Nahman of Bratslav: The Tales

By Nahman of Bratslav

Book Overview

...of fundamental importance to any student or scholar interested in the development and dimensions of the religious ideas and experiences of man. - Mircea Eliade Nahman of Bratslav: The Tales translation, introduction and commentaries by Arnold J. Band preface by Joseph Dan Rav Nahman answered and said: On the way, I told a tale (of such power) that whoever heard it had thoughts of repentance... And that is how I am curing her. Therefore I have this power in my hands. And this is my gift to you this day. And there was great rejoicing and everyone was very happy. Nahman of Bratslav (1772-1810) The body of this book is comprised of the thirteen Tales of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav, one of the most renowned of the early Hasidic masters of prayer and probably the greatest of the Hasidic storytellers. These tales are presented in a style both readable and scrupulously close to the original. No previous translators of these tales have attempted to take the original text this seriously, for they changed, added and deleted at will. As the editor of the volume states in his foreword, "Of the thousands of Hasidic tales circulated in the past two centuries, few have earned the veneration and affection of the thirteen Tales of Nahman of Bratslav...Still studied as scripture, these tales have attracted a varied audience intrigued by the remarkable blend of intense Kabbalistic faith and narrative artistry." Dr. Band goes on to say, "In this English translation I have tried to capture the ambiance of...the oral familiarity and charm of the Yiddish and the metaphysical rigor and grandeur of the Hebrew." In his preface Dr. Joseph Dan of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, addresses the question, "Why is this an important work today?" He says, "Rabbi Nahman's tales should be regarded as a great literary accomplishment of a mystical author, who achieved complete identification and unity between external and internal elements and expressed them in a unified spiritual autobiography, in the guise of folktales. Such achievements are very rare in the history of religious literature, and as one such rare example it should be read in the twentieth century." The volume includes an introduction giving a biography of Nahman as well as a theory of spiritual literature. To each of the Tales, Dr. Band prefaced a brief editor's prologue to set the tone and direction of the reading. At the end of the volume he has appended a fuller commentary on each tale. +

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809121034
• ISBN13: 9780809121038
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: Paulist Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Torah Scholars and Lost Princesses

Do you want to read a book of fairy-tales written by by a little-known Hassidic Rabbi, eccentric even by the standards of Hassidic Rabbis, a tormented soul in spite of his deep Jewish faith, absorbed in abstruse Kabbalistic speculations, and possibly subject to Messianic delusions? It may not sound very attractive, but believe it or not this is one of the most beautiful, haunting, profound, mysterious, re-readable and unforgettable books I have ever discovered. Although I've known these stories for 20 years, some episodes still move me to tears. It's an open secret that traditional fairy-tales are spiritual teachings in costume. All children know this, and absorb these teachings at an early age without being able to explain them. The authority here was the Sri Lankan scholar Ananda Coomaraswamy, if you can find his wonderful essays. "Thumbelina" is the most beautiful, concise, complete outline of the spiritual life you could hope to find. "Beauty and the Beast", "East of the Sun, West of the Moon", are also outstanding. (Let's not get carried away. You'd have a hard task to find mystical significance in "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".) Rabbi Nahman takes over the set vocabulary of Eastern European fairy-tales, with their Princesses and Emperors, speaking animals and magical objects, complicated quests and royal children exchanged at birth with commoners, and adds some stock characters from Jewish folklore. The stories are said to contain concealed meanings referring to the Kabbalistic universe of Rabbi Isaac Luria: but given that no two commentators agree on what these meanings are, you can safely ignore them and just read for the story. A warning. These stories are like those transcribed by field-workers, stories from oral tradition never subjected to literary reworking. They can be oddly inconsequential, leaving out crucial matters while including the seemingly irrelevant. They often have a "Suddenly! ...nothing happened" quality, and they don't so much end as just stop. The Story of the Heart and the Spring, in part 5 of "The Seven Beggars", made me gasp and drop the book the first time I read it. You finish these Tales with a sigh, feeling, like the narrator of "The Ancient Mariner", sadder but wiser, having learnt something heart-rendingly true you'll never forget... but unable to explain what it is.

Extra ordinary!

The tailes of Rabbi Nachman contain the deepest secrets of the universe,as well as secrets of our own existance. This book is "must" for every one in search for Truth and Peace.