A shiur delivered by R' Mordche Gottlieb in Miami Beach, FL, as we enter Rosh Chodesh Av and the Nine Days.

Why did the Eibershter create galus at all? Wouldn't a world of pure geulah have been a better plan? Rebbe Nachman of Breslov gives an original answer: the purpose of galus is not just to escape it — the galus itself becomes part of your geulah.

R' Gottlieb explains: the world is filled with countless powers, energies, and wisdoms that seem to run by themselves — money, success, strength, intelligence, and today even AI. A person can live an entire life enjoying these powers while completely disconnected from their Source. But that's exactly the point: when a person looks at a world that could be seen as disconnected and declares Hashem Echad — he gives the Eibershter true malchus, because אין מלך בלא עם, and there's no real kingship without free choice.

Topics covered:

• What we're really saying in Shema Yisrael — recognizing Achdus HaBorei in a fragmented world

• Why Hashem created bechirah — a robot's recognition means nothing

• אל יתהלל חכם בחכמתו — the chacham, gibbor and oshir: don't erase your strengths, reconnect them

• Kaas is fire, gaava is greatness — how middos ra'os become fuel for avodas Hashem

• True anava: not being a nebech, but knowing where your strength comes from

• What nechama really means — and what we'll understand looking back at our hardships when Mashiach comes (הזורעים בדמעה ברינה יקצורו)

• How to use the Nine Days: don't run from the pain — recognize the galus and demand a geulah

• Divrei chizuk on Eretz Yisrael today: the open nissim of the war, the pain of machlokes among Yidden, and why davening for Klal Yisrael's geulah brings your own

R' Gottlieb also introduces Letayel B'Toraso (לטייל בתורתו) — a worldwide project where thousands of Yidden, from all communities, learn the same Torah in Likutey Moharan together, b'iyun, over months. Learning Rebbe Nachman's Torah the way Rebbe Nachman himself instructed makes this "deep sefer" accessible to everyone. To join the program in America, contact R' Nachman Fried.

#RebbeNachman #Breslov #LikuteyMoharan #Galus #Geulah #NineDays #TishaBAv #Emunah #Chizuk #Nechama

Shiur #10 in Rabbi Jonathan Rietti's in-depth (b'iyun) series on Likutey Moharan — Torah Dalet (4).

When a person knows that everything that happens to him is for his good — כשאדם יודע שכל מאורעיו הם לטובתו — this itself is a taste of Olam Haba. But if everything is truly l'tovah, that has to include every mistake, every regret, every painful memory. So what does Hashem want us to do with our past?

In this shiur, Rabbi Rietti takes us through Rebbe Nachman's revolutionary understanding of the mind: all suffering and exile exist only to the degree that da'as is missing (Torah 21), Hashem makes room for us inside the suffering itself — בצר הרחבת לי (Torah 195), and atzvus — anxiety, worry, depression — is not caused by our circumstances but by our own thinking about them (Torah 155). Because ein shum ye'ush ba'olam klal — there is no despair in the world at all.

Topics covered:

• "BaHashem ahalel davar" — praising Hashem from the same place of simcha, in good times and bad

• Kaveh means EXPECT, not hope — waiting for Mashiach like you wait for a bus you know is coming

• ביום ההוא יהיה ה' אחד ושמו אחד — why in the future there will be only one bracha: HaTov v'HaMeitiv

• "If I would know Him, I would be Him" — da'as as the bridge between this world and eternal life

• Life and death separated by only one amah — the equanimity of true tzaddikim

• The world as a movie set: everyone is reading Hashem's script, only you choose your response

• Anxiety over tuition, bills and parnassah — where the stress really comes from and how to surrender it

• Mai d'hava hava — the past is the past; why Torah beats therapy on handling worry

• דאגה בלב איש ישחנה — and the end of the pasuk most therapists have never read: ודבר טוב ישמחנה

• Kol d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid — training yourself on every bump in the road

Sources: Likutey Moharan I: Torah 4, Torah 21:11, Torah 78, Torah 155, Torah 195; Tehillim 4:2 & 116; Zechariah 14:9; Yeshayahu 5:13 & 11:9; Nedarim 41; Pesachim 50a; Sotah — mai d'hava hava; Mishlei 12:25; Shulchan Aruch OC 230:5; Kuzari; Pele Yoetz; Me'am Lo'ez

Next shiur: Vidui Devarim — the true Torah sources of verbal confession in Yiddishkeit.

