Rabbi Nachman's Youth: What Shivchei HaRan Tells, and How It Returns in His Teachings

Shivchei HaRan is a short work by Rabbi Nathan on the conduct of his teacher. In the opening he states where he drew the material from: "some of it what I heard from his holy mouth itself, some from other people who knew him from his earliest days" (Shivchei HaRan, Introduction).

This distinction matters for reading. Some of the stories Rabbi Nachman told himself, such as "And he said that he was then only six years old" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 1), and some reached Rabbi Nathan from others: "And I heard from someone who said that he heard from his holy mouth" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 19). This article tries to keep it.

Rabbi Nathan also notes what he does not tell: the wonders "we do not concern ourselves with relating", but "We have related only what pertains to His service" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 27). This is a book of service, not of miracles. On the journey to the Land of Israel see Rabbi Nachman's journey to the Land of Israel, and on his life in general see Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. The book itself is in Shivchei HaRan in the library.

The first story in the book is of a child to whom it occurred "to separate himself from the world, and he wanted to break the desire for eating". Since it seemed impossible to him to give up his meals, he decided to swallow his food without chewing, so as not to feel its taste, until a swelling rose in his throat. Rabbi Nathan adds that he had heard of such a practice in a very great tzaddik, but Rabbi Nachman "conducted himself this way when he was six years old" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 1).

At his teacher's table too he tried to fulfill "I have set God before me always", and exerted himself to picture the Name before his eyes, until he did not know what he was learning and his teacher grew angry with him. And yet, Rabbi Nathan adds, all the days of his childhood he did "games, jumping and outings" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 2).

He paid the teacher out of his own pocket "three gedolim (coins) for every page of Gemara", so that the teacher would learn many pages with him each day (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 4). At his bar mitzvah his uncle, Rabbi Ephraim of Sudilkov, said to him the verse "I have this day begotten you" and a few words of moral instruction, and they were very precious in his eyes. And immediately upon leaving the wedding canopy "he was greatly aflame and greatly longing for the service of God" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 3).

It is also told that he used to run at night to the grave of the Baal Shem Tov "to ask of him that he help him draw close to God", and from there went in the winter cold to immerse specifically in the mikveh outside the bathhouse (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 19).

In Chayei Moharan Rabbi Nathan gives the background: from his birth until his wedding "everything was in the holy community of Medzhibozh", and after the wedding he served God in the villages near Medvedevka, supported at his father-in-law's table, "And all this was in the days of his very youth, before he was twenty years old" (Chayei Moharan 105).

Two things recur again and again in Rabbi Nathan's account: concealment and simplicity. "All his service was in secret and in great concealment", and "his main service at first was in great simplicity, without any sophistication at all" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 5).

When he went outside he deliberately did boyish things, "so that it could not enter any person's mind that he desired the service of God". And in his childhood he exchanged large coins for small ones, entered the synagogue in secret, and over each coin he threw into the box for secret charity he said the "LeShem Yichud" anew, in order to perform many mitzvot (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 13).

Rabbi Nathan stresses that this was not from lack of knowledge. He was "a great sage and exceedingly wise even in his childhood", and nevertheless "out of the very exaltedness of his wisdom he immediately merited this wisdom, that one needs no sophistication at all in the service of God" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 13).

Shivchei HaRan does not describe a smooth ascent. "it was very, very hard and heavy for him to begin to enter the service of God", and he would begin for a few days, fall, and begin again. Even after he grew strong "he always had very, very many ascents and descents" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 5).

And in the next section:

There were also dark periods. It is told that it seemed to him "that no one was paying attention to him at all and no one was listening to him at all", and sometimes he did not speak before God for some days. Afterward he was ashamed of this, strengthened himself again "and begin once more to entreat and speak before God" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 12).

And one counsel helped him bear the weight: "every day he would think in his mind that he had only this day alone", without looking at the next day. In this way he could take upon himself the service of the day, and on the next day he took upon himself the service of the next day (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 14).

Learning did not come to him easily either. Rabbi Nachman related that at first he did not understand Mishnah, "and he would weep much before God, blessed be He, that He enlighten his eyes", and so with every book he learned, "And he merited all of it through his prayer and his weeping" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 8).

