Shivchei & Sichot Haran

Rabeinu goes to Tiberias and does Shabbat with the holy tzadik Rabbi Avraham Kalisker Zt”l. Rabeinu says of him: I’ve only seen perfection in the Tzadik Rabbi Avraham.

Rabeinu enters chol hamoed sukkot and simchat Torah in a broken-hearted mood as he is trying to ascend from one spiritual level to the next. After the Chag, Rabeinu accomplished what he needed with perfect success and is ready to leave, but his attendant convinces him to travel to Tiberias.

All the great Tzadikim of Tiberias and Tzfat ask Rabeinu to come to stay with them, but Rabeinu doesn’t want to… There’s a very mysterious story with a young Turk that takes place while Rabeinu stays in Haifa.

Rabeinu spends Rosh Hashana in Haifa with his attendant but his mood following the holiday immediately shifts into broken-heartedness… Rabeinu is ready to leave Israel after Rosh Hashana but his attendant wants to go to Tiberias…

Rabeinu finally attains the goal that he endlessly yearned and longed for: he takes his first steps in the land of Israel

Rabeinu sets sail from Istanbul with the great sage of Jerusalem and arrives in Yafo after many difficult tribulations (thirst, sea storms, etc…) but he’s rejected at the port because of his appearance.

We explain how Rabeinu’s childish acts and his embarrassment was crucial in allowing him to enter the Land of Israel. Rabeinu’s attendant stays by Rabeinu’s side regardless of the dangers.

Rabeinu moves in with Rabbi Zev Wolf, who was also traveling through Instanbul, after an epidemic breaks out on his street. Rabeinu continues to act in a childish fashion, but the love Rabbi Zev had for Rabeinu broke all the barriers and he still treated him with great respect…

Rabeinu overcame all the shame and disgrace, even escaping death in Instanbul. The man who shamed Rabeinu the most died shortly after his return home. Rabeinu finds grace in the eyes of the ship’s agent!

These two men continue to berate Rabeinu, doing all sorts of things to prevent Rabeinu from reaching the Holy Land. Rabeinu is constantly changing his identity in order to prevent anyone from finding out who he really is.

After Rabeinu’s attendant meets two people traveling back from Israel to Ukraine, they begin to question the motives of the man who this attendant is traveling with… they have no idea it is Rabeinu!

Rabeinu begins his journey from Odessa to Instanbul…

As Rabeinu got out of the mikveh on Erev Pesach 5558, he made it known that he would certainly be in the land of Israel that year. Rabeinu had to leave his family behind and sell everything in his house for this necessary journey. We discuss Rabeinu’s start to this long and treacherous journey.

We begin with Rabeinu traveling to Kamenitz, where not a single person knows what he did there! Rabeinu then returns home only to dismiss all the reasons and intentions people gave for his journey…

Anybody can reach the highest levels of holiness, it’s all dependent on hard work and effort! Rebbe Nathan explains what we need to do in order to achieve spiritual greatness and how we need to put all our force in prayer and hitbodedut.

We discuss more on Rabeinu’s humility and how he took upon himself tremendous suffering to attain control over all his desires/emotions!

We’ll discuss how Rabeinu worked on himself until he broke the desire for eating, how he subdued his anger, and how he attained the highest level of humility!

We discuss a few different ideas: Rabeinu’s awesome sexual purity, his awesome acts of Divine service during the winter time, and his childhood habit to pray on the kever of the Ba’al Shem Tov!

Rebbe Nathan tells us how Rabeinu put all his concentration on breaking the universal desire (sexual desire) at a young age, until he got to the point where for him there was no difference between a man and a woman! Rabeinu tells us that we too can do this EASILY!

14: All the service Rabeinu wanted to do every single day was very difficult on him, but them he would tell himself that all he had was today! This mentality is what brought Rabeinu the strength to accomplish everything he did. 15: Rabeinu would make many vows, sometimes even oaths holding holy objects, to accomplish holy acts or prevent himself from evil traits!

Rabeinu as a child, even with great wisdom in Torah, engaged in every single act of G-dly service with complete simplicity.

10: Rabeinu would accustom himself to speak to G-d in his own language and recite all the supplications/psalms he could find. This is the main way he attained his level! 11: Rabeinu would write down all the nice arguments G-d would send him in his hitbodedut. 12: Rabeinu would never give up even if he felt G-d wasn’t listening.

6: Starting again, even many times in a single day 7: Rabeinu would put tremendous effort in studying all the holy sefarim 8: praying to understand the books he was learning 9: His intense fasting…

1: Rabeinu’s decision to separate himself from the desires of this world 2: Rabeinu placing G-d before him constantly 3: Rabeinu’s Bar Mitzvah and wedding 4: His diligence and sacrifice in Torah study 5: His modesty in serving G-d and courage in the face of difficulty

We read Rebbe Nathan’s inspiring introduction to the holy book Shivchei Haran (Rebbe Nachman’s Praises).