The Chambers of the Palace Teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav

by Shulman, David Y.

• ISBN13: 9780876681800
• ISBN10: 0876681801
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-04-01
• Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.

Summary

Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (1772-1810), great-grandson of the founder of Chasidism, the Baal Shem Tov, was a pivotal figure in the history of Jewish spirituality. The Chambers of the Palace is an anthology of the teachings of Rabbi Nachman, compiled and translated by the highly regarded young scholar, Y. David Shulman. Shulman writes, "Rabbi Nachman was a poet, an individualist, a man who operated through his heart, a man filled with passion, a man filled with the youthful fire of breaking through all structures in order to get to God, not a man who wished to consolidate structures.
The Chambers of the Palace was designed by Shulman to be accessible to a wide audience, especially those who are not intensely involved with chasidic thought. This is not a pietistic tract or a scholarly study. It is a rich collection of gems, drawn from the spectrum of Rabbi Nachman's teachings, including formal offerings, informal advice, symbolic tales, parables, dreams, and visions.
We discover Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav to be an impassioned master of the spirit, a teller of inspired tales, and as Shulman writes, "a singer of the romantic relationship between each individual, no matter what level, and God." Rabbi Nachman is a paradoxical figure. He was an ecstatic seeker and a tortured soul, an ordinary human and a transcendent master, a teacher who spoke both oracularly and simply. He has become known for his teachings, his tales, his persona, his creativity, his intensity, his closeness, and his distance.
Included in The Chambers of the Palace are such classic tales as "The Prince Who Thought He Was a Turkey"; caustic social and religious criticism such as "Praying for the Sake of a Cat"; visions such as "In Two Worlds at Once"; and teachings on a wide range of subjects including the essential self, coming to God, self-improvement, simplicity, despair and joy, song, humor, marriage, sexuality, exile and redemption, holy days, and the land of Israel.
The Chambers of the Palace: Teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav is a welcoming and welcomed doorway to the profound message of a giant of Jewish spirituality.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Essential Self	p. 1
The Prince Who Thought He Was a Turkey	p. 1
The Humility	p. 2
Belief in Oneself	p. 3
May It Be My Will	p. 4
God Does Not Need to Serve Himself	p. 4
To Find the Hidden Good	p. 4
Bringing Forth the Good	p. 6
Coming to God	p. 7
Expertise On All Levels	p. 7
Repentance Is Higher than the Torah	p. 9
If You Only Hope	p. 9
Self-Improvement	p. 11
If You Believe That You Can Ruin ...	p. 11
The Constant Leap	p. 11
Speech of the Broken Heart	p. 12
Constant Self-Renewal	p. 12
The Concealed Reward	p. 13
Ashes	p. 13
The Rejected Tzaddik	p. 14
Being Balanced	p. 19
Fanaticism	p. 19
Leniency	p. 19
Passover Stringencies	p. 20
Don't Begin to Think at All	p. 21
Step by Step	p. 21
Simplicity	p. 23
Desire and Simplicity	p. 23
The King and the Peasant	p. 24
The Simplicity of God	p. 25
The Holy Fool	p. 25
The Cry from the Heart	p. 25
The Clever Man and the Simple Man	p. 26
Despair Does Not Exist	p. 29
Efficient Calm	p. 29
Pressure	p. 30
From the Depths	p. 31
It Is Forbidden to Despair	p. 31
Joy	p. 33
Constantly Joyful	p. 33
The Melody of Joy	p. 33
The Task of Joy	p. 35
Joy and the Tzaddik	p. 35
Joy through Everyday Life	p. 35
Accepting Everything with Joy	p. 36
Faith	p. 37
The Greatness of Faith	p. 37