#RebbeNachman #LikuteyMoharan #Breslov #JonathanRietti #Emunah #Anxiety #Torah #Chizuk #BRI

Part 15 of The Lost Princess — a heart-share journey through Rebbe Nachman's tale of Aveidas Bas Melech, learned not as a fairy tale but as a mirror of our own search to come home to ourselves. For Rebbe Nachman, the whole avodah is the ratzon — the yearning. Not what you manage to achieve, but what you allow yourself to long for. The wanting itself is precious. And the deepest tragedy isn't failing — it's giving up on your wants, letting the will go quiet until you no longer want what you once wanted. In this shiur we walk the tale word by word — the king and his lost daughter, the father's pain, the viceroy who rises and says "Eilech V'anaseh — let me go and try," the path off to the side, the castle of lo tov where the princess is hidden in plain sight. And then we bring it home: the lost princess is your own self, and the way back is not to conquer the forest but to never stop yearning for her. A few minutes a day of hisbodedus — "Who am I? What am I feeling right now? What is my lost princess trying to tell me?" — and to let yourself long for her again. To want what you once wanted, and refuse to give up on your wants. To bind yourself to the tzaddik, to Rebbe Nachman, to Tikkun Haklali — the one who lifts a person out of shmad, where the will is crushed and disguised, and into ratzon, true and living desire, clearing away the self-doubt that keeps us from wanting to come close. A preparation for the summer, for Rosh Hashanah, and im yirtzeh Hashem, for Uman — together. Eilech V'anaseh — "Let me go and try." A chabura founded by Gavriel Hass and facilitated by Nachman Fried, using the story of the Lost Princess as a workshop for honest self-reflection and inner growth. Not a group of people who have it figured out — a group of people who decided to try. Together. #RebbeNachman #Breslov #LostPrincess #Yearning #Ratzon #LikuteyMoharan #Hisbodedus #TikkunHaklali #Teshuvah #Emunah #Uman #Chassidus #TorahShiur #EilechVanaseh #JewishWisdom

Shiur 14 in R' Nachman Fried's heart-share on Rebbe Nachman's tale of the Lost Princess (Aveidas Bas Melech). This one turns on the avodah of the viceroy's year of yearning — and what it asks of us. It opens with viduy: not "confession" but admission — ashamnu, bagadnu — saying it plainly and starting brand new, because teshuvah is never about what will be; its whole power is right now. From there: the astonishing reach of a single hirhur teshuvah, one fleeting thought of return that you think did nothing, while far away it moves worlds; and how to meet failure not as proof to despair over but as the very place teshuvah begins — to fall and not collapse into yiush. At its heart is the Bas Melech's instruction to the viceroy: choose a place, sit for a year, and do nothing but yearn, long, and want her back. Because the end and the beginning are one — and the only real foolishness, the Rebbe teaches, is that we stop yearning, stop longing, stop wanting the very things our soul once wanted with its whole strength. Woven through with personal story and the tale itself, it closes on a single word: Ashreinu. In this shiur: Viduy as admission — and why teshuvah is only ever "now," a new hatchala The far-reaching power of one hirhur teshuvah Meeting failure without falling into yiush — not running from the fall The viceroy's year of yearning: choosing a place and longing to free her "The end and the beginning are together" The foolishness of letting the yearning die — and how to want again #LostPrincess #AveidasBasMelech #RebbeNachman #Breslov #Teshuvah #HirhurTeshuvah #Yearning #Yiush #Uman #JewishWisdom #Chassidus #NachmanFried

Part 12 of The Lost Princess — a heart-share journey through Rebbe Nachman's tale of Aveidas Bas Melech, learned not as a fairy tale but as a mirror of our own search to come home to ourselves. There's a voice that meets us after we fall. For most of us it's the voice of blame — and it buries us. This shiur is about a different voice. The viceroy returns after his first failure — he was so close, and on the very last day he ate, and lost everything. Now he stands before the Bas Melech again, and watch what she does. She doesn't rage. She doesn't shame him. But she also doesn't pretend it didn't happen. She tells him the plain truth — "had you come that day, you would have taken me out" — and in the very same breath she makes the next task easier, because she knows the yetzer hara is strongest on the last day. That is the whole secret: accountability, not blame. She holds him to what happened without ever crushing him for it. It turns out this is exactly how we have to learn to speak to ourselves after we fall — honest about the truth, but never cruel; facing what happened, but making the path walkable again, and refusing to let ourselves give up. Because the main thing was never that you fell. The main thing is that you don't fall asleep. And we come home to the week's avodah: five minutes a day of hisbodedus to meet your inner child — the part of you that doesn't need to be fixed or proven, only loved — and to start noticing, with honesty, how much we rationalize and justify to ourselves all day long. Eilech V'anaseh — "Let me go and try." A chabura founded by Gavriel Hass and facilitated by Nachman Fried, using the story of the Lost Princess as a workshop for honest self-reflection and inner growth. Not a group of people who have it figured out — a group of people who decided to try. Together. Hashtags #RebbeNachman #Breslov #LostPrincess #Accountability #Chizuk #Teshuvah #Hisbodedus #InnerChild #SelfCompassion #Emunah #Uman #Chassidus #TorahShiur #EilechVanaseh #NeverGiveUp

