The Blog @ Breslov.org

Based on Likutey Halakhot P’ru u’R’vu 3:10

One of the minhagim (customs) of the month of Elul is that we blow the shofar every morning after Shacharit (aka Shacharis aka the Morning Prayer). Now, like last week, let’s try to get another perspective on something we do so regularly that we’re in danger of doing it mechanically, unthinkingly.

Also continuing with last week’s idea that teshuvah (returning to God) can consist of simcha (joy, cheer), let’s re-think the shofar. Sure, you’re saying, I know what a shofar is. It’s a ram’s horn that’s a Jewish ritual object. In the old days it was the warning signal people used, like an ambulance or air-raid siren. It would send a shiver up the spine and people got shook up. So Jews still sound it on Rosh HaShanah to get themselves “shook up” and “all fearful” of the Lord. (See Amos 3:6.) It helps a fair number of them to straighten up their act.

If that works for you, OK. I just want to offer a musical alternative. A ram’s horn is a horn, as in a musical instrument horn. The sounds that come out of it aren’t just an alarm saying, “Be scared! Be real scared!” Those sounds are musical notes. And the sets of sounds* that accompany each of the Rosh HaShanah Musaf blessings are songs. In fact, they are primary, archetypical songs, which Rebbe Nachman refers as The Ten Types of Song (see Likutey Moharan II, #92).

Observe, says Reb Noson. King David concludes the Book of Psalms, which is built from each of the the types of song, with a psalm that contains ten expressions of praise. The tenth and final expression is, “Praise [God] with the stirring teruah” (Psalms 150:5), an allusion to the Rosh HaShanah shofar-blowing. OK. So why the connection between music and song and teshuvah?

You know who does teshuvah? Not someone who thinks he’s OK, or OK with God. The potential teshuvah-doer is the one who suffers upset at the thought of how distant he (or she) is from God. Such a person surveys his Jewishly-wrong choices and hears them as a requiem, a funereally sad song. He hears that he is far from God—perhaps true—and that he must suffer being buried on the wrong side of the chasm between him and God.

Such a song results neither in teshuvah nor in God’s glory. Praise God with the teruah! The teshuvah-doer’s shofar-music is the song of what she’s done right! “Look at that! I did a kindness here and resisted a temptation there. The distance is not as great as it could have been!” This is the song of compassion we can hear when the shofar is sounded. This is the song we will hear when we exercise true and sacred compassion toward ourselves and choose to better our eternal destiny.

And when you think about it more deeply, you’ll realize that the fear and joy the shofar induces are not so far apart. As the sweet singer of Israel says, “Rejoice with trembling” (Psalms 2:11).

© Copyright 2010 Breslov Research Institute

*These are the famed TaSHRaT, TaSHaT, TaRaT. They are mnemonics for: Tekiah, SHevarim, teRuah, Tekiah; Tekiah, Shevarim, Tekiah; Tekiah, teRuah, Tekiah.

Ozer Elul, Kindness, music, simcha, teshuvah Dvar Torah, music, shofar, teshuvah

Dvar Torah for Elul/Teshuvah-Time

Based on Likutey Halakhot, P’ru u’R’vu 3:10

We’re taking a break from the based-on-the-parshah dvar Torah. Don’t fret none. With God’s help we’ll be writing and you’ll be reading, just it won’t (necessarily) be about the parshah. And, also with God’s help, it won’t be boring or uninformative, either.

Now, you’ve certainly heard and read a lot about teshuvah. You’ve seen the word teshuvah translated in different ways, sometimes return or returning, coming back—to God, that is—and sometimes as repent. When people said “repent” did you ever wonder what they meant?

Well, it means feeling contrite for doing the wrong things you’ve done (or said or thought), and it means amending your life so that you repeat your mistakes (aka sins) less and less. If you’re like most people who want to be better Jews, you’ll amend your life by doing, or not doing, something that you can measure. For example, you’ll (try to): curse less; eat only kosher food; study more Torah every day; not steal or cheat, etc., etc.

