks are to first merit  the Torah by breaking gaavah (unnecessary pride) in its four aspects and then to teach this Torah to people who are far from Yiddishkeit.

Then there is "the palga route". "Palga" means "half" in Aramaic, and so this route is for people who, for various reasons, don't feel whole at all. They generally feel like losers, with their self-esteem hovering around zero, which means that they have no gaavah to speak of, so there is nothing to break. Moreover, at least in the beginning (which can take years), they aren't ready to "spread the word" because they can't really model Yiddishkeit in general and Breslov in particular so people would be inspired to go after them. Not to mention that, for some of them, making contact with other people can be so difficult as to make this task downright impossible.

For such people, Rabbeinu zal shows a very different way to elevate Hashem's kavod: by striving to remove the "soiled garments" that block their way to Hashem and to holiness. Among other things, this can mean fighting low self-esteem, so they can be said to have the opposite task from that of the people in the first category. Removing the soiled garments is generally achieved by standing up in various tests and making constant efforts to advance in Yiddishkeit (and in Breslov) no matter what.

So it is very heartening to know that there are different routes for different people, but, in the end, they lead to the same goal. This means that we will all get there!