This is part of another awesome shiur given by the Rav.

Meet me back in the footnotes, where we’ll start to put some of these pieces together.

Shiur given on Cheshvan 8, 5786 (October 30, 2025)

There is no-one like Daniel Blatt.

How he came from Australia to here, and he knew all the compositions… All of them. He used to play with chesed elyon (transcendental kindness). He used to play each time we got to Moscow, and we found ourselves there in the hotel, in Kiev, the Hotel Rus.

And the whole community would come to hear his niggunim (melodies). What compositions! What niggunim! They saw human beings?! They saw angels! They said, this has to be angels, this is not human beings!

==

Here, [the book] the Great Solution.

He spoke about the Final Solution already 50 years before Hitler. He talked about the ‘Final Solution’, the ‘Great Solution’. Because at the beginning, they only spoke about expelling them [i.e. the Jews] to Eretz Yisrael – and the English didn’t want to accept them, because the Mufti didn’t agree.

==

[The Hebrew editor explains the beginning of the following sentence was not so clear, then the Rav continues]:

Here, the Jew of Lessing[1], ‘Nathan the Wise’. There was Lessing, and there was a positive ‘composition’ about the Jews [called ‘Nathan the Wise’} – that the Jews were the most, the very most wisest in the world, the ones who were most advancing the world.

They invented the airplane, they invented the radio, radio waves.

==

[The Jew who first invented the airplane] was called Otto Lillienthal.

He was fat, fat, fat. As soon as he sat in the plane, the plane turned over upon him, and he fell into the [River] Rhine.

He fell, and they needed to get him out of there.

Otto Lilienthal invented the airplane, and he fell into the Rhine. All the planes with him on them flipped over during their first flight. And so then, the Wright Brothers bought the invention of the plane [i.e. the prototype or patent] in 1912.

As we were building the Shul, they started to fly in the air. The moment we had the Shul, they flew in the air.

==

So, there were compositions written for the good of the Jews.

This was called ‘Natan the Wise’.

Natan, R’ Natan – he put together a composition for R’ Natan.

Yes, he died in ‘49. How did he die? He died. Rabbenu died 60 years earlier, 70 years, he died at 83. 72, his rabbi died before him – 83. That’s when his rabbi died. [Speaking about Gotthold Ephraim Lessing].

He authored a composition, this was called ‘Nathan the Wise’. I am saying that this was for R’ Natan, you can decide.

==

So then, there was a work that said that the Jews, they are the most chosen people, the greatest people, the people the most…

They see from one of the world to the other. And each one of them sees from one end of the world until the other, and they can tell the future.

==

Like R’ Heshel of Krakow.

Now, we were by R’ Heshel of Krakow, we prostrated ourselves on his Tzion.

Once, two witnesses came about the daughter of his sister, to say they had cut the head off her husband – they cut his head off! They saw it.

She said: Maybe, it was just someone who looked like him? Maybe, it was his doppelganger?

But there were two witnesses! You are going against two witnesses?! No?

If two witnesses come to a woman and tell her that someone cut off her husband’s head…

==

[The witnesses said] We saw it.

They were standing in a line, a hundred people were standing in a line [during that particular massacre], everything was organised. This wasn’t a ‘pogrom’, they were standing nicely in a line.

The cossack was going from one to the next, was taking off their heads, with that beautiful, sharp sword of his.

This is ‘death by a kiss’, this happens in an instant. It doesn’t hurt at all. Truly, it’s ‘death by a kiss’.

And he took off the heads of 99 people.

==

He got to the last one [the husband of R’ Heshel’s niece], such a sweetie, a cutie. [And suddenly, the cossack sees] such a face, shining like the sun. The cossack said: you, I can’t take your head off. I just can’t do it! You are the sun, you are Moses, you are Moshe Rabbenu!

You know what? Fall down! Make out like you’re dead, and I will give you a blow with the sword and push you down, and they will think that you are dead.

Like that, he was saved.

==

So, the two witnesses are standing there, and they saw how they took the heads off 99 people, and they were witnesses to ‘free agunot’.

