;.cR. Shlomo 2ndary / Re-input from Yaelbook of The Great Fixer
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Re-input of The Great Fixer, from Yaelbook.           
	Yaelbook copyright Aronson Press
Use in conjuction with =sh84kp18, which included verbatimtranscript of R. Shlomo Carlebach's telling of Reb Nachman's taleof The Great Fixer
That tape copyright, Sufi Healing Order, Leicister, NC 
	Date of tape set by R. Shlomo remarking that his children areage 3 and 6.  So apparently 1981.
Yael M'Sinai's Shlomo Stories includes in her Edit a story of TheGreat Fixer.  I've not confirmed that this tape was its source,nor what delegation of copyright, if any, and if needed, was made.
This transcript holds a verbatim original of that story, and Ihave included extensive "stage directions" -- that is,characterizations of R. Shlomo's intonations --- to point out howmuch is lost even in going from tape to verbatim transcription,let alone to edit.
	As to how much is lost in going from personal encounter totape, well, that's another story.  If one has had the privilege ofsitting with a great teacher, then tapes, and to some extent eventhe printed word, can recall the experience, "living waters"(mayim hayim).

	I do not know the Sources used by Yael M'Sinai in preparingher editted versions of R. Shlomo's stories.  My guess is thatthis tape was the source for that published edit.  
	My critique of that edit aims at inconsistencies in impliedimagry and implied conceptual structure; not per se at departuresfrom R. Shlomo's words.  I have not the tale that was published astold by Reb Nachman.
	Most of my remarks are appended as footnotes to the retypingof Yael's text.  They cut be cut out and used as a seperatedocument, especially if the fish are biting.

Ok.  I'm inputting, or more precisely plagiarizing, this edit topoint out the need for and value of verbatim transcript input.

Yael acknowleges "Neilah Carlebach, whose telling of these talesis exemplary."
	Well, whatever is exemplified, and whatever Yael did &/ordidn't take from it, she's a lst-rate editor.  So a critique ofthose edits might suggest the limitations of editting. 
	Again:  It would not be easy to find a better editor thanYael MSinai, at least for commerical publication.  And AronsonPress's production of Shlomo's Stories resets the sort ofbenchmark for book design which prevailed at the start of thiscentury, when the educated class read books.

	So again:  I'm not really trying to enhance my relativecurriculum vitae by trashing the competition (like R. Shlomo said:It's so easy to "knock someone off" 
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-- except that, like moving ducks in a shooting gallery, theybob back up and come back again, looking as idiotically happyas ever, which aint' real happy 
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that it ain't sporting). 

	Shooting on automatic is boring noisy and unsporting, but Ithink I've made a few hits that set this point.
	That is:  there are a few nice touches that the editor adds,but, without scoring stylistic and especiallyh imagistic mistakes,she makes a number of mythologic-theologic mis-choices of wordsthat disspipate much or the essential spiritual force of thisparable.
	So at this point I'll say -- R. Shlomo teacings must be madeavailable verbatim; one cannot rely on edits, however presumablywell-qualified the editor.
	That said, I must add that a Reb Nachman story is a verydifficult challenge, he was very deep, and very subtle, anddeceptively fluent in his narration.

	I mean heck, how could that grim and gloomy character havespun such unbelieveablyh beautiful fantasies, and with tranquilpower, and a sensuousness one doens't find again until Wilde'sSalome.
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And if you say l'havdil, I'll say l'havdil a salami.
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	I recall R. Shlomo being quite particular about how membersof his hevre retold his stories, but I don't recall any of hiscriticisms, probably because I wouldn't have understood the pointof any of them.  Then anyhow.     

	This is written in the 3rd week of January 1997, a shockingbaffling time for all who love the biblical land of Israel; I'velet my confused ragings about that point run free into thesedashed-off notes; those can serve as a sort of random journal, oras an exercise in using the block-and-delete keys of your favoriteword-processing program.
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p67:

	The story is that the king of the World, the King of Sadness,wanted to see if the world was still in good shape -- that is, ifeverybody in his kingdom was sad.  For you knoww, sweetestfriends, what makes a dead person happy?  To meet someone else whois sad.  What a joy!       

	So the King of Sadness walked all over the world and cameback to his capital city ecstastic.  His kingdom was invincible.  The whole world was miserable. He had not met one happy person.

	But as he entered the city, the most horrible thing happenedto him. There, on the porch of a broken-down house, on a brokenchair before a broken table with a plate that had a few scraps ofleftovers, sat a man strumming a guitar and singing.  And noquestion about it, the man was unbelievabley happy.