The World Was Created for Faith	p. 37
Holy Longing	p. 38
Strife	p. 39
The Root of Conflict	p. 39
The Regret of the Wicked	p. 40
Chosen People	p. 41
A Chosen People - Beyond Intellect	p. 41
Transcending Ethics	p. 42
How Does One Merit to Be a Jew?	p. 42
Torah	p. 43
The Map Of Time and Space	p. 43
Discipline and Liberation	p. 44
When the Torah Shows Its Love	p. 45
Dragging Evil to the Study Hall	p. 45
The Traveler through Torah	p. 46
Success through Visualization	p. 46
Learning without Comprehension	p. 47
Understanding in the World-to-Come	p. 47
Forgetting and Recalling	p. 47
Learning Aloud	p. 48
How to Learn Torah	p. 48
Creating One's Own Torah Thoughts	p. 52
God Enjoys One's Torah Thoughts	p. 53
The Tzaddikim Have Paved the Way	p. 53
The Chambers of Torah Insight	p. 53
Creating Rivers of Torah	p. 54
Torah Insights Are On the Level of the Messiah	p. 54
Giving God Joy	p. 55
Speaking of Good	p. 55
Cultivating Torah Insights	p. 55
The Protection of Learning Jewish Law	p. 55
Torah without Insights	p. 56
Clarifying One's Character through Halachah	p. 57
Separating Good from Evil	p. 58
The Gates of Eden	p. 59
Learning Zohar	p. 59
Learning Unhappy Matters	p. 60
Yearning to Learn	p. 60
Sleep and the Talmud	p. 63
Dozing Off While Learning	p. 63
Who Sows But Does Not Reap	p. 64
New Torah Literature	p. 64
Song	p. 65
Even If You Cannot Sing Well, Sing	p. 65
Holy Music Cleans the World	p. 65
Instrumental Music Clarifies the Imagination	p. 67
The Melody of Faith	p. 69
The New Song of the Future	p. 70
Stories	p. 73
Folk Tales and Holy Secrets	p. 73
Stories Wake People Up	p. 74
Humor	p. 75
Foolish Things	p. 75
The Story of the Humble King	p. 75
The Tzaddik	p. 79
How to Become a Tzaddik	p. 79
Recognizing the Tzaddik	p. 79
Looking for the Best	p. 80
The Man of Compassion	p. 80
Mercy, the Heart, and the Spring	p. 82
The Tzaddik Is Both Above and Below	p. 84
The Light That Shines in a Thousand Universes	p. 85
Faith in the Tzaddik	p. 87
The Journey of the Dead Merchant	p. 88
How to Cling to the Tzaddik	p. 89
The Nonintellectual Tzaddik	p. 90
The Tzaddik and Trust in God	p. 90
The Face of the Tzaddik	p. 90
Attachment to the Tzaddik	p. 90
The Field of Souls	p. 91
Vision of the Man in the Circle	p. 92
So Far from the Tzaddik	p. 94
A Tzaddik Can Err	p. 96
The Doctrine of the Tzaddik	p. 96
Tzaddik and Disciple	p. 100
Rabbi Nachman	p. 101
The Beautiful Tree	p. 101
Miracles: A Minor Matter	p. 101
The New Path That Is Really Old	p. 102
Rabbi Nachman's Humility	p. 102
There Is No Middle Ground	p. 102
No One Knows Him	p. 103
Unique	p. 103
The World Could Not Exist	p. 103
An Extraordinary Soul	p. 104
Leader of the Young	p. 104
Take Advantage	p. 104
Hidden Joy of the Laboring Tzaddik	p. 104
King David and the Broken Heart	p. 105
Rabbi Nachman's Throne	p. 105
Rabbi Nachman's Work	p. 105
Rabbi Nachman and the Messiah	p. 106
Rabbi Nachman's Accomplishment	p. 106
Bratslav Chasidim	p. 109
The Signs of a Bratslav Chasid	p. 109
The Whole World Will Be Bratslav	p. 109
Camaraderie	p. 111
The King and the Bird	p. 111
The Direct Light and the Reflected Light	p. 112
False Leaders	p. 113
Praying for the Sake of a Cat	p. 113
Agents of the Angel of Death	p. 113
Self-Renewal	p. 115
It Is Not Good to Be Old	p. 115
The Beggar Who Was Very Old and Very Young	p. 115
Prayer	p. 119
With Prayer, One Can Achieve Everything	p. 119
Praying with Strength	p. 119
The Simple Meaning	p. 120
Meditations	p. 120
Hitbodedut Meditation	p. 121
What Is Hitbodedut?	p. 121
A New Path	p. 124
Hitbodedut and the Messiah	p. 125
Like Water on a Stone	p. 125
The Spider Web	p. 125
Even One Word Is Very Good	p. 126
The Power of Speech	p. 127
He Who Is Awake at Night	p. 127
"I Will Run through the Marketplace!"	p. 133
The Power of Thought and Visualization	p. 135
