The Praises of Rabbi Nachman 24-27 end of part 1

HH

Shivchay Huran

24-27 end of Part 1

24. Also they understood from his words that he spoke with them, that in his youth when he toiled and labored for the service of Hashem, he had many (many) types of mortification, and according to what was heard and understood from his words, (that) he had all types of mortifications that there are in the world, be it rolling in the snow etc. and so forth. And he said, that the mortification of restraining oneself not to scratch himself at all, this is the overly greatest mortification, that is, when a person is being bit (-irritated) by the things found close to his skin, and it is the way of everyone to scratch themselves whenever they feel the biting (-itching); and he accepted this as a mortification, to force himself not to scratch at all, not with his hand and not with his body and not with any limb, and he said, that this is a very great mortification, for the person is inert, and then the biting/itching grows stronger, and he is forbidden to move his hands or any limb, just to feel every bite in his mind, and it is a very great mortification. (And I have already heard this from other people, that this is a very great mortification). And he of blessed memory did everything, all the types of modifications that there are in the world, and everything - with temeemus (wholesomeness, wholeheartedness, simplicity, unfeigned) and truth, until he merited to what he merited, fortunate is he.

Also in the matter of suffering, which befall upon most tzadikim, mamash (-literally) there is not heard and there is not seen a peer of suffering like him, and it is impossible to relate and to explain. And he was full of suffering from inside and out. And in the beginning, before the end of his days, he had enormous and terrible suffering, which has no counterpart suffering in the world. And he related, that his suffering are in his hand (-control); whenever he desires - he accepts them upon himself, and these sufferings come upon him, and when he desires to get rid of them - they depart from upon him (t.n. the Talmud, Bava Metzeyuh 84a relates this of Rabbi Eluzar son of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai). And the enormity of the harshness and the weight of the sufferings was immeasurable.

They said over in his name that he said, that in the hour (-time) that the sufferings come upon him, from the utter magnitude of the superlative pain and very, very excruciating agony, he was just about able to bite a tree with his teeth from the enormous pain (like a person does when he has formidable suffering, that from the sheer enormity of the suffering he gnashes his teeth; and upon him of blessed memory the suffering was so intense and harsh, to the extent that at the time of the suffering he was able to cut through wood with his teeth from the enormous pain). However the greatness and massiveness of the harsh and enormous suffering that he had at the end of his days for three consecutive years, were yet much, much greater and harsher manifold ("double and quadruple"), unfathomable and beyond any reckoning. And a little of this will be explained elsewhere (see The Life of Our Leader Rabbi Nachman, the section addressing his trip to Lemberg and the section of his trip and stay in Uman, and The Days of Our Teacher Rabbi Nussun), if it is Hashem's will, a slight fringe. And there is still a lot more to relate, but we omitted most of it, even of the little that we know, because even this little (that we know) is a lot to tell over, and many folios would be insufficient, and further revelation will be in yet a future time to explain more, with the help of Hashem Yisburach.

25. The general synopsis (is) - that in all matters of holiness and aestheticism, be it with (bodily) desires, or be it with character traits, or be it with matters of exertion and devotions and labor and suffering etc. for His sake blessed He, (with) absolutely everything he was a very wondrous and awesome novelty, and he was divested of all the (bodily) desires and of all vices in the utmost, to the extent that there was no remnants by him of any (bodily) desire or vice, any nuance in the world, and he merited to a very, very awesome level, the pinnacle of heights, and it is impossible to speak at all of the utter magnitude of his superlative stature, because the more one elaborates - he detracts; and everything that we related until now, even though all the aforementioned stories are considered a degradation opposite him, according to the enormous stature that he merited to afterwards, even still we related all of this regarding his devotion and his ways in the days of his childhood, so that we should know and be cognizant of how there is free choice ("bicheeruh chufshees"), and every person can merit, if he wants, to a very superlative level, even though it seems to him that the devotion is difficult and heavy upon him and they do not allow him to enter at all in His devotion blessed He, because the desires and the vices pursue him tremendously, even still he needs to be stubborn in his devotion, and not to pay attention to all of this, because in these stories a smart person will understand from his own reasoning how also on the holy awesome Rebbe za.tza.viku.l. there transpired as well all impediments and the heaviness mentioned above, and he traversed through all this, and even still he merited to break everything, because he truly wanted His devotion blessed He, and he chose life in truth, until he merited what he merited. And he said, that even if he was not from the progeny of the Godly Baal Shem Tov za.tza.viku.l. just even if he was from a lowly family of Israel, he would also have merited to what he merited through the utter power of his devotion and his toil, that he toiled and labored very, very much in His service blessed He.