It’s written that’s it’s permitted to go to theatres, to see how they ‘bury’ Jews, so then you can testify on behalf of the wife, so that the woman won’t be left alone [i.e. unable to remarry].

They used to take people and slaughter them.

So, [the witnesses] gave testimony for 99 women, they gave testimony, two witnesses. And [these same women] got remarried immediately. After three months, it’s already permitted to remarry, and to raise a family.

They have grandchildren and great-grandchildren, even up until our days.

==

But, this was the last one, the hundredth.

They also came to give testimony [that they’d seen him murdered].

The woman said, i don’t believe them! Liars! Deceivers! (For sure, the witnesses were Jews…)

You are lying to me! I don’t believe you!

[They replied] But we saw them cut off his head! We saw it!

You didn’t see anything! It was for sure someone else! Maybe, someone else who resembled him. It wasn’t my husband! My husband is kodesh kodeshim (holy of holies), the biggest tzaddik!

The woman sees everything. She sees from one end of the world to the other. She said:

I don’t believe it!!!

==

And R’ Heshel of Krakow was like the Vilna Gaon.

R’ Heshel of Krakow knew the whole SHAS, the Rishonim, the Acharonim – he knew a million seforim.

He knew the whole SHAS, forward and backwards.

==

Excerpted and translated from Shivivei Or, 432.

==

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This is referring to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Read more about him on Wiki HERE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthold_Ephraim_Lessing

Snippet:

Lessing was also famous for his friendship with Jewish-German philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. A 2003 biography of Mendelssohn’s grandson, Felix, describes their friendship as one of the most “illuminating metaphors [for] the clarion call of the Enlightenment for religious tolerance“.[10] It was this relationship that sparked his interest in popular religious debates of the time. He began publishing heated pamphlets on his beliefs which were eventually banned. It was this banishment that inspired him to return to theatre to portray his views and to write Nathan the Wise.

==

According to Marvin Antelmann, Mendelssohn was a leading Frankist, and received his smicha from none other than Yonatan Eibshitz.

==

Meanwhile, you can read more about Lessing’s play ‘Nathan the Wise’ HERE.

Snippet:

Set in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade, it describes how the wise Jewish merchant Nathan, the enlightened sultan Saladin, and the (initially anonymous) Templar, bridge their gaps between Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Its major themes are friendship, tolerance, relativism of God, a rejection of miracles and a need for communication.

==

Hel-lo one world religion operating out of Jerusalem, with the proto-freemason Templars firmly in the picture, and lots of ‘enlightenment’ and ‘illumination’ going on – and of course, downplaying God, chas v’halila, and mocking miracles.

I am starting to feel like maybe ‘Nathan the Wise’ got reincarnated in our generation as ‘Nathan-who-thinks-he’s-wise-rationalist-Jew’. But I digress.

==

If you go HERE, to the freemasonry site, you’ll find that Lessing was a senior and influential German freemason.

Snippet:

“ERNEST AND FALK.— ‘Ernst und Falk, Gespräche für Freimaurer’ — ‘Conversations for Freemasons.’ A remarkable work by Bro. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, translated by me, in part in the London Freemason’s Quarterly, 1854, and afterwards republished and completed in the London Freemason for 1872. Findel’s opinion is, that this work, unfortunately only a fragment, is one of the best treatises ever written on Freemasonry.”1

Initiated, Passed and Raised: October 14, 1771
Lodge Zu den Drei Goldenen Rosen, Hamburg2

Tov.

Are you starting to figure more of this out for yourself?

==

If you go to Amazon HERE, you’ll find the German language work Lessing wrote as propaganda for the freemasons, called Ernst and Falk.

Snippet from the description:

The book ‘Gespräche für Freimaurer’ by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing delves into deep philosophical discussions between two friends, Ernst and Falk, about the nature of Freemasonry. The conversations touch upon the essence of Freemasonry, its purpose, and its role in society.

Falk, a Freemason, explains to Ernst the hidden intentions and actions of the Freemasons, focusing on their efforts to unite humanity despite the inevitable divisions created by states and religions.

