THE UNIQUE CHARM OF RABBI NACHMAN
The world needs me very much indeed. Without me, the world cannot exist at all.
You yourself know how much you need me. All the Tzaddikim also need me, because they too need to improve. Even the nations of the world need me. I could draw the gentiles to God and bring them closer to the faith of Israel. However: "Enough for the servant to be like his Master" ( Berachot 58b) .
Chayey Moharan #248, 250-1
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I am a river that cleanses from all stains.
I am a most beautiful, most amazing tree with most amazing branches. And down below, I am literally under the ground.
I am a wonder, and my soul is very wondrous.
I am the elder of elders.
I am the holy elder, who reveals things which the Ancient of Days concealed.
Chayey Moharan #245, 256, 272, 289, 332
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I will lead you on a new path which no man has ever traveled before. It is really a very old path, and yet it is completely new.
Tovot Zichronot p. 107
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In time to come, I will sing a song which will be the world to come of all the Tzaddikim and Chassidim.
Chayey Moharan #267
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My teachings and conversations are not only for you, but for "those who are here.... and for those who are not here" - the future generations (Deuteronomy 29:14; Rashi ad loc.) . You must also teach your children all the lessons and ideas and stories that I have revealed to you. "And you shall make them known to your children and your children's children!" (ibid. 4:9) .
Sichot Haran #209
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I can turn a person into a good Jew and make him just like me! Literally!!!
Chayey Moharan #230
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My mission is a secret. It is such a secret that even when I reveal the secret, it still remains a secret.
Siach Sarfey Kodesh 1-54
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Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, author of the Zohar , was unique, as everyone knows. From the time of Rabbi Shimon until the ARI (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria 1534-72) , there were no new revelations like Rabbi Shimon's. Only the ARI revealed entirely new and original teachings which no-one could reveal until his time. After the Ari, no new teachings were revealed until the coming of the Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760) , who was also totally unique and who revealed completely new teachings.
F rom the time of the Baal Shem Tov until today there have been no new revelations on such a level. Until now, the world has been sustained only by the revelations of the Baal Shem Tov.
Then I came along!!! And now I am starting to reveal totally awesome, exalted, original teachings.
Chayey Moharan #279
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I know wisdom that cannot be revealed. If I were to begin to reveal this wisdom, people would be nourished by the sheer delight of understanding it. They would no longer eat or drink. Every soul would long to hear this wisdom and the whole world would grind to a halt. People would leave their present lives in search of the sweet beauty of this wisdom. But I cannot reveal this wisdom to mankind.
Sichot Haran #181
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As yet the world has not had the least taste of me. Were they only to hear one of my lessons with its true melody and dance, they would pass into a state of complete surrender. I mean the whole world - even the animals and plants! Everything in existence would be nullified. Their very souls would expire from overwhelming delight.
Think of the power of music and dance. Someone who truly understands music can play melodies that spring from its very essence and have the power to draw the very soul of the listener after their every nuance. The listener becomes totally subordinate to the melody, surrendering himself to its drawing power. The melody penetrates and arouses him, drawing him along with it.
This is even more so with dance. A real dancer can dance in such a way that his body expresses every subtle shade of the music he is dancing to. Every limb of his body moves in perfect unison with the music. Sometimes the music calls for a movement of the head, the legs or the arms. It may call for the dancer to bend down or swing around. The movements of the body must be in perfect harmony with the music.
Now think of a melody with words. In a perfect song, the words are connected to the melody in every detail. The song expresses in words exactly what the music expresses through the beauty of the melody. Now add the element of dance: the dance expresses in terms of bodily movement what the words and music express in their terms. Everything works in complete harmony.
When the words, melody and dance are all interrelated and interwoven in perfect unity, anyone who experiences them will be so overwhelmed with delight that his soul will literally expire and he will fall into a state of complete surrender. This is the greatest of all pleasures. Anyone who hasn't tasted this knows nothing of pleasure.
Those present when such a player sings and dances are powerless: they simply expire with yearning and delight. The closer a person is to the melody and dance and the deeper his understanding, the more the movements of the music and dance will come naturally because of the drawing power of the delight they cause. His pleasure at the music and dance draws him in and takes over. He quite spontaneously starts moving, singing and dancing.
Likewise, the closer someone is to my teachings, the more natural and easy will the movements of their holy song and dance become.
Happy is the eye that sees this, for even in the next world, not everyone will be worthy of hearing and seeing this. "Only those who labor on the eve of Shabbat will eat on Shabbat."