	That was the end!  A conspiracy!  A revolution ... {ellipsistext} {end p67 book} because the King knew as well as anyone thatit would take only one happy person to destroy his entire kingdom. Clearly, he said to himself, the man must be watched.  Nt trustingany of his spies for fear that they would be influence by thisclown {@#}, the King decided that he personnally must attend tothis happy man. {@#}

	So the King (who always wore a disguise when he inspected hiskingdom) walked over to the happy man and said:  "Hey friend!  I'dsay how do you do, but who are you?"  {1}
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	"What !  You don't know me?  I am the Great Fixer!  I can fixanything.  I walk the streets of the world and I shout at the topof my lungs:  "I AM THE GREAT FIXER!  Is anything broken in yourhomes?  Bring me your broken hearts, your broken lives!  
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[That line he doesn't shout, he says very softly.  Like R.Shlomo says, sometimes what you need, sometimes all you canget, is someone who will cry with you.]
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Bring me your broken world. 
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[I suppose today you mean Israel.  21 Jan 97]
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I'll fix it for you in no time.  It won't cost you much!  Just afew pennies -- only enought to buy myself a feast. {2}
Because the the feastele must be a feastele." {talics text} {3}
	The King was alrady nervous. {4}

Sad people don't feast.  They shovel {5}
food down their throats, but to taste -- {6}
- really to appreciate what G_d gives you to eat -- only happypepoe do that!  Only for people of faith {7}
is the feast truly a featele.

	The King kew what he had to do.  He went back to his palaceand next day, when the Great Fixer {8}
walked down the streets of the world, yelling'I am the GreatFixer!  Bring me ..."  {9}
the people opened their windows and cried out:  {10}
{p69:} Shsh! {11} 
Didn't your hear?  The King made a new decree.  No more fixing!"

	Bad scene, right?  The Fixer's out of a job.  But a man musthave his feastele.  {12}
So the Fixer was {13}
.walking around the streets of the world looking for a way to makea few rubles, when he saw a well-dressed man chopping wood.
	He said to the man:  "It doesn't befit a rich man to chopwood. {14}
Why don't you let me do it?
	The man glady {15} 
gave him the ax.  "Be my guest!"  {16}
	The Great Fixer chopped wood all day, got a few pennies,bought something to eat.  And, as Rav Nachman says, "The feastelewas a feastele." {17}
	Evening:  the Fixer's sitting in his house in utter bliss{18}
singing a new song,  {19}
when suddenly the King -- disguised as a schlepper  {20}

-- is back.  "Hey brother!"  The King is sly. 
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[Right on.  But a shlepper -- a holy beggar - is not, as-itis-said, keep my tongue from sticky-honeyed words.]
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"What's new?"  How was your day?  {21}
	"Didn't you hear!  The King's gone crazy.  He has forbiddenfixing!  Can you imagine." {22}
"But you're feasting!  {23}

How did you manage that?"  {24}
	"I chopped would for a few pennies and di such a good jobthat the man told me to come back tomorrow.  {25}

	"Interwsting.  Very intersting," said the King, and, excusinghimself he hurried badk to Court. {26}

Needless to say, the next day when the Great Fixer went to chopwood, the rich man ran over to him overflowing with apologies.{27}

"I'm so sorry.  I don't know what happened, but there's a newdecree {end book p. 69} issued only an hour ago  {28}

No more chopping wood for somebody else.  A strange rule, but whatcan you do?"                                         

	This was a mess, right?  But it didn't stop the Fixer.   Hesaid to himself, 'I'll have to do something else for the sake ofthe feastele' {29}

So he walked thorugh the streets of the world until he found anelegant woman sweeping her pooch.

	"What's the matter?  Why is a beautiful lady like yousleeping her pooch in her party dress." 

	"My maid ran away.  {30}

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"Never mind. {31}
I'll help you."
"Gladly," she said, as she handed him the broom. {32}
The Fixer swept the porchy, got a few pennies and -- as RavNachman says --  {33}
"The feastele awas a feastele."

	That night, the King reappeared again.  "Hey, brother!" hesaid to the Fixer, "I see you 'ave such a nice feastele!  Wat'sgoing on?"

	The Fixer shook his head.  "I don't know about this king!{34}
He's crazier than ever!  Now he has a new decreee.  No morechopping wood."   

	"That's terrible.!"  So what did you do?
	`"I swept floors today, and my boss  {35}

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told me  {36}
to come again tomorrow."
	It goes without syaing that when the Fixer came to work thenext day, he found {37}
that the King had issued a decree against sweeping. {38}   
Then came decrees against washing floors and raking leaves,peeling potatoes and lifting stones, baking bricks and taking outthe garbage.  He even forbade clean-{p71}ing out stables andlatrines.	{39}
Whatever service the Fixer found to do, the King took away fromhim the next day, until the whole kingdom was falling apart. {40}
But the Fixer had faith.  He never gave up hope, {41}
not for a moment. {42}
So he thought:  "If you can't fight him, join him."  {43}

Now the king, as you know by now, was always angry at someone, sothe kingdom was always at war.  The Fixer decided to join theArmy.  But soldiers at that time were paid only once every halfyear.  The Fixer, however, had hutzpah.  When he came to enlist,he set a condition on his contracdt.  'I'll become your solder, ifyou'll pay me two paennies every night.'
	Enlistment was low.  The General said;  It's the first time Iever heard of such an aggrangement, but why not?" 

