Likutei Moharan, Kitzur Likutei Moharan and Likutei Etzot: What Is the Difference, and Where to Begin

Likutei Moharan is the book of Rabbi Nachman's teachings. A teaching in it is built step by step out of verses and sayings of the Sages; Torah 7, for example, opens with the verse "And these are the judgments that you shall set before them" (Likutei Moharan I, 7:1). On the structure of the book and ways into it, see the guide to Likutei Moharan.

Kitzur Likutei Moharan follows the same order. For each teaching it gives a series of short statements, in the order the ideas appear in the teaching. For Torah 7 it has fifteen paragraphs, from the first, "The redemption depends mainly on faith", to the last, "It is a segulah (special remedy) for a sick person to look at the tzitzit" (Kitzur Likutei Moharan I, 7:1, Kitzur Likutei Moharan I, 7:15). The passages in our collection contain no sentence stating who made the summary or when, so we do not determine that here.

Likutei Etzot arranges things differently: by topic, such as truth and faith, the Land of Israel, prayer and tzitzit, and at the end of many of the counsels there is a reference to the teaching from which it was taken. The introduction at the head of Likutei Etzot presents the book this way:

And further on in the same introduction: "There is no matter of holy counsel hidden from you that you will not find in this book" (Likutei Etzot, Introduction to the Second Edition 1). The other introduction at the head of the book explains why counsels are needed: the tzaddikim of each generation "have discovered for us, in a renewed way, from the holy Torah according to the generation, counsels", and "to the extent that he fulfills the counsels of the Torah, so his mind is elevated" (Likutei Etzot, Introduction to the First Edition 1).

After the verse, the teaching brings the words of the Mekhilta, "arrange them before them like a set table", and then the foundation (Likutei Moharan I, 7:1):

From there a chain unfolds. Prayer is a miracle, for "nature dictates such-and-such, and prayer changes nature", and therefore faith is needed, "to believe that there is One who brings about new things, and that it is in His power to bring about something new according to His will". And the essence of all these is in the Land of Israel. From here the teaching explains the exile of Egypt, the saying "The Messiah son of David will not come until the last peruta (small coin) is gone from the purse", and those "who cover over all miracles as the way of nature" (Likutei Moharan I, 7:1).

Section 2 is very short: "it is impossible to come to faith except through truth", and it rests on the words of the Zohar, "It is called faith when truth is joined with it" (Likutei Moharan I, 7:2). Section 3 adds that one comes to truth "by drawing close to tzaddikim and walking in the way of their counsel" (Likutei Moharan I, 7:3), and section 4 deals with the commandment of tzitzit, through which a person "is saved from the counsel of the serpent" (Likutei Moharan I, 7:4). And at the end the teaching returns to where it began: "arrange them before them like a set table" is read as referring to the redemption, "for in the future all the wisdoms will be revealed like a set table" (Likutei Moharan I, 7:6).

One could say that this is what sets the full form apart: it does not only state that the redemption depends on faith, it shows how the conclusion grows out of verses and sayings, and how the teaching closes its circle. Rabbi Nathan writes in Chayei Moharan about the teachings in his books that "there is great depth in them, both by way of the plain meaning and by way of the secret and hidden" (Chayei Moharan 362). In our view, this is the part that cannot be summarized.

In Kitzur Likutei Moharan, the opening of the teaching becomes two sentences:

The verses, the expositions and the exile of Egypt from section 1 are not here; the conclusion remains. In the fourth paragraph the whole chain of section 1 is gathered into a single line: "Faith, prayer, miracles and the Land of Israel are one aspect, and they all depend on one another" (Kitzur Likutei Moharan I, 7:4).

But the summary is not only deletion. Beside the sentence "It is impossible to come to faith except through truth" it adds an explanation in parentheses: "the essence of faith is only in what the intellect does not understand" (Kitzur Likutei Moharan I, 7:7). In section 2 of Likutei Moharan this explanation is not written (Likutei Moharan I, 7:2), and a related idea appears in the second part of Likutei Moharan: "For in what the intellect understands, faith does not apply" (Likutei Moharan II, 8:7).

