About this book
The spiritual resistance is alive and well in the enduring words of Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav. Do not despair. Virtually every time in history has been a tumultuous time; it was as true for Rebbe Nachman more than 200 years ago as it is for us today. He found a way to persevere through persecution and peril, embracing the possibility of a brighter future; with his inspiring words, we can, too.
Rebbe Nachman was known for his creative parables based on Eastern European folktales and infused with the mystery and wisdom of Kabbalah. In Soul Strength, Avram Mlotek translates scores of Rebbe Nachman’s inspiring maxims written to be a beacon of hope in a world of darkness. As Reb Nachman’s timeless wisdom reaches out to us across the centuries, Mlotek offers a thoughtful discussion of each aphorism and asks thought-provoking questions for personal reflection or group discussion.
Avram Mlotek has been part of the spiritual resistance since before he was born. The grandchild of Holocaust survivors, Mlotek shines a modern light on Rebbe Nachman’s inspirational insights with care and compassion.
Advance Praise
With wisdom, power, and tremendous compassion, Rabbi Avram Mlotek opens a channel between the broken heart of the reader and the beautifully broken heart of Rebbe Nachman. “Deep calls to deep,” says the Psalmist. This book is a channel for that calling. Read it, spend time with it, and find healing and strength in its pages.
—Rabbi Josh Feigelson, author, Eternal Questions: Reflections, Conversations, and Jewish Mindfulness Practices for the Weekly Torah Portion, President and CEO of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality
In his lyrical new book, Soul Strength, Rabbi Avram Mlotek channels his deep personal experience as a wounded healer into explicating koans of wisdom from Hasidic masters. Each deceptively simple looking page offers crystalline guidance on life’s challenging questions and the eternal search for meaning.
— Dr. Michelle Friedman, M.D., Chair, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School Pastoral Counseling Department
With Avram’s book Soul Strength he unpacks the psychologically revolutionary insights of the tormented Hasidic master, Nachman of Bratslav (no stranger himself to depression and afflicted states of consciousness); these gems are holy weapons against the destructive power of our minds. Mlotek unpacks powerful truths into digestible insights. Read one a day and live into their nourishment, mined from Mlotek’s very deeply lived personal experiences with darkness and shared through a contemporary lens. Spiritual seekers must have a copy of this vital book.
—Basya Schechter, musician, composer and founder of Pharaoh’s Daughter
When was the last time you asked or were asked a Real Question? Real Questions beckon courage and honesty. As you hold this book in your hands, you meet Rabbi Avram in the one place where both his courage and honesty to ask, and your courage and honesty to be asked, meet. Rebbe Nachman, who in his own personal journey towards meaning, purpose and intimacy with God, can feel ever so evasive, is delivered to you here with precision of truth cloaked in love and companionship.
Both Rebbe Nachman and Rabbi Avram (distinguishing between the living and the living) invite you to believe that not only God loves you, rather you have to ability to love yourself (#29)! At the end of this precious road, as laid out here, Rabbi Avrum awaits us with his ultimate Real Question: “How will you begin again today?” (#50). Every day is today!
Whether you randomly open this book on a daily basis or pick a teaching and question as your weekly companion. Perhaps you choose it as your yearly guide, as a 7-cycled 50-day journey; or perhaps a partner on a 50-week trek – the most important promise that Rabbi Avram keeps every step of the way is that you are Not Alone. His presence and ability to witness you permeates every page. i pray to meet him and you along the way!
—Rabbi Dr. Reb Mimi (Miriam Sara) Feigelson, Senior Lecturer of Chassidic Thought and Death Studies / Mashpiah Ruchanit. Machon Schechter / Beit Midrash l’Rabbanim Al-Shem Schechter
Rebbe Nachman knew something the therapists are still catching up to: that the soul’s darkest moments are not interruptions of the spiritual path — they are the path. Rabbi Avram Mlotek, who holds both a pastoral heart and a clinical mind, has curated the Rebbe’s most essential teachings on resilience, return, and the courage to begin again. Soul Strength is the companion I wish I’d had in my own descents. Keep it close.
— Rabbi David Ingber, Romemu / 92NY
Soul Strength: Inspirational Insights of Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav is a deep work of accompaniment. Rabbi Mlotek has lovingly built on the tradition of Rebbe Nachman, drawing on the wisdom of a great Hasidic master, and his own quest for hope and healing, to light the way for others. Weaving timeless truths with contemporary urgency, these meditations are for anyone wrestling with mental or spiritual pain, and for all of us who walk the narrow bridge.”
—Rabbi Mychal B.Springer, ACPE, BCC