26. And he had strong grievance on those people who think that the main stature of the tzadik and the attainment he merited is through virtue of their neshama (-soul) alone, because he has a very lofty soul, and he said, that the matter is not so, just what is essential is contingent on good deeds, and exertion, and devotions. And he said explicitly, that every person in the world can merit to an overly lofty level, because the matter is not contingent except on the free choice of the person alone, if he desires to have mercy on himself and to resolve for himself very well what is good before him in truth etc., and everything (is) - according to the abundance of the deed.

27. And therefore even the awesome miracles that we saw from Rabbainu o.b.m., we are not engaged in relating them, because this is not praise of him whatsoever according to his enormous, superlative prominence, we just related what is pertinent to His devotion blessed He, in order to arouse the sagacious who desires the truth, because there is no excuse in the world, and every person can merit to lofty heights, if he goes and conducts in the ways of Rabbainu o.b.m. which are explained here in this book. And the main thing (is) - to be very regular in very copious prayers and supplications, and specifically to speak between oneself and his Creator in the vernacular, to abound in conversation before Him blessed He, to conciliate Him, and to appease Him blessed He, and to beseech before Him that He should draw him close to His devotion in truth. And this note is sufficient for all who desire the truth.

End of Part 1

Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman

The Praises of Rabbi Nachman 17-19

HH

Shivchay Huran

17-19

17. He also said, that the conjugation of the true tzadik is a very difficult matter for him; and not only does he not have any desire whatsoever, just on the contrary, he has suffering from this, mamash (-literally) like the suffering of an infant during circumcision, because mamash suffering such as this the tzadik has during conjugation, and more than this, because the infant doesn't have intellect, therefore his suffering is not so great, but the tzadik who does have intellect, his suffering is greater then the infant, and this was an obvious matter by him. And he said, that every person can merit to come to this level, and it was apparent from his words that his own holiness was yet very extremely higher.

18. And he said, that by him a man and a woman are equal, that is, that no facet of thought occurs to him when he sees a woman, just everything is the same by him in his eyes, as if he sees a man. And one time he said, that he has no fear, not from a woman and not from an angel. And with this there's a lot to explain, because someone who still has any facet of fear whatsoever from thoughts of women, even if he is chaste in this regard, just that he's not immaculate in the utmost purity, and he still has some fear at all with this, he needs to fear from an angel; but he (Rabbainu) boasted that he has absolutely no fear of this, therefore he has no fear of an angel. This is slightly alluded to in the words of our Rabbis of blessed memory (Kedushin 81a): "I am flesh, and you are fire - but I am better/stronger than you," which Rav Amram Chasiduh said to the angel, and it is brought down in his words of blessed memory in the Torah-teaching "Tikoo (blast the shofar) - memshalu (dominion)" Torah 1 in the second volume of Likutay Moharan, see there well, and understand.

19. He was also very accustomed in his early childhood and in his youth to run over all the time to be by the grave of the Baal Shem Tov za.tza.viku.l. to request of him that he help him draw close to Hashem Yisburach. And he used to go there at night, and in the winter when it was extremely cold he would go there at night and from there he returned and went to the mikvah. And there was a mikva outside the bathhouse and one mikvah inside the bath house, and he chose the mikvah that was outside the bathhouse, when the cold was great and he was already very cold from being by the aforementioned grave, because there was a great distance between his house and the cemetery and also from the cemetery to the mikva, besides for the lengthy stay that he spent by the grave, even still after all this he would specifically go to immerse in the mikvah which stood outside, in order to mortify himself - and all of this secretly at night. And I heard from someone who said that he heard from his holy mouth, that when he performed these practices he was just six years old.

