T15 (Tinyana) PNC - HaMisga'im B'Sheker (Those Who Glorify Themselves in Falsehood)

There are those who glorify themselves in falsehood with great and wondrous things — as if no thing is withheld from them, all is in their hand — and there are even leaders of the generation who do this. They are the false mefursamim, the renowned-through-azus that Rebbe Nachman warns against repeatedly. They claim mastery over realms they have not entered.

Therefore their charity is evil to the tzaddik, for the tzaddik receives the speech of his mouth from charity. When the charity is spoiled by these false leaders (their tzedakah is contaminated by their pride), it causes blemish to the speech of the tzaddik who would have received from there. Therefore it is good for the tzaddik to refuse charity from such sources, however generous they appear.

Rabbi Zeira asked Rabbi Yehudah a question that opens a hidden teaching about the true tzaddik versus the boastful pretender — disguised as a zoological curiosity but containing the entire critique of the false mefursamim. The Sages often hide their sharpest critiques in apparent trivia.

What is the reason the camel has a short tail and the ox a long tail? (Shabbat 77b). The Talmud's question, on the surface a riddle of biology, becomes the Rebbe's vehicle for distinguishing the simple humble tzaddik (camel) from the public-display tzaddik (ox).

The camel's short tail is the aspect of the simple tzaddik — 'I have not walked in great things, nor in wonders that are too high for me; surely I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child upon his mother' (Tehillim 131:1-2). He conducts himself in simplicity, does not speak great things, and all his service is in the aspect of silence — for there is no need to make himself known. The camel does not need a long tail to wave; it carries its silence.

The ox with the long tail represents the publicly-displayed tzaddik — broadcasting his wonders, requiring others to see them. The long tail is the aspect of azus and self-publicity; the short tail of the camel is the aspect of pnimius and hiddenness. The Talmud's biological question is therefore Rebbe Nachman's standard for distinguishing the two kinds of mefursamim — the criterion is not in their words but in the length of their tail.