Rav Nachman's story of the tainted grain

Question

There appear to be two recorded versions of Rav Nachman's story of the tainted grain.

In one, the king and the minister refuse to eat the tainted grain, and become the only sane ones in a word of mad people. In the other, the king and the minister both eat the tainted grain, but make marks on their foreheads to try to remember that they have become mad.

But here is an article containing a third version, where the king says to the minister: "I shall eat the tainted grain, and I shall join our people in their madness. You shall not: you will remain the only sane person in all the land. But there is one condition. You must leave the palace, you must wander as a beggar, and you must travel from town to town, from village to village. Everywhere you go, you must shout in all the marketplaces and from all the rooftops: Remember, my people, that you are mad!"

Can anyone help find the source of the third version?

Answer 1

Let's organize them. There are three recorded versions of a tainted grain story by R' Nachman of Breslev.

"Version 2" in that article by Ariel Burger, where the king eats it and he has the viceroy remain the only sane one, appears to be his own adaptation, variation, or interpolation; it's none of these three. His Version 2 is also followed by a snippet from Day 5 of Tale 13 from Sipurei Maasiyot, the Tale of the Seven Beggars, which is also not cited. His article uses these stories to elaborate on the teachings of his teacher Elie Wiesel.

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The three recorded versions are:

1. The first is found toward the end of "Sipurim Niflaim" which is in the compendium Kokhavei Ohr כוכבי אור (1935) by Shmuel Horowitz. The king and his viceroy eat the grain but make a sign on their forehead to remember they're insane. This is followed by another very brief parable, of a king who was chasing a Tzvi, deer, and unable to attain it, and his ministers tell him to turn back but he says, "No, capture the Tzvi I must. Whoever wants to turn back, turn back..."

   The deer parable is probably related, perhaps a kind of montage, as these two parables are paired together between dividers that separate all the other parables, in both of these prints:

   • https://breslovbooks.org/uploads/files/hebrew-kochvay-ohr-personal-use-only.pdf Machon Bashan, p. 221 in PDF
   • https://breslovbooks.org/uploads/files/hebrew-kochvay-ohr-2.pdf Maleh v'gadish mi'kav l'kav, p. 279 in PDF.

המשל מהתבואה. שפעם אחת אמר המלך לאוהבו, השני למלך באשר אני חוזה בכוכבים, רואה אני שכל התבואה שיגדל בשנה זו מי שיאכל ממנה יהיה נעשה משוגע ...

2. The second, follows right after the aforementioned first version and deer parable. The king is an astrologer and sees if the grain is not reaped this year by a certain time it will all spoil ... The king gives the reapers all the delights so they should accomplish it but they don't and he's wroth at them; a sage gives them a solution that they should bring the king a certain bird that he likes...

עוד מעשה שספר רבנו ז"ל. שהיה מלך אחד והיה חוזה בכוכבים, וראה שאם לו יקצרו התבואה בשנה זו עד זה הזמן ...

3. A third is brought in Siach Sarfei Kodesh (1988) סיח סרפי קודש. The king insists neither he nor his viceroy eat it. It is shown in the first link you provided.

סיפר רבנו משל לעניין שצריך לעבוד את השם יתברך במסירות נפש אף שנדמה לבני העולם כמשוגע ...

So the two recorded versions that you mentioned are #3 and #1.