Please, please, give each other strength. Don’t ever stop giving compliments to each other and most of all to your children, whose self confidence depends on you! On Rosh Hashanah, every second counts like a thousand years. Our holy master Reb Nachman says, “The greatest gift we can give somebody is to give him back his self confidence.

When we make a mistake, not only we do wrong, our soul is shriveling and we look down at ourselves. A whole year of mistakes — Gevalt! How do we look at ourselves? It doesn’t take much to give up on somebody else — but to give upon ourselves is always Federal Express. To have the guts to really begin again, takes a lot of inner strength.

So Rosh Hashanah, the holiest day of beginnings, we don’t mention our mistakes in order to have the strength to stand before G-d like newborn babies.

Our holy rabbis teach us that the sound of the shofar is the sound of our innermost soul and heart but also the sound of a newborn baby. It is everything. It wakes us up, gives us strength, reminds us how holy we are and how holy we can be, and also how close we are and how easy it is to be the best and most exalted.

Blessings and love. Shlomo

One of the last written messages Reb Shlomo gave over to the hevra.
Reprinted from Kehilat Jacob News New York, Elul 5754.

The holy Shabbos, the most longed for day, is the day which gives us the strength to begin again. Three things are called chemda, which means longing and wanting in an absolute, crazy way (holy craziness): Shabbos, the Torah, and Israel. A true Jew is possessed by this holy, incurable craziness.

A Shabbos Test. If you want to know how much you like a person, see if you can sit with the person without doing anything. Shabbos is therefore given to you. Do nothing and show your love for Hashem.

The Mitzvah of Shabbos is Shabbos: When Shabbos comes I am yearning to serve G-d in the most infinite way. During the week, my finite and infinite self are apart. On Shabbos my finite and infinite self are brought together by Shabbos — the Mitzvah of Shabbos is Shabbos itself. The Yid HaKodesh said: “Some people eat fish on Shabbos and some eat Shabbos on Shabbos”.

The Preciousness of Shabbos: The Socheshever Rebbe, the son-in-law of the Kotzker Rebbe, said: “Imagine if I stop keeping Shabbos; I stop not because I don’t like the value Shabbos has, but because it is no longer precious to me. So, when I do tshuvah I am to learn the preciousness of Judaism.” Anything that is given to you by G-d you don’t receive, unless you know how precious it is. I can be married, but if I don’t know how precious it is, it will be nothing.

“You can keep every Shabbos to the letter of the law, but unless Shabbos reaches the deepest and highest place in your heart. you haven’t kept Shabbos.”

Shabbos Shalom: There are some moments when I have to feel perfect, complete (shaleim). Six days a week I work like a dog and can’t have that feeling. On Shabbos I receive a divinely inspired feeling of serenity, peacefulness, completeness — Shabbos Shalom — because of its holiness one feels perfection. This day will give you the strength to ‘fix’ yourself during the week. You will know what to ‘fix’ because you will have just experienced a period of time when you had a complete soul.

Shabbos is back in Paradise. Paradise is a place where everything is good, everything is holy, everything is beautiful. Paradise is a place where suddenly it’s clear to me that I can fix all my mistakes. And even more so, everything I thought was a mistake, every street I thought was the wrong street was the only way to get there.

When G-d drove Adam from Paradise, he retained part of his soul to remain there. On Shabbos, G-d releases that part and gives it back to man. This is our extra soul of Shabbos. On this day we are given the opportunity to return to Paradise. The question is asked, where would Adam have gone on Shabbos if he had not been driven out of Paradise? G-d would have taken him to Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of High, which has not yet been revealed to us. Paradise is a place I know from before; Jerusalem above, I have never experienced. Now, I must be satisfied with Paradise on Shabbos; in the future we hope to be brought to Jerusalem of High.

According to our holy tradition, on the Sabbath you have to be in a higher place than during the week. Everybody knows that G-d created Adam and Eve on Friday, before the Sabbath, on the sixth day of creation. And according to our tradition, on that very same day they ate of the forbidden fruit. and in just one second before sunset they were driven out from Paradise.

But then, on the Sabbath, G-d took them back into Paradise. So even if the world is driven out from Paradise during the other six days of the week, on Shabbos the whole world has a chance to go back to Paradise.

Shabbos has two faces. There is keeping the Shabbos holy, the thirty-nine laws of Shabbos, the withdrawing from the world, a non-power kind of like. But then there is the bliss of Shabbos, the inside of Shabbos, which is a gift from Heaven. The bliss of Shabbos is even deeper than Paradise. It’s a secret between G-d and me, between me and the people I love so much. Shabbos is peace because peace is secrets, secrets of the depths, of the deepest depths. Secrets are the deepest G-d revelation. A true Shabbos person is someone who walks the streets of the world and every human being he sees, he shares a secret with. But with those he loves it’s the secret of all secrets.

On Shabbos we say, “Shabbos hi milzok, refuah krovah livoh.” Shabbos is the deepest healing in the world. Our holy rabbis teach us that a doctor can only heal a foot or hand; they cannot replace it with a new one. But Shabbos, on a spiritual level, gives us back our hands and feet. Not only this, Shabbos gives us new minds, new eyes and new ears, gevalt!

Shabbos is the strongest vitamin because its nutrients are those which can heal the soul. On Shabbos, new energy is coming down from Heaven. But the energy and its spiritual nutrients refuses to be received in dirty vessels. There are many ways we can do the cleansing and purification on our own. But for those of us who can’t do even that, so for one second before Shabbos purity and holiness also descend into the world. Happy are those who can receive it and fill their heart with it.

Shabbos is the highest energy center in the world. It’s not a day when you’re not doing anything. Shabbos is the day when your soul is at the most, most high. What’s the most precious possession of a human being? According to Rebbe Nachman, it’s our thoughts, what we can imagine with our minds and hearts.

