Rabbi Nachman's Stories Sippurei Maasiot Translated & Annotated

By Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan

Our Sages told stories to convey the deepest secrets about God and His relationship to the world. Rebbe Nachman expertly plied this ancient art to create some of the most intriguing stories and parables ever told. More elaborate than any previous teachings, the Rebbe’s allegorical stories are fast-moving, richly-structured and deeply insightful, while containing all the ingredients of a marvelously entertaining read. Rabbi Kaplan’s running commentary, drawn from the writings of Rebbe Nachman’s students, gives English-speaking readers access to authentic interpretations of these stories for the first time.

Captivating, moving, amusing, even startling, Rebbe Nachman's stories possess far more than a surface brilliance. Their purpose is to arouse readers from their sleep, using the most powerful weapon in the universe: the hidden secrets of the Torah. Rebbe Nachman's wisdom and genius have long been recognized by serious scholars. Today, more and more people from the wider Jewish and general public are turning to these teachings as one of the major sources of perception and inspiration of our times. Yet despite their popularity across the board, for most English-speaking readers, Rebbe Nachman's stories are indecipherable in terms of their deeper meaning. The vast heritage of Torah and Kabbalah underlying every single word of each story has rarely been revealed or understood. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's masterful translation seeks to convey as much of the multi-layered richness of the original as possible, while remaining scrupulously faithful to the text. The commentary provides a wealth of authentic exegetical material from rebbe Nachman's pupils and followers, including all major sources. This revised edition of a classic has new introductions to each of the stories by R' Shlomo Goldman and R' Yitzchok Leib Bell.