History of The Phrase
The Na Nach Nachma phrase was "revealed" and taught by Rabbi Yisroel Ber Odesser, a well known Breslov figure who was born in 1888 in Tiberias. Odesser was among the first Breslover Hasidim in Israel, having learned about the movement from Rabbi Yisroel Halpern when he was a young yeshiva student.
When he was 33 years old, Odesser was overcome with weakness and hunger on the Fast of Tammuz. He decided to eat. But immediately after eating, he felt great sorrow at having succumbed to his own physical temptations. After five continuous days of prayer, a powerful thought came to him: "Go into your room!" He obeyed the inner voice, went to the bookcase, and randomly opened a book. In the book was a piece of paper that he would later call "The Letter from Heaven." The paper, written in Hebrew with one line in Yiddish, read as follows:
- It was very difficult for me to come down to you
- my precious student to tell you that I had pleasure
- very much from your devotion and upon you I said
- my fire will burn until
- Messiah is coming be strong and courageous
- in your devotion
- Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman
- And with this I will reveal to you a secret and it is:
- Full and heaped up from one extreme to another extreme (PTPTYH)
- And with the strengthening of your devotion you will understand it and a sign
- The 17th of Tammuz they will say that you don't fast
Odesser believed the letter to be a message of consolation, directly from Rebbe Nachman's spirit to himself here on earth. Since his name did not appear in the petek as the recipient, Odesser said that this was reason for every person to consider the petek addressed to himself or herself personally. Odesser adopted Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman as his personal meditation and song, and became so totally identified with it that he later said, "I am Na Nach Nachma Nachman Me'Uman!" (This quote appears on Odesser's tombstone in Jerusalem.)
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