Hello Everyone,
Today, instead of a shiur based on the חובות הלבבות we had a shiur based on some passages from the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, known as ליקוטי מוהר”ן .
I thought that ליקוטי מוהר”ן would provide a sort of counterweight to the subject of חשבון הנפש which we have been studying in חובות הלבבות. חשבון הנפש is self-examination, and examinations are as a rule anxiety-producing, all the more so when the examination is being done before God. דוד המלך wrote in ספר תהלים:
תהלים פרק קמג
אַל תָּבוֹא בְמִשְׁפָּט אֶת עַבְדֶּךָ כִּי לֹא יִצְדַּק לְפָנֶיךָ כָל חָי:
חשבון הנפש poses two challenges. The first challenge is to perform an honest examination our actions. The second challenge is to “get past” the self-examination and not to be discouraged by its results. As I mentioned last week, the study of mussar has been (wrongfully, in my opinion) associated with sadness, so I thought it would be a good idea to study some of Rabbi Nachmans writings on this subject.
Rabbi Nachman has become something of a cliché, especially in Israel. In many cities you can find people singing the מצוה גדולה להיות בשמחה and גשר צר מאד songs in the street, but there is a level of thought that is lost in the frenzy of the נ-נח-נחמ-נחמן hysterics. So I gave today’s shiur with the hope that we could all find something meaningful in Rabbi Nachman’s writings on the importance of maintaining happiness.
Rabbi Nachman gives a very sober description of the difficulty of achieving holiness. Contrary to the popular view that Chassidut provides an easier path to holiness than the cold and demanding Judaism of the Mitnagdim, Rabbi Nachman writes that the path to holiness is a tortuous one, full of frustration, doubt and confusion. The closer one gets to holiness the worse the doubts become. This is why Rabbi Nachman emphasizes the importance of happiness. Rabbi Nachman does not deny the importance of חשבון הנפש and he acknowledges the value of a broken heart.[1] What Rabbi Nachman emphasizes [2] is that a person should limit the time for חשבון הנפש and its accompanying feeling of לב נשבר to an hour a day. The rest of the day should be spent with a positive, empowering feeling of שמחה. After all, if a person allows himself to be trapped in the morose state of לב נשבר how will he progress spiritually to קדושה? Everyone needs to cherish deep inside the knowledge that he has done one mitzvah, and even if all he can find within himself is one mitzvah, that can be the starting point for spiritual growth towards קדושה. And whenever a person is overcome with inevitable[3] feelings of doubt and despair, the knowledge that he has indeed done one mitzvah should cheer him up and bring him to שמחה. Rabbi Nachman writes that the risks posed by שמחה degenerating to frivolity are much less than the risks posed by sadness leading to depression.
חובות הלבבות certainly “sounds” different than ליקוטי מוהר”ן but I don’t know if רבנו בחיי had a different view of the ultimate goal, קדושה, than רבי נחמן. Rabbeinu Bachya and Rabbi Nachman were both great leaders and teachers and they wrote classic books which are still sources of inspiration. When חז”ל were faced with stark disagreements between authorities they said אלו ואלו דברי א-להים חיים and I think this applies to the teachers of mussar and Rabbi Nachman. Neither Rabbeinu Bachya nor Rabbi Nachman describe an easy path to holiness, they both write that we should avoid disparaging our good deeds during חשבון הנפש .They both say that Hahsem is waiting for us to complete the journey to holiness. So why do the books “sound” so different? I think it is because the audiences for these two books were so different. Rabbeinu Bachya was writing for a complacent Jewish community which needed to hear its shortcomings spelled out and to be told how to discover holiness. I think this is clear from the 30 point list that Rabbeinu Bachya gives us for performing an adequate חשבון הנפש.
Rabbi Nachman’s audience was different. Rabbi Nachman told his lessons (תורות) to people who acknowledged him as their spiritual leader. I don’t know if Rabbeinu Bachya even had an audience.[4]The people who went hear Rabbi Nachman were interested in achieving holiness, they were motivated, all that they needed was encouragement to finish a job that they began on their own.
We don’t live in a society that appreciates the values of the Torah and I think that we all need the encouragement of Rabbi Nachman. Bye, Stuart Fischman
[1] תהלים פרק נא
(יט) זִבְחֵי אֱלֹהִים רוּחַ נִשְׁבָּרָה לֵב נִשְׁבָּר וְנִדְכֶּה אֱלֹהִים לֹא תִבְזֶה:
[2] And here he may disagree with רבנו בחיי who writes that if possible a person should live in a continual state of חשבון הנפש, but I have no definite opinion about this issue.
[3] Rabbi Nachman emphasizes the inevitability and even the necessity of these feelings.
[4] The impression that I received from his introduction is that he did not., but I may be wrong. Little, if, anything, is known about Rabbeinu Bachya.