Sippurei Maasiyot סיפורי מעשיות Sefaria Community Translation https://www.sefaria.org Sippurei Maasiyot Talks Following the Story Tales Additional Tales Chapter 1 Tale 14: The Treasure Beneath the Bridge Once upon a time, there was a man from a city who dreamed that beneath a bridge in Vienna there lay treasure. He travelled there and stood by the bridge and sought advice for how to dig there, since the passers-by and commuters made it impossible to dig there during the day. A soldier passed by and asked him, "what are you standing here thinking about?" The man thought to himself that it would be good to tell the soldier of his dream, so that he might help him and share a portion [of the treasure with him]. So, he told him and the soldier answered and said, "Oy, stupid Jew, why do you pay attention to such dreams? [In my own dreams, have I not dreamed that there is treasure beneath the oven in the house of a Jew who lives here?] [And he mentioned the first man's city and name.] Do you think I would travel there for this treasure?" The Jew was amazed and traveled to his house and dug beneath his oven and found the treasure. Afterwards, the Jew said, [I needed to travel to Vienna in order to discover that there was treasure in my own home!] So is it with Avodas HaShem: that the treasure lies within each person, but to know of the treasure, one must go to the Tzaddik. And there are those that say that our Rebbe hinted that, in the absence of this thing [i.e. the lack of a Breslover Tzaddik after R' Nahman], one need not travel far distances and do amazing things in order to find the treasure, rather the treasure is found within every person, but there are many [concealing] garments and so one must search properly for it. Chapter 2 Tale 15: The Gentleman Who Traveled With a Coachman The tale of a gentleman who traveled with a coachman to Berlin and a few other big cities: The gentleman went about his business and the coachman, whose name was Ivan [which also means "boor" in Yiddish], stayed behind with the buggy in the middle of the market. A man approached him and asked him why he was standing in the middle of the street. This soldier asked him, "who are you?" in German--"wer da?" ["who is here?"]--and he thought that he had asked him his name, so he said "Ivan." The soldier hit him because he did not understand the coachman's language and yelled at him again, "wer da?!" He replied once more, "Ivan," and the soldier hit him again and yelled "WER DA?!" until they took him with his buggy to one of the side-streets. When the gentleman came back after attending to his business, he searched for him until he found him and said to him, "Ivan, where were you?" He answered him in a scared whisper, "do not say 'Ivan' here, rather 'wer da'" because he thought the soldier had been hitting him for saying "Ivan." Afterwards, when they had left the city, the coachman said to him, "now you may again call me 'Ivan.'" Our Rebbe, z"l, ended [the story] thus: when a man is with me, he is examined as "who are you;" however, when he leaves me, he is once again the clumsy/mundane/physical Ivan [i.e. a boor]. Chapter 3 Tale 16: A Story of Trust He answered and said "I have told a story of trust and it is as follows." A king said in his heart [i.e. silently], "who will find that he need not worry any more because of me? For I have only goodness, and I am a king and sovereign." And he went to investigate about this. He was walking at night and was standing behind the houses to listen and hear the words of the world['s people]. He was hearing each person's worries about it not going well for them in the store. Afterwards he went to another house and heard that [the next person] had a worry about being needed by the kingdom, and so forth with the rest of the worries of each person. Afterwards, he went and saw a sunken house, halfway in the earth, with its lower windows touching the ground and its roof fallen and broken. And he saw someone sitting and playing violin there, to whom he had to really listen in order to hear the sound. And he was very pleased, and a cauldron with a beverage stood in front of him, and the beverage was wine, and many things to eat stood before him, and he was very pleased, full of a completely carefree joy. He went and entered the house and asked after the man's welfare, and he answered him. And he saw the cauldron with the beverage before him, and the types of foods, and he was just filled with joy, and welcomed the king to drink, and he drank with the king, and the king was also drinking for the sake of love. Afterwards, he lied down to sleep and saw that he was overjoyed without any worry, and in the morning the king arose along with him, and he escorted the king, and the king asked him, "from where did you take this?" And he answered him, "I can fix any damaged thing, for I am unable to work with what is complete and whole--only what is damaged and needing repair. And I go out in the morning, and I repair some things, and when I gather from this [work] some sum of five or six gold pieces, I buy myself all these refreshments for eating and drinking." When the king heard this, he said in his heart [i.e. silently], "I will spoil this for him." And he gave a proclamation that everyone who has something to fix may not give it to any person to repair and must either fix it themselves or buy a new one. In the morning, [the man] went to ask after repair jobs, and they said to him that the king had decreed that nobody may give anyone else anything to fix. And he became angry / saw that it was wrong but trusted God. And he went and saw a man who hewed trees and asked him: "why do you hew trees? Is this your honor?" He said to him, "I went after a man who could hew trees [for me], and I did not find him, so I was forced to hew them myself." He said to him, "allow me, and I will hew with you," and he hewed trees, and the man gave him a gold piece. He was pleased and went to hew more trees, and the man gave him another gold piece, and he was pleased and went to hew more trees, until he gathered six gold pieces and bought the feast again. And the feast was a feast [and this is the language our Rebbe, z"l, used [in Yiddish]: "and the feast was a feast" / "un di sude iz geven a sude".] And the king went again to the window of the man's house to look in, and he saw that he sat with the food and drink before him, and he was very happy. The king went and entered the house and saw, as it appears to me. And he lied down there just as he had the first night, and in the morning, the man arose and escorted the king and asked him: "from where do you get this, for you must pay [significant] money for it?" And he answered him, "my way was to fix everything that was damaged, and then the king declared that nobody may give anyone repairs to do, and I hewed trees until I gathered money for this, as it appears to me." And the king went from him and declared that nobody be allowed hire anyone to hew trees. And so it was, that when the repairman came to the man [who had hired him the day before] to hew trees and he replied that the king had declared a law that nobody be allowed to hire anyone to hew trees, he he became angry / saw that it was wrong, for he had no money. But he trusted in God.