	So the Fixer becaem a soldier.  He was given a fancy uniformand a big sword and told to report to the barracks every morningat a certian time.
	Now the Fixer -- being a happy man -- wasn't the fightingkind.  He hadn't any idea what to do with his swsord.  But he wasa good actor.  So, the first day during maneuvers, he marched upand down, saving his sword in the air and pretending to be mean. But acutally he was very careful nowt to hurt anybody.
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[Ok, now the kid's gotten into the swing of the story.]
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And that night hew was happy .  He went to the office, cllectedhis tow  pennies, and made his feastele.
{end book p71}

	This time, when the king dropped by, he could barely concealthe rage in his voice: "Hey!  What's going on?  What are youdoing?  Feasting again!" 

	'Not easy, either!  I told you before.  The King's goneinsane ... {eo}  He's got so many rules, he's made it impossiblefor his subjects {44}
of work.  He's even ruining his kingdom.  But I fooled him.

	'What did you do?'
	'I became a soldier.  I'm really against war, but it was myonly hope. {45}  


Now I have a job for half a year.
    
But how can you eat?  You won't get paid for six months. {46}


	"Not me, I arranged a special deal.

	The King, furious, stormed into headquarters that night anddeclared to the Chief of Staff, 'Soldiers get paid only twice ayear.  No exceptions.!

	This time the King made it really hard for the Fixer, whowasn't told that he would get no pay until he came that nightexpecting to get his money.  The General refused to give him acent or even to talk about it.  But the Fixer had to have hisfeast because he knows:  as long as there's at least one person inthe world who keeps the kingdom alive with joy, one for whom the'feastele is really a feastele' the Messiah will come. {47}


	Leave it to the Great Fixer to fix everything.  On his wayhome, he chanced upon a pawn ship, marched in, and sold his sword. He made enought money to live for a year!  But every soldier must{p. 72} have a sword in order to work.  Fortunately the GreatFixer was still a fixer.  He bought himself some silver paper,folded the paper over a peice of cardboard, and made an imitationsword, which he stuck into his scabbard. 

	And the next day, he paraded up and down in his uniform,waving his sword in the air and looking mean.  But underneath hishelmet, he was smiling. {48} 

For after all, the feastele was still going to be a feastele.

	Now we're approaching the end of this tale, {49}
My friends, so be patient and open your hearts.  The King ofSadness is back.

	So, brother, How are things?  he asks the Fixer.

	The Fixer is lauging, 'The King did it gain.  He made sure Iwouldn't get paid.  But this time I really worked everything out. I pawned my sword and now have enough money to live for an entireyear.'

	But the law of the kingdom is, sweetest friends, if a soliderpawns his sword, he gets the death penalty.

	'Aha' the King thought to himsself, 'No more worries!  I'vegeot this joker right where I want him!  The King couldn't sleepall night, thinking how best to destroy the Great Fixer.

	The next mornign he called in the prison warden:  {49a}

'Who's to be executed today?'  For the world always finds somebodyto be killed, especilly in a world where everyone's miserable.{50}
We have a criminal in Cell Block E. {51}
	Good!  {52}
I will personally supervise the execution!  I want to appoint thesolider who is to slay this man.'

	The next day, the King summoned his army.  All his soldierslined up before him, standing still as could be while the King,dressed up in his royal regal costume, strutted around.  
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[Good touch; I's not hitherto noticed the implicit classistoppression in that gesture.

Reminds me of the time in Haga when they were drilling us tostand at parade rest.  We'd had beans for lunch.  So at thecommand Parade -- Rest!  -- well, you can figure out therest.  The Drill Instructor kept trying to say, I can put youin jail, but it was hard for him to stop laughing too.]
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Finally, he recongized the Fixer in uniform.  The king wentstraight over to him and said, face to face  {53}

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I, the King of the World, appoint you to kill this man with yoursword.

	Leave it to the Great Fixer not to get upset.  
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[That's a good touch; 'not to get upset'.]
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'My dear King, allow me to tell you something.  I have neverkileld a person in my life and I have no intetion of ever killingone.  You'll have to appoint somebody else.

	The King started yelling like a beast,  'Are you crazy? Areyou going to defy your King!  {54}
He started to choke on his own words.  'If you don't kill his manthis instant, I'll kill you right now!'  

