The Complete Remedy
With tremendous personal sacrifice, the great tzaddik, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, zt”l, (1772–1810) revealed a precious remedy to his followers and encouraged them to spread it throughout the world. Known as the Tikkun Haklali, these ten specific chapters of Psalms are a complete and comprehensive antidote for every type of sin, although every sin also has an individual remedy.
The Rebbe also made the following promise, with two of his disciples as witnesses:
“When my days are up and I leave this world, I will intercede for anyone who comes to my grave, recites these ten chapters of Psalms, and gives charity on my behalf. No matter how grave his sins are, I will do everything in my power to save him and cleanse him. I will span the length and breadth of Creation for him. I’ll grab him by his peyot (side curls) and pull him out of gehinnom.” The Rebbe continued, “I am very positive in everything I say. But about this, I’m more positive than anything else. These ten chapters help very very much.”
After this booklet’s first printing, several people suggested that I provide more background on the Tikkun Haklali. People often don’t understand how reciting Psalms could remedy the emission of seed and why these ten chapters are referred to as a general remedy for all sins.
After reading much of what’s available on the Tikkun Haklali, I suggest that the English reader who is searching for facts and explanations purchase BRI’s Rebbe Nachman’s Tikkun – The Complete Remedy.
Rebbe Nachman says that although faith that stems from knowledge is a good thing, ultimate faith is says וֶאֱמוּנָתְךָ בַּלֵּילוֹת (Psalms 92:3), which can be understood as “I believed [in You] when it was dark” although I didn’t understand why these things were happening to me.
For this reason, I’ve chosen to focus on strengthening our faith instead of delving into the history and background of the Tikkun Haklali.
We have no idea how powerful reading Psalms (Tehillim) is and how deeply it allows us to connect to our true selves and our Creator. The author, King David, was not just a king. He was the most masterful composer, orator, and songwriter who ever lived. With his unbelievable divine spirit and uncompromising passion for HaShem he merited to unearth every known emotion, thought, act, song, feeling, and idea from the beginning of time and pack it into the 150 chapters of Tehillim. Even without understanding, reading Tehillim is doing teshuva, returning to God, since the essence of our unique and magnificent soul is alive in all of King David’s words.
It’s all there! Those letters, words, and verses contain everything!
If a person feels disconnected from HaShem in any way then a part of him is not singing. Returning to HaShem is the process of restoring every bit of your being to a state of singing.
Our ability to love is our primary human experience and we can choose to act from pure love or, God forbid, impure love. The whole world sings when we choose pure love. But when we act from impure, adulterated love the world howls in suffering. The songs of Tehillim can truly amend the pain of impure love and consequently every pain in the world.
With the revelation of the Tikkun HaKlali, Rebbe Nachman believed he had discovered the ten chapters of Tehillim that every tzaddik since Adam Harishon had searched for—the ten that possess the power and potency of the entire book and can remedy the worst sin. By releasing our need for control and understanding and believing this monumental tzaddik, we can simply say these 10 chapters and return to HaShem, singing the song only we can sing. May we merit to let go, believe, and sing our unique song.
Amen!