Did it ever, ever occur to you that instead of just eliminating the (obviously) wrong and doing more good things, that you should change your attitude? Did it ever occur to you that you can accomplish more by improving your attitude than by changing your regimen? Maybe you should tell your self, “Self, I was thinking. I behave pretty decently. Yes, I have to cut down on my Internet gambling, and there’s no reason I can’t make the minyan every day. But Self, what I really need to fix, what I must change if I really want to do teshuvah, is add simcha to each mitzvah I do. I’ve got to be glad to it. I will be happy when a mitzvah comes my way. I will enjoy each and every mitzvah I do!”

Rebbe Nachman teaches that two people can be sitting side by side in Gan (the Garden of) Eden. One will thoroughly enjoying it. The other will feel no enjoyment or anything special. Why? They both believed and they both did. They’re in Gan Eden for crying out loud! The difference is that the former enjoyed doing mitzvahs, the latter did not (Likutey Moharan I, #191).

So, fer sure (as the young people like to say), tinker somewhat with your behavior. But start adding a genuine smile to your every mitzvah, as well.

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!

© Copyright 2010 Breslov Research Institute

Ozer Elul, simcha, teshuvah Dvar Torah, Likutey Moharan, simcha, teshuvah

Based on Likutey Moharan II, Lesson #78

“At that time I [Moshe] pleaded with God, saying” (Deuteronomy 3:23).

This is the lesson in which Rebbe Nachman makes one of his most famous pronouncements:

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS DESPAIR!

And how does he know this? From the history of the world.

In Likutey Halakhot (Milah 3:2), his commentary to Likutey Moharan, Reb Noson writes that logically speaking, because the purpose of Creation is that the Jews should live by the Torah, God should have given the Torah to mankind straight away. (Back then the whole world could’ve been, would’ve been Jewish.) Not only that, but since life—the mere animal, “live to eat” kind and the truly human, sacred life—comes only from living according to the Torah, it seems imperative that the Torah be given immediately. So why did God wait for twenty-six generations until He gave it?

God was doing us a favor, a favor we didn’t deserve and a favor that would serve us well when we would be undeserving (as we often are). God doesn’t want to lose a single soul. Any spark of holiness that a soul will produce is the soul’s salvation. Had the Torah been given right away, we would immediately have been charged with its observance. And with the first false step, it would’ve been over.

Because, Reb Noson says, Creation tests our free will and without free will there is no reward or punishment. Theoretically, every human being could always choose to observe the Torah and live a flawless life. Theoretically. But practically speaking, there isn’t a tzaddik alive who hasn’t sinned (Ecclesiastes 7:20; see Tosafot, Shabbat 55a s.v. arba’ah). So had there ben no twenty-six generation grace period, in which God sustained mankind without anyone at all living by the Torah, the first human mistake (aka sin), would have brought personal, perhaps even global, destruction in its wake.

That initial grace of God still exists. In our personal lives as well, there is always, always, a measure of grace that God extends. It is available even if a person has committed every crime in the Good Book. This grace goes by the name teshuvah, return. This grace is taught and modeled by the tzaddik. Seek him and allow him to show you how to receive and live the gift of hope and repair, of teshuvah, no matter what.

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!

© Copyright 2010 Breslov Research Institute

Ozer Tzaddik, Weekly Parsha, teshuvah Dvar Torah, Tzaddik

Based on Likutey Moharan I, Lesson #219

How could there be a Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple) anyway? Didn’t the wise King Solomon say (1 Kings 8:27), “Why, neither the heavens nor the heavens of heaven can contain You, how much less this edifice that I have built!” Rebbe Nachman answers that it’s God love that made it happen. Out of love for us, His precious Jewish people, God reeled in His majesty, cloaking it so that it would be contained, “housed,” in the Beit HaMikdash. This cloaking is alluded to by the verse (Psalms 93:1), “God is King; He donned majesty.”