The discussions revolve around the idea that Freemasons work towards overcoming these divisions and promoting unity among individuals of different backgrounds. The book explores the concept of Freemasonry as a means to address the inherent evils of society and to promote harmony and understanding among people. Through thought-provoking dialogues, the book challenges the reader to consider the deeper meanings and intentions behind the actions of Freemasons and their impact on society.

==

Remember, Lessing is best friends with Moses Mendelssohn, Mendelssohn is a Frankist ‘rebbe’ given smicha by another Frankist ‘rebbe’ Yonatan Eibshutz, and these people are all freemasons.

And their descendants are in very influential leadership positions within all areas of the Jewish community, within Israel and without, still today.

Starts to explain things, doesn’t it?

==

Let’s move on to OTTO LILLIENTHAL.

He is a real person, and it does look like he invented airplanes, after all.

Go to Wiki HERE.

Snippet:

His flight attempts in 1891 are seen as the beginning of human flight and the “Lilienthal Normalsegelapparat” is considered the first airplane in series production, making the Maschinenfabrik Otto Lilienthal in Berlin the first airplane production company in the world. He has been referred to as the “father of aviation” and “father of flight”.

On 9 August 1896, Lilienthal’s glider stalled and he was unable to regain control. Falling from about 15 metres (49 ft), he broke his neck and died the next day.

==

How does the Rav know all this stuff?!

It’s amazing.

==

Rav Heshel’s story continues later in this shiur, which BH I plan on translating a lot more. We’ll pick it up next week.

BTW, my internet is still out, and my internet provider apparently can’t even find my details. BH, I hope I can sort it out next week, but slow posting until that happens.

Shabbat shalom.

More than 20 years ago, now, I was attending a whole bunch of parenting classes, as a new mother.

My kid was barely one year old, but I already understood that I had a whole bunch of stuff I needed to figure out and fix, if I didn’t want to totally screw-up my kid.

So there we were, my husband and me, sitting on the parenting woman’s coach, surrounded by a bunch of unfriendly Jewish Londoners, all pretending they had ‘no problems with their kids’ and were just there because they were bored, or something.

Plus ca change.

==

Long story short, I was there to figure stuff out and to fix stuff, and I didn’t so much care about making a spectacle of myself, as long as I could start improving my parenting.

(This was way before Rav Arush put out ‘Education with Love’ – still the best parenting book ever, in my opinion.)

But you know, when you’re without authentic Breslov, and without authentic advice from a really holy place, that really helps to you change and fix a whole bunch of stuff, you just muddle along, trying to find one be-wigged or be-bearded ‘guru’ after another, who seems to be making at least a little bit of sense.

==

My be-wigged ‘guru’ was called Rivkie, from Israel originally, and had that refreshing Israeli directness that is so foreign to most interactions between London Jews.

One time, I was moaning about how I was doing all the hard work at home, taking all the responsibility for stuff, everything was falling on me, blah-blah-blah.

She threw a cushion at me, which I caught.

Then she told me, this cushion represents all your ‘responsibilities’. For as long as you are clutching it, no-one else can pick it up.

==

Simple as this sounds, at that time in my life I was in a mindset where I felt I couldn’t trust anyone, and that if I put that cushion down, there was no-one around who was going to come and rescue it. Or me.

Of course, the bit of the puzzle that was totally missing from this ‘cushion experiment’, back then, was God.

Specifically, the idea that God is running the world, and we individuals have to do the tasks that God expects us to do, without shirking or running away – but also, without taking on all the ‘burdens’ of the world, and of other people, in a misguided attempt to try to help or ‘fix’ them.

It’s literally taken me about 23 years, to finally get the cushion idea.

==

What does that mean, tachlis?

It means that I am trying to let go of problems that are not really ‘mine’, dramas that are not being written by me, or for me, worries about ‘what’s going to be in the shtachim’, or ‘what’s going to be in Gaza’, all of that stuff.

Sure, I can still pray for other people.

And honestly? As time goes on, I am understanding that praying for other people, sincerely, is really the biggest ‘help’, and the truest ‘gift’ I can give them.

Because bottom line: when we’re not in alignment with God’s plan for us, and we’re not doing our own work to ‘fix’ all the middot and other crud we came down here to fix, then our lives are going to be full of suffering and pain and ‘drama’.

