Translated
by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, “Rabbi Nachman’s Wisdom,” Breslov Research
Institute, pp. 140-141.
You
should be able to feel another’s troubles in your own heart. This is especially
true when many are suffering.
It is
possible to clearly realize another’s anguish and still not feel it in your
heart.
When an
entire community is in distress, you should surely feel their agony in your
heart. If you do not feel it, you should strike your head against the wall.
You should
strike your head against the walls of your heart.
This is
the meaning of the verse (Deuteronomy 4:39), “Know this day and realize it in
your heart.” You must bring the realization from your mind to your heart.[1] Understand this well.
We later
heard that the Rebbe once said that this is the meaning of the passage (Isaiah
38:2), “And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall.” The face that he turned was
his awareness, bringing it inside the walls of his heart.[2] For one’s true face is his mind, which illuminates it from within.[3]
[1] See Sichos HaRan
217.
[2] Yerushalmi
Berakhos 4:4 (35a); Sanhedrin 10:2 (51b); Chayay Moharan 17a
($14).
[3] Likutey Moharan
I, 30:4. Cf. Ecclesiastes 8:1.
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