The Story Of Our Lives 

Reviewed By Yochanan Gordon

Over the years I have crossed paths with members of the Klein family, but I never met Yaakov, the author of The Story of Our Lives: An Epic Quest for the Soul of Our Tradition. Yaakov’s esteemed father, Reb Boruch, has been a pillar of the Breslov community in Far Rockaway and the Five Towns and was making the trip to Uman for Rosh Hashanah back when it was still considered an arduous experience. I mention that here because it is clear that there has been some serious higher intervention at play in the life of Reb Yaakov, who at his young age has been revolutionizing the world in print, on digital platforms, and with the spoken word.

The Story of Our Lives was published by Feldheim Publishers and written as part of the Lost Princess Initiative, which Reb Yaakov founded in May 2020. Characterizing this merely as a book like any other would be downplaying its true worth. This veritable textbook of the Chassidic doctrine is 460 pages with letters of praise by some of our greatest contemporary authors and thought leaders such as Rabbi Dov Ber Pinson, Rabbi Betzalel Naor, Rav Dov Ber Cohen, and Rabbi Shlomo Katz; approbations by Rabbi Moshe Tzuriel, author of Otzrot Rav Kook and Leket Perushei Aggadah and the former mashgiach of Yeshivat Sha’alvim, and Rabbi Judah Mischel, the mashpia of NCSY; and a foreword written by Rabbi Moshe Weinberger, the mara d’asra of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, NY, and one of the great trailblazers in our generation bringing the light and fire of the Ba’al Shem Tov to men and women of all ages and backgrounds.

Each chapter in The Story of Our Lives is broken down into a number of digestible synopses that capture in a few sentences the lessons within each section. The book concludes with six appendices, the last one of which is a translation of A Letter from Berel the Chassid, originally written in Yiddish by the great Rabbi Hillel Zeitlin, Hy’d, which is in essence an autobiographical sketch that captures the struggle, joy, loneliness, and inner drama of an elevated soul and contains many of the sentiments and feelings found throughout this commentary on the Lost Princess.

The Lost Princess Initiative, or LPI, as it is known, is named after one of the famous tales of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, perhaps the most well-known of the stories culled from the sefer Sippurei Maasios in which these stories were originally published. These stories, recorded by Rebbe Nachman’s chief disciple Rebbe Nosson, contain virtually endless levels of interpretation and was a pivot of sorts of Rebbe Nachman when he saw that his Torah teachings were not accomplishing what he had initially envisioned. In the words of the great sage: “The broader world resorts to stories as a means to put people to sleep; these stories are meant to wake people up.”

The analogies of sleep and awakening that Rebbe Nachman uses in distinguishing between his stories and those of the world are euphemisms for a life of sin and repentance, respectively. There is an essential difference between the experience of one whose life has gone off the rails and others who remain dedicated to the timeless ideals of the Torah, and that is a sense of excitement and fulfillment in the life that they are living.

The truth is that I had originally planned to have finished reading and reviewing this book at an earlier date, perhaps in time for Lag B’Omer, seen on one level or another as the Kabbalas HaTorah for Toras HaSod, with Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai as its progenitor. However, like everything in life, there is a specific relativism and providence in this review being published in time for Shavuos, and that relates to the previous point.

You see, while I referred to sleep and awakening as lives that embrace sin and dedication, one doesn’t necessarily have to fall into the web of sin or the realm of the prohibited in order to be living a life punctuated by staleness, rote, and a lack of verve and excitement. One does not need to look too far to find people engaged in what the prophet decries as “Mitzvas anashim m’lumadah,” performing mitzvos without kavanah or feeling, and studying Torah for a plethora of ulterior motives, which can easily end up in a life spiraling out of control.

This is essentially what the story of the Lost Princess is centered upon, at least on one level—namely, the seeming inevitability of the perpetual cycle of life, which ends up, like everything else, running on auto-pilot without renewing itself and excavating and coming in touch with the source of living waters, which constantly renews and reinvigorates itself, disseminating life, joy, and a relationship with G-d, His Torah, and His people that is intimate, pulsating, and alive.

At the outset of a Chassidic discourse known as “Inyanah Shel Toras HaChassidus” delivered by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rebbe describes life during the pre-Besht years as being in a deeply comatose state and that G-d ordained that the leader of the Chassidic renaissance would carry the name Yisrael, which is the name of the collective Jewish nation, as a way of revitalizing the people and their experience of Yiddishkeit by whispering his name, which is their name, in their collective ear.

In essence, what the Rebbe was teaching in his ma’amar and the message that comes through this story and in its interpretation by those the author continuously refers to as the Breslover mashpi’im is that Chassidus did not come to add on to the Torah that G-d gave us at Har Sinai. What it did intend to do, and in many respects has succeeded in doing, is to put us in touch with our etzem ha’neshamah, which is literally a part of G-d above, and instilled within us the realization that regardless of where life has taken us and how many layers of filth obscure the soul embedded deep within, G-d, like the King in the story of the lost princess, always recognizes his dear daughter, the princess, and is ready to embrace her whenever she feels that the time has come to return.

This runs seamlessly into the experience of Kabbalas HaTorah, which was accompanied by an experience which Chazal describe as “Kol gadol v’lo yasaf,” which is an experience of the essence of G-d in the absence of an echo that can be described as a ray of Divinity and not Divinity itself. It’s specifically a reenactment of the experience of the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai, which Chazal exhort us to achieve in learning Torah each day as if it was given for the very first time.

On the morning before Lag B’Omer, I encountered an acquaintance of mine who was walking with his mesivta-age son and he asked me where I was planning on marking the great holiday of Lag B’Omer. I answered and then asked the same of him. He said that he normally has no interest in these celebrations but someone had invited him to Rav Weinberger’s Lag B’Omer farbrengen. With eyebrows raised, I remarked that it was definitely the place to be if you want to get a sense of what Lag B’Omer is all about. He replied that he wasn’t normally “into” that sort of thing but he realized that if you show your kids that you have no interest in that experience then there is really little chance of survival.

I was quite taken by the irony embedded within that admission but realized that it was an admission nonetheless. In our blessing on the Torah we invoke the “Nosein haTorah,” the Giver of the Torah; if you are seeking a life that experiences the giving of the Torah in every moment anew then this book was written specifically with you in mind.

There have been many commentaries written on the tales of Rebbe Nachman. The Story of Our Lives, with the subtitle An Epic Quest for the Soul of Our Tradition, is an authoritative anthology on the story of the Lost Princess, which is not merely a folktale but is literally the story of our lives that continues to play out minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day.

The Story of Our Lives can be bought at a Judaica store near you. You can follow Yaakov Klein and his Lost Princess Initiative on Facebook at facebook.com/LPITorah, Instagram @lostprincessinitiative, and in his WhatsApp group at 347-391-8819, where he regularly disseminates inspiring thoughts and teachings to carry with us through our lives.

Wishing one and all a kabbalas haTorah b’simcha u’b’penimiyus. 

Yochanan Gordon can be reached at ygordon5t@gmail.com. Read more of Yochanan’s articles at 5TJT.com.