A simple practice can still be difficult
Ten chapters of Tehillim are within reach. We can find them in any complete Tehillim and say them in their proper order. Rebbe Nachman also encouraged going to the mikveh. The actions themselves are simple to understand, yet he said that carrying out this advice would be difficult.
Part of the difficulty is the feeling that repair is beyond us. A person hears about the seriousness of a failing and concludes that there is no way back. He may even have encountered the language of the Zohar that seems to deny the possibility of teshuvah in this area. Then the very teaching that should make him take responsibility becomes a reason to give up.
The Baal HaTanya explains that the passage requires a distinction between levels of teshuvah. Rebbe Nachman also insists that it must be understood properly. The possibility of returning remains. The rav also recalls the Arizal’s formulation of great effort, tircha rabbah, rather than an absolute closing of teshuvah. That precise additional citation remains a reported reference here. His point is that despair can itself be part of the yetzer hara’s resistance to a person returning. The work can be demanding, and a person's fear of its difficulty can itself become one of the obstacles to beginning.
Sichos HaRan 141 describes earlier tzaddikim who worked to discover a complete tikkun. Some passed away before completing that work. The rav says that he had just seen an account naming Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz among those who tried. The exact account remains unidentified; Sichos HaRan itself leaves those earlier tzaddikim unnamed. This gives us a way to appreciate the gift that became available through Rebbe Nachman, even while much of its depth remains beyond our understanding.
Reb Noson tries to visit the Rebbe
In Yemei Moharnat, Reb Noson describes a period when visiting Rebbe Nachman had become emotionally difficult. He had a strong desire to come, yet he felt that the Rebbe was discouraging frequent visits. His fear of being turned away weighed on him. Even after overcoming difficulties at home and the expense of traveling, he still had to face this hesitation.
He then remembered a task the Rebbe had given him. He had copied the teachings into an ordered manuscript, with Rabbi Naftali reading the earlier pages aloud while he wrote. The manuscript needed binding. The Rebbe had instructed him to have this done in Breslov and to protect the pages carefully because of the opposition surrounding the teachings.
Reb Noson could travel to Breslov to arrange the binding. This gave him a reason to come, and he hoped that he might also have an opportunity to speak to the Rebbe about his avodas Hashem.
When the Rebbe asked why he had come, he answered that he had come to bind the book. He then went to sit with the bookbinder. Even though the craftsman was one of their own people, Reb Noson understood that he was to remain responsible for the manuscript and keep it safe.
The Rebbe sent someone to take his place at the bookbinder's shop and called Reb Noson in. He spoke to him warmly, comforted him, and strengthened him. Reb Noson describes a small measure of pushing away alongside a much greater drawing close. The encounter that he had feared became an encounter of encouragement.
This was also the period in which the teaching about ten chapters of Tehillim began to become known. Reb Noson's account says that the Rebbe had given the teaching shortly before his arrival. He first heard something of it from the Rebbe's son-in-law, Rabbi Yitzchak, and then spoke with the Rebbe himself and wrote it down. The particular ten chapters were revealed later.
The binding took longer than expected, so he remained through Shabbos and into the following week. The delay gave him further time with the Rebbe. A task that could have seemed like an incidental practical matter became part of his receiving Torah and encouragement.
What an obstacle can awaken
Likutey Moharan 66 explains the relationship between desire and action. Before we do something, there must be a desire to do it. This applies to a mitzvah, to traveling to a tzaddik, and to other acts of kedushah. Desire moves the person toward the act.
An obstacle can make that desire stronger. When something matters deeply and is suddenly out of reach, a person becomes more aware of how much he wants it. Rebbe Nachman explains that the difficulty surrounding a holy undertaking awakens the desire needed to carry it through. In this teaching, the greater the holy thing being sought, the greater the desire and the resistance around it. The rav therefore reads the obstacles surrounding this tikkun as a sign of its importance. This begins with an act already recognized as holy; difficulty alone does not prove that every undertaking is right.
Reb Noson's fear was real. He still wanted the closeness and guidance that he hoped to receive. He found a way to come, fulfilled the task entrusted to him, and received encouragement.
The rav recounts someone telling him that he had made a commitment to go to the mikveh every morning. On the first morning that he planned to begin, he overslept. By the time he got up, he struggled to find an available mikveh and ran from place to place. The difficulty arrived at the very beginning of the commitment.
That is a moment in which a person can become discouraged. The teaching about obstacles asks him to keep hold of the reason he wanted to begin. The wish to come closer can become stronger as he works through what is in his way.
Rebbe Nachman said that saying the ten chapters would meet with obstacles too. Knowing this in advance can keep a person from treating the first difficulty as the end of the attempt.
Saying it again
There is also a place for saying Tikkun HaKlali as a regular avodah. A teaching attributed to Rabbi Yitzchak Bender explains that a practice capable of repairing such a serious failing deserves a place in a person's life more generally.
On the rav’s first visit to Uman, he and his wife were there around Rosh Chodesh Nisan, Rebbe Nachman's birthday. The usual women's area was closed because of the large gathering, and the women were standing in an area outside. His wife joined a group saying Tikkun HaKlali aloud, verse by verse.
When they finished, she closed the book. The group began again. She joined them a second time, and they began a third time. When she asked how many times they planned to say it, they explained that they were continuing in honor of the Rebbe's birthday. This was the birthday gift they had chosen to give.
She eventually left after a few rounds, and they continued. The story shows people making room for a practice they valued and returning to it again. Their choice to keep going was their own expression of devotion.
The special promise connected to saying the chapters at Rebbe Nachman's grave, together with giving tzedakah, is a distinct teaching. The ten chapters also have their place in avodah wherever a person is.