One of the major ideas of the Ran from Breslov I think is worth some discussion: what he calls התבודדות or literally "being alone". The idea is explained by him as private conversation with God.
The point I wanted to make about this is that it goes pretty much along the regular lines of thought of the Ran: that is to make hard things easy. That is a theme running throughout his writings.
So when look at the Old Testament I see a lot of emphasis on the Law of Moses and the need to repent on not doing the Law of Moses. Now repentance is well defined as change of action. But in the Old Testament we see that along with it goes fasting and prayer. [Mainly I am thinking of Ahab and Ninve.]
But to get to the kind of prayer that you see in the Old Testament is hard. Even when one realizes the need for repentance, it is hard to get on one's knees for a few hours and beg forgiveness from God and help to change one's deeds.
So the Ran from Breslov proposes a more simple way of going about this. Simply going to a place where one is alone and no one else is around and talking with God from the deepest part of one's heart. That is simple conversation. That is far from prayers of repentance that the Old Testament is talking about--but close enough to have a similar essence.
The point I wanted to make about this is that it goes pretty much along the regular lines of thought of the Ran: that is to make hard things easy. That is a theme running throughout his writings.
So when look at the Old Testament I see a lot of emphasis on the Law of Moses and the need to repent on not doing the Law of Moses. Now repentance is well defined as change of action. But in the Old Testament we see that along with it goes fasting and prayer. [Mainly I am thinking of Ahab and Ninve.]
But to get to the kind of prayer that you see in the Old Testament is hard. Even when one realizes the need for repentance, it is hard to get on one's knees for a few hours and beg forgiveness from God and help to change one's deeds.
So the Ran from Breslov proposes a more simple way of going about this. Simply going to a place where one is alone and no one else is around and talking with God from the deepest part of one's heart. That is simple conversation. That is far from prayers of repentance that the Old Testament is talking about--but close enough to have a similar essence.