	Friends, only sad people are really afraid of everyone else. If you're filled with joy, you're not afraid of anything.  Your'rea fixer.
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[I think that is, actually, a very good touch; a goodaddition]
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Nothing can harm you.

	So the Great Fixer said to the King, 'My dear King, before Ikill this man, I must be certain he's guilty. 

	'What do you care if he's guilty or not?  I'm telling you tokill him.  {56}

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{p75}

	At this point, the Great Fixer realized once and for all thatthere was no reasoning with the King. {57}
	But the law is the law, you msut not kill an innocent man.{58} 
So the Fixer turned anf appealed to everyone present, 'Brothersand sisters, you must remember me. {59}


I am the Graet Fixer!  I used to 
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[Used to?  Well, yes, maybe.]
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fix all that was brokenk in your lives, your homes, your hearts. So you must understand that I know magic .  I undnerstand thetruth. {60}

	And I know one thing.  When a man's guilty ' (he put his handon the hilt of his sowrd' 'my sword is a sword that will kill.{61}
But when a man's not guilty, then my sword turns int silver paperin my hand. {62}
	He unsheated his sword and thrust it into the condemned man.{63}

The crowd then cheered, for the sword had turned into silverpaper. {64a}
The prisoner went home to his family, jubilant. {65b}
And the Great Fixer went home to his house, as happy as could be.{66}
Then he tuned up his guitar and sang a song.
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[Not with his guitar.  He may well have sung, but it was tornfrom the heart, like the songs of King David.]
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	And, according to Reb Nachman, 'That night the feastele was really a feastele.'
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[R. Shlomo concludes simply:  'And Reb Nachman says, Thefeastele was a feastele.]
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FOOTNOTES TO =sh2y_fix, Retyping with critique of Yael MSinia'sedit of R. Shlomo's retelling of Reb Nachman's tale The GreatFixer

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{1}[Oh heck: I've restrained my criticism to a tactful "{@#}"for longer than anyone should expect:
	The Cheshire Cat said "Who are you?".    Hard to imagineanyone saying "Who are you?"	Even the caterpillar said"Who are you?"  Us hoi polloi just say "Who are you?", or tobe cultured & rude, "Who are you?"]


{2} [Nope, Yael.  The Fixer can never ask the people formoney for a feast, because the feast was begged and given,and for the Feast to be a Fixing it has to be sacrifice injoy -- and that, from Reb Nachman's hassidut, is theexplanation of "since the destruction of the Temple, ourtable makes atonement"
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So how can the Fixer beg and hustle to work for money,to buy himself the Feast?  No problem; fact is he hasto, as-it-is-said, 6 days a week shall you work.]


{3} [Nope; that's Reb Nachman's line, not the Fixer's.
The point here is similar.  
The Fixer can't work at making the Feast a joyouscelebration, much less ask for the wherewithal to makeit so.  He can't even ask for the wherewithal, becausethis is Reb Nachman's teaching that one must always beabsolutely joyous regardless of circumstances.  And hecan't work at it, because if he works at it, it isn'tfully spontaneous, and so not absolutely joyous, andlike they say, only the utmost joy can -- save us, Ireckon.  Otherwise, like R. Shlomo would say, it's cuteand sweet, you had a most enjoyable supper, but it's nospiritual breakthrough, it sets aside the pain for a fewhours 
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-- one wakes up these nights thinking of Hebron, and theimpending loss of communities of Samaria; and then getsup and carries on as well as one can  (21 Jan 97) --  
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but it don't fix nothing.]

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{4} [Nervous is for the upper West Side.  The King wasbroiges, he should choke on his spleen and burst apart tofeed the ducks.]

{5} [Don't pick out metaphors with mittens.  Gargantuashoveled down food.  The rest of us just sort of shove it &masticate.]

{6} [Ain't getting a bit epicurean now are we?  Aesthetics isfor the Greeks; and this here is Makabee country now.  
	I think the time for tolerance here now has passed; nowit would only feed cruelty, not "build a beautiful world ..."Well, one must always allow for individual exceptions.]

{7} [Don't pick up big words if you ain't sure what they are;they might go off.  We ain't like talking Kirkegaard's Leapof Faith, 
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Like, Kierkegaard was probably right on, but he talks somuch, by the time he finishes the book he's way out &stuck in the mud again.
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nor Solevetchik's Lonely Man of Faith.
	Like, the whole point of the Fixer is that he's TheFool, a natural man, the apotheosis of Everyman. ]
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{8} [Personally, I prefer `The Great Fixer' to 'the Great Fixer',but I can't yet see/say why.]

{9} [Picky point, but you can't use an ellipsis within a quote,you gotta finish the shout.]

{10}
 [No, fill in the colour; the Fixer cried out, and the peopleopened their windows and shouted at him.]