Speaking to the Body	p. 135
Thought and Visualization	p. 136
Women in Rabbi Nachman's Life	p. 139
Honoring One's Wife	p. 139
Feiga - Rabbi Nachman's Mother	p. 139
Sashia - Rabbi Nachman's First Wife	p. 140
Rabbi Nachman's Daughters	p. 140
A Letter to Sarah	p. 140
Receiving Praise	p. 141
Rabbi Nachman's Second Wife	p. 141
Marriage	p. 143
Knowledge Causes Marriages	p. 143
The Many Levels of True Marriage	p. 145
Marital Harmony	p. 146
The Groom from the World-to-Come	p. 147
Sexuality	p. 149
There Really Is No Lust at All	p. 149
One Can Withstand All Lusts	p. 150
Abstinence	p. 151
Equal in His Eyes	p. 152
Who Is Forcing You?	p. 152
A Platonic Marriage	p. 153
The Harm of Lust	p. 153
A Test That Is Not a Test	p. 154
By Me, It Is Absolutely Nothing	p. 156
The Litmus Test	p. 159
Marital Relations and Shahbat	p. 160
Marriage and Circumcision	p. 161
Rectifying a Nonmarital Emission	p. 161
The Messiah and Sexual Sin	p. 162
The Power of Ten Psalms	p. 162
Rectifying Self-Arousal	p. 163
The Arrows and the Castle of Water	p. 164
Breaking Bad Traits	p. 169
Free Will	p. 169
Tanning the Hide	p. 169
Money	p. 171
Taking Care of One's Money	p. 171
Wealth Makes People Crazy	p. 171
The Tyranny of Wealth	p. 172
Wealth Is a Wall	p. 173
The Spiritual Source of Money	p. 174
This-Worldly Desires	p. 177
New Desires	p. 177
The Country of Wealth	p. 177
The Countries of This-Worldly Desire	p. 178
This World	p. 181
The Purposes of This World	p. 181
The Harvest of Tainted Wheat	p. 182
It Were Better Not to Have Been Created	p. 182
To Laugh at the World	p. 183
Hidden in a Fist	p. 183
Do Not Let the World Fool You	p. 184
A Little Coin before the Mountain	p. 184
"This World" Does Not Exist	p. 185
Health	p. 187
Health Is Paramount	p. 187
Health and Medicine	p. 187
Exile	p. 189
Raising the Fallen Places	p. 189
The Golden Mountain and the Pearl Castle	p. 190
Unifying Both Worlds	p. 197
One Must Leave a Blessing Behind	p. 197
The Tzaddik Is on All Levels	p. 198
In Two Worlds at Once	p. 199
The Gradual Process of Redemption	p. 203
The World Is Improving	p. 203
Spiritual Evolution	p. 203
The Purpose	p. 205
Reaching the Ultimate Goal	p. 205
The Ultimate Purpose	p. 206
In the Ultimate Places	p. 206
Living Off Wisdom	p. 209
The Level of the Patriarchs	p. 209
Without Eating or Drinking	p. 210
Rising to the Ultimate Level	p. 210
Apprehending the Ultimate	p. 213
Messiah	p. 217
The Test of the End Of Days	p. 217
Greatness in the End of Days	p. 218
Calculating the Coming of the Messiah	p. 218
The Messiah Will Come Suddenly	p. 219
Nature Will Not Change	p. 219
Even the Messiah Will Die	p. 219
My Fire Will Burn until the Messiah	p. 220
We Have Already Tasted the Good Wine	p. 220
The Messiah Will Be One of My Offspring	p. 221
The Days Preceding the Messiah	p. 221
The Land of Israel	p. 223
Struggling to Come to the Land of Israel	p. 223
My Place Is in the Land of Israel	p. 224
The Quality of the Land	p. 224
He Suffered More from His Love	p. 225
The Tune of the Land of Israel	p. 226
Holy Days	p. 227
The Great Wedding	p. 227
The Holidays and Rabbi Nachman's Chair	p. 227
The Dreidl	p. 229
The Holidays Call Out	p. 231
Secular Learning	p. 233
The Voice of the Holiday and the Forehead of the Snake	p. 233
The Unhappy End of Scientists	p. 235
We Do Not Need to Make New Things	p. 236
A Proof of the World's Creation	p. 236
Guarding One's Mind	p. 237
Avoiding All Secular Influences	p. 237
The Inferiority of Science and Philosophy	p. 237
Rabbi Nachman's Teachings	p. 245
Traveling Words	p. 245
Barrels of Medicine	p. 245
Chambers within the Palace	p. 246
A Complete Teaching from Likkutei Moharan	p. 249
Learning Torah, Seeing Godliness in Everything	p. 249
Appendix	p. 257
Bibliography	p. 261
Index	p. 263
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