During the month if Teves, three fast days are observed in commemoration of the three calamities that befell Israel on the 8th, 9th, and 10th of the month.
On the 8th, the Torah was translated to Greek by the decree of King Ptolemy.
On the 9th, there occurred the death if Ezea the Scribe and Nechemia, who faithfully led Israel during the return from Babylonian captivity.
On the 10th, Nebuchadnetzar, King of Babylonia, laid siege to Yerushalayim. He beleaguered the city for three years till its walls were breached on the 9th of Tammuz during the third year of the siege.
The fast days if the 8th, and the 9th are called "fast days of the righteous". On these days, only individuals fast, whereas the fast of the 10th is a public fast for the entire community.
Reb Nosson z"l, was Rabeinu's top student, the apple of Rebbe Nachmans holy eye. The moon to Rabeinu's being the sun. The Scribe, the one we have to thank for writing down Rabeinu's teachings and also writing plenty of his own, based on Rabeinu's teachings. The following are some quotes from the Abridged Likutey Mohoran (available @ www.breslov.org) written by Reb Nosson at Rabeinu's behest.
Lesson 14:15-16
15 - The words of prayers rectify strife and bring about "overall peace", or peace in all of the worlds.
16- A person should accustom himself to pray for everything he lacks - be it livelihood or children or if he has a sick person in his house, God forbid, and he seeks a cure. in all of these cases, a persons primary strategy should be solely to pray to God. A person should believe in God, that the Holy One, blessed be He, is good for everything - be it healing, livelihood and everything else - and the essence of a persons efforts in obtaining what he needs should be directed toward the Holy One, blessed be He. One should not chase after all kinds of stratagems, since most of them are totally ineffective; and even for the fraction that are effective, a person either doesn't know about them or is unable to find them. But calling out to Hashem, is good and effective fir everything in the world, and is always available, since God is always available.
From Through Fire and Water ( also available from www.breslov.org)
Pg 552 - He knew the the Rebbe had the power to kindle a fire within every Jew, making it possible for him to throw off the shackles of inadequacy and reaffirm his commitment to God. Fir Reb Nosson, Rebbe Nachman's teachings were life. It taught a way of life through which one could attain that which endures forever - Torah and prayer - through rock solid faith in God, learning to ignore distractions and obstacles (both those within and those on the outside), contenting oneself with a little progress here, a little here, a little there, looking for the good, pressing on stubbornly, always being positive and joyous.
"Vayichi Yackov…" "And Yackov lived…". What does it mean to live? I saw an article about a school that challenged it's students to go offline for a week, no internet, no cellphones, etc... In order to encourage face to face communication. We'll get back to that in a minute.
Pg 546 -
Reb Nosson z"l passed away on Friday afternoon, the 10th of Teves, 5605, December 20th, 1844, moments after the Shabbos candles were lit. He was 64 years and eleven months old. He was attached to God until the very end. His whole mission was to show that man can always return to God, regardless of anything that he may have done, no matter how much he may have sinned. This was the mission Rebbe Nacnsn held out to him a few days after their first meeting.
Pg 554 -
Reb Nosson z"l once explained why he called his biographical portrait of Rebbe Nachman "Chayey Moharan - The Life of Rebbe Nachman", while the work in which he described the events in his own life was called "Yemey Mohoranat - The Days of Reb Noson". Reb Nosson said that the Rebbe was truly alive: he was constantly climbing to ever higher levels of perception of the Torah, which is the essence of life. @But in my case", continued Reb Nosson, "the only vitality I have comes from what I draw from the holy Rebbe: he is my life and length of days…For this reason "Days" is a more fitting title for the account if what I went through.
Pg 547 -
Reb Nosson passed away just before Shabbos. Those were the days before the invention of the telegraph, and it was impossible to transmit news of his death until after Shabbos. Even so, that Friday night Rab Naftali, who was in Uman, already knew that Reb Nosson z"l was no longer. When asked how he knew, Reb Naftali answered: "I had a dream in which I saw Reb Nosson running. I asked "Reb Nosson, where are you running?" "Me?" he said. "Straight to the Rebbe"!
May we learn, even if little by little, to "Live" life to it's fullest ignoring all the distractions and all of the maybe not so great things that we have done and may still do. May the merit of Reb Nosson and of course of Rabeinu, Rebbe Nachman, shine down on us in these dark times and help us find the good points both within us and within all of those around us. May we merit to once again have leaders like Ezra and Nechemia who can help us restore the walls of Yerushalayim and finally build the Third and Final Beis Hamikdash!!! Speedily!!! In our days!!! Amen!!!!
Have an easy and meaningful fast,
Etan
No comments:
Post a Comment