About NACHMAN
The digital home for the teachings of Rabbi Nachman and Rabbi Nathan
My name is Yitzchak Chen. I founded NACHMAN out of a wish to create a place you can come to with a question, a thought, a difficulty or a search, and meet the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in a way that is clear, accessible and faithful to the sources.
Rabbi Nachman spoke to people as they are: with their ups and downs, their fears and hopes, their falls and their new beginnings. One of the sayings most identified with his path is:
…כִּי אֵין שׁוּם יֵאוּשׁ בָּעוֹלָם כְּלָל.What you will find here
NACHMAN is meant to connect the sources with life itself.
On the site you can encounter teachings, quotations, advice and stories from the world of Rabbi Nachman, and search them for answers on the subjects that accompany our lives: faith, joy, marriage, livelihood, prayer, falling and starting over.
You can also ask a question and receive an answer built of several layers (a source, a quotation, advice, a story and guidance for further study), so that you do not settle for a nice sentence, but reach the idea and the source behind it as well.
The answer is built automatically from the sources the site is based on, with the aim of helping each person find, understand and connect Rabbi Nachman's words with their own personal question. As with any automated tool, there may be inaccuracies, so the sources the answer relies on are shown alongside it, and you are encouraged to read them and go deeper into the words themselves. The site is meant for learning, encouragement and deeper study, and it is not a substitute for a rabbi or for a halachic ruling; for practical questions of halacha, please consult a qualified rabbi.
The site was built out of love for the Holy One, blessed be He, out of gratitude for the privilege of doing something that holds Torah and giving, and out of a wish that more people will be able to meet the teachings of Rabbi Nachman: both those who have never opened Likutei Moharan and those who know the books and are looking for another way to go deeper into them.
The aim is simple: to make the teachings accessible without flattening them, to explain without replacing the source, and to give every person the chance to take one more step inward.
Not to preach.
Not to judge.
But to open a door.
Why "NACHMAN"?
Because for me this name carries a whole world.
It connects me to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and to the path he left behind, but for me it also echoes nechamah, comfort: the ability to find a point you can hold on to, even in times when the road is not easy.
Rabbi Nachman's path reminds us to look for the good, to speak with the Holy One, blessed be He, in simple words, not to be afraid to start over, and above all, not to despair of ourselves.
And within all this there is also a very personal layer.
In memory of my parents
NACHMAN is dedicated to the elevation of the souls of my dear parents:
שמחה סימה בת רג׳ינה ע״ה
יעקב בן יהודית ע״ה
They are the roots I come from, and part of what I received from them goes on with me on the path I walk today.
Choosing to dedicate the site to them is not only a way of commemorating names. It is the wish to take the memory, the love and the longing and turn them into a deed that carries them forward: a place that tries to add good to the world.
May every piece of learning that comes from here, every person who finds a word that touches them, every prayer that comes from the heart and every good deed that grows out of these words be for the elevation of their souls.
In the end, this is the purpose of NACHMAN:
to connect Torah and life, a question and a source, and a person and the good point that is still within them.
With love, and with a prayer that this place will add light, faith and joy,
Yitzchak Chen
I wrote my personal story, and why I built the site, on the page "Why I Built NACHMAN".
NACHMAN was built to open a door
A way to reach the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov through the books themselves, in their own words and at their exact place. You can come with a question from life, with a topic, or simply open a book.