And he was so secretive from people in his devotions, to the extent that one time he went to the mikvah in the morning in the winter, and he came from the immersion, and his pehyos (sidelocks) were wet from the water, and everyone wondered at the oddity that in the winter a person would wash his head, because it did not occur to them that he had been in the mikvah, they just thought that he washed his head, and they wondered at his peculiarity that he washed his head in such cold, and they held it to be an act of his immaturity, because he was very, very secretive in his devotion. Also all the very many fasts that he fasted, absolutely no one in the world knew about them, even his father and his mother and his relatives, just his wife alone knew of it, and he would swear her that she should not reveal it to anyone, and he would do many (many) ruses to hide and to conceal all the fasting that he fasted, in such a way that no one would know of them.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman!

The Praises of Rabbi Nachman 11-13

HH

Shivchay Huran

11-13

11. And some times he would be speaking before Hashem Yisburach words of beseeching and supplication from his heart and it occurred to him while he was speaking nice arguments and fitting and articulate prayers, and they were good in his eyes and he would write them to have by him to remember, in order that he could also pray them frequently afterwards. And so he was accustomed in this matter to speak between himself and his Creator very very copiously, and all the prayers were that he should merit to draw close to Hashem Yisburach, and he had great arguments to Hashem Yisburach on this.

12. ‎And even still it seemed to him always that he was not being looked at at all and he was not being heard at all, just on the contrary, it seemed to him that he was being alienated from His service blessed He with all types of alienation as if he was not desired at all whatsoever. Because he would see the changing and passing of many many days and years and he was still distant from a Hashem Yisburach, and still had not merited to be drawn any closer, therefore it seemed in his eyes that his words were not being heard at all and absolutely no attention was being given to him, just on the contrary, he was being alienated with all types of alienation from His service blessed He. But even still he would strengthen himself tremendously and would not leave his place. And there were times that he was disheartened because he saw that he prays, pleads, and implores so much that he should be drawn close to the service of Hashem Yisburach but was not looked upon at all, and because of this he fell sometimes disheartened and he would not speak so much between himself and his Creator for some days. Afterwards he would be conscious of himself and would be embarrassed of himself that he suspected His attributes/conduct blessed He, because in reality certainly Hashem Yisburach is gracious and merciful etc. and certainly He desires to draw him close etc. and he returned and strengthened his resolve, and he began again to plead and speak before Hashem Yisburach as mentioned above. And so it was many times.

13. And he would do all types of simple devotions of service of Hashem without any smarts ("chuchmos") and all with great secrecy/modesty. And immediately upon going outside he would purposely do all types of childish things, all types of silliness and prancing and other similar things (which are called in Yiddish far shaitkait) until it was not possible for it to occur to anyone that he desired the service of Hashem.

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 secretly 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 (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), 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 yichud 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 yichud. And his intention was in order to do many mitzvos, because his devotion was with absolute simplicity without any smarts ("chuchmos")  whatsoever.

And similarly he would do and serve Hashem Yisburach with all types of absolutely simple devotions without any smarts (-chuchmos) whatsoever, even though in reality he was enormously wise with very extreme superlative wisdom even in his childhood and in his youth as was widely known to all who knew him, even still he did not use any smarts whatsoever in the service of Hashem and was just accustomed to doing all the simple devotions of the world. That is, studying a lot of Torah, good deeds, and abundant prayers and supplications, and very abundant hisbodidus, to speak and express his words before Him blessed He as mentioned above, and so forth. And this was his essential phenomenally great wisdom, because from his utter superlative wisdom he merited immediately to this wisdom that no wisdom whatsoever is necessary for the service of Hashem. Because this is the fundamental greatest wisdom of all (as is explained in our words many times), not to be smart at all in the service of Hashem, just (to conduct) with unfeigned wholeheartedness and simplicity without any smarts (-chuchmos) whatsoever.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman

