Gesher Tzar Me'od: why the path of truth is so narrow

The idea behind Gesher Tzar Me'od

"Know: a person must cross a very, very narrow bridge. And the rule, and the essence: do not frighten yourself at all." That's Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, in our translation, and it's the line our Gesher Tzar Me'od canvas is built on. Gesher tzar me'od means "a very narrow bridge." It's the first piece I want to write about here.

The idea behind this piece is the ability to walk that thin line, that very, very thin line, between truth and no truth.

Below is what I believe the line is telling us, where it comes from, and where I'd hang the piece.

The distractions are the game

The world around us is constantly bombarding us with distractions. So many different distractions. You wonder: where do they come from?

The truth is, and this is based on the teachings of Rebbe Nachman and Rabbi Natan, the distractions are really the game itself. Good and evil is not the game.

We are wired to be good. We're wired to do good. We are good. So if we're wired to do good, why don't people do good? Because of the distractions. You can break someone, or get someone to do the wrong thing, when they are confused about reality.

That's why the yetzer hara, the evil inclination, puts his main energy and his main focus on distracting us. He works on convincing us that we're living in a world that is not the world we're living in. And in that distorted reality, we can mess up.

The truth is very, very narrow

So the narrow bridge, and the message behind it, is telling you that the truth is very, very narrow. Most of the noise around us is lies and falsehoods and illusions, and we can easily get sucked in.

But don't worry. You'll find yourself on that narrow bridge, walking this thin, narrow path of truth. The trick is not to get sucked back in, and not to fall off.

You don't need to be afraid

Once you're on the path of truth, you start to realize how much the world around you is filled with illusions and lies, and how much it's pulling you into stupidity and hedonism. You might be afraid. At first, the fear seems like it's going to protect you.

But the reality is, you are on this narrow path. You don't need to be afraid. You don't need to be afraid of falling off. You have what it takes. This narrow path is for you.

It's also where the canvas ends, with the second half of Rebbe Nachman's line: "And the rule, and the essence: do not frighten yourself at all."

The source: Rebbe Nachman's narrow bridge

The line is the last sentence of teaching 48 in Likutei Moharan Tinyana, the second part of Rebbe Nachman's Likutei Moharan. Here it is in the original Hebrew, with our translation:

וְדַע, שֶׁהָאָדָם צָרִיךְ לַעֲבֹר עַל גֶּשֶׁר צַר מְאֹד מְאֹד, וְהַכְּלָל וְהָעִקָּר – שֶׁלֹּא יִתְפַּחֵד כְּלָל:

V'da, she'ha'adam tzarich la'avor al gesher tzar me'od me'od, v'haklal v'ha'ikar shelo yitpached klal.

Know: a person must cross a very, very narrow bridge. And the rule, and the essence: do not frighten yourself at all.

Our translation makes two small changes. It drops the opening "and" (v'da is literally "and know"). And it turns the last words to the reader: the Hebrew speaks of a person in the third person (shelo yitpached, that he not frighten himself), while the canvas says "do not frighten yourself."

Teaching 48 opens with "When a person enters the service of Hashem." It talks about the falls and the confusions (bilbulim) a person goes through before entering the gates of holiness, and it says people turn back at the very door because of those confusions. The narrow bridge closes the teaching.

Rebbe Nachman (1772–1810) taught it, and his student Rabbi Natan Sternhartz (1780–1844) recorded his teachings. Part II was printed in 1811, the year after Rebbe Nachman passed away. Rabbi Natan comes back to the bridge in his own work, Likutei Halakhot. In one place he writes that the essence of the bridge a person crosses in this world is truth (Laws of Tefillin 5:41).

The song Kol Ha'olam Kulo paraphrases him. It says the whole world is a very narrow bridge. Rebbe Nachman says a person must cross one.

Where Gesher Tzar Me'od belongs: your office

I see this as a business piece. Hang it in your office.

You have meetings, and it's a conversation starter. People come in, see it on the wall, and ask, "What is this? Who is this?" And then you can have a conversation. You can talk to people about the illusions and the lies. So much of the business world, so much of the corporate world, is actually lies. That's a great starting point.

It can break the ice, and it shows people your values, how you see the world. It's very corporate-oriented, I would say.

Even if you have a home office, it can hang there as a personal reminder to yourself. And that's a very important thing.