And what was the main thing? Rabbi Nathan writes: "And the main thing that helped him was the prayers that he prayed in Yiddish" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 10), and describes:

This conversation was "in the language that people speak, that is, in Yiddish", the language he spoke. Besides this he said Psalms and supplications from every book that was available, and hid himself under the roof of his father's house "and he would cry out in a whisper". And at the end of the section Rabbi Nathan stresses again that the main thing was "what he prayed on his own", and that so "we heard explicitly from his holy mouth" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 10).

And when in the course of speaking there came to him "fine arguments and fitting, well-ordered prayers", he wrote them down as a reminder, so that he could pray them afterward as well (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 11).

Here begins the second part: the connection between the stories and the teachings. The first connection is especially striking. In Likutei Moharan II, section 25, Rabbi Nachman teaches that hitbodedut is "an exalted level, greater than everything", that is, to set aside time:

And further on: "This prayer and conversation should be in the language that one speaks" (Likutei Moharan II, 25:1). Whoever has read Shivchei HaRan recognizes almost word for word what is told of his youth: a place with no people, pouring out one's words, arguments and appeasements, Yiddish, and a request to be drawn close to His service (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 10). This is our comparison between the two texts: in the teaching itself Rabbi Nachman does not say that he is teaching from what he did in his youth.

But Rabbi Nathan makes the connection explicitly. At the end of the chapter on his youth he writes that every person can attain lofty levels by following his teacher's ways, "And the main thing is to be very accustomed to very many prayers and requests", and especially "to speak between himself and his Maker in the language that one speaks" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 27). What the youth did in secret becomes, for Rabbi Nathan, the path he recommends to every reader. More on this on the page Hitbodedut.

And Chayei Moharan preserves a memory that Rabbi Nachman told himself: in the days of his youth, when he returned from hitbodedut in the forest or the field, "the whole world was new in his eyes". And of the fields of Ossatin, where he practiced hitbodedut, he said after he had become famous: "with each and every step I felt a taste of the Garden of Eden" (Chayei Moharan 107).

The second connection is more explicit, because here Rabbi Nachman himself speaks of his childhood. Sichot HaRan records that he told "that he would begin several times in one day", fall into the desire for eating and the like, and begin again. And right after the story it says there "And this is a very great principle in the service of God":

The story and the principle are written in one continuous passage in the same section. And the very same practice is described in Shivchei HaRan: "And he was accustomed to begin anew each time" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 6). More sources on the page Renewal.

A further connection is our own comparison. In Shivchei HaRan, thinking only of this day is a personal practice that allowed him to bear heavy service (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 14). In Likutei Moharan, section 272, it appears as "a great general principle in the service of God" (Likutei Moharan I, 272:1):

The image is close as well: in Shivchei HaRan he bore "the yoke of the service" of one day (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 14), and in the teaching the heavy burden disappears when one thinks one has only that day. Rabbi Nachman does not say there that this is advice he learned from his own experience, and so it remains a comparison between the texts.

Rabbi Nathan explains this himself. In his words, compared with what Rabbi Nachman attained afterward, these stories "are counted as a disparagement", and nevertheless he told them:

Even one who feels that the service is heavy on him and the desires pursue him "must be stubborn in his service and not look at any of this". And Rabbi Nachman said of himself that even if he had been "from the lowliest family in Israel", he would have attained what he attained through his service and effort (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 25).

Similar words of his are preserved in Sichot HaRan, and they too are tied to his youth: "For do you think that one arrives at all the levels at once?!", and when he told of his stature he would add "But I toiled very much, I fasted a great deal" (Sichot HaRan 158). And he was very strict with those who think that the stature of the tzaddik comes "from the side of the soul alone", and said "that every person in the world can merit the highest level" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 26).

What can one take from this today? This is our suggestion, not a promise. According to Shivchei HaRan, Rabbi Nachman's path too began with small attempts, with falls and repeated beginnings. One who wants to begin can try what Rabbi Nathan names as the main thing, speaking with God "in the language that one speaks" (Shivchei HaRan, Part I, 27), and the counsel to think only of this day (Likutei Moharan I, 272:1). And for one who has fallen, the way written in Sichot HaRan is to begin anew, "even many, many times" (Sichot HaRan 48).