Rebbe Nachman on Simplicity
Who is capable of serving Hashem in a matter befitting to Hashem’s greatness? No one! Yet, we can all serve Hashem in a way Hashem truly loves – with simplicity…
Excerpts from the teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslev
Chambers of the Palace, Part 18
I don’t know who can say that he is serving God in accordance with God’s greatness. If a person knows even a little bit of God’s greatness, I don’t know how he can say that he will serve God.
No angel or seraph can boast that it can serve God.
But one must always strongly desire to come close to God.
Even though everyone may desire to serve God, not all desires are equal. There are many gradations. Even a single person’s desires have many gradations from moment to moment.
In the midst of this desire, one prays, one learns Torah and does mitzvot. (In relation to God’s greatness, all this service is nothing. But one acts “as if” one is truly serving Him, even though this is almost comical in relation to God’s greatness.)
One does not need to be clever. One merely needs simplicity.
But even in simplicity, one may not be a fool.
Still and all, one doesn’t need to be clever at all. (Sichot Haran 51)
The King and the Peasant
A king went out to catch animals. He traveled dressed like a simple man so that he would be able to hunt easily. Suddenly, a great rain cascaded down on him. All the ministers were scattered, and the king himself was in great danger. He finally came across a peasant’s house. The peasant took in the king, clothed him, gave him groats to eat, heated the oven up for him, gave him a place to sleep on the pallet, and so on.
The king was terribly worn out, and he had never felt anything as warm and sweet as the peasant’s care for him.
The ministers searched for the king until they came to the peasant’s house and saw him sleeping. They wanted the king to return with them to the palace.
The king replied to them, “You all ran off to save yourselves, and you didn’t save me. Yet this man saved me, and I had such a wonderful experience here. Therefore, he will bring me back to the palace in his wagon and in these clothes, and he will put me on my throne.”
Rabbi Nachman added, “In the days before the coming of the messiah, there will be a flood of heresy, a flood of destructive waters. The highest mountains will be covered, and the flood will even dash its waters over the land of Israel. The water will even spray into kosher hearts; and through sophistication, no one will find an answer.
“All the ministers will scatter, and the kingdom will not remain firm. It will stand only because of simple Jews who recite Psalms and serve God simply.
“Therefore, when the messiah comes, it is the simple people who will place the crown upon his head.” (Avanehah Barzel p. 23)
The Simplicity of God
One does not need cleverness to serve God—just simplicity and faith.
Rabbi Nachman said that simplicity is the highest level. God Himself is higher than everything, and He is the ultimately simple being. (Sichot Haran 101)
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Writer, translator, and editor Yaacov Dovid Shulman can be contacted at: yacovdavid@gmail.com.
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