The Chambers of the Palace

Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (1772-1810), great-grandson of the founder of Chasidism, the Baal Shem Tov, was a pivotal figure in the history of Jewish spirituality. The Chambers of the Palace is an anthology of the teachings of Rabbi Nachman, compiled and translated by the highly regarded young scholar, Y. David Shulman. Shulman writes, 'Rabbi Nachman was a poet, an individualist, a man who operated through his heart, a man filled with passion, a man filled with the youthful fire of breaking through all structures in order to get to God, not a man who wished to consolidate structures. The Chambers of the Palace was designed by Shulman to be accessible to a wide audience, especially those who are not intensely involved with chasidic thought. This is not a pietistic tract or a scholarly study. It is a rich collection of gems, drawn from the spectrum of Rabbi Nachman's teachings, including formal offerings, informal advice, symbolic tales, parables, dreams, and visions. We discover Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav to be an impassioned master of the spirit, a teller of inspired tales, and as Shulman writes, 'a singer of the romantic relationship between each individual, no matter what level, and God.' Rabbi Nachman is a paradoxical figure. He was an ecstatic seeker and a tortured soul, an ordinary human and a transcendent master, a teacher who spoke both oracularly and simply. He has become known for his teachings, his tales, his persona, his creativity, his intensity, his closeness, and his distance. Included in The Chambers of the Palace are such classic tales as 'The Prince Who Thought He Was a Turkey'; caustic social and religious criticism such as 'Praying for the Sake of a Cat'; visions such as 'In Two Worlds at Once'; and teachings on a wide range of subjects including the essential self, coming to God, self-improvement, simplicity, despair and joy, song, humor, marriage, sexuality, exile and redemption, holy days, and the land of Israel.