{11} [Ssshhh they cried out from the windows
 Like, visualize.  We ain't in the parlour sitting in anoverstuffed amamascara sipping tea; this is a shetl with thechickens crapping in the mud, and frost on the raddishes.]

{12} [Nope; R. Shlomo says, Reb Nachman says, But there must be afeastele.
	But what does that mean  'there has to be a feastele'.  Idoesn't just mean 'I want a snack.'  

Like, this ain't about the idiosyncrisities of phallocentricity --pipe & brandy & a bit of a feastele before rejoing the ladies andattempting once again to ape civilization -- it's amythic/theologic point.
	Like for Reb Nachman -- if Art Green didn't say it, heshoulda -- the world is always tetering on a narrow betweenredemption and catastsrophe; It R. Shlomo's telling, it is quiteclear that what Reb Nachman says -- and R. Shlomo makes it clearthat this is Reb Nachman's teaching, which he is only passing on - is that there has to be a feastele -- to keep the world going.
	[Remember in the Tale of 7 Beggars, there are some pureabstract acts which must be done each day, and which keep theworld going for one more day.  And this would be obsessive, orcompulsive or some such, and supersittious & dark & dreary, exceptthat the act which is called for is so pure, and so light -- thatthe doing of it every day becomes redemptive.
	And that is the defense of halacha against the soi-pensantEnlightenment; and that was in fact, I think, a problem of concernto Reb Nachman.]


{13} [Not 'was', is; this is a parable.


{14} ['befit'?  .  Why introduce & validate -- if it is introducedby the Fixer, (who of course is an Archeangel on work-study break)classicism.  Just let it be a hustle playing off the guy's vanity: "You're a rich man, let me chop the wood."]


{15} [C'mon, stay real.  How do you know it was glady, maybe hewas a rich kibbutznik who really likes & needs to chop wood, butfrom tzadaka he let the poor man do it, to have the spiritualpleasure of earning his own livelihood.
	Like, this here's a parable; everything gotta stay real. Like, we're talking us Acid Test here;  whatever don't stand up tothe wind at 250 , cut it out.]

{16} [Not precisely.]

{17} ["as" ?
R. Shlomo said:  "And Reb Nachman says, the feastele was afeastele."
	Like, this is not a restaurant review.  Within the upperastral world of Reb Nachman's allegoric fantasies, when RebNachman exercises narrator's privilege to step into the tale for amoment a moment, it is as a sort of priest, confirming with thelonged-for phrase that the world will endure another day.]

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{18} [Utter bliss?  Save it for Shiva.  You want to beJewish, just be happy, don't go blissing out.  Somebody mightneed you to fix something.  24 Hours a day.]
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{19} [that's true, one must always sing a new song.  Pslamssay so.  R. Shlomo always made new songs, all the time.  Thatsummer, on Shabbat eve, I could sometimes do it like he didit, in his style, when I needed to sing to keep warm.]
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{20} [Shortly after Reb Shlomo was in a position where it wasas bit more difficult to interrupt, someone said, this wholebusiness of 'holy beggars' is really rather tacky.
	Not so.  By R. Shlomo, shleppers are always holy.  Isuspect that malakim only come onto earth as schleppers,because otherwise the goyim would put them in the window ofBloomingdale's for the Christmas rush.
	Therefore the King Sadness, who is a nasty twistedlittle man he should join the IRS or the Netanyahu cabinet,can never be disguised as a shlepper.
	Besides, if he was, the Great Fixer would of courseinvite him to share his supper, and that would be such aFixing that King Sadness would blow up and disappear.  Sothere.]
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{21} [C'mon Yael, we ain't outside the old Frat House.]
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{22} [Not quite.  The Fixer doesn't get excited or upsetabout anything, because he is the Great Fixer, and the greatfixer can fix anything, because that's his job, and he enjoysit and always is happy, because one of the things he fixes isnot be bummed out by having to do your job all the time.]
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{23} [Slowly slowly, like Wittgenstein says; in philosophy,the winner of the race is the one who gets to the end last. Like, here, King Sadness gets freaked out because he seessomeone is happy.  He doesn't know it's a feastele.  If heknew those couple of pieces of bread and a little bit ofsalt, and two or three olives were a feastele -- a thoroughlyadequate Shabbat meal, or Festival meal, as everyone knows[and that suggests that the Great Fixer has to have a feateleevery day, because the Great Fixer is an archeangele, and forArcheangels, every day has to be Shabbat or a Festival,because otherwise there will be a gap in Eternity andarchetypes will fall down and the world will collapse, andlike, bummer for everyone, and the Great Fixer could alwaysbail out & go be Shiva or something, but he gotta keepeveryone feeling ok, because he's Jewish, and anyhow that'shis job, because to be Jewish is to have a job, as everyonesays -- "6 days a week ..." and especially Pirke haAvot "allIsrael have a place ..."
	Magic demands mystery to achieve infinitude, and if theKing Sadness knew it was a feastele, that would delimit it,and the magic would be broken.]
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{24} [Stay in tone chick; these ain't management trainees.]
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{25} [Don't get too personal.  King Sadness is evil, we don'tdialogue with evil, except Netanyahu did, and it now he'swalking & talking & dead & don't know it.

