Rebbe Nachman here addresses the issue of why it feels like our prayers are often not answered. It's an important thing to discuss, because, if we don't have a real and useful perspective on it, we could become disillusioned. And that would be unfortunate.

Side-stepping the kinds of religious "activity" that tend to evoke defenses like boredom and dread is essential in keeping it real. Here I describe a recent fragment-idea that came to me as I tried to motivate myself to "daven."

Continuing with Rebbe Nachman's 2nd lesson, we look at how the righteous person/moshiach/Moses gathers up our prayers and builds them into something bigger. This is actual a major relief.

Using what we've been learning from Rebbe Nachman about having a proper level of perspective on the tools we have at our disposal, we discuss the level eight as giving us essential perspective on the seven levels below it

Instead of prayer being seen as an arduous burden, it should be seen for what it is: an incredible opportunity to speak with the One. And maybe not everyone should have to do it.

Continuing the exciting and unwieldy project of getting Rebbe Nachman's Torah out there in a useful way. This piece addresses questions around how corruption of justice affects how we see the world

Here is - thanks to Shira - a better approach to translating the second lesson of Likutei Moharan. Realizing that it is impossible to "just translate" - meaning, impossible to really understand - I fill in the gaps here, connect paragraphs, explain references. Still not "commentary" - that's later. And please note this is only part one of lesson two (they're long).

Codenames is a boardgame of sorts in which partners give each other clues about words on the board. And it requires that you not only be clever, but you know your partner. And it is therefore not at all easy. But Rebbe Nachman's lesson about opening to the intelligence of others offers some useful guidance in how to play well.

Once we have accepted that the thoughts we think are not necessarily true and not necessarily worth expressing, and we open to the real realness of other people and things, we can hopefully have "chen." And once we have "chen", then the people to whom we open may also come to have "chen"

Rebbe Nachman writes that Torah study is the key to staying open to receiving the sechel in everything. But that is actually fairly surpising. Learning Torah usually isn't "for" anything. It's done for its own sake. What's the deal?