Sichos HaRan
Rebbe Nachman's Wisdom

by Reb Noson of Nemirov

#190.

The Rebbe said, 'Many times, I imagined what it would be like to die. I did this to such an extent that I literally sensed the taste of death. It was as if I had actually died.Ó

Another time he told me, 'As a youth, I would think what it would be like to die. I imagined how people cry over me. I would imagine every aspect of my death. To do this well is a very difficult task.Ó

#191.

The Rebbe once came inside and said, 'What do you do when a great mountain of fire stands before you? A very great treasure lies on the other side. The treasure cannot be reached without passing through this fiery mountain. And you have no choice but to reach the precious treasure....Ó

After several days, the Rebbe spoke about this again. He said, 'It has already been revealed to me what must be done in such a case.Ó

#192.

I was once speaking with the Rebbe and mentioned the fact that people find it difficult to believe that tzaddikim today can be as great as those of the past. The Rebbe replied, 'If they believe in God, then they must also believe that there are tzaddikim. Tzaddikim exist in every generation, just as God Himself always exists.Ó

Understand this well.

#193.

The Rebbe said that one must use the same powers with money as he does with food. (These powers are acceptance, retention, digestion, distribution, and expulsion.) When you eat, you make use of your power of acceptance. You also make use of your power of retention, holding the food so that it does not immediately leave your body.

You then use your faculty of digestion and distribution, delivering the food to all parts of the body. The brain receives the choicest parts, with the next best going to the heart. Each part of the body receives what is best for it. Following this, you make use of your power of expulsion, excreting the unusable portion of the food. All this is well known.

Money requires these same powers. You must use your power of retention and not spend the money immediately. Do not be like those who have a great desire for money and spend their life acquiring it, only to squander it immediately.

You must then make use of your power of distribution, budgeting your income for all your necessities. It should be the same as with food. The choicest portion must be given to charity. The rest must be properly distributed, just as in the case of food.

The Baal Shem Tov once explained why he accepted money from the wicked. He said, 'I distribute all the money that I receive. That which comes from the righteous is spent on the needs of pious wayfarers who visit me. Other moneys are distributed accordingly. But money coming from the wicked is spent for my horses and laborers. The money might be all mixed together, but it is automatically distributed in such a manner.Ó

The Baal Shem Tov was able to distribute his income automatically. The same was true of his power of expulsion. The unusable portion of his income was expelled and used for common laborers and horses.

The Rebbe said, 'The passion for riches comes mainly to one who does not have a vessel to receive. The same is true of eating. For certainly, if one knows how to eat.... Desire is mainly for that which is not necessary. The same is true of money. I have a vessel....Ó

#194.

The Rebbe said, 'After all the suffering, God is still good to us. Our troubles are by no means minor and we certainly should not minimize them. But compare them to a single experience of God's nearness, in thought or in some other way. All suffering is then like nothing.

'Suffering brings us closer to God. When I lose my health, who is taking it, if not God? So I am clinging to Him. Similarly, if one loses a child, God forbid, who takes him, if not God? If anything, these things bring us even closer to God. For one is closest to Him in the Future World.Ó

#195.

We entered the Rebbe's room at night, as usual, one night during the week of the Torah-reading Noach, 5570 (1809). The Rebbe said, 'What I do with you is a very small thing for me. It is really your task.Ó

All that he did with us was to draw us to God and this was a very small thing for him. It was really our task to bring people close to God. The Rebbe himself had a much more lofty mission. I stood there dumbfounded. What could be greater than bringing people close to God?

The Rebbe then said, 'There are naked souls that cannot enter a body at all. These souls are more pitiful than anyone alive. When a soul is born into this world, it can give birth to children and observe God's commandments. But these naked souls have no way of elevating themselves and are most pitiful. They cannot accomplish anything on high, and also cannot clothe themselves in a body.

'There are also incarnations that have not yet been revealed. There are many incarnations mentioned in the sacred works of earlier masters. However, other incarnations have never been revealed at all in this world. One's incarnation can also cause him to constantly desire to travel. He makes plans to travel, but they do not materialize, and he ultimately remains at home.Ó

#196.

The Rebbe's conversation of Sunday night, the week of Noach, 5570 (1809).