On Shabbos our thoughts have to be so high, so heavenly that we can talk to G-d. And not only to G-d, but people, too! Because if you can’t feel close to someone standing next to you, to someone you can see with your eyes, then how can you feel close to someone you can’t see? And the more you look at people with great love, the more you can see G-d in everyone. But whether we look at people with great love or not, whether our thoughts are heavenly or not, on Shabbos something happens to the world — the world becomes infinite again.

Shabbos is different from all other holidays. The Gemara explains that if there were no Jews in the world, there would be no Jewish holidays. But Shabbos will always exist, even if there be no Jew to observe it, because on Shabbos something happens to the world, G-d opens the gates, and something so holy comes from heaven down to us, and all we have to do is pick it up.

The Zohar HaQodesh asks, how did Noah have the strength to resist a world that was rotten to the core? When everyone around him seemed perverted and crazy, Noah and his family held out alone, right? Where did he get the strength from?

Well, the name “Noah” is the same as the Hebrew word for “rest”. The Zohar HaQodesh says that Noah wanted to serve G- d, Noah wanted to keep Shabbos. Since nobody else picked up the power that came down from heaven, Noah and his family could take it all! And that’s how he had the strength to resist the world. He had the power of the world in his bones.

So, every Shabbos, imagine if you would pick up from the world the power of heaven. Imagine how much strength you would get, how much holiness you could put in your bones.

According to the great Kabbalists, water was never created; it always was just there. In the Book of Genesis it never says that G-d created water. Water has the power of “Beyond Creation”, the power to wash you clean and make everything grow. Our rabbis teach us that in order to really feel the blessing of Shabbos you have first to immerse in the mikveh.

The Lights of Shabbos: The lights that our Mother Sarah lit were burning from Friday to Friday. When I kindle a light in the week, anyone can blow it out. However, Friday night, the lighting of the candles is performed with such spiritual strength, that their glow lasts from Friday to Friday. According to our logic, the light of Shabbos, G-d’s light, is so infinitely powerful what can the candle add? But this is one of the fixings of Eve’s eating of the tree of Knowledge. Because it isn’t true that the candle is insignificant. According to the Tree of Life every candle makes the light more infinite and more deep. G-d’s light is like a Picasso, it is so beyond beautiful that it can’t reach inside my soul. But a painting of my own sweetest Dari has the light of the little candle of Shabbos that mamash tears my heart apart.

Shabbos comes and Shabbos is everywhere. You can’t walk out on Shabbos. But this is only on the Outside. Kabbalos Shabbos, we are making ourselves into vessels to receive Shabbos into the deepest most Inside depths of our soul.

Friday night is the fixing of jealousy. Jealousy comes from thinking that someone can take your place or your portion. And in the deepest depths it’s my own emptiness, my own incapability to retain what G-d is giving me. But Friday night, when my heart becomes so full, so overflowing full, like the wine from the Kiddush, jealousy is wiped out from my heart, and hopefully, eventually, from the heart of mankind.

The feast of Friday night is the ultimate fixing of the Tree of Knowledge. We are mamash transforming it into the Tree of Life. The Holy Ba’al Shem says that whoever is up Friday night celebrating Shabbos will not leave this world without completing the fixing which he came down in this for.

Shabbos morning is the fixing of grabbing. Because what G-d gives me I don’t have to steal and I don’t even have to take; it’s given to me. A slave takes, a king receives.

The third meal of Shabbos is the fixing of self-esteem, of honor, of giving up hope. The third meal is like the World to Come, when the world will be filled with G-d’s glory, with the glory of every human being, when the honor of a child is enough to fill the whole universe with the deepest of G-d’s honor.

Shalos Seudos, the Third Meal before you say goodbye to Shabbos, is the deepest of all. It’s when you say goodbye to the One you love that it’s clear to you how much He means to you, Our holy rabbis teach us that all day Shabbos is just Shabbos. The Third Meal is Shabbos and Yom Kippur. It’s a must for everyone to spend the last hour of Shabbos in the deepest emotion.

After saying goodbye to Shabbos, we make ourselves a little concert and partake in the Feast of King David who lives forever. The Feast of King David gives us the strength to keep Shabbos alive until the next Shabbos comes.

Shabbos is the deepest healing in the world. Our holy rabbis teach us that a doctor can only heal a foot or a hand; he cannot give you a new one. But Shabbos, on the spiritual level, gives you back your hands and your feet. It gives you new brains, new eyes, new ears — what a gevalt, Shabbos.

Friday night is the time of seeing, of discovering the unbelievable beauty and sweetness of the world of the Torah, of people, and above all, those I love the most. Shabbos morning is a time of tasting. It’s even deeper than seeing. Most people love each other. But tasting each other’s soul, each other’s depths — that is Shabbos morning. The third meal, and, finally, Havdalah, is smelling, inhaling the fragrance, the beauty which is beyond seeing and tasting, the kind of depth which only my soul can fathom. Happy are those who walk the streets of the world with the fragrance of Shabbos.

G-d created the world in six days and on Shabbos He rested. What a sad translation! On Shabbos G-d gave the world a soul. On Shabbos G-d created a world of souls, of depth, of tasting that which is most real.

Shabbos invites all those who need new energy, all those who have been broken by the world of the six days, who need the world of Shabbos to make their brokenness whole again.

Shabbos invites all those who have so far only felt the pain of life and are crying for the joy, the bliss, the unbelievable heavenliness of being alive in a world created by G-d.

Shabbos invites all those who are tired of walking slowly, who only cover a spiritual inch per lifetime on their journeys. Shabbos invites all those who have traveled through the valleys of sadness, of waiting and waiting all the time. Shabbos is to get to the top of the mountain in one second, and there discover even higher mountains that we may have never ever seen before.

Shabbos invites all those who know, who experienced so much sweetness, so much holiness in life, but it’s clear to them this cannot be all G-d wants to give them. Isn’t G-d infinite? Isn’t life infinite? Shabbos is the name of G-d.

Will you accept the invitation of Shabbos?

Selections prepared for Connections in 5749 and for Congregation Kehillat Jacob, in 5751.