The Praises of Rabbi Nachman 8-10

HH

Shivchay Huran

8-10

8. And he related that all his learning came to him with great exertion, because at the beginning he studied mishnayos, and he didn't understand what he was learning, and he would cry copiously before Hashem Yisburach that He should enlighten his eyes. And he would cry and cry so much until he merited that he was able to learn mishnayos. And so too afterwards he learned other books and he also didn't understand, and he would cry and cry as well very copiously until he merited to understand them. And so too with the study of Zohar and Kisvay Hu-Ari o.b.m., he would also cry copiously until he merited to understand.

And he said: that at the beginning with every single book that he studied he did not understand and it was extremely difficult for him and he was unable to figure out the simple meaning of the context. And he had great suffering from this, and his learning was with great exertion, and even still he learned a very great deal. Because he would strengthen himself immensely, and he merited to everything through his prayers and his crying as mentioned above.

9. And he would fast very profusely, and many times he fasted from Shabbos to Shabbos, and all this was in his very youth before he was 20 years old. And sometimes he fasted twice from Shabbos to Shabbos continuously from one to the next. And even though he was a "yel-ed (-a child of) shaashoo-im (delight/spoiled) (Jeremiah 31:19)," and was raised pampered, and was an extremely delicate person, even still he did not have any mercy on himself whatsoever, and he fasted and mortified himself tremendously, and he fasted 18 ("chay") times from Shabbos to Shabbos in one year (-that is the maximum feasible amount, because there are days in the year which are forbidden to fast on).

10. However, his main devotion through which he merited what he merited, was just the abundant prayers, and the beseeching, and the supplications, and the conciliations, and the appeasements that he was very accustomed to pray and beseech before Him blessed He. And he would placate and appease Him blessed He with all types of beseeching and supplications that He should merit him with His Mercy to draw him close to His service blessed He. And fundamentally what availed him were the prayers that he prayed in Yiddish, for he would very often designate for himself someplace that he found where there were no people, and he would express his words before Hashem Yisburach in the vernacular, that is in Yiddish. And he would placate and appease Him blessed He, and supplicate and beseech before Him blessed He with many, many types of argumentation and reasonings that it was befitting for Him blessed He that He should draw him close to His service, and he would do this very extremely frequently, and he spent days and years at this.

He would also hide himself on top of his father's house under the roof, where there was the likeness of a room with partitions of reeds for storage of hay and fodder, and he would hide himself there and recite Psalms and he would scream silently to Hashem Yisburach that He should merit him to draw him close to Him blessed He.

And in general all the various supplications in the world that are found in any book that is available by us, absolutely everything, he did not leave any beseechment or supplication that he did not say many, many times, whether it be Psalms, or the book "Shaaray (gates of) Tzion (Zion), or the supplications printed in the large prayer books, or the other types of supplications and beseechings, and even the beseechings printed in Yiddish - all of them, he did not leave out from saying them, and he would frequently say all the beseeching which are printed after the maamudos for each day, and he would frequently say all the beseechings in their entirety of all the days in one time (t.n. since the prayers are specific to the day of the week it is my belief that Rabbi Nachman would have introduced the prayers of each day accordingly: On Sunday this is..., On Monday this is...).

He was also accustomed at times to say from Psalms just the verses which speak in beseeching and supplication and screaming to Hashem Yisburach, and he would say just these verses and not say the rest. And he would say all these verses from the whole book of Psalms in one time.

And aside from all of this, the main thing was what he would pray from himself, that is, what he was accustomed to speak from his heart before Hashem Yisburach in Yiddish, that he would pray and argue before Hashem Yisburach with many, many types of argumentation and beseeching and supplications that he would say from his mind and his heart as mentioned above that Hashem Yisburach should merit him to His service. And this was the fundamental which availed him to merit to what he merited, so we heard from his holy mouth explicitly.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman!