'My teachings are very great. They are filled with divine inspiration and can be used to predict the future. One who listens carefully and pays close attention to my lessons and will see the future. Certainly, post facto, once the events have occurred, one will be able to see that the events were predicted in my lessons. It all has been set forth in my teachings.Ó

I heard this after the Shabbat of Bereishis 5570. I had come to the Rebbe on Sunday night to show him the lesson In the Beginning–Before the Eyes of All Israel (Likutey Moharan II, Lesson #67). That week we actually saw the Rebbe's words come true. That Shabbat's lesson had actually revealed deep secrets and predicted future events.

On the previous Thursday, the 25^th of Tishrei, the famed tzaddik and holy light, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchov passed away. Friday night was the Shabbat of Bereishis. The Rebbe revealed the lesson In the Beginning–Before the Eyes of All Israel. In this lesson, the Rebbe speaks of the 'glory of Israel.Ó He said that when a tzaddik passes away, this 'glory of IsraelÓ is eclipsed.

News of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak's passing did not reach us until the following Monday. When the Rebbe revealed this lesson, we had no idea of his inference. When we later heard of the passing of this great tzaddik, we then understood the Rebbe's meaning. The lesson speaks of the eclipse of the 'glory of Israel,Ó an appelation the Rebbe had often given to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak. He also spoke of him as the attribute of tefillin.

Etrogim had not been available that year and only arrived miraculously at the last moment. The Rebbe said that he knew etrogim would come, for he trusted in the tzaddikim of our generation, particularly in the great tzaddik, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, the glory of our congregation.

It is therefore obvious that with divine inspiration, the Rebbe had revealed in that lesson that the sainted Rabbi Levi Yitzchok had passed on. Look carefully into this lesson and you will see that it all speaks about this. Search, and you will find it.

When the Rebbe saw this lesson in writing, he also said, 'The religious exhortations in my lessons are very deep and wondrous. If this had been delivered as a sermon, it would have aroused you and broken your heart. For it is all a very great logical moral exhortation.

'Do as I told you and make my lessons into prayers. When you bring this lesson into words of inspiration and prayer, it will greatly inspire you and break your heart.Ó

#197.

The Rebbe said that even the average individual should feel the loss of a tzaddik like Rabbi Levi Yitzchak. 'Everyone now feels that there is something lacking in the world. There is a depressed mood everywhere. One might feel it in his business, which no longer runs as smoothly as before. Another might feel it in his bones, which somehow seem displaced.Ó The Rebbe then gave several other examples.

'If your eyes are truly open, you will see that the world has become dark, for a great light has been extinguished in the world. We find many things that change in the world when a tzaddik passes on. The Talmud tells us that when Rabbi Yosi passed away, the spouts of the city poured forth blood (Moed Katan 25b). In many other instances, the world was changed by the death of tzaddikim.Ó

Many had reported that flames had been seen rising from Rabbi Levi Yitzchak's bier. The Rebbe said, 'The rumor does not seem probable, for the generation is not worthy. But the tzaddik himself was certainly worthy of a pillar of fire at the time of his death. For a true leader has died. He was a leader of the Jewish people.

'Even when a non-Jewish leader or prince dies, it causes changes in the stars. How much more so is this true of a leader of all the Jews.Ó

#198.

When I returned from Berdichov after Chanukah in the winter of 5570 (1810), the Rebbe told me that he had a story to tell.

He said, 'This tale has only been told once before, before Solomon's Temple was built. The only ones who understand it were the prophet who told it and the one to whom it was told. Even the other prophets could not fathom it. Although this story has already been told once, it is now a totally new concept. Many things have changed since it was last told. It was told once before in accordance with that time, but now it must be told in accordance with the present.

'This story has removed any questions that I might have had about my life. At first I found it very difficult to understand why we are not respected in this world. But this story answered any question I might have had.Ó The Rebbe was prepared to tell the story, but events intervened and we were not worthy of hearing it.

Shortly afterwards, the Rebbe told the story The Master of Prayer, the twelfth story in his Sippurey Maasiot (Rabbi Nachman's Stories). However, he said that this was not the story he had mentioned earlier. He said that the first story was much more beautiful than The Master of Prayer, awesome and wonderful as the latter may be. Happy is he who is worthy of hearing this story in the Future World.

#199.

The Rebbe said, 'No one can understand the book Likutey Moharan unless he knows every lesson forwards and backwards.Ó