The same is true of tzitzit. In the teaching itself the power of the commandment is explained through verses and allusions, and in the summary the paragraph ends with a practical instruction:

The supplementary notes printed after the teaching (Likutei Moharan I, 7:7) also entered the summary, for example: "Prayer is the aspect of faith and is a segulah (special remedy) for memory" (Kitzur Likutei Moharan I, 7:12).

In Likutei Etzot, under the topic of truth and faith, the first counsel is that very sentence, with the reference at its end:

In the wording, the difference from the summary is hardly noticeable. It shows in the placement. In the Kitzur the sentence opens the sequence of Torah 7; in Likutei Etzot it opens a topic, and after it come counsels from other teachings. Already the sixth counsel in the topic points to "Likutei Moharan I, Torah 9, §1" (Likutei Etzot, Truth and Faith 6).

And the rest of Torah 7 is scattered across other topics. What it says about the Land of Israel appears under the Land of Israel (Likutei Etzot, The Land of Israel 1), "Prayer is a segulah for memory" under memory (Likutei Etzot, Remembrance 1), tzitzit under tzitzit (Likutei Etzot, Tzitzit 1), and "A segulah (special remedy) for a sick person is to gaze at the tzitzit" under healing (Likutei Etzot, Healing 1). In each of them the reference leads back to the same teaching.

Here is the difference between the two books, as we understand it. The Kitzur answers the question: what did this teaching say? Likutei Etzot answers the question: what has been said about the matter that occupies me now? And the reference is the bridge back: someone touched by a single counsel can open Torah 7 in Likutei Moharan and see from which root it grew.

Rabbi Nathan writes in Chayei Moharan that the teachings contain secrets that cannot be explained in writing, and yet "the main thing is the moral instruction, the good practices and the good counsels that emerge from them, from each and every discourse" (Chayei Moharan 362). And in Sichot HaRan it is explained that Rabbi Nachman's intention was "that we should hear and receive his holy words simply, to keep, to do and to fulfill all the words of his teaching", for "Study is not the main thing, but deed" (Sichot HaRan 131).

From here one can suggest a division, and it is our suggestion, not an instruction from the books. Someone who wants to study in depth, to understand how an idea is built and to return to it again and again, should study Likutei Moharan itself; on how to study it, see how to study Likutei Moharan. Someone who has studied a teaching and wants to review its main points, or to see at a glance what it says before going into depth, will find this in Kitzur Likutei Moharan. And someone looking for a short counsel on a particular matter, for prayer, joy or faith, should open Likutei Etzot by topic.

One can see the three books as three stations on the same road, and this is our reading: the full study gives the depth, the summary helps one remember, and Likutei Etzot brings the words back to the question of what to do. All of them come from the same teachings, and the reference connects them.

Someone who opens Likutei Etzot may be alarmed by the number of counsels. Sichot HaRan has a counsel for exactly this: not to be alarmed on seeing "many kinds of service in the holy books", and not to say "When will I be able to fulfill even one of all these things" (Sichot HaRan 27). And there:

One suggestion in the spirit of these words: choose a single counsel from Likutei Etzot, for example the first under truth and faith; follow its reference to the full teaching and study it; read its summary in the Kitzur to remember its main points; and return to that one counsel and try to live it for a few days. One can add a step, about which the second part of Likutei Moharan says "It is also good to make the Torah into prayer" (Likutei Moharan II, 25:2); on this see Likutei Tefilot: making the teachings into prayers.

And about one who studies this way, Rabbi Nathan writes in Chayei Moharan that one can receive from Rabbi Nachman's words "a straight path and correct counsels", provided it is as he puts it: "if he sets his heart well to his words and fulfills them truthfully and in simplicity, without any sophistications" (Chayei Moharan 358).