The opening shiur of The Lost Princess in Deal, NJ — a heart-share journey through Rebbe Nachman's tale of Aveidas Bas Melech, learned not as a fairy tale but as a map back to ourselves. It begins with the story that changed my life: losing my closest friend, Chaim z"l, and discovering — in his own words, three weeks before he passed — that the one thing that gave him comfort through his hardest years was the Likutei Moharan. That loss is what made me truly own Rebbe Nachman. From there we walk the whole tale — the king and his lost daughter, the viceroy who says "let me go and try," the path off to the side, the castle of lo tov where the princess is hidden — and we bring it home to where we actually live. Because the lost princess is your own self — your neshama, the part of you that knows what you really want. And the way to find her is closer than you think: a few quiet minutes of hisbodedus, asking one honest question — what am I feeling right now? Not "calm," not "serene" — those are states. The real feelings live underneath: fear, failure, rejection. And under the fear, ask "what am I afraid of?" — and dig, and dig again, until you get a peek at her. And then comes the yearning. Because you can only yearn for something you once had. If you have ever, even once, felt that krechtz for Hashem — that ache to be close, that delight of connection — that was her. That feeling of connection to Hashem is your lost princess. Yearn for it. Long for it. Want it. May we be zoche to a geulah pratit and a geulah klalit, and bring Moshiach. Eilech V'anaseh — "Let me go and try." A chabura founded by Gavriel Hass and facilitated by Nachman Fried. Not a group of people who have it figured out — a group of people who decided to try. Together. #RebbeNachman #Breslov #LostPrincess #Hisbodedus #Yearning #Teshuvah #Emunah #Uman #LikuteiMoharan #Chassidus #TorahShiur #EilechVanaseh

On the hilula (yahrzeit) of Rav Gedalya Aharon Kenig zt"l, R' Nachman Fried shares personal memories and the story of a life given entirely to Rebbe Nachman — recorded at Breslov, New Hempstead.R' Fried — whose father became a Breslover at the age of ten, drawn close by Reb Tzvi Rosenfeld, and who himself married into Rav Gedalya's family — traces the mesorah of Daas Rabbeinu down the generations, and tells the story of a dreamer whom nearly everyone thought was "off": the man who believed hageulah teluyah b'binyan Tzfas, that the redemption itself is bound up in the building of Tzfas — and who, with R' Fried's shver, was among the very first to move there and make it real.In this drasha:Growing up around Rav Gedalya — the stories a grandson remembersThe chain of Daas Rabbeinu: the Rebbe → Reb Nosson → Reb Nachman Tulchiner → Reb Avraham b'Reb Nachman → Reb Avraham Sternhartz (rebbe of both Rav Gedalya and Reb Tzvi Rosenfeld)"Hageulah teluyah b'binyan Tzfas" — Rav Gedalya's dream, and the first families to move to TzfasThe coins and the retzonos: "Gedalya, mit dem vestu boien Tzfas?" — how every single coin was the ratzon of another YidA life of mesiras nefesh — collecting, dreaming, and never once giving up#RavGedalyaKenig #Breslov #NachmanFried #Tzfas #RebbeNachman #Hilula #DaasRabbeinu #NachalNovea #Yahrzeit #Emunah #ChaimKrame