==

I know that was my own experience, until I finally hit real Breslov and finally understood that I wasn’t just suffering stam.

I was suffering, because I had a ton of bad middot I needed to fix.

I was suffering, because I had a ton of grudges I was holding against God, about hard stuff I’d experienced, and difficulties I’d had to go through – to achieve my spiritual tikkun down here.

I was suffering, because I was very, very far away from really having emuna, defined as doing my best to see God behind every single circumstance in my life, and understanding that God was sending this stuff, or arranging the hardships, as a tikkun to fix my soul – and also, as an invitation to drop the mask and finally start talking to Him.

==

This stuff doesn’t come overnight.

And to keep this ‘real’, I am still very much a Work In Progress (W.I.P.), and I am still even today fighting the battle to have emuna, and to not get lost in blame games, self-righteous ‘anger’ and fallen fears about my teeth falling out…

It’s a war of emuna, and I am on the frontlines of it, most days.

(Guess what: so are you.)

Actually – so is everybody.

==

Back to the cushion.

Sometimes, particularly with people you care about, like children for example, there comes a time when you have to ‘put down the cushion’ of taking responsibility for them, and you have to encourage them to live their own lives, and to make their own mistakes.

That’s the only way people really grow.

It’s the only way they really become ‘them’, instead of just a robot that’s processing ‘commands’ from their parents, however well-intentioned the programmers may be.

Also, it’s the only way people ever really start to walk that path of developing emuna, and getting closer to God.

==

Mamash, I hate all the suffering that’s going on in the world, in all different ways.

Engaging with the ‘news’ literally makes my eyes go funny, because all it is propaganda, lies, or deliberate fear-inducement designed to plunge us back into a PTSD response.

And all the ‘influencers’ that feed off that stuff, and spread it around just so they can feel ‘important’, and like they’re doing something – I would really urge us all to stop for a moment, and to really explore if sharing this crud around is doing something positive. Or the very opposite.

==

But the point is: suffering is happening all around.

And if you’re a caring, thoughtful person, it can literally be overwhelming and ‘sick’ making.

Until… You finally understand that God is behind all this, and it all turns around for the best, literally, the second a person makes the sort of teshuva God is requiring of them.

Working on overcoming the bad middot is the first line of action, because the whole world is really just a mirror. And if we’re surrounded by certain types, certain ‘issues’ we can be sure that we’ll find some trace of that inside ourselves, too. If we look closely.

But working on developing real emuna is also a crucial part of this, again, defined as understanding that every little thing is coming from God, and isn’t ‘stam’.

==

In our world, where ‘victimhood’ is encouraged and rewarded, playing the biggest victim often seems like a good idea.

But, this is the opposite of the emuna approach, where we understand that God is behind every last single thing, even the most horrible, and that there is a tikkun of souls going on here, that stretches back to the beginning of time.

This is what helped me, myself, to come to terms with so much of the crud I had to deal with, especially from childhood: the understanding that if God arranged all this for me in this lifetime, I sure must have been a really yucky person in previous lifetimes, that I had to experience all this on the side of being the ‘victim’.

==

That doesn’t mean we just roll-over and let the baddies and bullies continue beating us up, not at all.

NOT AT ALL.

But, it means that we move out of ‘victim’ mode, and we start to take responsibility for ourselves, and our own lives, and our own happiness.

And the main way we do that, is by talking to God for an hour every single day, and making God part of the solution to our problems.

==

For example, I hate that our evil government is finding ridiculous pretexts to destroy Jewish villages in the Yehuda and Shomron.

It’s bad, it’s evil, it’s totally wrong.

But – it’s also from God.

And as someone with kids in these areas, I know there is a lot of stuff that needs ‘fixing’ in Yehuda and Shomron right now – not least, the cosying up to the Notzrim that’s going on all over, and a total over-reliance on ‘guns’ instead of God.

==

The drive to violence comes from a lot of anger.

From what I have learned the last few years, Hilltop youth, for the most part, come from broken homes. There’s a lot of dysfunction, a lot of divorce. They gravitate to places where they can kind of ‘camp out’ when they’re teens, which tend to be the farms in YeSHa, and then many of them stay, settle down and get married.