Not for commercial redistribution without consent of copyright holder and the Estate of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach

Let me tell you one more story right now. The heilege (holy) Zeditchover had so many grandchildren. But, one particular year, he said, “My grandson Bereshel should ask Mah Nishtana.” Bereshel was then five years old; later on he became Rav Bereshel of Donina, a very great Rabbi. Comes time for Mah Nishtana and Bereshel isn’t there. They started looking for him high and low. He’s not there. Here, I interrupt myself with another story about Bereshel.

Bereshel was the favorite of his grandfather, because in that year one of the other grandchildren got very sick. Very, very sick. The mother of the child was begging the Zeditshuver to please pray for him. Nothing happened. One night, the boy’s condition worsened. It seemed he was going to leave the world. The Zeditshuver, from 12:30 A.M. until three in the morning, did not want to be disturbed. He was writing his commentaries on the Zohar and did not want to be disturbed. But, someone had to tell him. They decided to wake up Bereshel and he will tell the zaide. Bereshel was five years old. They tell him, tell zaide that if he doesn’t pray now, it will be too late.

Bereshel walks up to the higher floor, to his grandfather. He knocks on the door. His grandfather asks, “Who’s there?” “Bereshel.” “Why aren’t you asleep?” Bereshel said, “Zaide, I came to bring you the most unbelievable good news. I want you to know that Moishele is getting better every second. But, zaide, please pray for him. Please, zaide, pray for him.”

The holy Zeditshuver prayed for him. He got well. The Zeditshuver called in all his children and grandchildren. He said, “Do you know why I couldn’t pray for Moishele the whole time? Because the way you asked me to pray for him was with so much sadness, so much brokenness. I felt so broken. I douldn’t pray. But, you know who is a Rebbe? Bereshel. Did you hear how he asked me to pray? He said, ‘I bring you good news, Moishele is getting better, but I want you to pray.’ Didn’t I understand what was going on? When Bereshel is sent up in the middle of the night to tell me. But, the way he said it, with so much hope. I want you to know, Bereshel is a Rebbe.” And, the truth is, Bereshel really became the successor of his grandfather later on.

Back to Seder night. Everyone is looking for Bereshel and, suddenly, he comes in. Water is running down from his payos (sidecurls). He just came from the mikva. Before asking his grandfather Mah Nishtana, he wanted to go to the mikva. His mother yelled at him, “What chutzpahl” But his grandfather said, “Let him alone. Bereshel is a Rebbe.”

This is a Torah from Rav Nachman. Sometimes our children ask us, and we can take our time in answering. Sometimes if we take our time, we will lose them. Rav Nachman says, if our children ask us, is there one G-d and we say, let’s talk it over – we’ve lost them. If they ask for advice, what should they do, what career they should have, we can say, let’s talk about it. If they ask, are you a Jew, if you have to think about it, that’s not good. He said, Seder night is when our children ask, is there one G-d? And, our answer has to be right away. Don’t take any time.

I remember once reading a book written by one of the outstanding Jewish leaders of the other religions. This outstanding leader writes in the forward to his book that when he was a little boy he once asked a rabbi if there is one G-d. The rabbi said, let’s discuss it. Come to my house and we’ll discuss it. He quoted from here, he quoted from there. The boy said, I’m just asking one question, is there one G-d or not? He couldn’t get an answer out of him. The next week, he met a swami and asked him, is there one G-d? The swami said, yes, there is.

Seder night is when I tell my children, there is one G-d. There is one Torah. There is Eretz Yisroel. I have no time. It has to be fast.

When somebody is drowning, imagine if I would say, let me call a Rabbi and ask if I should save this person, because I heard that last year this person ate ham on Yom Kippur. I call one rabbi, the line is busy, so I call somebody else. All these things are cute. In the meantime, the person is drowning.

You know the problem with us Yidden, you know why Mashiach didn’t come yet? Because we waited, wegaited so long. How did Moshe Rabbenu get us out of Egypt? Right now is the time – “Bachatzot halayla” in the middle of the night – right now, don’t think. This is “mochin megadlus” a high mind. It is not, not, thinking. It is clearer than thinking. It is clear to me. It is on such a high consciousness level, a deep level.

When I see somebody drowning, where do they grasp me? Do they reach for my head? They reach for somewhere else; they have to touch the deepest depths of my understanding, that triggers something so holy.

So, Seder night, everything is fast, but it’s so clear, and it’s so good. “This I do not say other than when matza and maror are placed in front of me.” Everything is clear. I can tell my child this ismatza, this is maror, I am a Jew, there is one G-d.

You know friends, we are living in a world where the devil would like so much to take advantage of the great moments which we have. Seder night, every Jew wants to have a Seder. So, what does the devil do – brings chicken soup, and kneidlach. Sometimes I ask people, how was the Seder? They say, Oh, the food was unbelievable. When you ask about the Seder, they are not thinking about the Hgggadah, they are thinking about the food.

I was in India three years ago. I asked one boy, he was a yogi who didn’t want to come back. I asked him what he knew about Yiddishkeit. He said, “Once a year my family got together for a Seder. The spokesman of the Seder was my uncle who told over all the dirty jokes he heard all year. One night, I got up and said, I don’t think this is what the Seder is all about. My uncle said to me, ‘Look who’s talking. You haven’t even finished Hebrew school yet. What do you know?’ So, I thought that if all Yiddishkeit can offer me is a night with dirty jokes and chicken soup, who needs it, who wants it?”

When my daughters’ teeth hurt, I send for the best dentist. When my children are sick, I call for the best doctor. When it comes to Yiddishkeit, the soul of the soul, the eternity of all eternities of my children, would I subject them to the lowest people in the world, who don’t know anything?

This is a Torah from Rav Nachman. He says that, basically, the downfall and the ultimate slavery in Egypt were brought about because we ate from the Tree of Knowledge. Eating from the Tree of Knowledge causes you to eat your bread with sadness. The beginning of the Seder is that we eat karpas, we eat a little vegetable and, a few moments later, we are on the level of eating bread with simcha, with joy. Matza is on the level of eating bread with joy. From the beginning of the Seder, to the matza, we are fixing everything from the Tree of Knowledge. And, it goes so fast, so fast.

