Another pivotal teaching of Rabbi Nachman was that anything important will come with obstacles (Meni'ot). The very letters of "meni'ot" can be rearranged to spell "Ne'imot" (pleasant!). In order to merit arriving at holiness, G-d gives us...
When Rabbi Nachman returned from the Holy Land, before returning home, he visited many of the senior Chassidic leaders in Ukraine, and as far as White Russia, where he attempted to make peace between Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, and his bitter...
At this point, we need to digress a bit. There are many areas of Jewish Law and Tradition that are subject to different interpretations. One, which I hope to deal with in more detail in a future post, relates to the issue of visiting the graves...
In the eight years that Rabbi Natan spent with Rabbi Nachman, he not only went through a spiritual transformation on a personal level, but enabled future generations to see and appreciate his experiences. Rabbi Nachman would...
When Rabbi Nachman passed away in 1810, Rabbi Natan was only thirty years old. Many of the other followers were much older. Some had even been Chassidic leaders before coming to Rabbi Nachman. No one knew quite what to do....
Rabbi Natan had passed away in 1844. Small groups of Breslovers continued in obscure Ukrainian towns. Opposition existed, but at least it was non-violent. There was little hope of becoming a mass-movement in that environment....
Some of you have been asking why Rabbi Nachman and his teachings were, and to a degree, still are, persecuted. In thinking about it, I realized that this question is, indeed, pertinent to the entire theme of this group. Community can be a great...
What is the state of Kabbalah today? Chassidim are centered on the ideas of Kabbalah, but, for the most part, not on studying the primary texts. Only people on an advanced level would touch the actual Zohar or Writings of the ARI, The big...
Here are the thoughts of the Na Nach Movement from a true follower of Rabbi Nachman.
Rabbi Israel Ber Odesser (1888-1994) lived in the Land of Israel at time when Breslov was persecuted and despised. He went to study at a Yeshiva in Tiberius,...
In some heretical Jewish sects, and especially in their online versions, one sees the New Moon of Nisan referred to as Biblical New Year. The supposed basis for this assertion is Exodus 12:2 "This month will be for you the first of months"....
The Torah commands that we put a "cord of blue" into our tzitzit. This was observed scrupulously until the third century, when the Roman/Byzantine authorities decreed that only their royalty could wear blue. They closed down the manufacturing...
When former Chief Rabbi Lau, the father of the current Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, visited Pope John Paul II in 1993, he told the Pope that Israel needed help in locating Ron Arad, a member of the Israeli Air Force, who went missing in...
As I pointed out in my previous post, the primary function of the Kaddish, is to indicate and separate the end of one segment of the prayer service, from the beginning of another. But why is this necessary? Here, we must turn to the Kabbalah for...
As I wrote in part 1, the "half Kaddish" is the "real" kaddish. Over time, various other forms of the Kaddish have developed, consisting mainly of additions to the basic "half Kaddish". These additions are custom only.
One of these is called by...
When Kaddish was only the demarcation between the various parts of the service, there were initially seven Kaddishes in the liturgy; three in the morning service, and two each in the afternoon and evening service, for a total of seven. This was...
