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mastered the issue I have been working on, I will move on to a new verse states, “there is no wisdom and there is no understanding and every individual. It is not something that He has to do, as it were.
goal, in accordance with what I then understand and know.” no counsel before Hashem” (Proverbs 21:30)—and what happened, If a person wants to do something, he doesn’t have to be required
happened. May Hashem rescue all of His people of Israel from all to do it. How much more is this true of Hashem, Whose will is the
Don’t Get Distracted harm, from this moment on. purpose of all existence. Therefore, if this student had cried out to
Hashem, “You have to rescue me,” that would have been much
The driver heard what I had to say and accepted my words. more precise what he did tell Hashem—“You must rescue me”—
All of this was true even for Rabbi Nachman, who reached true
spiritual attainments. How much more, then, does it apply to people Suddenly, he remembered something, and he told me: “Rabbi, because we must believe with a wholeness of faith that Hashem wants
like us. In general, all of the thoughts that a person has about how among the people who attend your regular class there is a young to rescue every individual, even the most unworthy. Nevertheless,
man who told me a similar story. With Hashem’s help, after the next
he should constantly change his spiritual service and his practice the student used the phrase, “You have to rescue me,” because
come from the evil inclination, which wants nothing more than to class I will have him come to you to tell you the story firsthand.” it has more power to arouse a person’s will and his wholeness of
Indeed, after the next class, this Jew approached me and told me
prevent a person from engaging in the most important work, which the following story. faith in prayer. Hashem wants a person to live. He wants to save
is the work of the will. Therefore, you must be aware that after you a person from his troubles. When a person is in immediate danger
have decided to work on a specific issue—even if it becomes 100 I am a very good swimmer. One day during sefirat and Hashem must save him immediately—because otherwise, in
percent clear to you that you can do something better, that you another minute there will no one to be saved—it would be proper
can engage in another type of practice from which you will gain ha’omer, when swimming is forbidden, I went with a that he cry out to Hashem: “I need to be saved and You want to
more—if you prematurely change your practice instead of staying friend to the sea, not to swim but to immerse as in a rescue me. Save me immediately!” But it is easier for a person to
with the original goal that you had set for yourself, you are making mikveh. I entered the water up to my waist, and when I cry out to Hashem, “You have to rescue me!”
a very great mistake. You are leaping from one practice to another, crouched down under the water, I was suddenly pulled
and as a result you will not gain anything. In the end, you will no away by an undertow, and I couldn’t swim back to “I Will Not Die, but I Will Live”
longer have a connection to that practice. shore. I panicked, I flailed and I stroked for shore with
all my might, but it didn’t help. My friend saw me, but In accordance with this, I understood the difference between the
But when you stay on task, you are said to be acting with a settled he didn’t realize that I was in terrible danger, that I was two types of prayer in the passage from the Gemara. All of the
mind. Consider this well: even if you have an urge to move onto sinking and drowning. I started to swallow water. I was people described there wanted life. Certainly, the desire of all four
another practice that is in truth better than the one you are presently of them to be rescued from death was equal and total, because the
engaged in, you won’t succeed with that one either, because you swept away so quickly that I was already very far from will to live is a person’s strongest will. They all realized that the
will always be changing your practice, so that in the end you will him, and he thought that I was swimming or playing situation was critical, that they had no time, and that they must
not gain anything. Therefore, continue to work consistently. Do around, and so he paid no attention. In those moments, be saved as quickly as possible. And under the pressure of their
not change to something else until you master your present goal. I was overwhelmed. I was thinking that it was all over, terrible stress caused by the knowledge that their lives were hanging
Only then, with the understanding that you then possess, consider that I was about to leave this world. With my last bit of by a thread, that their danger was immediate and imminent, they
how else you may improve and add to your service. At that time, strength, I tried to think of something. I prayed, I gave certainly prayed with great intensity, and they believed that Hashem
your understanding will certainly be much improved, particularly thanks to Hashem, until my mind became an utter blank can do everything. Similarly, in any such extreme situations, we see
after you have mastered the first goal and attained precious assets. and I was unable to think of anything more. The will to and feel that Hashem is the sole address for us to turn to, that there
live burned in me, and I kept struggling, but the sea was is no room for any effort in any other direction, nothing else to
Let us review and sum up what we learn from Rabbi rely on. There is no room for lack of clarity. Thus all four people
Nachman: It is preferable to proceed upon one path and stronger than I was, and I felt that my moments were mentioned in the Gemara certainly prayed with the faith that there
master one goal than to “seek the truth,” as it were, and end numbered and that I had come to my end, that less than is none other than Hashem, that only He can rescue them, and that
up broken and having gained nothing. The evil inclination a hairsbreadth separated me from death. Then I began their sole counsel is to cry out to Him.
dresses itself up as the trait of the truth to keep a person to cry out to Hashem—as best I could with all the water
from working consistently on one practice. Certainly, we But there was a difference in the wholeness of their faith: the two