Na Nachs as vanguard of redemption

A reader asked me to comment on the Na Nach phenomenon. He writes: "I would appreciate a post on Breslaw in general.  In particular I often wonder why R Nachman's thought which seems often so appealing to the modern mind (eg treatment of faith and doubt, or writing pretty good pieces of romantic literature) does not seem part of mainstream chassidus - why not?  and does that mean it is sui generis (in which case did he just make it up himself?)"

I am hardly an expert but I am happy to share the little that I know, ... and may the commenters correct my errors.

To me, Na Nachniks are a positive development; in fact, they demonstrate the vitality and potential of Yiddishkeit in general and Chassidus in particular to conquer all cultural obstacles.

To understand what I mean, let us take a step back to the origins of Chassidism.

The Beshtian revolution was not only a harbinger of modernity; it was a thoroughly modern movement. Until it, a man was bound and saw himself as a part of a collective, bound by the minhagim of where he lived, following the norms and beliefs that surrounded him, and within an authoritarian, rigid communal framework of his kehillah, parnasim and rabbis. After Besht, a man sought his own teacher and fellowship - in other words, the individual became religiously autonomous, choosing which group to follow and how to express his own religious life. Like the Romantic revolution that was yet to come, chassidim elevated and honored emotion and feeling, individual destiny, and supernatural, not human manifestations.

In a way, the chassidic revolution was reaching even beyond the surrounding intellectual climate that was becoming hopelessly mired in rationality. The world around it was preparing for modernity, the advent of scientific and critical thought, the dethroning of kings and monarchs and the development of democracies and mass totalitarian movements. It was learning the language of rationalism, individualism and skepticism. Chassidus, on the other hand, was already looking forward to post-modernism.

What defines post-modernism? It is the loss of the certainty about the Truth, substitution of the emotion, feeling, personal subjectivity, and existential self-absrbtion for reflection and thought, entrancement with the self insead of a  focus on God and World, and the abandonment of traditional definitions and imbuing of traditional terms with new meanings.

When we look out in todays' world, we encounter the primacy of this view over the vestiges of the old worldview, as it dies out. In fact, many of our problems as a people are due directly to the fact that many of us no longer speak the "old" language. From inarticulate teen-agers who really can't explain why Judaism no longer speaks to them, to the "kalte Yidden" who go through the motions of religious rites  without connecting with them, many around us no longer relate to the concepts of duty, responisbility, revelation, and redemption that are at the heart of Judaism as we used to know it. Their languge is image, feeling. emotion, video, song, music.

The pseudo-Kabbala is an attempt to reformulate Jewish values into the post-modern language. It is no secret why Carlebach, Chabad and Breslov are fluorishing.They is the movements that employ image, feeling and song that are suceeding and gaining adherents. So many people today are looking desprately for a way to express eternal truths of the Torah in the current language of postmodernist sensibility. They want a translation into their tongue so it engages their heart.

The same thing was taking place in the 19th century. Then also, there was desperate search for the language in which Torah could be reformulated and made intelligible. From extreme reformers to the most ardent isolationists, everyone, everyone, was trying to solve the problem. Some, like R.Shimshon Raphael Hirsch successfully tackled the challenge and put forth Torah-trueJudaism that that spoke the universal language of the 19th century. Others chose reinterpretation rather than translation as their method, a fatal error, with the consequences of which we still living with today This is again taking place now. Some are adapting Kabbalistic imagery and mystical feeling and self-absorbtion to express eternal Judaic truths, and others are producing ersatz-kabbala, hermetic mongrelizations, that stand in the same relationship to Torah Judiasm as the critical-historic method stood in regard to Talmud Torah.

The Na Nachs are engaged in a bold and potentially crucial experiment. They are translating Faith into a post-modern cultural language. They are showing the way for the rest of us to follow, so we do not, chas veshalom,  dissolve into irrelevance. They are restating Breslav in a redemptive framework. What worries me is their lack of leadership. Messianic endeavors are inherently dangerous. Nathan of Gaza pointed out the the gematria of "nachash" and "moshiach" is the same. Without the kind of leadership and informal controls that existed in the emerging Chassidic world, it is so easy to stray from redeeming the permitted into attempting to uplift the forbidden. R. Yosef Della Reina is still roaming some demonic wilderness into which his daring and failed attempt to redeem the unredeemable has thrust him. 

