THE ESSENTIAL
RABBI NACHMAN

Translated by Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum

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A visitor entered a house and asked the head of the house: "From what do you make a living?" "I don't have a fixed livelihood at home," his host replied, "but the world provides me with what I need to live." The guest asked him, "What do you study?" The host answered, and they continued talking together until they spoke in real earnest, heart to heart. The host began to feel a tremendous yearning to know how to reach a certain level of holiness. "I will study with you," said the guest.

The host was surprised and began to think, "Perhaps this isn't a human being at all." But he looked again and saw that he was talking to him normally like a human being. Directly after this he felt a strengthening of his faith and resolved to believe in the guest and began calling him "my teacher" .

He said to the guest, "First of all, I would like you to teach me how to show the proper respect for beings like yourself. Not, I need scarcely add, that I could really detract from your true glory, God forbid! Even so, it is hard for humans to be as meticulous as they ought to be in these matters. That is why I want you to teach me how to behave with due respect."

" I haven ' t time at the moment ," he answered, " but I will teach you this another time . Right now I must leave ."

"Well, I also need to learn something else from you," said the host. "How far do I have to go when I accompany you on your way , as the host is bound to do when his guests depart?"

"Till outside the entrance," he replied.

The host thought to himself, "How can I go out with him. At the moment I am with him among ordinary beings, but if I go out with him alone - who knows who he is?" The host said to the visitor, "I am afraid to go out with you."

"If I can learn with you just like this," he replied, "then who is going to stop me doing anything I want to you ? The host escorted him outside . All of a sudden he seized him and started to fly with him. The host was cold , so the other gave him a garment. "Take this garment," he said, "and it will be good for you. You will have food and drink and everything will be good and you will live in your house."

He continued flying with him. Meanwhile the host suddenly noticed that he was in his house. He couldn't believe that he was actually in his own house. But he looked carefully, and sure enough he was speaking with ordinary human beings and eating and drinking normally. But then he again noticed that he was flying like before. Then he looked again, and lo and behold! He was in his house! Again he noticed that he was flying... and so it went on for quite some time.

After a time he was set down in a valley between two mountains. There the man found a book in which there were various combinations of letters: aleph , zayin , chet , dalet . Inside the book were drawings of various vessels containing letters. Also within the vessels were the letters related to the vessels: through these letters it was possible to make the vessels themselves.

The man had a tremendous desire to study the book. But then he noticed that he was back in his house. He took another look and he was back in the valley. He decided to ascend the mountain to see if he could find some kind of habitation there. When he came to the mountain, he saw a tree of gold standing there with golden branches. Hanging from the branches were vessels like those drawn in the book, and inside the vessels were other vessels through which these first vessels could be made. He wanted to take the vessels from there, but he was unable to do so because they were entangled in the branches.

Meanwhile he noticed that he was in his house. It was extraordinary. How was it that one moment he could be here and the next moment there? He wanted to speak about it to other human beings, but how can one explain something incredible like this to other people - they would find it hard to believe.

At this moment he looked through the window and saw the same visitor. He started begging him to come in, but the visitor said, "I don't have time because I'm on my way to you." "This in itself is something amazing to me," said the man. "I'm right here. What do you mean that you are on your way to me?" He answered: "As soon as you showed yourself willing to accompany me beyond the entrance, I took the neshamah -soul, from you and gave it a garment from the lower Garden of Eden. The nefesh - ruach -spirit remains with you. This is why when you attach your thought to that place you are there and you draw the radiance of that place over yourself. Then when you return here, you are here."

I do not know from which world he is. But this much is certain: he is from a world of good. So far it is not finished. It is not completed.

Chayey Moharan #85