Chametz is that everything takes a long time. This is the downfall of mankind. The world says, we have to wait for peace. It takes time until it comes. Always waiting, waiting. Matza is the first admission in the service of G-d; today is a great moment – don’t wait.

Brooklyn, 5745

Edited from Connections Magazine Vol 1 No 2

Shlomo Carlebach

Okay, now I want you to know something. The saddest thing is — without saying anything bad, you know — my luggage didn’t make it, and I had brought about 200 books with me — the deepest depths — from the Ishbitzer on dreams. So anyways, I’ll have to rely on my memory from last year, hopefully, or just make it up. What’s memory? You make it up, right? L’Chaim! (Drinks some of the milk he had asked to be brought to him earlier.) From last lifetime.

I want you to know something very very deep. If someone talks to me face-to-face — I’ll tell you as an example. Listen to this. Yesterday I walked on Broadway, and I met this absolutely beautiful girl, right? And she was just so cute and so sweet, and I just fell in love with her very madly — okay, mazel tov. Nothing happens before, nothing after, right?

But you know something else, yesterday I was — yesterday was Shabbos; I couldn’t be on the subway — so Friday, I was on the subway, and for one split second I saw a girl on the other side sitting there and, mamesh, every night I dream about her. What’s deeper?

Or I’ll tell you something else. This is one of the deepest, deepest depths of Reb Nachman. How close do you have to be to a person to tell them something straight? Basically, a stranger can ask me, “How much is one and one?” I’ll tell him “two”. I don’t have to love him; he doesn’t have to love me — I’ll tell him “two”. There is certain language which is only given when you love somebody very much, right? It’s the deepest depths, right? On one hand, it’s maybe not so clear. On the other hand, it’s so much deeper, right?

You know how a Jew makes it in exile? A Jew in exile does not make it because [of] all the G-d revelations he ever had — or he will ever have. A Jew in exile when he goes sobbing, is mamesh in the lowest depths, is crying, is broken, a Jew is making it because of all the dreams. You know what dreams are? You know, I can tell you a dream and you say it’s stupid, right? If you are logic[al], if you are straight, it’s nothing, right?

Joseph comes [to his brothers] and says, “I had a dream I’ll be the King.” Ha! You can laugh in his face, right? Imagine Joseph would have come — “I had a clear vision, a clear revelation — a prophetic vision — that I would be the King of the world.” So that’s what it is, right? Where would Joseph be? He would never become as holy as he is, as deep as he is. He had a dream. So the brothers consider him as if he is crazy, right? But can you imagine how deep the dream was, that he knew it’s not crazy?

How deep it is?

You know, I’ll tell you, I had this absolutely crazy dream — I discussed it with my psychiatrist — I had this crazy dream that there’s a ladder, you know, and like I’m lying on the floor, and there’s a ladder going up from me to heaven. So my psychiatrist discussed it with me, right?

It’s stupid, right? It’s…gevalt! You know, I don’t want to say anything bad, but imagine, G-d forbid, Jacob would have seen a psychiatrist the next day, you know? Where would you and I be? Where would we be? Where would we stand? He’d say, “Listen, you have some kind of complexes, you know, and all kinds of things — ” A dream is so deep, and here I want you to know something. You see, what does it mean, “We are in exile”? To be in exile means that G-d cannot speak to us face-to-face, ’cause officially he’s angry at us, and officially we’re angry at him, right? But you know what’s going on? When nobody’s looking — when nobody’s looking — we are sending love letters to each other, right? You know how deep this is? You know how deep this is? It’s the deepest depth there is.
What’s the whole world telling us? Listen, Jews, you’re on your way out — forget it. What are they telling us now? Forget it. You’re in Israel? It’s a joke. Tomorrow morning the Arabs will drive you out. But gevalt, gevalt, every Yiddele knows — every Yiddele knows — it’s not true, right? It’s not true, right?

Imagine I would come to Yerushalayim, and there’s this beautiful holy Temple, and it’s just real, just, just renovated now by brother Max Cohen from Miami donated the paint. And it’s just so beautiful, and we have an interior decoration, and we go there, and it’s our pride. It’s this beautiful building — how touching would it be? Honestly. And there Rabbi Goren has his office right on the first floor. Really, realistic. Would you shiver when you go there? No. You know why you shiver? ‘Cause it’s broken. It’s broken. And the Zohar kodesh says, even when the Holy Temple will be rebuilt, it will be both broken — and rebuilt.

How could G-d take away the holiness of the brokenness, right? You know what happened to the broken tablets, when Moshe replaced them? You threw out the broken tablets? We have both. Broken tablets? You know why the first tablets didn’t last? Because they weren’t broken. It has to be together — broken and not broken.

So, dreams — G-d reveals Himself in a dream only to broken people. So deep, right? The deepest depths there is. Okay, now I have to tell you something very fast. Why was Joseph the first one to be sold? The first Jew to be going into exile, being a slave, was Joseph. Everybody knew by prophecy — this was clear prophecy to Abraham — that “Your children will be slaves.” And you know what Joseph was praying all his life? Let me be the one for all my brothers. Let me be it for all my brothers. Don’t put it on my father.

And you know, everybody knows, basically the Gemora says that Jacob was supposed to go down to Egypt in chains. [Shabbat 89b] And, mamesh, Joseph did the whole thing for his brothers. But you see what’s so crazy, imagine you walk up to somebody, and you tell them, “I love you the most in the whole world.” And they think, they say, “Huh! I know what you mean. You want to manipulate me, you want to take advantage of me.” Right? So you know, when Joseph said, “I’ll be the King,” what did he mean? He meant, “I’ll carry the whole burden for you.”

You see, an unholy king is someone who is really taking advantage. “You work for me, you’re my slave, and I’m the king.” What’s a holy king? What’s a G-d King? Not that “you’re working for me” — he is working for you, right?

