Chasidut su Ecclesiaste 6:78
Flames of Faith
Rabbi Nachman’s parable can be understood as a display of the ideas in this lesson. Every human has a body that is his animal or turkey part, and a soul, that is a prince as the son of God.113On the verse, Ve-gam ha-nefesh lo timmalei, “And the soul as well will not be satisfied” (Eccl. 6:7), the Midrash compares the relationship of body and soul to a marriage of unequals:
It is like a village peasant who marries the king’s daughter. Even if he were to bring her many luxurious items they would be worthless in her eyes since she is the daughter of the regent. He can never provide for her according to what she expects. So too the soul is the daughter of the King; even if the body brings her all the physical pleasures of the world she will not be satisfied, for she is Heavenly. We should stress our soul and the fact that we are the children of the King of Kings. Yet the prince thinks he is a turkey. We so often immerse ourselves in bodily concerns that we view them as the sum of our essence. Physical desires become our needs and the body’s urges our obligatory behavior. We are the prince who is certain that he is a turkey.114In the Song of Songs (1:9-10), King Solomon compared the beloved to the chained horse of Pharaoh’s chariot. The work Afikei Yehudah explains the verse to refer to the themes of Rebbe Nachman. The horse is the body, and the charioteer is the soul. When the chariot leaves the stable, the horse is in the lead and it imagines that it is the master. The body, since man is aware of it first, thinks it is the master and the essence of life. A few minutes after the stable doors open, the viewer will see the charioteer and the ropes that control the horse. An individual who controls his body displays his soul as his truest self (quoted in Limmudei Nisan, Part 1, pg, 322).
It is like a village peasant who marries the king’s daughter. Even if he were to bring her many luxurious items they would be worthless in her eyes since she is the daughter of the regent. He can never provide for her according to what she expects. So too the soul is the daughter of the King; even if the body brings her all the physical pleasures of the world she will not be satisfied, for she is Heavenly. We should stress our soul and the fact that we are the children of the King of Kings. Yet the prince thinks he is a turkey. We so often immerse ourselves in bodily concerns that we view them as the sum of our essence. Physical desires become our needs and the body’s urges our obligatory behavior. We are the prince who is certain that he is a turkey.114In the Song of Songs (1:9-10), King Solomon compared the beloved to the chained horse of Pharaoh’s chariot. The work Afikei Yehudah explains the verse to refer to the themes of Rebbe Nachman. The horse is the body, and the charioteer is the soul. When the chariot leaves the stable, the horse is in the lead and it imagines that it is the master. The body, since man is aware of it first, thinks it is the master and the essence of life. A few minutes after the stable doors open, the viewer will see the charioteer and the ropes that control the horse. An individual who controls his body displays his soul as his truest self (quoted in Limmudei Nisan, Part 1, pg, 322).
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