But the anger?

That really should be directed as their divorced parents (as the first stage in the healing process), and then, at God, as part of working it all through and finally letting it go?

The anger stays.

Until it’s dealt with properly, via hitbodedut and prayer, and Uman and pidyonot – and BTW, that’s one of the reasons Rabbenu is so big with the hilltop youth, because many of them have already figured out that without Rabbenu, they’d sink under the weight of all that anger.

==

Angry people don’t make good spouses.

They don’t make good parents.

They may make good ‘settlers’, in some ways – but I highly doubt that this is the only way of accomplishing yishuv ha’aretz, and I am sure that once the anger is addressed and worked through – the yishuv ha’aretz bit will also get way easier and more gentle, too.

Once the media can stop pointing fingers at ‘angry and violent hilltop youth’, and the government can no longer use them as convenient cover for the violent actions of their own agents provacateurs, it will be way, way harder to keep getting public buy-in for bulldozing Jewish homes. Even in Tel Aviv.

==

Tov, of course I’m over-generalising to make the point.

But the point is: we are suffering because God wants something to change.

And just pointing fingers at Lefties, or America, and yelling ‘Kahane was right’ doesn’t mean we don’t also need to take a long, hard look at our own bad middot, to try to figure out why is GOD doing this to us?!

==

If I upset you by saying this (especially you, Dean Maughvet) – I apologise.

But take a deep breath, and think about what I’m really saying here.

It’s empowering on such a deep level, to understand that everything that’s happening to us – it’s not stam. It’s exactly, 100%, tailored from God, to get something to change inside.

If you want to argue that the ‘answer’ is more violence, more guns, more anger, more ‘the power and strength of my own arm’ – it’s a free world, go right ahead.

All I know, is that the day before October 7th they State took all the guns away from the kibbutzim in the Gaza envelope, and all that remained was God’s protection.

It’s not for nothing, that the Shabbat-respecting yishuvim had their gates closed and were mostly unharmed that day.

==

So.

Bottom line.

We are only responsible for ourselves, and our own avodat hamiddot.

I can only fix myself, by asking God to help me do that. And this is also true of everyone else, too.

==

It’s not easy to learn that lesson.

It usually requires a lot of suffering, lo alenu, to break our arrogance, and to overcome the yetzer that tells us ‘we can do this without God’.

But we can’t.

At all.

And that message is only going to get louder, going forward.

Shavua Tov!

I managed to catch up on the Shivivei Or newsletters over Shabbat, BH.

This week’s has a real doozy of a shiur, which I will BH try and translate a lot of. In the meantime, these are some interesting comments from two weeks ago:

==

Shiur 7th Cheshvan 5786, (29th October, 2025) to Chochma v’Daat Yeshiva

People say that it’s possible to figure things out without Hashem.

I’ll get along fine without Hashem.

There was one person in Los Angeles who said today, people get along fine without God.

The next day in Los Angeles, there was an earthquake, there was a flood, and everything simply got destroyed. This was exactly two years’ ago, in Los Angeles.

One singer, the biggest one, [said] I sing all day long, it’s good for me, everyone comes to hear me. Do I need God?! I get on fine without God!

She said this publically. The following day, there was an earthquake, half of Los Angeles was destroyed.

People who had a billion-dollar apartment, it became zero, an apartment, penthouse, three storeys, five elevators, two mercedes, a yacht – Los Angeles is next to the sea. And also a private airplane – everything was destroyed.

Not a trace remained. Everything turned into nothing.

So, if a person says I don’t need Hashem – everything he has disappears.

==

[Skipping a bunch]

Tomorrow, there will be the atzeret (prayer gathering / Million man march).

This is like travelling to Rabbi Shimon [Bar Yochai]. You can say 10 Tikkun Haklalis there, the kker (main point) is to go there.

A million people need to come, and this will make a big ‘noise’ for the chilonim, because they say, if your Torah is really your whole life, OK, but 90%, their Torah is not their whole life. Everyone works, they hang about, they learn for an hour and then wander around for nine hours.

After that, they sleep for eight hours, at least.

