As we have seen in many of my previous posts reflecting on Rebbe Nachman’s words, his approach is one of “simplicity” which is often misunderstood for lacking depth. Rather, it is an approach to faith that tries to remove all aspects of intellectualism as it pertains to harming our sense of belief. Most of us, this author included, struggle to balance the desire to investigate and reflect deeply while also maintaining a child-like innocence in how we see faith and belief. This includes the consumption of deep, intellectually stimulating works. As we see in the below piece, Rebbe Nachman clearly states that delving into philosophy is “destructive.”
מז. וְצָרִיךְ לִזָּהֵר מְאֹד שֶׁלֹּא לְהַבִּיט כְּלָל בַּסְּפָרִים הַמְדַבְּרִים מֵחֲקִירוֹת, כִּי הֵם מַזִּיקִים וּפוֹגְמִין מְאֹד אֶת הָאֱמוּנָה הַקְּדוֹשָׁה. וּכְבָר מְבֹאָר זֶה בְּכַמָּה מְקוֹמוֹת, אַךְ צָרִיךְ לִכְפֹּל כַּמָּה פְּעָמִים אַזְהָרָה זֹאת לְבַל יֹאבַד עוֹלָמוֹ כְּרֶגַע חַ”ו: (שם)
One has to greatly distance oneself even from the philosophical works. Such works are very damaging to faith. Now, it has already been explained in various places [in our teachings], yet it is necessary to repeat this again and again, to save oneself from destruction, God forbid (Ibid.).
I believe that Rebbe Nachman is categorizing philosophical works as those which are written to undermine faith, not works which offer a deeper and richer read of the beauty of Gd’s world. Further, if we take a statement like this in the context of the times he is living, there is clearly an Anti-Enlightenment polemic. And finally, we see that for Rebbe Nachman, there was a struggle. For those who have studied his Likkutei Moharan, you see a deeply thoughtful person who offers a depth to spirituality. It is not exactly a book of “simplicity.” I would even suggest that Likkutei Etzot, the book we are drawing these lessons from, was an approach to simplifying the message. Yet, there was a strong storytelling tradition, in which he taught deep ideas through the tales he crafted. His theory was that the story carried the simplicity and sophistication he wanted simultaneously.
For my purposes though, I think there is something more fundamental we can learn from this passage. We are by nature curious. Curiosity is valuable. And knowledge is important. Yet, in order to live a life of faith, there are times when we need to shift away from the intellectual exercises and the overthinking and just be. It is at this juncture that our actions, speech (prayers) and thoughts go from something in the mind to something coming from the depths of our humanity.
Yes, be a reader. Be a thinker. And be a person who continuously cultivates one’s faith in a way that it is not fractured, that it is as close to whole as possible. This is not easy. It is fraught with many potential pitfalls. And one need not go it alone. Find others who are on the same path and strength one another in this approach.
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