The following is the first part of a mashal, parabolic story, spoken recently by Rabbi `Oseh of Gaza — a maternal descendant of the Chasidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810), the Maharal of Prague (1512–1609) and the Ba`al Shem Tov (1698–1760), a great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, who was the founder of the Modern Chasidic movement in Judaism.
This story is told in the vein and style of Alter Zeidy, Rabbi Nachman. It is penned in the style which seems most suitable to relay how it was orated. If there are any errors in it, they are my own, and not those of Rabbi `Oseh.
My brother explains that this story is related to the work of our Alter Zeidy, and that more will be forthcoming, im yirtzeh Ha’Shem, u’bezrat Ha’Shem. May it be so, if we merit it…
This story has within it a story — in fact it has many stories.
This story itself is part of a much longer story.
There are many places and stories with which this story-within-a-story could be introduced,
But today, it will begin here…
Once upon a time, in an age of empire, innovation, wealth and adventure,
For those who embarked upon the high seas — where the oceans were ruled by daring captains and cut-throat pirates
Where the seas were subject to fierce storms, sea monsters of giant squids, octopuses and the leviathan of the great whale-shark, amidst all of this —
There lived (at least for a time) a pirate who would come to be king of all the other pirates
Yes, though there were many pirates who had sailed, raped, murdered and pillaged for 44 generations,
This pirate, however, prided himself upon being seen as the most ruthless
Of all the 44 generations before him, he held that only seventh of those before was truly a Pirate King,
He held this pirate in the highest regard and sought to walk (or sail) in his footsteps
Having so successfully suppressed all of the tribes he encountered while out pirating,
that seventh pirate notoriously struck fear in the hearts of all who opposed him
If any rose up to defend their homes, family or even any possessions that the pirate coveted,
the seventh pirate would put them down with the most brutal of force
To make certain further uprisings were a thing of the past,
He forced all who opposed him to walk on bare feet
for thousands of miles – even in the winter —
He forced them to march away from their homes, until tens of thousands of them died
Some remained and survived on the land he allocated for them,
Resistance did not enter their hearts on a scale enough to cause him, nor future pirate kings, any further worry
This is how the Pirate who would be King knew he must be seen
“If am to truly rule as a Pirate King and not just a Pirate,” he said allowed — to himself or to no one in particular — “I certainly must be like this!”
The Seventh Pirate
In this story, there is a story
That story is the story of the Seventh Pirate
Forty-Four pirates in all had come and gone before the Pirate King
But none was so favored as the Seventh of these
This Pirate who would be King of the Pirates — after the forty-four who came before
modeled his piracy after the seventh Pirate King, exclaiming: “This is the way you rule!”
To all who would (or wouldn’t) listen he announced that “if people do not fear you, they will not respect you!
“If they do not fear you, you have no power over them!”
But fear was something this Pirate who would be King knew about all too well.
Though he had never been one to believe in Heaven or Hell,
He felt sometimes as though he could hear the seventh Pirate King
Warning him from a realm that would fit common imaginings of a “Hell” of sorts.
This Pirate who would be King was afraid of being powerless,
From an early age he feared being alone and rejected by his mother and father
Where were they now anyway? Were they calling to him along with the Seventh Pirate King?
Were they in “Heaven” or in “Hell” if such things were indeed real?
Having passed on from their mortal shells, the Pirate who would be King wondered…
He imagined there being a Heaven and his mother being in it.
The only happiness he ever felt was from her and even she was very cold at times
The only one who ever intervened in the abuses of his father was this woman – and for that, he loved her, insofar as he had been taught to understand the concept of love.
As she helped him, he loved her
He thus wondered at the fate of her.
Was she in Heaven?
Was his father in what people called “Hell?”
He had never been one to believe in the afterlife — Heaven or Hell
To be the King of the Pirates you truly cannot concern yourself with such things
How can you worry about punishment in the Here After – in Karma and Mazel,
How can you concern yourself with fate, punishment and reward when your very job is to rape, pillage and slaughter?
Nevertheless, in spite of his outward denial that he believed in such things, this fear nagged at him.
He almost felt as though he could hear his father calling to him
That man who he so feared – that man whose love he so desired, but did not feel
Now, it was almost as though he could hear his father from another realm – seemingly distant, but at the same time imminent
The Rich Father of the Pirate Who Would Be King
In this story, there is a story
That story is the story of the rich man who was the father of the Pirate who would be King
Throughout his days, he showed himself off in the finest designer clothes
Every day he ate the most costly steak, veal and other flesh of animals he saw as beneath him on chain of predator and prey,
In this “dog-eat-dog” world, as he explained it to his son,
You were either predator or prey
You were either the one to eat
…or you were their meat
But now, even still so many years after his father passed from the physical world
He felt as though he could hear him screaming in his ear,
But as though through a tunnel or insulation,
the sound was dampened until it was only a thought
The father of this pirate had gotten very rich,
not only from using the labor of immigrants to mine gold,
But also in pimping young girls in brothels near the mines
He passed on this love of gold and young girls to his son – teaching him that this was the way of manhood and masculinity
“My son! I was wrong in all that I taught you! Piracy is not the way!