==

But, we want for your Torah to really be your life! We want to educate you for this.

[Now] You are bothering us in the middle of our education, now it’s in the middle of the working day, you didn’t seem to be the type who half-works… Each person, the Torah should be their whole life!

We want each child to be able to learn 24 hours. But they say each time:

If your Torah is really your whole life, we agree with that. But the Torah is not your whole life! We see 90% walking around the streets!

==

Translated and excerpted from Shivivei Or 431.

==

From what I can see, I think the Rav was referring to the singer Taylor Swift.

She was in the middle of the biggest grossing tour ever, apparently, and had a new album out with lyrics like this:

“They shake their heads sayin’, ‘God help her,’/ When I tell ’em he’s my man/ but your good Lord doesn’t lift a finger/ I can fix him, no, really, I can. And only I can.”

But if you have a better candidate, you can let me know in the comments.

==

Well, here’s some more ‘circumstantial evidence’:

==

And the piece de resistance:

53 views 16 Jan 2025 #PalisadesFire #TaylorSwift #CelebrityNews

Taylor Swift’s Beverly Hills mansion has been destroyed in the devastating Palisades fire, leaving fans heartbroken. The historic property, once a symbol of her success, is now reduced to ashes. Authorities are investigating as the fire continues to rage across the area.

Amazingly, as I was reading last week’s Shivivei Or, which I missed because I was in Uman last Shabbat, trying to recover some ‘lost things’ – whaddya know?!

The Rav was giving a whole shiur on how you have to travel to the Tzaddik to find your ‘lost things. Let’s bring that below, and then below that, the original lesson in Likutey Moharan I:188 that the Rav is quoting:

==

Let’s bring Likutey Moharan 188.

“I know how to return all the lost things.”

The Rebbe says, I know how to return all the lost things.

Apart from Rabbenu [Rebbe Nachman of Breslov], no-one else knows how to ‘return lost things’.

[A person who finds something ‘lost’ as defined in the Mishnah] “has to announce it”.

[However, he is under no obligation to return it, until the person who comes to claim it can prove it is his, as elucidated in the Gemara. And then you have to]:

“Check he is not an impostor”, and then, that he wants to see Hashem….

==

So, Lesson 188, the Rebbe says, only I can give back the lost things!

“Know: one must journey to the tzaddik in search of what one has lost.”

Why do we travel to the Tzaddik? To fetch the ‘lost things’. Everything is lost for a person.

Shmirat eynayim – [gets lost because of] all sorts of sins, and apart from the Tzaddik, no-body else can give back what is lost.

There is no such thing as this.

==

Translated from Shivivei Or 431

==

Ad kan, from the Rav. Here is the original lesson from Rebbe Nachman:

Lesson I:188 Likutey Moharan:

Know: one must journey to the tzaddik in search of what one has lost.

Before one enters the world, one is taught and shown everything that one needs to do, work at and achieve in this world.

But as soon as one enters this world, it is all forgotten, as our Sages said (Niddah 30b). Now, forgetting something is like losing it, as our Sages referred to someone who forgets as someone who loses things, as they said, “Swift to hear and swift to lose.” (Avot 5:12).

Thus, one must search and seek for what one has lost.

==

And that what one has lost is with the Tzaddik.

For the Tzaddik searches for his own losses until he finds them, and when he does, he goes in search for the losses of others until he finds them as well, eventually finding the losses of the entire world.

Therefore, one must journey to the Sage in order to search for and recognise one’s losses, and to retrieve them from him.

==

However, the tzaddik does not return the losses until he makes sure that the person is not an impostor or a liar, as written, “Until the searching of your brother, then return it to him.” (Devarim 22:2) – “until you search your brother that he is not an impostor.” (Bava Metzia 27b).

==

The siyatta di’shmeya is astounding, in all this.

As I keep saying, when you really try to ‘connect’ to the Rav by reading his prayers, his teachings, supporting him and his institutions financially – you see all sorts of ‘hints’ all over the place, that the Rav is connecting back to you, too.