The Praises of Rabbi Nachman 4-7

HH

Shivchay Huran

4-7

4. Also in his childhood he began to study with very tremendous diligence in his studies, and he would pay the teacher from his (own) pocket three large coins for every daf (-two sides of a page) of Talmud that he would learn with him, besides for the tuition of the tutelage that is father paid the teacher, he himself of blessed memory would give the teacher from his own (money) three large coins for every single daf, in order that the teacher would force himself to learn with him many dafim (pages) of Talmud every day. And so it was, that the teacher would learn with him many, many dafim every single day, and he would pay him as mentioned previously three large coins for every single daf besides for the tuition of tutelage.

5. ‎And so he entered into the devotion of Hashem, and all his devotion was with very extremely great secrecy/modesty, to the extent that absolutely no one new of him at all, because he was very concealed and hidden. And all his devotion was in concealment with great privacy. And his main devotion at first was with great simplicity without any smarts whatsoever, just with absolute simplicity, and every single thing that he did, everything was with great exertion and with great force and mesiras nefesh (self-sacrifice). And there is no matter of devotion which came to him easily, just every single thing came to him with very great exertion, that he would exert himself many times for every single matter of the devotion of Hashem. And he had many, many ups and downs, thousands and myriads beyond measure and reckoning.

And it was very extremely difficult and heavy upon him to begin to enter the devotion of Hashem to accept upon himself the yolk of His devotion blessed He. And he would frequently begin for a few days to engage in the devotion of Hashem, and afterwards would fall from it, and would return to begin, and would return and fall. And so it was many, many times until one time (t.n. there is a dream regarding this) he gained conviction that he would be very strong, that he would hold to devotion of a Hashem forever, and he would not look upon anything in the world. And from then on his heart was strengthened in Hashem, but even still even afterwards he constantly had very, very many ups and downs, just that afterwards he was strong that he would not let up His devotion blessed He forever, even though at times he will have a descent, even still he would strengthen himself in the devotion of Hashem Yisburach as much as he can.

6. And he used to begin each time anew, that is when he would sometimes fall from his level he would not despair of himself because of this, rather he would say that he would start anew as if he did not begin yet at all to enter His devotion blessed He, just now he is starting new. So it was every single time, always he used to begin anew, and he had many beginnings in one day, for even in one day sometimes he fell from his devotion and would begin anew, and so forth many times in one day.

7. And he studied with tremendous diligence and he learned a very great deal; "shas (Talmud)," and "poskim (halachic deciders)," and "Ta.Na.Ch. (Torah, Neveim-prophets, Kesuvim-scriptures)," and "Ain Yaakov (an anthology of the agada of the Talmud with commentaries)," and the books of the Zohar, and Tikunay Zohar, and all the "Kisvay (writings of) Hu-Ari (The lion, also acronym Rabbi Isaac (Luria)) o.b.m., and a vast amount of the other books, and "sifray (books of) mussar (ethics)," very abundantly.

And he said: that all the small books that speak of mussar (ethics), all of them where in his father's house. And he studied from all of them. He also learned a lot of "Raishis Chuchmuh (Beginning of Knowledge, a work of ethics authored by a disciple of the Ramak, based on Kabbalah)," and he said explicitly: that he learned the book Raishis Chuchmuh countless times (t.n. see the Words of Yisroel Dov Odesser where he tells over about R' Tzvi Hersch Rosenthal who was very keen on this work).

And the greatness of his vast proficiency in all the books as can be seen ostensibly somewhat, was without limit, and especially in the books of Ta.Na.Ch. and Ain Yaakov and all the Kisvay Hu-Ari and the books of the Zohar and Tikunim there is no one in the world to be found of his caliber. Because the whole Torah in its entirety was ready before him, fluent in his mouth, like a set table mamash, like something placed before the person before his eyes so that he could take for himself what he desires, similarly all the holy books were mamash set before the eyes of his holy intellect whenever he desired. And a bit of this can be seen and discerned in his holy books.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman!

