This sichah discusses the amazing virtue of simple emunah. It reveals to us how to build true emunah within ourselves and avoid the dangers that can harm our emunah. It contains incredibly profound wisdom and practical advice. Thus, in order to truly grasp the teachings of Rebbe Nachman in this sichah, we will explain a couple of introductory ideas.
The Zohar HaKadosh and the Writings of the Arizal reveal the deeper meaning of every mitzvah and aspect of the Torah. They explain the hidden spiritual truth of everything in the universe. However, the wisdom of the Zohar and the Arizal is so complex and abstract that most people aren’t able to understand how to actually live with it. Even if a person grasps the concepts very clearly, it is still very difficult to know how they relate to his everyday existence. Thus, their light remains concealed from most of us.
Nonetheless, with His unbelievable compassion, Hashem sent us the holy Baal Shem to guide us on this path. The greatness of the Baal Shem Tov is that he brings down the most profound Kabbalistic ideas into simple teachings, stories, parables that any person can understand. He shows us how the light of penimiyus haTorah applies to even the most simple Jew.
Questions in Avodas Hashem
Afterwards, each one of the Baal Shem Tov’s talmidim expanded on his teachings in a different way. The Toldos revealed how his ideas relate to verses in the Torah and statements of the Sages. The Maggid of Mezerich and the Baal HaTanya explained very deep concepts that come from the Baal Shem Tov’s revelations. Others explained the connection between his teachings and the Kabbalah. All of these talmidim opened up new ways to understand penimiyus haTorah -- each one in his unique way. Similarly, in Likutei Mohoran, Rebbe Nachman also brings down many ideas from the Zohar, Arizal, Baal Shem Tov, and all areas of the Torah, and gives us an amazing understanding of the deeper meaning of life and avodas Hashem through the connection between these teachings.
However, in this generation, it is very difficult for us to grasp the basic messages of the talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov. The teachings of the Baal Shem Tov contain such profound, life-changing ideas that it was necessary for his talmidim to expand on them and bring out their hidden meaning. Naturally, when we learn these sefarim, we want to come to a clearer picture of avodas Hashem. We yearn to grasp the deeper truth of the Torah and the world around us. We long to feel like we know the secrets of chassidus and Kabbalah with true clarity. But nowadays, very often, we struggle to understand them.
The result of this is that sometimes we come away from learning these sefarim with doubts. Due to our limited vision and seichel, we have questions in our lives and avodas Hashem that arise from a lack of understanding of the complex teachings of chassidus.