In his Megillas Setarim ( there is some debate whether it is an authentic document). Rebbe Nachman protrayed a Moschiach who converts the world to Divine Service though his music and his powers of healing. Rebbe Nachman had foreseen the world in which we live today. I do not doubt that a part of the task would be restating the Torah in all seventy languages, "to turn all nations in a clear speech, to all call in the name of Hashem (Zephania 7:15) '- the cultural language of today. Na Nachs are a part of a revolution in expression and are leading a messianic effort, the redemption of 'feeling' ... and they know it. This is a group that should be closely watched as it shatters the kelippos of the old and comes up with the kernels, may Hashem keep them from stumbling in this holy task.

Comments

[Ploni]

When I read this piece, I was reminded of the following letter written to a Jewish newspaper in Melbourne, Australia. First some background:

A number of individuals had been dancing and singing yechi in the local Lubavitcher shul. Some mispallelim got upset, and eventually the dancers were told to leave the shul. From that point on, they have taken to dancing on the street corner near the shul, during rush hour. Almost all local Lubavitchers think this is a chillul Hashem. Here then is the latter to the newspaper:

"THEY still shoot horses on the streets of St Kilda East. On Shabbat, aficionados of the dance marathon are being regularly treated to a modern version of this ancient rite. It is not linked with mammon, however, but with Moshiach.

The dancers are a group of Chassidic true believers, who claim that the Jews are a light to the nations, and that the Rebbe held that light. He held it in body when he was alive, and he holds that light in spirit since his passing.

How does their geographical constituency respond? One gentile joined the dance, and as he whirled faster and faster, he exclaimed, “I don’t know the words ... I don’t know the words!”

The dancers’ aim, of course, is not conversion in the conventional sense. Rather, this group wish to convert each and every individual, Jew and gentile alike, to the “cult” of dancing. Their belief is not founded in developmental or evolutionary psychology. It is not merely a case of returning to the content-free lack of civilised restraint characteristic of healthy childhood.

Rather, it is a return to a healthy, pre-civilised freedom to adumbrate the one deity. God can be praised in many ways – or not. The post-enlightenment refrain, “I believe in God but I don’t believe in organised religion” resonates with the leitmotiv of this little group of dancers. Dancing was deemed offensive by their parent religious body, and they were banned from entering their regular house of worship.

Now they have taken to authentic prayer in various squats. They have no intention of giving up dancing. When they are asked the question, “why do you dance?”, they retort. Respectfully, isn’t the question, “Why are you not dancing, my friend?”"

The point that the above writer makes seems to be very similar to the one you are making. And I'm flabbergasted, to say the least.

While we certainly can and should look for the good in others and not be judgmental, surely these are clear examples of what the Lubavitcher Rebbe said should NOT be done, when he asked for "oros detohu in keilim detikun".

[Yehupitz]

Look, I admire the attempt to make sense of it. Because I haven't been able to.
It's nice to see us attempting to figure it out. But you're not there yet.

I think the same thing happened, l'havdil with the USA's fight against the USSR. For a long time, the USA couldn't figure out what the machlokes was about. In the 50's they thought it was about "God vs Atheism". That's why they put 'In God we trust' on the money and 'under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance. But that wasn't it. After a few decades, they figured it out.

So too with the Nanach's. We need to figure out why they like it. It's not simple. There's a catch-22. The Rambam did it fine at the end of Hil. Melachim, explaining the purpose of Christianity and Islam without justifying them.

I don't know if the motivation for nanachism can be sublimated. That takes great skill. But like a Dr Phil says: People do things because of a perceived gain. What do they gain from their Nanach shtick?

Why would nice Jews be attracted to mantra shtus? Because the establishment is really low on mantras. But our siddurim and piyutim show that there was a history of that. "Ki L'olam Chasdo". "B'dil Va'yaavor" etc. But we squashed it over time.

Well, apparently some people still needed that.

A start...

[sarah [s(b.)]]

Thanks. And thanks for that comment on Hesh's music thread (I read it after I commented, but I appreciated it).

[avakesh]

Thank you for the comments. I agree. I also share the concerns about the direction into which Na Nach may develop. Rather than commenitng I added a paragraph that addresses it.

[Naanaach]

nice post, although I didn't understand some of the terminology.

Keep up the good work!

Peace, Love, or BRESLUV!

Great blessings of Na Nach Nachmu Nachman Meuman!

B"H this will be referenced and linked to at nanach.net

[Naanaach]

how come I can't read the other comments?