-2- The Parable of the Heart and the Spring from Nahman's Tale The Seven Beggars (with commentary by Adin Steinsaltz) Now there is a mountain. On the mountain stands a rock. From the rock flows a spring. And everything has a heart. The world taken as a whole has a heart. And the world's heart is of full stature, with a face, hands, and feet. Now the toenail of that heart is more heart-like than anyone else's heart. The mountain with the rock and spring are at one end of the world, and the world's heart stands at the other end. The world's heart stands opposite the spring and yearns and always longs to reach the spring. The yearning and longing of the heart for the spring is extraordinary. It cries out to reach the spring. The spring also yearns and longs for the heat. The heart suffers from two types of languor: one because the sun pursues it and burns it (because it so longs to reach the spring); and the other because of its yearning and longing, for it always yearns and longs fervently for the spring. It always stands facing the spring and cries out: "Help!" and longs mightily for the spring. But when the heart needs to find some rest, to catch its breath, a large bird flies over, and spreads its wings over it, and shields it from the sun. Then the heart can rest a while. And even then, during the rest, it still looks toward the spring and longs for it. Why doesn't the heart go toward the spring if it so longs for it? Because, as soon as it wants to approach the hill, it can no longer see the peak and cannot look at the spring.[*] And if the heart will no longer look upon the spring, its soul will perish, for it draws all its vitality from the spring. And if the heart would expire, God forbid, the whole world would be annihilated, because the heart has within it the life of everything. And how could the world exist without its heart? And that is why the heart cannot go to the spring but remains facing it and yearns and cries out. In the following interpretation, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz explains the Kabbalistic ideas woven into this beautiful parable: The story of the heart and the spring draws on the imagery of the Psalms, especially Psalm 61. The heart and the spring, which are at opposite ends of the earth, are the two poles of existence. The heart is the , the indwelling presence of God in the world that imbues everything with life and vitality. The spring, on the other hand, is the infinitely distant transcendent aspect of God, the primal source from which all divinity emanates. The heart yearns perpetually to return to and be reunited with its origin, the first cause, but it cannot. The burning sun and the shade given by the wings of the bird represent, respectively, the exhausting earthly passions that obscure true spiritual desires, and the divine grace that occasionally appears in the world. The unbridgeable gulf between the heart and the spring, the Shekhinah and the primal source, is a basic feature of Creation. Were the heart ever to attempt to cross it, the world would cease to exist. Distance from the primal source is thus a prior condition of existence, and an intense, unending yearning characterizes the basic relationship that inheres in the world. However, this yearning is not entirely static, but involves a kind of ebb and flow in which the world (and man) moves toward the transcendent, thereby nullifying its own existence temporarily before returning to mundane reality.[2]   [*] Upon approach, the top of the slope of the mountain where the spring is situated disappears — at least visually — and the spring cannot be seen anymore. Translation of "The Parable of the Heart and the Spring" from The Seven Beggars. From: Band, Arnold J. and Dan Joseph, eds. Nahman of Bratslav: The Tales. Copyright © 1978 by Arnold J. Band (New York: Paulist Press). pp. 154-156. Steinsaltz, Adin. The Tales of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav. Copyright © Adin Steinsaltz (Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson), 1979. p. 264-265. The Tale of the Hakham and the Tam  | Back to Introductory Biography