UNDERSTANDING THE BRESLEV PATH [#16721]

In a recent response [16121 – “Understanding The Breslev Path”] the Rav explained that the differing views between Rebbi Nachman and his student (Reb Nosson) and other Gedolim were all “their words and their words are the words of the living G-d”. So the question is: Should a person be busy trying to make the tzaddik known to the world, or should he be busy with his own person avodah? How can a person integrate the path of Breslev with all other ways of serving Hashem? Can a person ignore certain statements in the Bresslever sefarim and just learn the divrei Torah? That doesn’t seem to be possible. Here are some examples. Rebbi Nosson says that there is a war of Amalek in every generation, and that Amalek tries to distance the tzaddikim from everyone and therefore the main avodah of a Jew is to come close to the tzaddik. When you look at other paths in avodas Hashem you can see that they focus on different things and it seems that the did not agree at all with Rebbi Nosson that drawing close to the tzaddik is so important. Would a Bresslever chassid be allowed, or perhaps he is even obligated, to believe that the path of Breslev is the only way to serve Hashem? Or would he, too, have to believe that there are other ways too of serving Hashem, even though the Bresslever sefarim of Rebbi Nachman and Rebbi Nosson are saying that their path was the only path of serving Hashem?

Every person has to choose for himself a rebbi and then act accordingly. In every argument between our Gedolim, it is always “their words and their words are the words are the living G-d.” At the root, it is all emes (truth). It is just that in the world of action that we live in, each person needs to choose which path is most appropriate for him (that is, if he is zocheh to reach his own personal cheilek/share). A person is not able to choose to do all of the paths of avodas Hashem, because that is not possible. Rather, a person must believe that all of these ways are truthful, and practically speaking, he should connect to the way that’s most suitable to his own soul. One has to believe that all the words of our Sages and tzaddikim are all true. Part of what they said is understandable, and part of what they said is not understandable to us. We do not have to understand everything they said, and certainly we cannot understand how all the approaches can be reconciled together. This is because it seems to us that each path contradicts the other. But we must believe that all of these paths, together, are all true. Practically speaking when it comes to how a person must act, he should ask his rebbi and follow the ruling of his rebbi.