Translation:Likutei Moharan/282

by Nachman of Breslov

[Paragraph 1: Judging Every Jew Favorably]

Know this: it is necessary to judge favorably every [fellow Jew] [Da` ki tzarikh ladun eth-kol-adam lekhaf zekhuth, Avot 1:6] — even someone who is completely wicked, it is necessary to search and find in him some morsel [Me`AT] of good [TOB], as in that morsel he is not wicked. And thereby he actually raises him to the scale of merit, and can cause him to make return/repentance [TeShUVaH].

And this is the aspect of [Ps. 37:10], "We`od me`at we'ein rasha`, wenithbonanta `al meqomo we'einenu/ And in yet a little bit and the wicked is not; and you will contemplate on his place and he is no more."

[You Judging Others Favorably]

Namely the verse cautions [us] to judge everyone in favor, so even if you [atah] see that he is completely wicked, nevertheless you must search and seek in him the little good, wherein he is not wicked. This is: We`od me`at we'ein rasha`— that you must ask in him further a morsel of good. wherein he is not wicked. For even though he is wicked, how can there still not be in him a good morsel? For how can it be that he never did some mitzvah or good thing all his days? And by this that you find in him yet a good morsel where he's not bad, and you judge him favorably, thereby you actually raise him from the scale of guilt to the scale of merit, until consequently he returns in Teshuvah.

And thereby, "And in yet a little and no evil person" — by finding in the wicked person "yet a good morsel" where he is not bad, thereby "and you will contemplate on his place and he is not." Namely when you contemplate and you consider his place and level, and he is no longer there on his original place, for by finding in him yet a good morsel, some good point, and judging [DANIN] him favorably, consequently he is actually taken from the scale of guilt to the scale of merit.

And this is, "And you will contemplate on his place and he is not," as mentioned. Now discern.

[2 Judging Oneself Favorably]

In the same way must a man [or The Man, ha'Adam] find of himself as well. For this is known, that the man needs to be quite careful to be constantly happy and push away the sadness utterly far (as we have explained many times).

And even when he starts examining himself and sees there isn't in him any good, and he is full of faults, and the Accuser wants to cast him down by sadness and melancholy, God forbid, even so he is forbidden to succumb from this. Rather it is necessary to search and find in himself some little good. For how can it be that he never in his days did some mitzvah or some good deed? And even while starting to examine that good thing, he see it also full of blemishes and unsound, namely he sees that this mitzvah and holy thing he managed to do is also full of impure motives and foreign thoughts and many faults — even so how can there not be in that mitzvah or holy thing some little good? For in any case no matter what, even so there was some good point in the mitzvah and good thing he did. For the man just needs to seek and find in himself some little good, in order to enliven himself and attain joy as mentioned, and by this seeking and finding in himself some little good, thereby he actually goes out from the scale of guilt to the scale of merit, and returns in Teshuvah, in the aspect of, "we`od me`at we'ein rasha`, wehithbonanta `al meqomo we'einenu" as mentioned.

That is, just as one needs [tzerichin] to judge others into favor, even the wicked, and find in them some good point, and thereby in actuality move them from the scale of guilt to the scale of merit, in the aspect of "we`od me`at... wehithbonanta..." as mentioned — it is the same by The Man himself, that he needs to judge himself into favor, and find in himself some good point yet, in order to brace himself to not utterly fall, God forbid, just the contrary enliven himself and gladden his soul with the good morsel he finds in himself, namely some time in his life he managed to do some mitzvah or good thing — and thus must he keep on searching, finding in himself yet another good thing. And even though this good thing is also mixed with much waste, notwithstanding he should extract from there too some good point.

[3 Gathering the Good Makes Song, Then One Can Pray, Sing, and Give Praise to God]

And thus should he search and gather more good points. And thereby are made melodies, as explained elsewhere (in the lesson Wayhi miqqetz #54), the aspect of playing a musical instrument, which is the aspect of collecting good spirit (ruach) from gloom, depression; see there. [In summary: holy music is most utterly holy, as is known, and the essence how music is made is by selecting the good from the bad, for by selecting and gathering the good points from the bad, thereby are made melodies and songs; take a good look there.]

[4 Not Be Downcast]

So by not permitting to cast himself down, but vitalizing himself in seeking and finding in himself some good points, and gathering and selecting these good points from amidst the bad and waste in him etc. as mentioned, thereby are made melodies as mentioned, and then he can pray, sing and praise God."

For this is a known thing, [SheKeSheHa'ADaM] that when The Man is downcast [nofel beda`atho, lit. falls in his mind] due to his physicality and evil deeds, seeing he is utterly far from the holiness in truth, it usually makes him unable to pray at all, and he cannot open his mouth at all, on account of how great the depression, melancholy and heaviness that befalls him, by seeing how utterly far he is from Hashem Yithbarakh, the great enormity how far he is.

But when he enlivens himself by this advice [HaNaL], namely even though he knows in himself he has quite many bad deeds and mistakes, and he is utterly far from Hashem Yithbarakh, still he seeks, requests and finds in himself yet some good points as mentioned, and enlivens himself with this, for it is definitely proper for THE MAN to expand his joy a great deal with every good point of Israelite sanctity he still finds in himself. And then when he enlivens and cheers himself by this as mentioned, then he can pray, sing and praise Hashem.

[5 Azamera]

And this is the aspect of (Ps. 146:2), "Azamera lElohai be`odi/I will sing to my God in my yet being." Specifically with the "yet little," that is, by my aspect of "yet," that I find in myself the aspect of "We`od me`at we'ein rasha`" as mentioned, by that point I can sing and praise Hashem as mentioned. And this is "Azamera" — specifically "I will sing," namely songs and melodies that are made by gathering the good points, as explained.