From the series, Reb Shlomo at Congregation Beth Ami, 4676 Mayette Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95405 . Sunday, November 30, 1980 (22 Kislev, 5741), Parashat Miketz. (Two days before Chanukah, the week of Parashat Miketz.)
Recorded and transcribed by Reuven Goldfarb.
Transcription dedicated to the complete refuah of Yitzchak ben Leah — Jerry Strauss, Shlomo’s great friend and supporter — who organized the concert and learning at which these teachings were given over.
Copyright held by the estate of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.

Reb Nachman says something very sad. If you destroy holy arrogance which you have, the punishment is that you become a slave to people. Reb Nachman goes very strong. He says the question is, are you G-d’s servant, or people’s servant? There is no in between. G-d says, “Look at yourself. What are you? You were my servant before.I gave you tough chutzpa to do right, and you prefer to listen to people. Okay, be a slave to them. Make up your mind who is your master.” If you are G-d’s servant, then you are the highest person in the world, because you know exactly what is right. if you know what is right, then you don’t listen to anybody – just to what the soul of your soul tells you is right. When I lose my holy arrogance, then I am a slave to every shmendrik. The moment I am a slave to every shmendrik, I hate the shmendrik, because he is my master. Have you seen a slave loving his master? I have no dignity, I have no spine anymore. I can’t stand people anymore. it is very strange.We always think that if we don’t listen to people tell us to do wrong, that means we will be off to one side, and we want to be in with the crowd. Just look at the crowd – do you think they love each each other. They hate each other. The same thing on your part.

When you listen to people you become their slave, you don’t love them. Don’t tell me you listen to people because you love them. Don’t kid yourself. You listen to people because you are not standing on your own two feet. If you have azuz d’kedusha, this holy arrogance against people, then you can really love people because you are not their slave.

Reb Nachman says something else. What about the relationship of people to you? If you have holy chutzpa, if you are strong enough to stand on you own two feet, nothing can bend you. Then the world really loves you. People mamash love you. If someone walks in with a yamulke, and everyone laughs at him, and he still wears it, they can keep on laughing. You know what the person who is laughing really thinks? “Gevalt! I respect him so much.” If I wear a yarmulke and people say, “Take it off – this is not the place!” and I knock it off, people laughingly say, “Really a strong character, this person!” You know how people are? When you listen to them, they spit at you. When you don’t listen to them, they love you. Craziest thing in the world!

Can you imagine? Reb Nachman says you must have holy chutzpa against Tzaddikim, against holy people. It has to be so strong that if you look deep in your soul, you know what you have to do, and there is nothing, nobody in the world that can stop you. You have to be really plugged in – you have to do it mamash on G-d’s account. Reb Nachman says not only you must have holy chutzpa against the Tzaddikim, you even have to have holy chutzpa against G-d! You have to come to G-d and tell Him, “G-d, I have to be a Jew, I have to he holy, and I have to be close to You, and You can’t push me away.” You have to tell G-d, “It is true I started 15,000 times, and I always fell down again, but G-d, I am telling you the truth. I’ll never leave you, so you better let me get close.” So to speak, I want to get close to G-d, and He gives me a little kick, pushes me off. He wants to see how strong I am. Coming back says, ‘I don’t care. You can kick me, I will still come back.” It is actually chutzpa against G-d. Reb Nachman says this is so deep that he can’t explain it more, but happy is the one who has enough azuz d’kdusha to get close to G-d.

Reb Nachman asks what it is to talk to a good friend. It is to take the little friend and instill into him the chutzpa which gives him strength to know how to do what is right.

What is evil in the world? Imagine a person wants to learn, a person wants to do something holy. Evil doesn’t say that is bad. You know how the devil, so to speak, gets to you? The devil puts himself on the face of a friend and he talks to you, and he wants to take away your holy chutzpa. Evil comes and says, “Listen to me. I’ve known you so long, I know you very well. You be holy? You be a Jew? You be learned? Whom are you fooling? You won’t be able to do it. I know you.” He tells you, “Listen, you have to be realistic, and you have to know the world, and this, and that, be sensible, see a psychiatrist… ” and he gives himself the mask of a great friend. So Reb Nachman says to beware of devils who look like friends.

What do you do then? You have to tell your evil, “Cut it out! I am not even listening to G-d if He kicks me. I am not listening to you, even if it is true. I am not listening to anyone. G- d is only testing you. G-d wants you to become strong. When Yaakov Avinu wrestled with the angel he was wrestling with G-d. What does it mean? G-d sends you a little evil in your heart in order to make you stronger. Each time you wrestle with G-d your soul muscles get stronger.

Reb Nachman says all Yiddishkeit, all service of G-d, depends on how much holy chutzpa you have within you. He says you must have holy chutzpa against your physical desires, against your spiritual desires, and you must have holy chutzpa against even the holiest dreams you have, and just do exactly what you know G-d wants you to do at the moment.

Then he says that the truth is, all the holy Tzaddikim reached so high, not because they knew more, or because their souls were holier, but they got there only because they had this holy chutzpa. The people who didn’t get there did not have enough azuz d’kdusha.

Reb Nachman says the people who have this holy arrogance are the most humble people in the world. The real humble people. Their arrogance is not because of “I am”; it is because “this is right” – this gives them strength. If I am doing a thing because I think it is right, or because you think it is right, then I am not humble anymore. If I wear a yarmulke is it because I want to, because I believe in yarmulkes? It is because G-d wants me to wear a, yamulke. I am a Jew. I want the world to know I am a Jew. I am drawing my strength not from my stupidity or my genius. It has nothing to do with me. It is just that I know a Jew has to wear a yarmulke, andI am a grandchild of Abraham. This is holy arrogance, to do it just because the thing has to be done. For instance, I walk on the street and I see someone beating someone up. I walk up, and I knock them off. I am doing it because that thing is right, not because of “I”. It has nothing to do with me. The holy arrogant people have no “I”. The not-so-holy arrogant also, but it is such a big “I” that it is so disgusting, it smells so bad, that nobody can have any thingto do with it.