Chayey Moharan #340
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It occurred to me that I ought to take my wife and go off to some remote place where I could live in secrecy out of everyone's sight. From time to time I would step out into the street and take a look at the world and laugh at everyone and everything.
Chayey Moharan #259
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When somebody thinks of me they become like a newborn babe.
Siach Sarfey Kodesh 1-17
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Nobody ever loses out on my account.
Siach Sarfey Kodesh 1-28
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God has granted me that whenever people speak of me , their thoughts will turn to repentance.
Siach Sarfey Kodesh 1-47
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I encounter great opposition and people ask many questions about me. And with one silence I answer all the questions.
Siach Sarfey Kodesh 1-59
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Why have I revealed so many amazing teachings and stories and shared so many of my thoughts with you? Let me explain it with a parable.
There was once a king whose only son became so ill that all the doctors despaired of curing him. Meanwhile, a doctor of outstanding wisdom came and the king begged him to try his best to cure the prince. The doctor told him truthfully that the chances of the prince being cured were very remote, but if they tried one last thing , there was a very faint possibility that the prince would be cured .
"But I don't know if I should tell you what this method is," said the doctor, "because it will be very hard indeed to apply it."
When the king pressed him to reveal the method , the doctor said: "You must understand that your son's illness is so desperate that it is now quite impossible to put even a single drop of medicine in his mouth. However, there are certain remedies which are so priceless that a single small bottle costs thousands and thousands of gold pieces. Now you must fill barrels and barrels full of these precious remedies and pour them in bucketfuls over your son. Obviously these precious remedies will almost all go to waste, but the prince will become slightly stronger. And it may be that as they are poured all over him, one tiny drop will enter his mouth and he might be healed."
The king immediately agreed and gave instructions to do what the doctor had suggested , and this was how the prince was healed.
Precisely because we are so crushed by the sickness of our souls, the Tzaddik, the faithful doctor, is forced to pour priceless remedies over us, even though it would seem that virtually all of them will go to waste. Nevertheless, the sweet scent is absorbed. And in the fullness of time, maybe we will allow one drop to enter into our mouths and our inner being, and then there will be some hope for us to be healed spiritually and physically.
Chayey Moharan #391
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Sometimes I tell a person something but it has no effect until my words are passed from this person to the next and from one friend to another. Eventually they reach a particular individual and penetrate deep inside his heart. Then they carry out their mission to perfection, stirring and arousing him.
Sichot Haran #208
If you saw a great treasure you would surely rush to dig it up , even if it meant getting very muddy and dirty.
Am I not the treasury of fear of Heaven? Then why don't people run after me to get it? The way to attain it is with your lips and heart. You must be bold enough to ask for it. It is "in your mouth and in your heart that you may do it" (Deuteronomy 30:14) .
Chayey Moharan #295
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I am a "new container full of old wine" ( Avot 4:7) .
Chayey Moharan #289
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Once, an important trader was traveling with a consignment of fine Hungarian wine. During the journey his assistant and the carriage driver said to him, "Here we are, traveling with all this wine. It's a very hard journey - give us a little taste of the wine." He agreed to let them have a small taste.
A few days later, the assistant happened to be in a small town with some people who were drinking wine and praising it extravagantly. They said it was Hungarian.
"Let me have a taste," said the assistant. They gave him some, and he said, "This isn't fine Hungarian wine at all!" They were most offended and told him to leave, but he insisted: "I know very well that this wine isn't Hungarian, because I was with a wine merchant who had genuine Hungarian wine and he gave me some to try. I know what it really tastes like." But they ignored him.
But when the Mashiach comes, then they'll know. The time will come for the fine old wine stored up for the righteous to be served. Others will be fooled into believing that inferior Romanian, Wallachsian and Strovitsarian wines are fine old vintage wines. But none of my followers will be fooled, because they've already tasted the good wine!
Chayey Moharan #260
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In time to come the whole world will be Breslover Chassidim.
"I will give you a heart of flesh, LeV BaSaR" (Ezekiel 36:26) . Read the word not as BaSaR but as BoSeR, "glad" (Midrash) . Everyone will be glad at their friends' good fortune.
The letters of the words LeV BoSeR, a glad heart, spell out the word BReSLoV.
Chayey Moharan #339
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BACK TO THE ESSENTIAL RABBI NACHMAN HOMEPAGE
By Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum
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