The Blog @ Breslov.org

Week of Malkhut, Third Day

Major sefirah: Malkhut/Royalty-Kingship; minor sefirah: Tiferet/Splendor

There’s a time to be frugal and a time to be lavish. For my family and myself, we don’t have to a tent made from crocodile skin, imported from the Far East. It’s enough if our tent is decent quality canvas from wherever—frugal.

But when it comes to making a tent for God—the Mishkan—then whatever it costs to import the finest giraffe hides from Africa is what we’ll pay. To publicize and enhance the splendor and glory of God’s kingdom, is where we ought to spend our money. If honoring God is going to cost a few more drachmas or gold dinars, let me know. I’ll untie my purse and give you what I’ve got.

I’ve noticed something beautiful about tzaddikim and budding tzaddikim. They’re balanced. They always seem poised, knowing that when making a decision they aren’t just figuring out what is the best option in front of them. They’re weighing more than just possible outcomes. They’re weighing what’s going into that decision, what parts of them are involved in choosing what should be done.

So they don’t let their anger or haste overwhelm other voices that are speaking. Nor do they let their pity run away with the show. They have some sort of internal debate or dialogue, “weigh” all the input and choose. That’s a golden balance! That’s a splendid way for a Jew to live.

Our patriarch Yaakov was known for his truthfulness and honesty. Even when he worked for Lavan, one of the biggest double-talking, bald-faced liars and cheats of all-time, Yaakov Avinu showed up on time for work, every day. Never took what wasn’t coming to him. I’m going to strive to be that honest. I’m going to keep my word in business. I want every shekel I give to charity to be 100% kosher!

When I daven (pray) the Shemonah Esrei blessing Refaeinu (Heal us #8) I will try to make amends for seeking perfection and glory at the expense of God’s honor. I now find that idea nauseating. My actually having done certainly makes Mashiach ill.

Ozer Honesty, Sefirat HaOmer, Shemonah Esrei, charity, money Amidah, Avodas Hashem, God, Honesty, Mashiach, money, sefirah, Shemonah Esrei, teshuvah, truth

im yirtzeh Hashem (God willing) The Rebbe Nachman Thursday Night Chaburah (we recently celebrated our second anniversary!) will be broadcast live starting this Thursday night. You can find us at Radio Free Nachlaot.

It begins 8 PM Jerusalem time, 1 PM Eastern Daylight Time, noon Central, 10 AM Pacific.

We will be continuing Sichot HaRan (aka Sichos HaRan aka Rabbi Nachman’s Wisdom), siman/chapter #154. Listen and learn Rebbe Nachman’s secret for success!

If there is sufficient interest, I will, im yirtzeh Hashem, post the text of upcoming chapters each week.

Our thanks to the good folk at RFN, Lorlei Kude and “Deuteronomy” Levine, and our hosts, the Rothbergs.

Ozer Classes Avodas Hashem, Jerusalem, Rebbe Nachman, Sichot HaRan, success

One of the big lessons of Rebbe Nachman’s story The Seven Beggars, a lesson so out in the open that it is hidden, is that one cannot judge a book—or a person—by its/his cover. Even though each of the beggars was physically deformed and materially impoverished, he was a hidden gem of a human being, with incomparable gifts to share.

The Rebbe is hinting to us to be open in the way we view people, to relate more to their behavior than to their appearance. Each of the beggars is generous in sharing his bread and blessing. (These are allusions to material and spiritual gifts, gifts that help a person to achieve what he cannot achieve on his own, and other gifts to help him achieve what he must achieve on his own. But I digress.)

While it is certainly a mitzvah to provide and care for people who have nothing to share in return, we need to know that we cannot be indiscriminate in inviting guests to our home. Reb Noson once invited a poor unfortunate to his Shabbos table. The individual was sufficiently repugnant that Reb Noson’s young son expressed his distaste in a clear manner. Reb Noson gave the child a potch (smack).

After Shabbos, Reb Noson spoke to Rebbe Nachman about what had occurred. Rebbe Nachman had two observations. “Since when do we give a child a potch?” The other was that Reb Noson should have at his Shabbos table only those with whom he could talk Torah and avodas Hashem (service of God).

Ozer Child rearing, Kindness, Rebbe Nachman, Shabbat, awe, reb nosson Avodas Hashem, Child rearing, guests, Reb Noson, Rebbe Nachman, Rebbe Nachman's Stories, Shabbos table

Sometimes it seems as if we’ve been given a break. Our Avodas Hashem starts getting easier for a while. The pull towards materialism seems to have subsided. We may start thinking that all of our efforts have paid off, and that we have finally reached a plateau in our service of HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

All of sudden, they come back. Not only have they returned, but they seem stronger than ever. We suddenly are confronted with worldly desires that we don’t seem to have had before. New fantasies take over our reality. Troubling and foreign thoughts start to take over our minds. We become confused and perplexed from all that’s going on. New and increasingly difficult obstacles begin to stand in our way, preventing us from truly engaging in Avodas Hashem.

We start to wonder to ourselves, have I fallen? Everything was so easy just a short while ago. Have I fallen from all those levels that I worked so hard to achieve?

Rebbe Nachman teaches us that no, all that’s happening is not a sign of having fallen. It’s a common mistake to think this way, and many people who are sincerely involved in Avodas Hashem make this error. Just recently everything was going so well, and they don’t understand why all this is happening to them.

But the truth is that the reason for this is because they are ready to go up a level and to ascend to greater heights. It is a rule in Avodas Hashem that before anybody can climb to a new level, he must first be confronted with a totally new trial. At the threshold of each new level it always seems as if he’s back to ground zero, as if he’s never even started.

This doesn’t only apply to people in a higher level in their service of Hashem. Everybody who is trying to go on the path of Avodas Hashem, even if he’s on a very low level, even a person who thinks that he’s totally materialistic, is always rising from one level to the next.
We must all learn to be confident, and not to feel bad at all when this happens. We must learn to go further, and to break through them once again on the new level, as we already have on the previous levels.

Rebbe Nachman gives us some practical advice to help us deal with these ordeals. He says that we should try to be glad about our good points. We should be happy about the fact that we are Jews, and that we have merited being close to Tzaddikim who are directing us in the proper path, by which we certainly have what to hope for. Through this joy we can break through these trials and obstacles in each new level.

Based on Meshivas Nefesh 6, 8

Written by Ephraim Portnoy

Copyright (R) 2009 The Breslov Research Institute

admin Uncategorized Avodas Hashem