Chassidic Thought

The Storm Wind confused the entire world, turning the sea into dry land and the dry land to sea, wilderness to settled area and settled area to wilderness. But even worse, it kidnapped the Princess's beautiful child. The chaos in the world created such confusion that different sects of people created their own countries with their own skewed ideology, leaders and false gods...

The Master of Prayer reveals the source of his uncanny powers: he derived them from the King's Hand. All the creases and crevices on the hand formed a detailed map, both geographical and historical. It depicted everything that occurred from the beginning of creation until the end of time…

A bold warrior with an army of the bravest warriors like himself has succeeded in conquering many countries without firing a shot. He is now approaching the Country of Wealth, whose people are terrified. Why? The bold warrior detests money, which is their entire faith and creed.

Imagine a country that glorifies wealth. They worship many different human gods with names like Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, Marc Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Elon Musk. They have other idols too. They even invent their own constellations and stars. They have movie stars, sports stars and all-stars. Rebbe Nachman foresaw all of this over 200 years ago and tells about it in today's lesson.

Rebbe Nachman is showing us in his classic tale the importance of connecting to a righteous spiritual guide. We see that the road to accomplishing any true goal is strewn with obstacles.

"If we knew that a rare gift was concealed within our difficulties, we could laugh; but with emuna, we start laughing even before we discover the gift." 
An old parable about a donkey in trouble gives us a different perspective on life's difficulties. Here's two-and-a-half minutes of encouragement:

We often learn that so-called "friends" abandon us when we really need them, while others whom we never paid much attention to turn out to be steadfast in time of trouble. Watch this inspiring campfire story with an important lesson for life, especially now:

Rebbe Nachman of Breslev tells a series of deep, thought-provoking tales, the first of which is the "Lost Princess." This tale unlocks the secret of both the general redemption and of our innermost selves.

Rebbe Nachman teaches that being happy always is a tremendous mitzvah. Therefore, each of us must make every effort to avoid sadness and depression at all costs. What's more, the core cause of all illness is a breakdown of one's joy. Passover is a fantastic opportunity to recover our joy, and therefore our health.

The most important of Rebbe Nachman's teachings is about hitbodedut, personal prayer, one's intimate private conversations with the Creator. Discourse 25 of Part II deals with this vital subject. We learn that each of us has the priceless birthright of our own personal relationship with Him. This is an asset greater than anything, which only a fortunate few take advantage of.

We do a great job in guarding our homes on Passover from chametz. But what about our hearts? Shouldn't we be guarding them against all kinds of non-kosher emotions like hate and jealousy?

In our concluding lesson of Torah 55, we learn a beautiful upward spiral. The more we enhance emuna, the better we pray. The better we pray, the closer we get to Hashem. The closer we get to Hashem, the more we become purified. That way, even a person outside the Land of Israel can attain the aspect of the Land of Israel, which is a special holiness.