Then Reb Nachman warns you mustbe very careful. You must have a good nose to know what is arrogance of holiness and what is arrogance of non-holiness. A lot of people preach this kind of chutzpa, but it is really for the destruction of the world, for your destruction. You have to know exactly what is holiness and what is not.

Deep down we ask the question, when am I supposed to love, and when am I supposed to hate? When am I supposed to be arrogant, and when am I supposed to be bashful? When am I supposed to speak up, and when am I supposed to be silent? Reb Nachman says if I could get to the roots of loving, to own the roots of my soul… My body is one body, but it is not completely one, because my head doesn’t look like my foot, right? God’s oneness is not really in my body because there are still differences, Even one finger doesn’t look like another finger. My soul is more oneness because it is one piece. My soul also hears, but for my soul hearing, seeing, doing, thinking and feeling are all the same. A human being feels with heart, thinks with his head, walks with his feet. Although he is one, he has different organs. The soul is all one, If I an not on the level of one, then to love is one department, to hate is another department, and I don’t know which one to use. If I am on the level of my soul, of complete oneness, then I know exactly when to love and when to hate, when to be humble, and when to use my azuz d’kdusha.

How can you know whether your arrogance is holy or not? The only thing I can tell you is Reb Nachman says, “Don’t be a shlemazl.” That means you have to know in your heart whether you are a shlemazl or not. Ultimately it is up to your own nose. You know very well deep down.

The world is bad not because they don’t know enough. It is bad because they don’t do enough. What is teshuva? What does it mean to repent? Why did I sin basically? Because I wasn’t strong enough, right? I didn’t have holy arrogance against my own self! To repent, to do teshuva, to return to G-d means to correct the holy arrogance within me. Who is Messiach? What will Messiach do? How will he get us out of exile. How will he get us out of slavery? He will reach the utmost level of not being a slave to people, of not listening to anybody, not even to his own stupid self. He will be mamash a servant of G-d completely. He will have the holy chutzpa to get the whole world out of exile. Why aren’t we on the level to get people out of exile, the world out of exile? Sadly enough, we don’t have the holy arrogance. We really don’t. We listen to ten thousand people.Maybe we listen to ourselves at the wrong moment. We do everything wrong.

At the end of days, or maybe tomorrow, there will be two Messiachs, a Messiach who will be the son of Yosef, and a Messiach ben David, from the tribe of Yehuda. Yehuda was the one who did everything wrong. If you remember, Yehuda was the one who told his brothers, “Let’s sell Yosef.” According to this theory, in the deepest depths, the whole exile began on account of him. He should have given up then. He gets married, and two of his children die. G-d is letting him know he is wrong. Everything goes wrong. He takes the guarantee for Benjamin, and Benjamin gets caught. What should he do? He does not give up. Yehuda is the holy Yidele who doesn’t give up even at the very last second. He doesn’t give up. He knew if Benjamin didn’t come back he would lose his share in the coming world. What does he do? Yehuda says, “I don’t care. Even if I don’t have a share in the coming world, you can’t knock me out.” The Zohar Kodesh on Vayigash explains that Yehuda spoke to Yosef, but really he was talking to G-d. He was pouring out his heart. He was saying, “You know, we have an old father,” as if he were telling Yosef about Jacob, but actually he was saying to G-d, “You are my old Father. You were my Father since: I was born. I am just a little boy. I am nothing.” It is tremendous the way the Zohar interprets every word. This is Yehuda.

The world needs two Messiachs, because it is a combination of billions of little things. Yosef is the one who has such holy chutzpa that he never did wrong. You know how much strength it takes never to do wrong? Certain parts of us are on the level of Messiach ben Yosef; in certain parts we never did wrong. We have, thank G-d, the chutzpa, the strength that we never did wrong. Other parts of us are completely destroyed. For these we need Messiach ben David. Yehuda has the holy strength to do everything wrong, and still want to come back. Between the two they correct the whole world.

According to the Bais Yaakov, before the story of Yosef, Yosef was holier than Yehuda. When did Yebuda become holy? After he sold his brother Yosef into slavery, after he started doing wrong, then he became so strong, so whole. In Bereshit says, “mi teref bni alisa” which isusually translated, “from the prey, my son, thou art gone up”. The Bais Yaakov translates.- “from tearing away my son you became great and holy”. The meaning is, when did Yehuda really become Yehuda? When did he pull out his holy chutzpa. his holy soul which is the hoiness of Yehuda? After he sold Yosef into slavery. That is why his father favored him. The level the children were on then, Yosef was really the king. There could be only one Messiach, the son of Yosef. But after Yehuda sold Yosef, and didn’t give up, then suddenly Yaakov realized Yehuda was even stronger. So you see, we need both. We need someone who gives us the strength not to destroy the holy things we still have and someone to teach us that even with all the things we have destroyed already, we should not give up, we should come back.

House of Love and Prayer, San Francisco. Kislev 5733.

What makes us so perverted? We put so much work into our little piece of bread. What do people do for the few rubles they make? They put their whole heart and soul into it, and each time they do, they become more and more slaves. The Matza we eat on Pesach doesn’t take much time to make. We put the least amount of time into our food, and the rest of the time we have is for doing great things, to be free.

When you eat the Matza you really have to be with it, you can’t talk or joke. The piece has to be really big, and you sit and mamash eat Matza. Once a year there is a mitzvah to eat, we are commanded to eat Matza. Okay. It is also a mitzvah to eat on Shabbos, but it is not on the same level. On Shabbos we have to be happy, oneg Shabbos, so we make ourselves happy by eating. On Seder night we fulfill the biggest mitzvah in the world when we are eating Matza. The holy Sanzer would sit after the Seder, and put his hands on his stomach, and say “Ay! Tonight my stomach did so many mitzvos!”