[6 Go With This, and Be Very Smart]

[And Rabbeinu z"l exhorted us a great deal to go with this teaching, for it is a major foundation for anyone who wishes to draw closer to Hashem Yithbarakh and not lose his eternal reward [`olamo] entirely, God forbid. For most people who are far from Hashem Yithbarakh, the main reason they are distanced is because of sadness and depression, since they are downcast in their mind, due to seeing in themselves the great harm they have inflicted by their deeds, each person commensurate with what he himself knows of his heart’s affliction and his anguish. Due to this they become mentally downcast, and most of them become despaired completely. As a result they do not pray with any concentration, and do not even do what they are still capable of. So the man needs to be utterly smart in this matter. For although all his depressions are due to the evil deeds he did indeed commit, still, the mental downcast, the sadness and that melancholy befall him because of this, is all nothing but the work of the Accuser, who weakens his mind in order to cast him down entirely, God forbid. Therefore we need to be very resolved to go with this teaching, to search and seek in himself some little good and good points, etc., as explained. And thereby he will vitalize and cheer himself, and will keep looking out for salvation, and will be able to pray, sing and praise Hashem, in the aspect of “I will sing to God with my yet little,” as explained above. And thereby he will manage to genuinely return to Hashem, as explained above.]

[7 One Who Can Do This Can Be Shaliakh Tzibur]

And know, [SHEMI] that someone who can make these melodies — i.e. gather the good points that are to be found in each Yisraelite, even Jewish sinners, as explained above — he can pray before the podium [lead the communal prayers]. For the one who leads the communal prayers is called shaliach tzibur/messenger of the people, so he needs to be sent by all the people — that is, he must gather every good point that is to be found in each of the people praying, and all these good points are merged in him, and he stands up prays with all this good, so this is "shaliach tzibur." And he needs to have such a high level that all the points crave him and are merged in him. And someone who can make the aforementioned melodies — that is, he is capable of judging all people favorably, even the rabble and the wicked, because he makes the effort to search, seek and find the good points in all of them, as mentioned, whereby melodies are made, as explained — this tzaddik, who has grasp of this [ZO] level, he can be chazan and shaliach tzibur, that is, he can lead the communal prayers, because he has in him this aspect that is needed by a truly fitting messenger of the people. For he needs the aspect that all the good points crave him and are merged within him as mentioned, for he can gathering all the good points that are found in each of Yisrael, even a Jewish sinner, as explained above.

[8 In Each Era There is Such a Moshe-Shepherd]

Know, too, that in each and every era there is a Shepherd, and he is aspects of Moshe, who is the Ra`aya Meheimna/Faithful Shepherd. This Shepherd builds a sanctuary. And know, the young schoolchildren receive their breath (i.e. their Torah learning) that knows not sin (Shab. 119b: tinokoth shel beith raban meqablim hevel pihem she'ein bo chet [Torah learning of the innocent is not like that of those who have known sin]) from this sanctuary. Therefore the young child first beginning to read and enter Torah study, begins from “Wayiqra el-Moshe/And He called to Moshe” (Lev. 1:1) [M"R Tzav #7] — [the word Vayikra is written] with a small aleph — because [the Book of] Vayikra speaks of the completion of the Sanctuary's erection, which is when Hashem Yitbarakh called to Moshe and began speaking to him from the Sanctuary. Therefore the young children begin from there, because it is from there that they receive the breath of their mouths, as explained above, and from there they begin to read and enter in the Torah.

[9 Each Epochal Tzadik is Thus]

And know, every Epochal Tzadik [kol hatzadikim shebador] , every one is an aspect of Shepherd. For within each one of them is an aspect of Moshe; and each one of them, in his own aspect, makes an aspect of a sanctuary, from which the young children receive the breath of their mouths, as explained above. And each [tzaddik], in accord with his aspect — the aspect of the sanctuary that he makes — doth he have young children who receive from there. Thus every tzaddik of the generation has a specific number of children who receive the breath of their mouths from him; each [tzaddik] according to his aspect, as explained above. And this is the aspect of what our Sages obm said (Shab. 33b): Young children are snatched because of the generation's sin [tinokot nitfasin `al-`awon hador], as it is said (Song 1:8), "U're`i eth-gedhiyothayikh `al-mishkenoth haro`im/And graze your young goats by the shepherds' MiShKaNot (tents)" — they [the young children] mitmaShKeNin (are taken as surety) for the shepherds. And this is: "`Al-mishkenot haro`im/By the shepherds' tents," for they receive the breath of their mouths from the aspect of the mishkanot of the shepherds — that is, the tzaddikim of the era, who each make a mishkan (sanctuary), as explained above.

[10 And Thus Sees the Future Generations]

However, to know all this — namely, to know of each and every tzaddik, which are the young children who pertain to him and how much they receive from him, and to know all the aspects in this, and the generations that will come from them until the end — know, one who can make the aforementioned melodies — he can know all this. And this is the secret of what our Sages obm said in the Mishnah, In truth they said [an established halakhah]: The chazan sees where the young children are reading" (Shabbat 11a [regarding reading by candlelight]). The chazan, that is, the one who can make the aforementioned melodies, who can be the Chazan, and the shaliakh tzibur, and pray [leading] before the podium as mentioned. He "sees" and knows "where the young children are reading" namely, from which tzaddik they receive the breath of their mouths, through whom they read and enter the [study of] Torah, as mentioned.

תם ונשלם ספר ראשון.

Whole and complete is Volume One.

תהלה לאל אחרון וראשון:

Praise to El, the Last and the First.

Appendices

The following additional lessons are new collections that I gathered from fellow chassidim. What I heard from them verbally and what they recorded, which were not included in the first edition.