Ok ok.  What's wrong with sadness.  Like, Bonjour Tristesse,weeping willows all that.  Ok ok, it ain't really sadness,it's like this black depression, that really is no good atall, nothing lyric in it.]
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{26} [Don't take anything for granted.  Everyone knows theKingdom of Heaven has a Court, but who said the King Sadnesshas a Court?.  
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If he had a Court he'd have more than 1 courtier,otherwise it wouldn't be a court, and if he had morethan 1 courtier, odds are that one would be a chick, andif he had a chick he'd be happy, and he can't be happybecause he's the King of Sadness, therefore he doesn'thave a court, 
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QED & Twiddle-dee-dee.]
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{27} [Says who?  They tell me the Indians never apologize.
I say, nobody every apologizes in a parable, because aparable delineates the logos, and the logos is necessarilynecesary, so there.]
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{28} [Wrong again; nobody has wristwatches in a parable,because a parable is like exegesis of eternity.  Like, thedimension of time has no grammatic applicability to eternity. 
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Like, you don't go out to a tasting of old Bordeaux &say, this one has a bouquet of old hurraches, and is at3:15 P.M.]
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{29} 

[He didn't quite say that.  We lied a little.  
	He doesn't precisely make, or have, a feastele, -- otherwiseit would be merely a feast -- rather, he feasts.  Feasting issomething he does with his whole heart, and that's what makes it afeastele, and when the feastele is a feastele -- that is, whenwhat he does is does with absolute whole-heartedness, so that theaction merges with the archetype -- then you have a moment ofheaven on earth, the Messianic kingdom, and the world is likesaved for another day, and Netanyahu is still selling used shoesin Brockton.  But if he allows a subject/object dichotimization toget in -- if like, instead of simply feasting with whole heart, helike feels he has to work at it, and hustle, 
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like Netanyahu pasting his image together -- 
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and how we were so crazy to prefer him to BennyBegin, we should all leave all the virtuous womenof Israel to the harpies of political correctnessand go marry the same 2-dollar-Bill Whore of UpperPark Avenue on time-share  -- 
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then the feastele is merely a feast, and not much of one atthat, and we're back in the grey morning light of reality,with no film noire for consolation. ]
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{30} [Now that is interesting.  Hagar, I presume.  Thishere's a high-class parable-type tale, don't get no Filipinaswalking onto this scene, unless they're Hagar, and from whatI've seen of Filipina women they are, for Hagar was adaughter of Pharoah, and R. Shlomo says (Yakar, on disc) allthat was wrong with Hagar was that she was 100% compassion --Sarah is gvurah sh'b' Hesed
	But now you watch out Yael M'Sinai, because if that'sHagar who ran away, she's pure Hesed, and the Fixer is likefrom the same Union, so if that lady's maid ran away thefixer ain't gonna cross the picket line.
	So like, keep it simple; like it says in the text, Duh,I couldn't like get a maid today, you wanna sweep my floorsall day, I give you a piece of bread and two old olivesmaybe.]

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{31} [Whadaya mean, never mind?  What about the maid, did sheat least take bus-fare, and a rain-hat?  And precisely whatwas it about the working conditions here that led her to doso?  Using potentiallly toxic oven-cleaners are we maybe?. Like, just cause you get religion don't mean you can forgetthe proletariat.  Proles got souls too, y'know.]
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{32} [Glad to let you do so, said Gladys, and he glady tookthe broom ... but I digress.]
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{33} [Like Dorothy Rothschild Parker would say, tho orders ofmagnitude better,  I don't want to be rude, but:   maybe RebNachman can authenticate festale's, but that ain't somethingmost junior editors are expected to incorporate into theirjob-description.]
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{34} [No, the Fixer is never puzzled by anythingm, otherwisehe wouldn't be The Great Fixer.  Not that he knowseverything, he just don't think nor worry about it, when itcomes up, the fixes it.]
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{35} [Editting R. Shlomo is like me fixing up a Swiss watch,where my manual dexterity peaks at buttoning my fly, mostly.]

Like, the Great Fixer never has a boss.  Becuase he's one ofthe Greats.  The Greats are always absolutes, and like TommyAquinas said in the ontologic proof, a posited absolute bydefinition has no superior.   It's like, Marvel Comics.  TheX-Men are all Chevre, but they don't punch no time-clock.]