But you know who couldn’t behave themselves. The worm of greed and jealousy find its way inside them. Instead of loving one another the way God loves them—each and every one—they began to turn away from each other. They held back their generosity, they failed to speak up for the other who was being humiliated and they failed to overlook another’s failure.

And once they misapplied self-restraint in dealing with others—holding back when should have been bold and giving, and not containing themselves when should have, such that the fire of revenge turned into a destructive plot and words—God, too, as it were, no longer constrained Himself. Commenting on the verse (Lamentations 2:17), “Beetza emrato (He executed His word)” the Midrash (Eikhah Rabbati 1:1) says, “He tore His mantle.”

And indeed, once His majesty burst through, the Beit HaMikdash burst into the flames of anger and jealousy that had been lit. Truly an awful display of power.

May the self-restraint we show on Tisha b’Av carry over so that we behave towards one another the way Jews truly ought to, and may God once again don His mantle of majesty, so that we soon see the fulfillment of the prophecy (Zechariah 14:9), “God will be King over the entire world; on that day God will be One and His Name will be One.” Amen.

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!

© Copyright 2010 Breslov Research Institute

Ozer Tisha b'Av, Tisha b’Av Dvar Torah, Tisha b’Av

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Shavuot 2:35 and Rabbi Nachman’s Wisdom #96

“Therefore, proclaim, Behold! I [God] give [Pinchas] My covenant: Peace” (Numbers 25:12).

We know that God acts measure for measure. How, then, does a spear-toting, tribal-head killing “zealot” (a loaded word, if ever there was one!) get rewarded with God’s covenant of shalom, peace?! A question like this tells us we need to re-examine our definitions and premises.

It’s easier to deal with one opponent than with many. So, one accused of suspect behavior is better off being attacked by a vigilante than by a mob. The mob’s judgment would overwhelm him. Therefore, by silencing the mob with his attack, the vigilante does the suspect a great favor.

This is what happened in the episode of Pinchas and Zimri. “Pinchas…turned My wrath away from the children of Israel, when he took My revenge…and I did not destroy them” (Numbers 25:11). Pinchas killed the sinner Zimri, taking judgment into his own hands. Had he not done so, the Jews would have been annihilated, God forbid. But because Pinchas took God’s vengeance into his own hands, the accusation against the Jews was silenced.

So, although your opponent—and you—may not realize it, his attack may be saving you from something worse. As a people this is also true. Protests made by one element of our wonderful nation, may be saving the rest of us from who knows what tragedy, God forbid!

But wait! Who says “the other guy” or “they,” are wrong? Maybe they’re OK and the protestor is wrong? Oyyy! That’s another reason this long, bitter galut (exile) is so horrible—everybody claims they’ve got the truth! “With God and/or Torah on our side” (and not theirs!) is a refrain understood, if not actually heard, from many religious quarters. And for better or worse, the Godless make claim after claim of other truths, with a certainty that rivals religious fervor.

What’s a seeker to do?

Reb Noson writes that somehow, in some amazing fashion, despite the constant, daily attacks, God protects and preserves the essence of truth from being falsified or adulterated. He quotes Rebbe Nachman: “Gott firt tamid ois; God is constantly finishing” His work of perfecting the world. One who seeks the truth even after thinking he’s found it, will continue to seek it. He will observe the effect of his giving charity. Wrong charity will lead to dissension; kosher charity will lead to shalom.

But! warns Reb Noson, peace is not apathy! To let wrongdoing continue because one doesn’t want to be a troublemaker or is content with his situation, is flattery and falsehood, not shalom. Real truth cannot be done away with, and will not be silenced. Shalom can only be established when the lies surrender, and submit to the truth.

May the One Who makes shalom above, make shalom between us and between all Israel. Amen!

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!