The Afikomen, the last piece of Matza is realty not from this world. We put it away, we hide it, and then we eat it. It is coming from a completely hidden world. When we eat the Afikomen all our prayers are answered in that moment.

On Pesach we celebrate freedom, which means that G-d in Heaven opens the gates of freedom. This world is just a vessel for higher worlds, so something is happening in Heaven on Pesach night, and actually the whole month of Nisan, the month of freedom. We see all of nature becoming free. All the little seeds who were sitting under the earth and crying are now coming out, becoming free. Everything begins to grow.

There is a voice in the universe which says, “Let there be man”, and there is another voice which says, “Let there not be man”. These two voices struggle inside every person. The voice which says, “Let there not be man” wants to destroy man, says that he is worthless, he’s no good. What we don’t know is that we don’t really hate man – we try to hold back life itself when we say “He’s no good”. It is the voice inside us which doesn’t want man to be.

The Ishbitzer says this is why winter comes to the world. The voice which wants to stop life becomes too strong for a time. Then the voice which says “Let there be man” becomes strong again, and we have springtime, Pesach.

Why do we have to eat every day, over and over again? Nature doesn’t really trust, because she knows that we have something inside ourselves which wants to destroy life. So nature gives its life – an apple, or some grain we can make into bread, but only enough for a few hours or a few days, because the earth doesn’t completely trust man to listen to the voice which does say “Let there be man”.

On Pesach we celebrate the power of giving life. The Zohar calls Matza “nahama dmehemenusa”, bread of faith. It is the fruit of the Tree of Life, before Adam sinned. One fruit is enough to give you life completely so you don’t have to eat over and over again. If man would only really have faith, one piece of Matzah would be enough to last him for his whole life.

This is also why the last meal on the last day of Pesach is called Mashiach’s seuda, the feast of the Mashiach. When the Mossiach comes one piece of Matza will again be enough to give life to a person, because the earth will be able to trust man again.

House of Love and Prayer San Francisco, 5733

 
Why are we dreaming at night? Because at night the only thing which we have is imagination. And the greatest vessel for dreams is imagination. Reb Nachman says the most way out thing — the strongest imagination that you need is to believe that G-d created heaven and earth, and to believe that you really need imagination. You look at the world and you see a solid world, you need the strongest and holiness imagination that G-d created heaven and earth. Reb Nachman says that all the holy tzaddikim, all the holy people, they had this strong imagination. And if you have this tremendous imagination not only can you receive dreams but you can interpret dreams and even uplift someone else’s dreams.

San Francisco, Iyar 5732

Transcribed by Steven Maimes

The greatest evil in the world is sadness. Why is the world not becoming better? Or why am I, as an individual, not becoming a better person? Rebbe Nachman tells us it is because I am filled with sadness. Perhaps I am sad because of something I did yesterday. Or maybe I am sad because of what I am going to do tomorrow. It doesn’t really matter. Meanwhile, I am filled with sadness. Rebbe Nachman teaches us that this is the greatest evil in the world. All the teachings of Amalek, all the teachings of evil fill you with sadness.

Rebbe Nachman teaches very strongly that there is such a thing as good manners which have their roots from the Other Side, in the evil of the world. Good manners with absolutely no meaning. The Germans when they invited Jews to go to the gas chambers, would always say, “Bitte — please”. Why do you say please? Why do you pretend to be civilized? So there are good manners whose root is in the evil of the world, and then there are real good holy manners. Holy Good Manners. When someone walks in the door I might say, “Hey! I’m so overjoyed to see you!” because of good manners, but it has absolutely no meaning. Or I can say it because I really mean it. Not because of good manners. On Purim we get drunk. According to good manners you really shouldn’t get drunk, but what kind of manners are they? It all depends on the level we are drunk. On Purim we are holy drunkards, really holy. If on Purim, you are not on the holiest level you really have no right to drink, but… On Purim we break down all the good manners of the world. We get real. And if you are real, you can be drunk and still be real, still be holy. And if you are on the level of evil manners you can be not drunk, and give a speech and say the most obnoxious things in the world. So on Purim, therefore, we break down the level of manners and we are drunk. We are obnoxious, maybe, but we are just on the highest level.

What is the difference between drunk drunk and holy drunk? A non-holy drunkard, if he sees ten people he sees a hundred, if he sees a million, he might say he sees ten million. A holy drunkard sees only One, nothing else.

There is a great war going on — a war of good against evil. One day a year we don’t fight evil. One day a year there is no evil in the world. One day a year we reach the level of the day after the war. This day is Purim. But only the people who are involved in the war all year long can really understand what Purim is all about. If you don’t fight evil all year long and then on Purim, you suddenly say that you want to jump into Purim — what do you know? If evil looks good to you then you have nothing to celebrate. On Purim I celebrate that there is no evil. But if you like evil, then on Purim you have nothing to celebrate. You have no part in it.

So how do you fight evil? First you need to remember that there is such a thing as evil in the world. You have to remember. Imagine that yesterday I was bad, so I mamash promise myself that I’ll be good. The next morning, I’ve forgotten already. I forgot my promise; I forget how bad I felt when I did wrong. If I should remember just a little bit. Purim is the great holiday of the people who remember. Because the people who remember are the ones who are fighting this great war against evil every day. They really do remember.

There are two kinds of love which G-d has for us. The first love is contracted, limited, love. Say, for instance, I like someone because he does everything I tell him to do. And then I like someone not because he does everything I want, maybe he doesn’t do everything I want, maybe he doesn’t do everything I want, I just love him. On Yom Kippur G-d is loving us because we say “G-d, we did wrong, we want to be better, we confess, we promise we’ll be good, we’ll do everything you tell us to do.” It’s all very sweet and holy but it is not the ultimate. On Purim G-d is shining down into us His great love which has nothing to do with doing His will. He just loves us. This is beyond our minds. Therefore we have to be drunk on Purim, because we have to reach that thing which is beyond our minds. You have to be beyond your own mind. G-d’s great love which is flowing down on Purim is not because we did right. It is just because He loves us. This is beyond …beyond every understanding. Evil can only reach the level of love where we talk about doing G-d’s will, so evil can make us not do G-d’s will. That light comes from a place where evil can reach. But that great love which has nothing to do with doing G-d’s will evil cannot reach. On Purim this greater love is becoming so strong in the world, there is no evil. There is nothing between me and G-d. Nothing. I can be a drunkard, I can be the most obnoxious person in the world, but who cares? Gevalt.