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{36} [Same bit, Charlie; nobody tells the Great Fixer to donothing.  It's like giving orders to Charlie Chaplin, youwind up holding a geranium.]
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{37} [No, he don't 'find' nothing; because to find somethingmeans you stop in your tracks and contemplate an object, andthe Great Fixer is always in motion, because Fixing ismotion, and the Great Fixer is always fixing, otherwise hewouldn't be the Great Fixer, only a Yellow Pages Fixer.  ]
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{38} [I mean, he aint' dumb, he notices everything that comesdown the pike, but it don't stop him, he just zwooshes aroundit and keeps on boogie-ing.  Like Kareem Abdul Gibar, orwhatever.]
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{39} [Maybe, maybe not, maybe only maybe, I would have tostudy the implications of garbage & stables -- Hercules,whoever he was, took a turn at that -- and latrines.
	Matter of fact, though, you don't clean out privies;when they pretty much fill up you fill them in and dig newones.
	I was thinking of New Buffalo.  There's a story to betold about that, and this is the place again, but maybe it'snot the time.  I wrote it as a Tesha b'Av Tale in myAutobiography, which is on varius discs scattered here andthere, if anyone really cares.]
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{40} [Like, these ain't just bedtime stories, that's RebNachman you're messing with.  This here's the Kingdom ofSadness, from uncollected garbage they make sculptures, whichare reviewed  in the Journal of Modern Gustatory Art ]
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{41} [Whoa, Methusela.  The Fixer does not 'have' faith, heis the quintessential embodiment of it.  Nor does he hope, heis always absolutely confident that he can fix anything,otherwise he would not be the Great Fixer, only a very good,excpetionally conscientious fixer.]
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{42} [I once gave up Hope for a minute, and she ran off withFaith & Charity.]
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{43} [Sorry, that won't do.  This is a shadow of Amalek.  Youdon't ever join it; somebody should only read the Bible toour Prime Ministers, at the gates of the world to come theywill all pass like fleas into the jaws of Shamir theImmoveable Lion.
	PVK says that ET is a great movie, and Star Wars II wasterrible.  It's about the only thing I recall PVK saying wasterrible.  My hit was that he was freaked by that scene whereDarth Vader says to Luke Skywalker, just before they duel,I'm your father.  I think PVK was saying, it is blasphemy toever even imagine that evil has any claim upon you.]
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	Ok, so I'm spoiling for a fight, and even Jesus can'ttake that chip off shoulder since 13 Jan 97, but anyhow: based on this retelling, I can't commend this book as atrustworthy retelling of hassidic tales.
	Granted, this was a very difficult tale to pick up on,others may not have that problematicity, I ain't yet readnone other of the originals.]
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{44} [Nope; 'the people'; the "king" is a usurper, only amalignant clown, Bibi & Bill the Bozo Bro's.]
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Are you sure Picasso got rich this way?

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{45} [Slow down Charlie.  The Great Fixer never compromiseshis principles, because to be a Great Fixer you have to havethe utmost purity.
	Nu, so how can Reb Nachman say he became a soldier.
	Simple: it never occurred to The Great Fixer thatsoldiers ever have to kill anyone, because by the great fixernobody ever has to kill anyone because everything can befixed; so by the great fixer, soldiers are those dudes whosejob it is to walk around in fancy uniforms like spasticpenguins.]
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{46} [Well, what we got us here is a little problem.  Must bethey fed the solidiers, apart from their pay.  So then whycan't the Fixer make his feastele in the mess hall?  What,you crazy?  Only in the IDF you can do it.  Becuase ofkashrut?  Kashrut helps, but one can always eat lettuceleaves; it's because of freedom.]
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{47} [I dunno if he knows at that stuff & guff.  Making himsound like a habanik baal tchuva from the frat house atAscent.
	Maybe he knows there has to be someone having a feasteleto save the world, or maybe he just does it -- but RebNachman's protagonists usually know precisely what their roleis; reckon that's part of being malalkim.
	But what's with this Messiach will come bit -- when theGreat Fixer has a feastele, Messiach is here already, 'wouldyou but hear his voice'.]
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{48} [Visualize.  Helmet don't obscure the mouth.]
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{49} [We ain't approaching it, we're getting toward it. Approaching is what vultures & Boeing 707's do; we'retraveling on a horse-drawn ricketyshaw collapsibe carriage,rememeber.]
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{49a}
[No, he went to the prison.
 So what's the big deal?
 Because 'there is no rest for wicked', they can't ever sitstill in one place, because then their own thoughts catch upwith them.  So the King Sadness who is manic depression isalways walking all over his miserable kingdom.  That is, byhim it's miserable, by the people, 'one could live if theylet you'.]
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{50} [I'm not sure about that afterthought.]
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{51} [Not:  'criminal'.  The king was evil, so therefore, allhis prisoners were good.