© Copyright 2010 Breslov Research Institute

Ozer Shalom/Peace, charity, truth, tzedakkah charity, Dvar Torah, Parsha, peace, Shalom, truth

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Melamdim 4:6

Remember what Amalek did to you b’derekh, on the road, when you left Egypt (Deuteronomy 25:17).

One of the leaders of Breslover chassidim today, Rebbe Yaakov Meir Schechter (may he live and be well), once pointed out that Rebbe Nachman’s two major works open in a similar vein. The very first lesson in Likutey Moharan begins with the verse (Psalms 119:1), “Fortunate are those whose derekh, road, is faultless.” Sippurey Maasiot (Rabbi Nachman’s Stories) is prefaced by Rebbe Nachman’s terse comment, “On the road I told a story….”*

What has this to do with Parshat Balak? The holy Zohar (3:199b) notes that the Hebrew letters which spell the names of the villains in this week’s parsha, BaLAaM and BaLaK, spell the words BiLBuL (confusion) and AMaLeK. Confusion of values and misunderstanding Torah ideas play into Amalek’s hands. That being the case, he wants us to be unclear in every situation and every position in which we may find ourselves.
That way we will live in illusion, lose our faith and, God forbid, adopt his values.

The inoculation and remedy for this? To bear in mind the words of the Shema Yisrael: “and you will speak [these words] when you are home and when you go b’derekh, on the road” (Deuteronomy 6:7). The Talmud (Berakhot 11a) teaches that the word b’derekh indicates that no matter what position one finds oneself in—standing, sitting, walking—one may read the Shema. Reb Noson writes that it’s obvious that what we can do to serve Hashem varies from situation to situation. After all, Shabbat is not Wednesday, morning is not night and being on the road is not being at home. But no matter where and no matter what, there is always some way to connect with God.

Our job is to believe that and then—figure out what it is! Is it prayer or Torah study? giving charity** or doing a favor? yearning to be a better Jew? raising your awareness of God’s presence? believing in Him, the Torah, tzaddikim or yourself? As Udel, Rebbe Nachman’s daughter, would often be heard saying, “God—what pleasure can I give you now?”

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!

© Copyright 2010 Breslov Research Institute

*To not leave you in suspense, the remainder of the comment is: “and everyone who heard it had a thought of repentance.”

**Many worthwhile causes (and individuals) can receive donations via PayPal.

admin Weekly Parsha BaLAaM, BaLaK, Dvar Torah, Parshat Balak, Reb Noson, Rebbe Nachman

Based on Likutey Moharan I, Lesson #24:2

“Let Korach and his entire party…offer ketoret (incense)…each one took his fire pan…and offered ketoret…Moshe then said to Aharon, ‘Take the fire pan…offer ketoret and take it quickly to the community to atone for them” (Numbers 16:16, 18; ibid. 17:11).

Kelipot (literally, shells, husks) is a generic name which chassidic works give to the evil forces that weaken people’s mitzvah performance and diminish the honor of God and His Torah. Ketoret, the special incense that was offered twice daily in the Holy Temple, has a unique power to counter kelipot, even the darnedest of them.

One of the most pernicious kelipot is overreaching, wanting more than you can have, more than is good for you. This is true not only in material concerns, but even in spiritual ones. For example, if you’ve been given the honor of being a Levite, with the privilege of serving in the Temple, don’t insist on being a kohen (priest) who wears a fancy uniform and offers the sacrifices. One of two things happens when we overreach. Either we get what we desired and grow too big for our britches, or we don’t get what we want and come to grief.

For the time being we lack the Holy Temple. Are we at the mercy of kelipot? God forbid, no! Is there something that can substitute for the ketoret? Yes! Rebbe Nachman teaches us that simcha shel mitzvah, performing mitzvahs with joy, has the same effect. The Arizal teaches (Shaar HaKavanot, Derushei Tefilat HaBoker p. 85) that the eleven spices of the ketoret canceled and nullified the eleven “crowns” of the other side—that which makes them seem fragrant and alive. Genuine life, that which is sacred, is freed from working for the kelipot. In this way, ketoret brings joy (Proverbs 27:9).

