Translation:Tales of Rabbi Nachman

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Tales of Rabbi Nachman (Sipurei Ma`asiyot) (1816)
by Nachman of Breslov, translated from Hebrew by Wikisource

Title Page and Contents

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616017Tales of Rabbi Nachman (Sipurei Ma`asiyot) — Title Page and ContentsWikisourceNachman of Breslov

Book of
Story Tales

Which we were privileged to hear from the mouth of our holy teacher, the hidden and concealed Light, Nachal Nove`a Mekor Chokhmah, HaRav R. Nachman ztzuk"l of Breslev, descendant of the BeShT Hakadosh ztzuk"l and composer of the books Likutei Mohara"n and several other compendia.

Go out and see the might of your master who illuminated for us Torah from Heaven to enliven us as it is this day, for the everlasting world; and in our servitude, our God did not forsake us; and He extended kindness upon us in each and every generation and sent us deliverers and rabbis, righteous ones, foundations of the world, to teach us the way. The first have come to pass and yet His mercies did not cease at any period and at any time. And He performed kindness with us, to draw water from the wellsprings of salvation, ancient things, words which are the secret of the world, under wondrous and awesome garments. See and understand and look at His wondrous and awesome way, it is an inheritance to us from our holy forefathers who were during ancient times in Israel. For such is the way of the upper holy ones, harvesters of the field, who raised their hand and their heart to God, to clothe and to conceal the King's treasures in story tales according to the generation and according to the time, knowing the understanding of times, to know what Israel should do, until He will arise and will deliver Zion and will return to build the ruins of Ariel. Now Jacob and Israel will be told what God did.

And the stories that are stated here in this book contain very large secrets of the Torah. There is not one word in them that should be simple. And even simple people could also take out for themselves great guidance from the stories for they have a great power to awaken the person, he should not, God forbid, sleep through his years in vain. And whoever wants to look into the stories with a true eye could see and understand a bit of God's greatness. Even simple people could also ... to see what is the purpose of the world that they should pray day and night to be saved from the foolishness of the world; and merit what God, may He be blessed, wants, and further, that in the stories there are hidden things that cannot de described and not told, that fortunate is the one that he will know something in them. And since we once heard from his mouth that he has a desire that the stories should be printed from above in the holy tongue and below in Yiddish, therefore we fulfilled his holy desire and printed them so, for simple people also need to know of the stories, even though they will stingily understand what is meant, it is still a great favor for them toward the purpose if they will look into them with a true eye, for they have a great power to awaken one to the Almighty as mentioned above, for the stories are not empty things, God forbid. And the rebbe, peace be upon him, always used to say, after most stories, several verses and several things, so that one should know that he is not speaking any vain things, God forbid, for all these stories are through secrets of the Torah.

This holy book was already printed several times; and in the last printing, it was very erroneous by the fault of the printers. And now, we printed it from anew with precise proofreading with several wondrous additions, and also wondrous homilies and explanation‏‏‏‏s and hints on the stories from his holy disciples as explained on the other side of the page in the introduction. Go please see there.

Printed here, Lemberg.
Brought to the printing house by H.R. Tzvi Weisleib and R. Israel Halpern, may their lamp shine.
In the year vayar' elohim et haor ki tov lignoz.

Sipirei Masioth.
Publishing house of Israel Halpern.
Lemberg, printing house of F. Bednarski 1902.

Other Online Editions

Chinese

Chinese Wikisource -- to be done

English

STORIES by Rebbe Nachman of Breslev (PDF), unabridged and with appendices, edited by Nissim Kaufmann. A PDF (and print) format of this Wikisource edition.

Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav's Tales: A Critical Translation from the Yiddish with Annotations and Commentary (PDF), by Martin Irving Mantel, PhD dissertation, Princeton Univ., 1975.

Story Tales from Ancient Years (PDF), published by Kulanu Chaverim and NaNach.org, Meron, Israel, 2011, a free softback and online PDF. Contains older versions of material published on this page.

Hebrew

Yiddish

Some Offline Print Editions

,ספר סיפורי מעשיות Keren Hadfasah D’Chasidei Breslev, Jerusalem, 2002. A newly typeset edition of the original 1815 version, including the Second Introduction from the second printing and “many corrections."

Rabbi Nachman’s Stories, Translated by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Breslov Research Institute, Jerusalem, 1985.

Commentaries

Rimzei haMaasiyot by R' Nachman the Tcheriner was first printed with the 1902 Lemberg printing of Sipurei Maasiyot, and it's available here:

https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/רמזי_המעשיות_על_סיפורי_מעשיות

The Hashmatot to Rimzei haMaasiyot, published by his son R' Avraham, were first printed in that same edition and they're available here:

https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/רמזי_המעשיות_על_סיפורי_מעשיות

Contents

Other Online Editions

Some Offline Print Editions

Commentaries

See Also