Saba Yisroel -- To See The Blossoms of the Spring

Chapter 2 – His Childhood

Once, in the summer of 753 (1993), before the prayers he spoke about his childhood, and he fired us up so much that afterwards we prayed with shouting and great kavana (concentration and intention). He said that H”Y gave him many presents from the time he was little, that he did not desire this world at all. At that time the modern, who go in short clothing, began to proliferate, but he waited to become of age and wear a long garment. They suffered from poverty, he said that poverty is a great gift, because from a full stomach it is hard to serve Hashem; one sleeps a lot, and specifically from the poverty he saw the vanity of this world. At night he would go to sleep, but it is necessary to eat, and much time was left (without food) and he had only a piece of bread. When he saw someone saying Psalms with Kavana, he would say, “fortunate is this person, he is committed to the ultimate purpose!” He himself experienced great delight in every word of his prayer and of the Psalms that he said, and this was one of the presents.

When he prayed in the synagogue, he would pray with all this strength and kavana, as though he was alone, and one of the elders (who was very miserly) gave him a large coin every day, until he amassed a sum and he asked his mother to buy him a siddur 'kol-boa' – that has in it all types of supplications and prayers – from Jerusalem. He also told us that he would get up at night to serve Hashem, and the house was hot like a cave, and he would like a candle with benzine, in order to study, and in his house --- they were extremely poor – they were very grieved by this, for they saw that before Shabbos they were very deficient in benzine in order to cook etc.. Until they made electric lights outside, and he rejoiced greatly then, for now he would be able to pray and learn the night for free.

Chapter 3

Blossoms of the Spring

R' Yisroel told someone to reach out to his (this person's) family through letters, just as he (Saba) had done with Shazar, taking Rabbainu's books and quoting them in letters of outreach.

R' Yisroel once called one of the friends on Shabbos and said to him, “Behold I authored Blossoms of the Spring, this is not a simple matter.” This was like saying that this book was not a simple copying from the books of Rabbainu that anyone could have done, so the matter needs study.

Chapter 4

Love of Friends

Once, someone told R' Yisroel that he sees that it is very difficult to make peace between the friends. R' Yisroel replied, “I remained alon, all of them (all my friends) deserted me, very good” etc..

Once, R' Yisroel turned to two friends and asked them if they were friends, good friends. And he said that the main point of friendship is to find the truth.

On the last Rosh Hashana he said to someone: We should merit to have a true chevra (group of friends).

To someone whose friends conflicted with him and didn't speak with him, he said: We didn't come to this world for friends, just to serve Hashem – to fulfill the Torah and the mitzvos.

Once, at the end of his life, he said: I searched the whole world, I didn't find a friend. So someone asked him, “How does one merit to be your friend?” R' Yisroel answered: The main thing is to pray with a fiery heart to merit to draw close to Rabbainu in truth (and in this way it is possible to merit to be his friend, that was the implication).

To someone who lived alone, in a place without friends, R' Yisroel said: Your friend is the Likutay Tefilos.

He said to someone that is good to be friends with someone who donates a lot of money for the publication (of Rabbainu's teachings). Once, someone wanted to give charity to one of the friends because he heard of his plight, and someone (else) convinced him that it would be better to give it to R' Yisroel (-for the publication). So when he agreed and came to R' Yisroel with the donation, R' Yisroel responded with unwillingness and doubt, and in the end he (R' Yisroel) said to him: Fine, give to so-and -so and mentioned the name of the friend in plight (all of this without them having told him anything about the matter, because it was clearly visible to anyone who looked truthfully, that everything was revealed before him).

He asked someone to ascertain that he was friends with someone who desired to learn a lot, and learned a lot every day.

Once, someone took enjoyment, in his mind, that R' Yisroel chastised his friend, and after a few minutes R' Yisroel turned to him privately and said to him: you are not in order.