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The Quest for the Lost Princess in Rabbi Nachman of Braslav’S “Book of Stories from Ancient Times”

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The Quest for the Lost Princess in Rabbi Nachman of Braslav’S “Book of Stories from Ancient Times” CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Unisa Institutional Repository THE QUEST FOR THE LOST PRINCESS IN RABBI NACHMAN OF BRASLAV’S “BOOK OF STORIES FROM ANCIENT TIMES” by YAKOV SHAMMAI AZRIEL submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY in the subject JUDAICA at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: DR M RESNICK JOINT PROMOTER: DR J SCHWARTZ NOVEMBER 2003 1 SUMMARY One of the most innovative and original Hasidic leaders and thinkers, Rabbi Nachman of Braslav (1772 — 1810), related thirteen long, complex fables during the final four years of his life. This doctoral thesis presents an analysis of the quest for the Lost Princess in Rabbi Nachman of Braslav’s “Book of Stories in Ancient Times.” The image of the Lost Princess and the quest to find and rescue her, which appear in four of these stories (including the first and the last ones), are central symbols in Rabbi Nachman’s thought. The most important key to an analysis of this image and theme lies in understanding the symbols and concepts of the Jewish mystical tradition (the Kabbalah), as Rabbi Nachman himself suggested. KEY TERMS Rabbi Nachman of Braslav; Hasidism; Kabbalah; Jewish mysticism; redemption; Jewish literature; Hasidic literature; allegory; East European Jewry; Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME ONE Summary and Key-Terms page 1 Table of Contents page 2 Chapter One pages 3-31 Chapter Two pages 32-56 Chapter Three pages 57-96 Chapter Four pages 97-132 Chapter Five pages 133-178 VOLUME TWO Chapter Five (continued) pages 179-201 Chapter Six pages 202-273 Chapter Seven (Conclusion) pages 274-291 Appendixes Appendix One: An English translation of “The Losing of the King’s Daughter” pages 292-295 Appendix Two: An English translation of “The Merchant and the Pauper” pages 296-309 Appendix Three: An English translation of “The Master of Prayer” pages 310-332 Appendix Four: An English translation of “The Seven Beggars” pages 333-340 Glossary pages 341-344 Bibliography pages 345-358 3 CHAPTER ONE: Introduction This introduction to my doctoral thesis will be divided into four parts. They are: A) Preface B) Biographical Background C) The Literary Legacy of Braslav Hasidism D) Rabbi Nachman’s “Book of Stories from Ancient Times” – an analysis of what motivated Rabbi Nachman to create and narrate these stories. A) Preface Rabbi Nachman of Braslav (1772 - 1810) was one of the most profound Hasidic thinkers and leaders. Living in the Ukraine all his life and basing himself on traditional Jewish sources and texts, Rabbi Nachman was nonetheless able to create a very unique and innovative approach to traditional Jewish values, and to produce an extremely original body of literature and thought. He succeeded in presenting many of the key concepts of the Jewish mystical tradition (the Kabbalah) in a new form of long, allegorical fairy-tales or fables that also bear the imprint of his own unique personality and creative imagination. During the last four years of his life, from July 1806 till April 1810 (six months before his death), Rabbi Nachman related thirteen long fables to his followers orally in Yiddish. These stories were put down in writing and translated into Hebrew by Rabbi Nachman’s scribe and most important disciple, Rabbi Nathan Sternherz of Nemirov (1780 - 1845). After Rabbi Nachman’s death, Rabbi Nathan published them as “The Book of Stories from Ancient Times” in 1816. The major theme of his first story is the quest to find and to rescue a lost princess. This theme returns, with important developments and variations, in three other stories, including the last one. The most important key to an analysis of this image and theme lies in 4 understanding the symbols and concepts of the Jewish mystical tradition (the Kabbalah), as Rabbi Nachman himself suggested. This is the subject of this doctoral thesis. Throughout this thesis I will be using the Harvard Reference System. Therefore, the full names of all books and texts quoted will appear in the bibliography. I also wish to point out that all the translations of Hebrew texts into English are my own (unless otherwise specified). Regarding spelling, because most of the secondary sources that I will be quoting were written by scholars and researchers from the United States, I will be using the American spelling convention exclusively throughout this thesis, in order to prevent spelling discrepancies from occurring. In terms of transliteration, the Hebrew letter will always be written as “h” if it is the first letter of the Hebrew word (like ‘Hasid’ = ), and as “ch” if it is not the first letter (like ‘Nachman’ = ); the Hebrew letter will always be transliterated