Shiur #9 in R' Jonathan Rietti's b'iyun on Rebbe Nachman's Likutey Moharan, Torah 4 (Part 1) — Breslov, New Hempstead, with BRI and Reb Chaim Kramer. This single paragraph, R' Rietti says, is the ikar — it sets the tone for the entire Torah. Having laid out Hilchos Kabbalas Yissurin last week, he now reaches the heart of it: the daas Rebbe Nachman is defining — the knowing that everything that happens comes b'kavana from Hashem, only for your benefit, and that this whole world of gashmiyus is nothing but a kli to find Him inside. In this shiur: The ultimate daas — knowing Hashem is good, and only good, all the time Tachlis (תכלית): the kli hidden between the two tavs, and why this world is preparation for the next Im yistakel al hatachlis — how looking at the true purpose lets you reinterpret the "bad" as rak tovos gedolos, only great benefits Every red light, every sichsuch with a parent, a child, an in-law — b'kavana meHashem, l'tovaso The two reasons the hard things come — and what Hashem is really after Continuing ahavas Hashem and blessing al hara k'shem she'mevarech al hatova #LikuteyMoharan #RebbeNachman #Breslov #JonathanRietti #Torah4 #Daas #Emunah #Tachlis #OlamHaba #Bitachon #ChaimKramer #BRI

Shiur #8 in R' Jonathan Rietti's b'iyun series on Rebbe Nachman's Likutey Moharan, Torah 4 (Part 1) — Breslov, New Hempstead, with BRI and Reb Chaim Kramer. If yissurin are simply part of living in this world — the potholes and bumps no one escapes — then the real question was never how much we get, but how well we respond. This week R' Rietti opens the "Hilchos Yissurin," the laws of receiving suffering: how a person moves from an intellectual "it's for the good" to keshe'adam yodea — actually experiencing that everything, the sweet and the bitter alike, is only l'tovaso, with no gray and no wiggle room. In this shiur: "Hilchos Yissurin" — where the laws of accepting suffering actually live (in Shas, in the Rambam, and beyond Shulchan Aruch) Chayav adam levarech al hara k'shem she'mevarech al hatova — the Mishnah in Brachos (9:5) and blessing the bad like the good Ahavas Hashem b'chol levavcha — serving Him with both the yetzer tov and the yetzer hara The real hishtadlus is tefillah — asking Hashem that everything, good and hard, become a platform to find Him Todah la'Hashem for the good, and todah la'Hashem for the not-good — emunah as a daily exercise The Rambam's words: even in eis hamari, in ka'as and rogez — and why anger, gaava, sinah, kinah and taavah are the yetzer hara of the mind #LikuteyMoharan #RebbeNachman #Breslov #JonathanRietti #Torah4 #Yissurim #Emunah #Bitachon #ThankYouHashem #Suffering #ChaimKramer #BRI

hiur #7 in R' Jonathan Rietti's b'iyun series on Rebbe Nachman's Likutey Moharan, Torah 4 (Part 1) — recorded at Breslov, New Hempstead, in partnership with BRI (Breslov Research Institute) and Reb Chaim Kramer. Rebbe Nachman opens Torah 4 with a life-changing idea: keshe'adam yodea she'kol me'ora'osav hem l'tovaso — when a person truly knows that everything that happens to him, the sweet and the bitter alike, is for his benefit — that knowing is itself me'ein Olam Haba, a taste of the World to Come, the world of only good, the world where every question finally has its answer. From there R' Rietti opens up how we come to thank Hashem not only for the open chessed but with both of His Names — ba'Elokim ahallel davar, baHashem ahallel davar (Tehillim 56:11) — praising Him exactly the same in the times of rachamim and the times of din. In other words: I'll thank You for the tough times too. In this shiur: Keshe'adam yodea — why knowing (not only feeling) that it's all l'tovasi is a glimpse of Olam Haba This world of questions vs. the World to Come, the world of answers Ba'Elokim / baHashem ahallel davar — praising Hashem through both Names, in chessed and in din Hallel = simcha: why real praise flows from joy (Radak) "In the moment you can't always feel it" — Reb Nosson's honesty, and how to live the yediah anyway The mind and the body — "I have cancer, I am not cancer": stress, pain, and the power of the mind Moving into Vidui Devarim — the "bullet" used against Breslov for years, and why confession before the tzaddik is a mitzvas aseh d'Oraisa found all over the Torah (Rambam; the korban chatas/asham; Parashas Chukas and the snakes) Reshaim, Olam Haba, and the tzaddik who shares a chelek of his own — the candle that lights other candles without losing its flame With appreciation to Reb Shmuel & Motti Seitlin, Tzvi Nachman Fried, Tzvi Goldring, Reb Chaim Kramer, and BRI. #LikuteyMoharan #RebbeNachman #Breslov #JonathanRietti #Torah4 #Hodaah #Emunah #Bitachon #ThankYouHashem #OlamHaba #VidueiDevarim #ChaimKramer #BRI #Teshuvah