THE ESSENTIAL
RABBI NACHMAN

Translated by Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum

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There was once a boy who left his father to spend time in other lands. After a long time away, he eventually came home to his father. He boasted that while he had been away, he had learned a great art: how to make a chandelier.

He told his father to assemble all the expert chandelier-makers so that he could demonstrate his proficiency in this art. The father did so, gathering all the master chandelier-makers to witness his son's greatness and see what he had accomplished all this time that he had been away in other lands.

The son brought out a chandelier that he had made, but they all thought it very poor. His father approached them all asking them to tell him the truth, and they were forced to admit that it was very poor.

The son was still boasting: "Have you seen the wisdom of my art?" His father told him that not everyone saw it as being so beautiful.

"On the contrary!" replied the son. "This is precisely how I have demonstrated my greatness, because I have shown them all that they lack. This chandelier contains the deficiencies of each and every one of the master craftsmen assembled here. Don't you see? One of them considers this part of my chandelier to be very poor but he finds a different part very beautiful. Another craftsman finds the exact opposite. The very part that his friend considers poor, he sees as being exceptionally beautiful, while he considers a different part to be poor. So it is with all of them. What is bad in the eyes of one is beautiful in the eyes of another, and vice versa.

"I made this chandelier entirely out of their deficiencies - to show them all that they all lack perfection and that each one has some deficiency. For what is beautiful in the eyes of one is a deficiency in the eyes of his friend. But if I want, I can make a perfect lamp."

If people knew all of a thing's shortcomings and deficiencies, they could understand the nature of that thing even if they had never even seen it.

"Great are God's works!" No one person is like any other. All forms were included in Adam: the very word Adam includes all the different human forms. Similarly, the word "light" includes all the different light-sources that exist. The same applies to all the different things in creation. Even among the highest of the high, not one is like any other.

This world contains wisdom that people could live off without even having to eat or drink.

Sipurey Maasiot

 

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