Each mitzvah we do makes use of some piece of the physical world.

Until a Jew interacts with it, that piece was “extra,” not-yet-used in the service of God. It was still in the clutches of the Other Side, ready to be used for a non-purpose, a goal which leads to grief.

The simcha (happiness and joy) we invest in doing a mitzvah cancels the potential sadness that would result from misusing that piece of the world. The secret of creating within ourselves simcha shel mitzvah comes (in part) from realizing the privilege we have to be “Levites serving in the Temple”—ordinary Jews—even if we are not yet a “kohen”—a total tzaddik.

Happily doing a mitzvah may not seem like such a big deal, but the Arizal said that he attained his great success in Jewishness as a result of performing the mitzvahs with great simcha.

May we have full faith in the genuine tzaddikim, emulate (not mimic!) them, always side with them and never revolt against them. Amen!

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!

© Copyright 2010 Breslov Research Institute

admin Uncategorized Breslov Research Institute, Dvar Torah, Kelipot, Parshat Korach

Based on Likutey Halakhot, M’onen u’M’nacheish 2

Parshat HaChodesh, celebrating as it does our very first mitzvah that we received as a people, cries for an explanation: Why are we moonies (pardon the expression)?

From its first mention in the Torah, the moon represents all that has gone wrong and remains in a state of imperfection in the world, as it currently operates. By immediately giving us the mitzvah to sanctify the moon, God is telling us that our mission is to correct what is broken, to “fill the moon’s lack.”
“[None among you shall be a...] diviner of auspicious times or omens…” (Deuteronomy 18:10). One of the motivations for seeking out the help of fortune-tellers and soothsayers is to gain an advantage over Nature by knowing what is in store and how to avoid it, if detrimental, or how to optimally use it. The mitzvah to not seek such knowledge is to remind us that we are, essentially, a super-natural people. Of course, none of us can fly and we all have to look both ways before crossing the street—we are not impervious to physical
harm or disease.

But to fulfill our mission as a people, we as individuals have to take care to guard our essence, our connection to the Creator of Nature. In an ideal world, one’s connection to the Divine, through observance and performance of His will, would correspond directly to a like-result. We know all too well, however, that the world does not currently operate that way. God hides His continual, loving control and guidance behind the screen of Nature.

Filling the moon’s lack requires our synthesizing the natural and the rational laws of life with faith in the Creator, Who is beyond and outside them, Who can contravene them as He likes, whenever He chooses. To seek magical and paranormal solutions is to misuse our faith, even if we haven’t totally excluded God from our calculations.

And coming on the heels of last week’s episode of the Golden Calf, we see that the Jewish women, who refused to give their jewelery to produce the Golden Calf, exhibited a Jewish essence deeper than their husbands’. This is why they, and not the men, were given Rosh Chodesh as a special holiday, and why they are promised to be continually renewed in the Future (Pirkei d’Rebbe Eliezer, Chapter 45), when faith and nature will collaborate to reveal God’s presence.

May we live to see it, soon. Amen.
agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!
© Copyright 2010 Breslov Research Institute

Chaim Oliver Uncategorized Dvar Torah

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Beitzim 4:1

An egg which is round on both ends, or pointy on both ends, is certainly not kosher. An egg which is round on one end and pointy on the other, may be kosher. You have to ask someone trustworthy (Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh Deah 86:1).

Round and pointy refer to two traits for which Jews are known, shame and brazenness, respectively. Too much of either is a sure sign that one will successful in neither Torah study nor overall Jewishness. Too much shame, or fear to speak up at the right time, means that one won’t seek the information he needs within Torah and will fail to take a stand against those that attempt to limit honest Jewishness.

