Sichot HaRan: Six Short Talks You Can Live With

The openings of the talks show how they were gathered. Some were said to the writer himself: "I heard from his holy mouth" (Sichot HaRan 138); some reached him from others: "I heard in his name" (Sichot HaRan 166); and some were copied from writings: "I found a manuscript of the companions" (Sichot HaRan 227). The writer speaks in the first person, and in one place relates that he wrote down one of Rabbi Nachman's teachings before him: "When I wrote down before him the Torah lesson" (Sichot HaRan 131).

Another detail shows how faithful the writing is: at times Rabbi Nachman's words were kept in Yiddish, as they were spoken. So in the talk about how he reached his level, "And he said it in Yiddish in these words" (Sichot HaRan 166), and so in the talk about confusions, where the sentence is given in Hebrew and then the Yiddish original in parentheses (Sichot HaRan 269). It seems the writer wanted the reader to hear not only the content but also the tone in which the words were said.

In Chayei Moharan, Rabbi Nathan testifies about one of them, "The conversation printed at the end of Sippurei Maasiyot": "this conversation I heard from him on the wagon" (Chayei Moharan 69). This also shows that the talks were printed at the end of the book of stories, and elsewhere he refers to "the talks that follow Sippurei Maasiyot" (Chayei Moharan 229). On Rabbi Nathan's part in writing down his teacher's words see Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, and the whole book can be read in Sichot HaRan in the library.

The talk opens with a demand for great zeal, "for the main thing is action", and at once adds the other side:

The image that follows is sharp: as in a fire, "when because of the panic people grab what they do not need". And to someone who cannot do anything, the talk says he should accustom himself to yearn, "for the desire and the yearnings themselves are very great things" (Sichot HaRan 27).

This seems to be a talk for someone who reads books of devotion and feels far from everything written in them. The talk does not cancel the demand to do much; it corrects the pace. In practice: choose one small thing and keep at it, add "step by step, little by little", and do not disqualify yourself because you do not fulfill everything (Sichot HaRan 27).

About the study of the codes "he warned very, very strongly, more than about all other studies". The full order is all four parts of the Shulchan Arukh from beginning to end, and then again from the start. But the talk also sets a minimum that is not to be given up:

The reason given in the talk: through sins "good and evil became mixed together", and the study of law, which clarifies permitted and forbidden, pure and impure, is what separates them (Sichot HaRan 29). One may understand that the clarifying on the page is also a clarifying in the soul. The practical meaning is simple: even on a crowded day, one paragraph, wherever the book falls open.

The talk is aimed at all service of God, and especially at the time of prayer, when confusions arise over what has already passed, in business, at home, or in earlier sins. The counsel: "immediately, as soon as the thing has gone by and passed, he should remove it and put it out of his mind entirely" (Sichot HaRan 26).

And for one who studies and forgets, a parable is brought there about workers filling barrels with holes. The foolish ask why they should toil, and the wise one answers, "they pay me by the day" (Sichot HaRan 26). This is our explanation, not the wording of the source: whoever measures himself by what remains in his hands despairs, and whoever measures by the day he worked can go on. And according to the talk, forgetting has another side: through it, even what was already studied becomes again "like something new to him, and it is beloved to him".

Within a long talk about this world, about will and about simplicity, two short sentences were said:

Being old here is not an age but a habit. The same talk says that "the main thing is the will", and that even within one person "at every time and every moment there are great distinctions between his wills" (Sichot HaRan 51). This seems to be the connection: one whose service has become routine stops wanting, and one who begins anew returns to the will. More on this theme: Renewal in Rabbi Nachman's teaching.

The talk opens with the verse "Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in God", and reads it closely: "even if you do not merit any holiness or service", only hope. And at once it turns to the other person:

The reason is taken from the Talmud, "a prisoner cannot release himself from prison", and the talk adds: "For there is no evil greater than falling". And at the end of the talk there is a new point: one who strengthens his friend even though he knows that he himself is far, "it may be that afterwards he too will merit to come back" (Sichot HaRan 120). One way to apply this: precisely on a day that is hard for you, a good word to someone else. The talk promises no result; it says "it may be". More on this: Strengthening in Rabbi Nachman's teaching.

Here the writer reports in the third person that Rabbi Nachman "warned very strongly not to adopt excessive stringencies in anything", and brings the counsel:

And even in that commandment, "he should not enter into stringencies of madness, foolishness and melancholy". Rabbi Nachman related that he himself had once been sunk in stringencies, to the point of thinking of travelling for Pesach to a place with spring water, "But now he mocks this". And the summary: "the essence of the service in truth is wholeheartedness and simplicity" (Sichot HaRan 235).

Another short talk answers one who agonizes endlessly over whether he acted rightly: "However one does it, one does it, as long as one does not do evil" (Sichot HaRan 269). From this one can learn that excessive worry about doing things exactly right can itself become an obstacle. See also Wholeheartedness and simplicity.

Chayei Moharan says of his words and talks that anyone, "whatever level he may be at", can receive a path from them, on condition that he fulfills them "truthfully and in simplicity, without any sophistications" (Chayei Moharan 358). And about his teachings he asked that one go with a single teaching "for about two or three months" (Sichot HaRan 297).

It seems one can do the same with the talks: choose one talk, return to it and live by it for a while, and only then move on to the next. Other talks from the book are explained on other pages of the site, such as the talk on hitbodedut in the language one speaks (Sichot HaRan 229) on the page Hitbodedut.