“Pimping young girls is a very evil thing
“Exploiting the poor and desperate who came seeking a better life – this too is a great evil!
“I have led you down the Path to Hell and Torment! Please listen to my warning before it is too late for you!”
The Obnoxious Beggar at the Gates
In this story, there is a story
That story is the story of the the Obnoxious Beggar
outside of the gated community where the future Pirate King lived –
where his father had raised him,
There, outside of the gates, was a Poor man who was called El`azar,
He was called El`azar
because he trusted only in the Divine El for Help –
In one land he was called `Azar, in another `Uzayr.
As such, he only sought to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table —
the very table he had eaten at as a child
As the Rich Pirate who would soon be king exited the gates,
The Poor man El`azar, begged him for some food or means to procure food
“My beloved, please, understand that like you,
“I am a father to a son who I love dearly!
“He needs help!
“He needs your help if only you will listen to this plea and support us in your generosity and selflessness!”
Being both Poor and a Beggar, El`azar was seen by the rich Pirate as thoroughly irresponsible
It was bad enough that he was poor! Even worse — he was a Beggar!
But the Poor Beggar was also the father of a son!
“What business does a Poor Beggar have in reproducing!?” the rich Pirate said.
But he did not know that the son was reincarnation of his own father!
That is to say, knowing he would die at a very early age —
before the age of 40 in almost every life —
He divided himself upon incarnation,
One part of himself became El`azar, and the other his son
In the cases of a great sage or Perfected Human Being –
Some would call such a person a Tzadiq, others a Bodhisattva –
Their work might entail dividing themselves so that one can give birth to themselves
In this way, the one before can pass away and act as a Guide upon the Holy Mountain.
In truth, in reality, however,
Both of them are One and the same
In the Spirit World, they are undivided
In the physical world of Spacetime, they are perceived as separate…
From the heights of the Holy Mountain,
The One, Undivided Spirit Guide
can see all that is in the Valley below —
The Path and its apparent divisions,
As well, they can see where those divisions reunite
If they have a way to contact themself — those who remain in the Valley below –
Then they can tell them of all that is observed,
as they Watch from their vantage point of Ascension upon the Holy Mountain
But all of this was well beyond the concerns of the Rich Pirate
In fact, this sort of thing was mere superstition to him
If there was a Spirit World — if there was a “God” as It were
It had a lot of explaining to do, for all the suffering the Rich Pirate encountered as a child — at the hands of his own father even!
Now, the Poor Beggar El`azar’s son looked identical to him — it was as if they were TWINS!
In fact, all who saw his son thought that he was his father.
Those who knew he was his father’s son called him the TWIN of his father
This was how much he bore his father’s image
Thus, all who saw him referred to him as one and the same Poor Beggar as his father
And in fact?
They were right!
The Youth and the Father were ONE!
The Poor Beggar said to the Rich Pirate:
“Please, for God’s sake!”
The Rich Pirate recoiled and exclaimed:
“God? I do not believe in any such thing!”
The Poor Beggar laughed and explained:
“My dear, my beloved, I do not believe in the God that you do not believe in either!
“This is surely no such God
“There is nothing Divine about that god which you imagine as such!”
Furrowing his brow and pondering these words,
Before he realized he did not actually care to consider them,
The Poor Beggar seized the Rich Pirate even more firmly.
The Beggar then sang a beautiful Song:
First, he sang the melody in Hebrew:
“Ki HU Eloheinu
“va’anachnu `am mar`ito, vetz’on Yado Ha’Yom,
“im b’Qolo tishma`u”
He then followed in a second verse,
This time, he sang in English —
This was what he called the Language of the Anglo
In a far off land, long ago, the Poor Beggar explained, they called this language Injil
He rendered the verse as such:
“For HU is OUR God,
“And we are the people of Its pasture, And the sheep of Its Hand TODAY!
“O if only you would INCLINE, LISTEN and HEARKEN to the Voice of HU!
The words seemed to just slightly hypnotize the Rich Pirate
He saw himself in the future as the Pirate King
More astonishingly and more importantly,
He could now see and hear his own father’s spirit screaming and pleading with him from a realm he could only describe as “Hell.”
There is more to this story, if only he would listen to it…
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