Being too pointy, always impudent, is also not kosher. While arguments for the sake of Heaven do exist (Avot 5:20), being constantly confrontational indicates that one is more interested in victory than in truth (see Likutey Moharan I, Lesson #75). Not a good game plan for being attached to the Creator.

Yet exercising a proper measure of shame and brazenness is not a guarantee of being kosher. Each of these traits can me misplaced. For example, one might feel too meek or ashamed to tell the Greek oppressors that he won’t accept the restrictions they’re placing on the exercise of Jewish practice. And he may feel supremely confident in shushing those Maccabees who are shouting, “Anyone for God—with me!”

Chanukah is related to the word ChiNuKh (education, training). With Chanukah, we beginn again to become Jewish, to train ourselves (and perhaps others as well) to properly exercise those traits which will get us through the challenges that we will eventually face. The Chashmonaim (aka Hasmoneans) modeled the successful use of shame and brazenness. They stood up to the Greeks because they were ashamed to face their Creator, and their ancestors, devoid of the essentials of Judaism and having failed to defend God’s honor.

God, please help us to properly exercise our shame and brazenness, at the right time and the right place, to the right degree. Amen.

afreilekhen Chanukah!
Chanukah sameach!

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!

admin Chanukah Chanukah, Dvar Torah, Likutey Halakhot, shame and brazenness

Based on Likutey Moharan II, Lesson 4:10

Yaakov said [to Esav], “Please don’t [refuse my gift]. If I have found favor in your eyes, take my offering…For me, seeing your face is like seeing the face of an angel; and you have received me favorably”
(Genesis 33:10).

Said Rebbe Elazar, “When the Temple stood, a person would donate his [annual] shekel and be forgiven. Now that the Temple is not standing, if he gives charity, fine. If not, gentiles will come and take it by force. Nonetheless, it will be considered as if he gave charity, as the verse says (Isaiah 60:17), ‘[Instead of] your creditors, charity’
(Baba Batra 9a).

I don’t know if this is 100% true, but it’s pretty close, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” It’s human nature to want to maximize income and making legitimate, legal use of tax loopholes is as natural in Beijing as it is in Brooklyn. (Do I have to say that hiding income and cheating the government may be counter to halakhah, and may also lead to chillul Hashem [disgrace of God’s name]? There—I’ve said it.)

Even though we often see “our tax dollars at work” on various public projects (like fixing traffic lights), we don’t like to pay taxes because we feel that it is money wasted. Well, I hope the following will make you feel a little better, even if it doesn’t save you any money.

The taxes you pay have, to some degree, the same positive effects as giving tzedakkah (charity). Such as? Such as opening the doors to kedushah (holiness). Whatever particular emphasis or improvement you want to make in your Jewishness—stronger faith or more clarity in your Torah study, for example—giving tzedakkah will make it easier, more accessible. In particular, Rebbe Nachman teaches that giving tzedakkah has the strength to fix (and undo) our misguided notion that things happen “naturally,” automatically. Giving tzedakkah increases our belief in God’s ratzon (will), that everything that happens in life is only because God wants it so.

Rebbe Nachman teaches that the real work of tzedakkah requires overcoming one’s greed (a form of cruelty) with generosity (a form of compassion). The Parparot l’Chokhmah explains that though paying taxes requires no victory of compassion over heartlessness, nonetheless paying taxes puts Jews in a nicer light, creating a degree of compassion that at least somewhat tempers potential anti-Semitism a host government may be wont to have.

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!

(Giving tzedakkah also brings one to a greater understanding of the paradox of the challal hapanui [the Vacated Space in which Creation exists], where God is simultaneously absent and present. Giving tzedakkah is also paradoxical—you give money away yet end up not lacking. See Likutey Halakhot, Tolaim 4:10.)

© Copyright 2009 Breslov Research Institute

admin Weekly Parsha Dvar Torah, Esav, Parshat VaYishlach, Rebbe Nachman