Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, "The Seven Beggars"

Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav is not only one of the most important Hasidic rabbis, still today venerated by disciples and followers who called themselves Bratslav Hasidism (check out their website at  http://www.breslov.org ), he is one of the great literary artists of the modern period, influencing many authors, including, most significantly, Franz Kafka.

In the story "The Seven Beggars" we hear about a wedding celebration at which seven beggars arrive who had previously met the couple in a forest, when they had been wandering as children, and had blessed them. Now, at the wedding, they each explain the meaning of their blessings The seventh beggar, however, is left out--perhaps because it contains a teaching that only can be revealed with the coming of the Messiah.

Each story which the beggars tell to explain their blessings is rich with symbolic meaning, and contains teachings about how to live life properly, and why our lives are often full of suffering. Perhaps the most famous of these stories is the one told by the beggar who seemed "heavy of speech," but was really extraordinarily eloquent, the "man of true grace." What do you think is the meaning of the story he tells, beginning on the bottom of page 159 (page 100 in our Course Reader)? This story is about the creation of time itself from "acts of true grace." It is one of the most beautiful, and most profound, stories in all religious literature. Do your best to offer an interpretation that fits in with what you have learned about Hasidism, Kabbalah, and Judaism more generally. Don't assume that "time" means the time we measure by clocks. Think specifically of how we regret lost time, and hope for a chance to do something over, or recover the lost time somehow. The man of true grace makes it possible to have more time once time has been lost. And also think about how this kind of time, the kind of time that comes as a chance to start over after a false start, only comes so long as our heart beats, that once we die, we have no more chances to start over, even though we may have "all the time in the world" after our death. I am sorry to be so enigmatic, but I am trying to suggest some of the ways I think it is profitable to think about the story.
 

Please, in your response to this question, talk about how the story affected you. What in particular is it about this story that makes it possible to affect the reader (you)--what stylistic qualities, what elements in the story itself? And how is the story itself about storytelling itself? (Hint: do you know the story of how Sheherazade won 1000 nights of a reprieve from a death sentence, and finally won a complete reprieve?)