I'm being enchanted more and more by Chassidic tales and their power. I rediscovered this world a few years after I discovered the world of Chassidus. About a year and a half ago I started a new habit of reading Chassidic tales in Hebrew original and Russian translation every Sabbath night. I've been reading the Hebrew version of the famous selection collected and adapted by Martin Buber and its Russian translation.
These tales are what Chassidic rabbis said and did in accordance with the teachings of Chassidus. Theoretical teachings often remain trapped in abstraction, inspiring thought but not necessarily guiding speech or action. Chassidic tales, by contrast, bring down heavenly light into earthly gestures. Chassidic tales show their readers how noble teachers translate into specific speech and action in real life situations.
Some time ago I heard one Chabad rabbi say that the power of Chassidic tales lies in that they attack the ego of their readers unprepared unlike other forms of teaching. The ego tells itself that here are just tales. But the truth is that their messages penetrate it slowly but surely. The metaphor I've invented for myself (and others) is that this process is like starting to boil a frog from cold water. It doesn't notice that it's being boiled. But by the time it notices (if it does at all), it's already boiled.
A few months ago I discovered a new subworld in this deceptively naive but incredibly profound world in the form of Rabbi Nachman's tales. Without going into details, I've been invited to take part in some task which involves, among others, checking the original Yiddish version by Rabbi Nachman himself and the Hebrew translation-cum-adaptation by Rabbi Nathan.
I realized I had become such a boiled frog when I suddenly felt like finally reading "The Master and Margarita", a Russian classic I had long intended to explore. But to my surprise, I could!'t get past the first few pages" Even this widely acclaimed novel now seemed oddly superficial in comparison to the Chassidic tales I've been immersed in just as I can't listen to Baroque music any more, which I used to love very much, any more since I started listening to Chassidic music intensively.