Rav Nachman of Horodonka

The Dream About the Arizal

It is told that the Baal Shem Tov was once sitting with his holy circle, learning the kavonos (mystical intentions) of the mikveh. When he taught certain kavonos, some of the talmidim asked, "Rebbe, how can this be? Doesn't the holy Arizal explain these kavonos differently?"

On hearing this, the Baal Shem Tov leaned his head back and sank into deep dveikus. His face blazed like a torch and his soul seemed to soar to the lofty heavenly realms. The talmidim were all seized with trembling and awe, all except Rav Nachman, who grew more and more drowsy. He was greatly upset with himself. How could he be tired while the Baal Shem Tov's soul rose to such heights? He fought to stay awake, but in the end he drifted off.

In his sleep he saw a great crowd running, and he ran after them. They told him that their holy Rav was about to teach. He followed them into a large, stately building filled with distinguished people, and there stood the Baal Shem Tov, teaching the very derosha Rav Nachman had just heard. Then a young tzaddik stood beside him and began to argue. Rav Nachman was told that this was the Arizal. They debated back and forth until the Arizal agreed with the Baal Shem Tov's explanation.

Rav Nachman woke to find himself back among the talmidim, who were still discussing the apparent contradiction. The Baal Shem Tov turned to him and said, "Nu, I took you along so that you could testify who is right. Now tell them what you saw and who won the argument." Rav Nachman testified in the Baal Shem Tov's favor, and the Baal Shem Tov finished his derosha.

Funerals at Midnight

After Rav Nachman moved to Eretz Yisroel, he was often awakened after chatzos by someone knocking at his window. Each time, he dressed and went out. When people asked where he was going, he explained that he was being called to a levaya, to accompany one of the great tzaddikim who had passed away in Chutz LaAretz and was now being buried in Eretz Yisroel. Sometimes he took another person with him.

One of his companions on these wondrous occasions opened the shutters one night, after especially loud and persistent knocking. Although it was well past midnight, he saw that the sky was bright as if it were midday. A throng of many thousands of people, dressed in their finest and wearing fur hats known as spodiks, was hurrying to the levaya of a great tzaddik who had just passed away in Chutz LaAretz.

Learn From the Tzaddik at the Right Time

Degel Machaneh Ephraim, on the verse warning that they should not come and see how the holy is swallowed up, lest they die, explains in the name of his grandfather, the Baal Shem Tov, that a person may come to a tzaddik to study his deeds and learn from them. At a certain moment the tzaddik may be in a state of katnus, a constricted and immature state of mind. A visitor who learns from the tzaddik at such a time, without realizing it, can be harmed. As an example, he mentions someone who visited the well-known tzaddik, Moharan (understood to be Rav Nachman of Horodonka), and saw him drinking coffee wrapped in his tallis and tefillin. The man went home and began to do the same. The lesson is that one who sees that the holiness is hidden should come back at another time, when the tzaddik is in a state of gadlus, expanded consciousness, and only then learn from him.

Degel Machaneh Ephraim, Bamidbar