רבי נחמן מברסלב

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov is the tzaddik who spoke to the broken soul, and whose stories became a treasure for every seeker. The great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Breslov Chassidut, he taught a way of endless renewal: 'there is no despair in the world at all,' 'it is a great mitzvah to be always joyful.' He knew the darkness from within, and out of it grew a light.

Rabbi Nachman taught 'hitbodedut': to go out to the field and speak to God in your own words, as to a friend, with an open heart. He did not seek an inflated perfection but honesty: to begin always anew, even after a thousand falls. His teaching speaks precisely to one who has fallen, who struggles, who has nearly despaired.

His stories, the 'Tales,' are a masterwork: legends of kings, princesses and lost ones, each holding within it a world of hints about the soul and its repair. He died young, about thirty-eight, but asked that his grave in Uman be a place to which people would come, and multitudes ascend to it to this day.

What do we learn from him? That there is no despair, and that every fall is only the beginning of a new beginning. Rabbi Nachman teaches that joy is a labor, not a gift, that seclusion and simple speech to God open every heart, and that precisely the tzaddik who knew the darkness from within can extend a hand to one who is there now.