Fires of Israel - Part 36

To Arouse From Sleep

- - Oy vay, oy vay, “It is a pity on you and on me!” The King's daughter cried and shrieked, “It is a great pity on you and on me!” (*Legendary Tales, Story #1 of a Lost Princess). Without the note (-the Petek) – when there is already such a Likutay Tefilos, and such a Likutay Moharan – and we sleep?! We should have to be such holy tzaddikim that the entire world would run after us! We should have such a type of chain (-grace, charm, favor) – a chain of truth! (*Likutay Moharan, Torah 60 castigates chain of falsehood, see there). And this has a power of magnetism (*like a gravitational pull, see Likutay Moharan, Torah 70) – so that the entire world will run after us, “Oy Breslov, Breslov, Breslov!….”

Nu, and we nebach (-pitifully, unfortunately) sleep!

(*See Likutay Moharan, Torah 60:6, “Because there are people that sleep away their lives, and even though it appears to the world as though they are serving Hashem, and are engaged in Torah and prayer, even still (with) all their devotions, Hashem Yisburach has no nachas (-delight of satisfaction) from them. Because all their devotions remain below, and can not be lifted and rise above etc., and it is necessary to arouse him from his slumber.”)

The (-our) prayer is not the prayer (-as it should be) - - because I heard a prayer! The way it is, one can think that we pray well, but I heard a prayer – when I remind myself of this prayer, I see that I stand completely outside!

And from where did he get this? Everything from the Rebbe'ns words! From where was there a R' Yisroel (-Karduner)?! It is not given to say, “Once, there was a R' Yisroel!” The holy Rebbe is here - - whoever wants to draw close and get out of the vanities of this world (*Story of the Seven Beggars, the Beggar with the Crooked Neck), from all the deficiencies of the world (*-the Deaf Beggar), from all the sins, from all the bodily desires!

(*See Life of Our Leader Rabbi Nachman, article 230, “And I heard from his holy mouth a few times, that the main thing is contingent just on exertion and devotions etc., and through this it is possible for every person to come to great levels etc.. And he said, 'I can make (someone) a kosher man who is called “gitter yid <a good Jew – euphemism for Chasidic Master>” mamash (-really, actually, exactly) like me.'”

And see Likutay Halachos, Laws of the Morning Blessings 3:6, “What most people are mistaken about themselves, and they think that their soul isn't holy in its root, and it is difficult for them to return to Hashem and to be a truly righteous man or kosher man like the other tzaddikim and kosher ones, as is the customary rhetoric of people to say when there is talk of a righteous man or a truly kosher and Heaven fearing man, and there begins to arouse in them as well thoughts of repentance, to draw close to Hashem Yisburach, because every Jew is full of thoughts of pangs of repentance and drawing close to Hashem Yisburach always, just afterwards they immediately say who can be like that righteous man etc., for he had a holy neshama (-soul) from his youth, as if the righteousness of the tzaddikim and the kosher ones is just due to a holy neshama (-soul) that they have from birth, which is not the truth, because the main righteousness of the tzaddik is just through his exertion and toil in His service blessed He, many, many days, and copious years, and he surmounted and strengthened himself each time, and did not let himself fall in any way, and abounded in prayer and entreaty, until he merited to what he merited, and every person can be like them, because there is free choice (“becheera chufshee”) etc..”).

And so it is with the Toaroas (-holy teachings), and with the prayers, and with the stories. We sit and we speak and we look and desire – and we sleep! How is this? How can this be?! - -

This is what I see with the note (-the Petek), I see something (amazing) like this - - I should have to be mamash (-really) entirely different than the world – not this person! Nu, this is the power of becheera (-free choice), I fall once into sadness, into depression, and the sort, it is impossible to pray, one falls into the desires of eating, into sleeping - - how does one have time for eating and for sleeping?!

R' Shlomo Wexler o.b.m.

I saw by R' Shlomo'n (Wexler o.b.m.) - - I was jealous of him – I saw how he eats – without any movement of falsehood (*See Likutay Moharan, Torah 60 regarding chain <charm> of falsehood)! Entirely true! He sat, one person alone at home, and ate with holiness and purity - - just like a bird, a little piece – he inserted it and held it in his mouth until it dissolved, and afterwards he swallowed it, and like this again - - I didn't understand how he lives?! - -

- - Even I myself, that I received the entire matter, I should have to have a good life with the note (-the Petek), different than the rest of the world, and I look at myself – such eating, with such sleeping, with such praying….

The R' Shlomo – he was always sitting, by day and by night, and serving HY – Torah and prayer!

He did not have any family – he had a b”b (?), and when he was old he had two orphaned grandchildren. This R' Shlomo did not have any children, and he had miraculously – he had a daughter, and the daughter – I remember – would come to R' Shlomo'n, she was a big tzaddekes (-righteous woman), she would stand on her feet with a holy book, she would pray and learn, she was bright like (Heb: similar to) R' Shlomo'n… In any event, the daughter got married, and had twins, and she – not on us – passed away in childbirth, and the twins remained.

When I would come to Jerusalem – when I would come into R' Shlomo'n – it was by a him a joyous occasion like a wedding, how [this R' Shlomo] his face radiated – the joy – it was such! What is [it]? I knew (“recognized”) R' Yisroel'n! He heard what happened with me….

I ate with him by the table [- she never once at with him by the table, she ate alone – she was never once by the table]. He took such small pieces – because he didn't want to feel a taste of any… - so he inserted a small piece of challah and a small piece of fish, and he didn't chew! It lay in his mouth, and we spoke, and it lay in his mouth – and he swallowed it, and he took another piece, and so it was a few times. I thought to myself, “how can the body endure?!”… He accustomed the (-his) stomach, his stomach was already accustomed to such a type of eating…

(*See Words of Rabbi Nachman, article 246, “I was looking at his eating, and he was aiming not to let the food enter inside the mouth and palate, he would just bring it inside between his teeth, and he would chew it there without help of the palate, and whoever eats like that, has almost no feeling of taste in his eating, and it is impossible to describe this matter in writing, but the reader will understand this by himself. And whoever wants to utterly break the desire of eating, so as not to receive any enjoyment from his eating, through this pointer he can easily merit to this.”

See also Praise of Rabbi Nachman, article 21, how Rabbainu regulated his stomach to a minimal consumption (Life of Our Leader Rabbi Nachman, 92). And see Likutay Halachos, Orach Chaim, Laws of Prayer 4:6)

[Just] to look at his visage, his speech - - Rabbi Chaim Sonnenfeld (-The Av Bais Din – Chief Magistrate of the Aidah Hacharaidis – the Haredi Congregation of Jerusalem) had derech eretz (-formal respect, like standing up in honor) before him! Rabbi Chaim was really a Litvak (-of the Lithuanian school, which favored the study of Talmud over everything), and by a Litvak – whoever can learn more, whoever is more knowledgeable, more of a lamdan (-skilled scholar) – and R' Shlomo was a lamdan, he had nothing to be ashamed of before Rabbi Chaim'en….