(Try it for yourself, if you don’t believe me. To give another example: every time I give a ‘large’ pid for Rav needs, for a specific purpose, I see that ‘specific purpose’ hinted to in that week’s shiurim. Like the time a few years’ back when my husband snapped his tendon playing tennis for the first time in 10 years. It wasn’t healing, we paid a pid – and that week the Rav started talking about ‘only Shuvu Banim play tennis’. BH, his leg is fine today.)

==

So, I had a whole discussion about what it means to really ‘describe your lost things’ to the Tzaddik, in order to get them back, and without faking it, with my husband.

Bottom line, if you go and ask for ‘emuna’, or ‘yirat shemayim’, or a billion euros – and you have no idea why you even want that, just you think it’s a ‘nice idea’, or you see someone else with it and think you also should have it – probably, the Tzaddik is not going to give it to you.

Let’s say, you go ask for a coat, a nice Calvin Klein fluffy jacket that you see someone else wearing around Uman.

You hear that there is a ‘Reb Nachman’ who gives nice coats to people, if they can prove it belongs to them. So you go over there, and try your luck.

Yeah, I, er, lost a Calvin Klein coat… Something really expensive…er, and brand new! Literally just out the package!!! Honest guv!

Reb Nachman is not a fool. He’ll ask you stuff like, where did you lose it? How did it feel, when  you were wearing it? What distinguishing marks does it have,  from all the other Calvin Klein fluffy jackets out there?

Some people will continue to fudge and lie – but others will admit that they don’t know. They just want a nice coat.

==

Reb Nachman will ask you:

Why do you want a nice coat?

And then, you’ll have to do the work of really trying to explain it.

Because I want to look good… Because I want what other people have… Because my pride is injured that I don’t have a nice coat… Because I’m cold…

At some point in that process, after you’ve discarded all the lies we all tell ourselves, you’ll hit the bedrock, the truth. And if the truth is that you really do need ‘a nice coat’ to do your job in the world – then you’ll get it. And if the truth is that you don’t – you won’t.

But, the beauty of this process is that once you realise having a nice coat is not in alignment with who you really are, you’ll stop wanting one, anyway. And instead, you’ll describe that nice poncho, or sweater, or scarf, that is really you, and really what you need.

==

Another point I wanted to make, is that I know a lot of my readers are ‘with the Rav’, which is fantastic – but not always also ‘with Rabbenu’.

And people need both to achieve their tikkun in this world, the easiest, sweetest way possible.

I got to the Rav after years of being with Rabbenu – and I can see how much things got ‘sweetened’ when that happened.

At the same time, when people are with the Rav, but not really with Rabbenu – i.e. they have never been to Uman, and think they are exempt from going because they have the Rav – that’s not correct.

There are some things, many things, even, that you can only find at Rebbe Nachman’s tomb, in Uman.

And if you haven’t been yet, you really need to book your ticket, and to go.

There are organised trips for women, if you’re a woman and scared to go alone. Try Netivim, or Derech Tzaddikim, and they’ll arrange it all for you.

==

I am feeling much happier since I went to Uman last week, but still with a lot of bad middot I am trying to work through.

But I got my derech back, my yishuv hadaat, my energy.

A lot of stuff I’d ‘lost’….

Exactly as Rabbenu and the Rav describe, above.

(But still a little grumpy, and working through a lot of ‘angry feelings’… These things can take a lot of time to really get on top of, especially when they bubble up after years of feeling taken for granted and used. BH, said the Rav’s ‘angry’ prayers today and doing much better, but I think I’l have to repeat that process a couple more times, to really move the anger out.)

W.I.P.

(Work in Progress).

==

PS: One more thing, is that after all these years of being mocked and ridiculed by various people for being Breslov, and then being with the Rav, I am now entering the age and the stage of life where I can see where these different approaches have led.

Most of the mockers and ridiculers still have awful middot, many if not most of them are divorced, and / or have really horrible relationships with their kids and others, and the health problems that come along with having really bad middot and lots of problems are also multiplying with each passing year.

B’kitzur, the people who jeer at Breslov for being ‘idol worship’, or whatever… the ones I know personally have ended up with really horrible lives.

If that sounds appealing to you, by all means ignore everything I wrote above.

W.I.P….. out.