Simplicity
I read this from Rabbenu on Shabbat.
It gave me a lot of hope, and a lot of chizzuk.
I hope it will do for you, too.
Keep going with the Tikkun HaKlalis – it’s what changes everything around, miraculously.
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God wins battles merely because of the simple folk who recite Psalms with simplicity, and not through those who use sophisticated means.
A king once went hunting, and travelled like a simple man, so that he would have freedom of movement.
Suddenly, very heavy rains fell, literally like a flood.
The ministers scattered in all directions, and the king was in great danger. He searched until he found the house of a villager. The villager invited the king in and offered him some groats. He lit the stove and let the king sleep on a pallet.
This was very sweet and pleasant for the king. He was so tired and exhausted that it seemed as if he had never had such a pleasurable experience.
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Meanwhile, the royal ministers sought the king, until they found him in this house, where they saw the king sleeping. They wanted him to return to the palace with them.
“You didn’t even try to rescue me,” the king said.
“Each one of you ran to save himself. But this man rescued me. Here, I had the sweetest experience. Therefore, he will bring me back in his wago, in these clothes, and he will sit with me on my throne.”
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Rebbe Nachman concluded by saying that before the Moshiach comes, there will be a flood.
It will not be a flood of water, but of immorality and atheism.
It will cover all the high mountains, even in the Holy Land, where the original flood didn’t reach.
But this time, it will come with such strength that the water will splash over the land. This means that it will have an effect even in virtuous hearts.
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There will be no way to combat this with ‘sophistication’.
All the royal ministers will be scattered, and the entire kingdom will not be firm on its foundation.
The only ones who will uphold it will be the simple Jews who recite Psalms in simplicity.
So, when the Moshiach comes, they will be the ones to place the crown on his head.
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Rebbe Nachman’s stories, 21
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PS: Someone up the road was playing this while I was typing this up – Ofra Haza’s song ‘CHAI’ from the 1983 Eurovision, before it went obviously satanic.
(Not shmirat eynayim friendly – there is some AWFUL 80s hairdos…)
It still gives me chills – even tho I know now Ofra got bumped-off by the State for asking too many questions about what happened to the Yemenite children (including, apparently, one of her own siblings….)
AM YISRAEL CHAI – and it’s good that we didn’t give up hope of things turning around.
Because that day is coming very, very soon, BH.
I learned from a close admirer of her that actually she contracted aids from her first lover and was being treated for many years. She left the world while in a treatment center. Haval! Such a beauty and talented too. [mistreated terribly by “a bearded vulture” who couldnt leave her alone]. Awful awful some men are.
She did die of AIDS, which is apparently caught from her husband. He claimed she got it from a blood transfusion she got when she suffered a miscarriage, but he died of an overdose a year later, so come to your own conclusions.
Actually, I like this version of Ofr more:
Im Nin’Alu (Montreux) – Ofra Haza
https://youtu.be/tukwPSOZDow?si=lzOEMaO0NrZ8dluo
It is real Hashgacha that you wrote this, as my wife bought me a copy of The Narrow Bridge last week. I started reading it and it opens with Rebbe Nachman talking about simplicity. Like you state above, he clearly says to forget the sophistication and over thinking. Serve Hashem with simplicity. Really internalized it.
Just after October 7th there was a meeting of all the descendants of a deceased Holocaust survivor. When the families were sitting together they had arranged that they would sing Am Israel Chai. It was very moving seeing all these ‘victories over the German dictator’ singing together was a Jewish victory.