Why is it that when you are drunk you can’t stand on your feet right; you can’t walk? There is a level that my service of G-d is standing before G-d; walking in G-d’s way. Then there is a level even if I am not walking, and even if I can’t stand, I’m still serving G-d in a crazy way that Is even deeper. On Purim we reach the high level that we can’t stand, we can’t walk, but we are still the greatest servants of G-d.

What happens when you are drunk? You have strange kind of imagination right? The holiest faculty G-d has given us is imagination. Holy imagination. On Purim we get drunk and we mamash imagine the holiest things in the world. We imagine that there is no evil in the world. This is the holiest level a drunkard can reach.

The hardest time to be aware of G-d is when you eat. Usually when people eat they are so aware of themselves because they are feeding their bodies. It is hard to be aware of G-d when you pray, but it is not that hard. It is really hard when you eat and drink. The more you eat, the less you aware of G-d. The more you drink, the less you are aware of G-d. Purim, we reach the high level the we eat all day long, we drink all day, and the way we understand G-d on that day is like never, never before. On Purim I understand that there is one G-d like I don’t understand it all year, and not by studying not even by talking. By eating, drinking and giving each other gifts.

On no other day in the world is the great light shining that we mamash want to get close to G-d again. Not only I want to do G-d’s will, not only do I want to do what is right, not only I want to fulfill my mission in life. One day a year I just want to be so close to G-d. If I want to be close to G-d I can eat and drink also. I can be half drunk and eat all day long; it just doesn’t matter if my heart is burning up; I just want to be close to G-d. The greatest evil in the world is that we keep away from one another. On Purim the great light is shining that everything is close.

Evil is always new. Imagine, if you do something wrong, you swear to yourself you’ll never do it again, right? How come evil comes to you again the next day? The answer is very simple. Evil is really new all the time. Evil has a newness. How do you fight evil? With even more newness! With the utmost newness in the world. On Purim G-d gives us this tremendous holy newness, mamash I am really starting all over again. Yom Kippur, holy as we are, we still talk about what we did yesterday. So it’s still not completely new. Purim, I don’t talk about what happened yesterday. I don’t even talk about what will happen tomorrow. I am just here.

Why aren’t we Yiddelach as we ought to be? Because we have this evil which comes to us and says it is another world. now. Okay. When Moses stood at Mt. Sinai it was very sweet, but now it’s another world. Evil wants to cut us off from G-d because of the newness of the world. In a 747 you don’t have to believe in G-d; when you were on a camel it was okay to believe in G-d. The thing which is the most beautiful thing in the world is that the world is always new, that new things are happening. Evil wants to take this newness and tear us away from G-d. Purim is the one day that we take all this newness and say, “Because of this newness I want to be a servant of G-d.”

Why am I a little bit bad? Nebekh, I wanted to be good at one time or another. So I started praying so hard, and it looked to me as if G-d didn’t care. He didn’t answer my prayer. I tried so hard. For years I try to be better and it does not work. The greatest thing is, Purim, suddenly I realize it isn’t true. I am getting better. G-d heard every prayer. Purim I realize that I am so close to G-d I know He was listening all the time. Imagine I talk to someone on the telephone and I think the other person hung up. Then I realize I wasn’t even talking on the telephone– I was talking to Him in person. He was actually standing right next to me the entire time.

Purim was initiated by Mordechai and Esther. Two people. A lot of people say, “If I would hear it directly from G-d I would believe it, but if I hear it from someone else I don’t want to believe it.” This is all evil tricks. How do you want G-d to talk to you? Maybe this is the way G-d is talking to you. The holiness of Purim is this is the first holiday which was initiated by two little Yiddelach, Mordechai and Esther. We believe in them. We knew this is G-d telling us. The moment you listen to other people, you know G-d is talking to you through them, there is so much love in the air. If I would mamash believe that every word I hear is a message from G-d, then there is no evil anymore. So Purim is the great holiday when we listen to each other, we give gifts to each other, we eat, we drink, and we know that everything we hear is a little message from G-d.

Just one more sweet little thing. You know on Purim we read the story of the Megilla. Reb Nachman says the whole thing of Purim is the story. You have to listen to the story. Reb Nachman said G-d created man because He loves stories. The whole world is G-d telling a story. G-d is telling us stories, creating the world, creating people, telling long stories. There is such a thing as prayer, which is very deep, but, Reb Nachman says, prayer is not the deepest depths of closeness to G-d. The deepest depths of closeness to G-d is when you can tell G-d a story. The Tree of Knowledge is theories and the Tree of Life is stories. Everything we understand comes from our consciousness. Where do stories originate? From our imagination. The truth is, the story comes from beyond my consciousness, but flows into my consciousness. The story is really beyond. Reb Nachman says that when you dream you always dream stories, not theories. When your imagination is completely free, then you dream stories. When people sit and tell each other stories then they really can become friends.

Purim everything is on the level of stories. Even while I am drunk and I am telling G-d everything I did wrong in my heart, I tell it in the way of a story. Anyway, Purim is the great holiday of stories; you have to be really good and high and drunk to be able to tell your story to G-d.

In Sanz, every year on Purim the. Rebbe, would call out, “Even a person for whom all the Gates of Heaven were closed, even a person who did wrong and could never repent, on Purim they are right there. The Gates of Heaven open, and G-d is with you all the way.”

GOOD PURIM ! ! !

House of Love and Prayer, San Francisco. Purim 5732

Photo is of Rabbi Chaim Halberstam of Sanz (1793-1876)