And like stay in the right century; this ain't JailhouseRock.]
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{52} [The king never says good, because he is evil, and evildon't know from good.  Even evil has to play fair, becausethis is a parable, and in parables good always wins, becauseGood is Real and evil ain't (like Plato said) so in a fairfight good always wins, because this is the Kingdom of G_d,and we're volunteers, and it's our job that good should winand parables are like the job-descriptions. ]

Like, from where Reb Nachman is at, he likes says the rightthings and skips saying the wrong things naturally, he don'tneed no ontologic dip-switch manual of semantic right-onness.

Like, a cat can look at a king, but not necessrily edit hismemoranda reliably.]
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{53} [Not quite:  The King is Evil, he is not human, so hedoes not have a face.

Remember, I told you we lied a little bit.  The King is notreally just Sadness -- you know, those beautiful little swansby the lake when Odile goes off to hustle the Prince and getshot and all that -- this King Sadness is something much muchworse, something really bad, not just the shadow on a summerday; and don't mess with that badness.


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{54} [Slow down chick; everybody knows the King of Sadness isnot the king of the Great Fixer.  Even the King knows that,that's why he has to try to sneak up on and trap the GreatFixer, to undermine his pwoer.]
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{55} [He did not say that; it sounds like Bibibabble.
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And alack the day we have to mock this man from whom wehad hope for so much, and for the courage and claritywith which to persevere.  
	For in one week he was revealed as having turned totwisty lies, leaving only a ghost of his old self in theair, to beguile us while  the cobra arrived.  
[22 Jan 97]  

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The Great Fixer doesn't play footsie with the devil.  Hewould never even hypothetically agree to kill anyone. Because we have seen now when you try to do that, there arereal devils out there ready to trip up the amateurs.]
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{56} [No, if you want to go down this road, the Evil King ismuch subtler.  He calls out a commission of inuiry, and theyshow you incontrovertible proof, and he calls in theInternational Observers, and the criminal confesses to theINternational Observers that he really did it but thank youvery anyway, and he doesn't bear you any hard feelings, andreally, he'd just as soon pay his debt to society, and couldnot bear the guilt of being the cause of your death -- andit's all lies, and it none of it has to be, but you don'tknow how to back out now, and then you really do have onefoot stuck in hell, whether you turn to the right or theleft.]

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{57} [Aw, Yael.  It never occured to him to reason with theKing.  That's not what Great Fixers do.  They ain't likedialogists.  And I keep saying again, what you don't do withAmalek, is you don't kick out your brother-in-law and givehim half the house, with a special roof for his petwolverines, and throw in a remodeling job, and a Gold VisaCard, and then run all over the world doing his PR to, andthen come back and find the wolverines are in the breakfastnook, but it was all a little mistake, and they'll be backsoon, except -- ]
	Like Samuel said, the guy's a great talker, but don'tlook into those soft eyes or your soul will drown.]
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{58} [Aw chick, remember political science 101.  We ain't yetgot to the rule of law; this here's a monarchy.]
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{59} [Ok, you can ask them to remember that they rememberyou.	But ordinarily it's cheating for them to remember you,because like if I'm standing out on the street saying PeaceLove Spare Change?, and then I add sotto voce oh incidentallyI am assigned to the command staff of Meshiach, so then youwrite me a post-dated check, this is like cheating you of theopportunity to do the mitzva of tzdaka; all you gave then wasa political payoff, and those should go direct to Deri.]
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{60} [If the Great Fixer tells them he knows magic, it ain'tmagic any more, just one more bit of hi-tech that nobody butan expert can understand.

Magic it when it so obviously comes as grace that everyonesays, ok, looks like G_d really does exist at least sometimesafter all, good news friends.  That's the magic, not that thekettle boils again.  You can always make tea in the sun, aslong as G_d exists.
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You see, a week ago the government betrayed us -- 
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like, it was supposed to be the government of ourpeople, with even an imitation Sanhedrin of 120,not just one more goyische government; from agoyische government you always expect betrayal, soit's no big tsoris --  
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so now that's what we've got left.  22 Jan 97 ]
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{61} [Sorry, you're off track again; the GF don't kill, hefixes.]
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{62} [This retelling weakens it; in the origianl it is thatany sword does thus.]
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{63} [Nope.  No way Jose.]


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{64a}[The prisoner, however, had died of fright.]
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{65b} [Remarking, it was a bit of a rough day, but all's wellthat ends well, what's for supper.]
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{66} [Not precisely.  If one is privileged to assist in asuccessful battle of good against evil one may return withsome feeling of joy, but -- happiness is not for those whoserve on the front lines.]
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