as “tz.” In addition, there is a glossary at the end of the dissertation that contains the Hebrew words (as well as the Kabbalistic and Hasidic concepts) that require clarification. These words or terms are usually transliterated and written in italics when they appear in the text. The follo wing outline presents the general structure of this paper: 1. Chapter One: Introduction 2. Chapter Two: Basic concepts of the Kabbalah which are relevant to understanding Rabbi Nachman’s stories 3. The quest for the Lost Princess in Rabbi Nachman’s story: “The Losing of the King’s Daughter” 4. The quest for the Lost Princess in Rabbi Nachman’s story: “The Merchant and the Pauper” 5. The quest for the Lost Princess in Rabbi Nachman’s ’s story: “The Master of Prayer” 6. The quest for the Lost Princess in Rabbi Nachman’s story: “The Seven Beggars” 7. Conclusion 8. Glossary 5 9. Appendixes: there are four appendixes; each appendix is an English translation of one of the four stories that focus on the Lost Princess. 10. Bibliography I would like to point out that the bibliography is divided into four parts. The first part consists of the primary sources in Hebrew composed (A) by Rabbi Nachman himself, (B) by his scribe Rabbi Nathan (whom I mentioned earlier), and (C) by the leaders and scholars of the traditional Braslav Hasidic community during the latter half of the nineteenth century, as well as the twentieth century. It is crucial to emphasize the importance of Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, who emerged as the leader of Braslav Hasidism after Rabbi Nachman’s death and dedicated the remaining thirty-five years of his life to meticulously compiling, editing, and publishing Rabbi Nachman’s remaining manuscripts, writings, oral traditions, homiletic teachings and sermons, as well as his biography. He was also the first important commentator and interpreter of Rabbi Nachman’s legacy. The second section of the bibliography includes classical Judaic texts in Hebrew that are frequently quoted in Rabbi Nachman’s own works, and which provide the basis of his Kabbalistic and Hasidic world-view. The third part of the bibliography consists of the contributions of modern scholarship (in both English and Hebrew), as well as the academic and critical analysis and study of Rabbi Nachman, his literary and philosophical writings, and the larger milieu of mystic ism, Hasidism, and Kabbalah. Finally, the last section is an addendum consisting of additional books which I consulted, but which are not quoted or cited from directly in this text. Among the different authors whose works I consulted and studied while doing research for this dissertation, I feel that there are three scholars whose depth and sensitivity have been especially helpful in my attempts to understand Rabbi Nachman’s stories more thoroughly. I believe that I owe these three writers a special debt and a special gratitude for their insights. They are: 1) Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz of Jerusalem (1938 - ) 2) Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan of New York (1935 - 1983) 6 3) Hillel Zeitlin from Russia and Poland (1871 - 1942), who was killed in the Holocaust and whose major works have never been translated into English. B) Biographical Background Although the main thrust of this dissertation is an analysis of four of Rabbi Nachman’s longest and most intricate stories, it is crucial to understand the life and background of Rabbi Nachman. Very thorough and detailed biographies of Rabbi Nachman of Braslav have been written by Green (1981), Greenbaum (1987), Kaplan (1980) and Steinman (1951), as listed in the bibliography. I will therefore present only the basic outline of his life in the framework of this introduction. Rabbi Nachman was born to a very prestigious family on the first of Nissan 5532 (4 April 1772) in the town of Medzhibozh, the Ukraine, in the heartland of the Hasidic movement. His maternal great-grandfather was the actual founder of Hasidism, Rabbi Israel Baal-Shem-Tov (1700 - 1760), also known as the Besht. His paternal grandfather was Rabbi Nachman of Horodenka (1711 - 1780), an important disciple of the Besht and an influential figure in his own right in the early Hasidic movement. In his early teens, a marriage was arranged for him with Sosia, the daughter of a respected tax-farmer who lived in a village two hundred miles (320 kilometers) further east. In later years, Rabbi Nachman always spoke with great warmth about those early years of his marriage spent close to the forests, lakes, and streams that surrounded the village. In 1792, even before he had reached the age of twenty, Rabbi Nachman began to function as a rebbe (a Hasidic leader) in the town of Medvedka. In the spring of 1798, Rabbi Nachman decided that the time had come to make a pilgrimage to the Land of Israel (which had been invaded at that time by Napoleon in his wars with the Turks).
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