The story of “The King and the Emperor” is the most esoteric of all the stories of Rebbe Nachman. All the mystical rectifications that are accomplished from Rosh Hashanah until Shemini Atzeres, that “Chava” is built up by first being “sawed away”, and then having all the Chassadim drawn into her until the unification on Simchas Torah… this is all the plot of the story of the Emperor’s Daughter…
    Also, all of these rectifications of “Chava” and her unification with “Adam” are alluded to in the verses in Bereishis that describe the physical formation of Chava. “And Hashem built up the rib, etc…” All the rectifications that are accomplished during these twenty–two days underlie those two verses. That the Holy One made her in an instant, that he “sawed” her away from Adam, with whom she had first been attached back–to–back, and that she was later brought to Adam. We accomplish this during the twenty–two days and the conclusion is on Simchas Torah, which is the time of the wedding. It is brought in the writings of the Ari, that the dancing that we do on Simchas Torah is an aspect of the dancing that the Holy One did for Adam HaRishon. He made for him “best men” and legions of angels and holy chariots descended to dance for Adam HaRishon on the day of his wedding. The circle dances that we do on Simchas Torah are drawn from these “best men” that the Holy One made for Adam HaRishon. Through these twenty–two days, we merit true “matches”, each one his Chava, especially when we merit to be at Rebbe Nachman’s grave for Rosh Hashanah. It is there that the chair that Rebbe Nachman saw in Heaven is, the one that had all the matches in the world inscribed on it (Chaye Moharan 84). He asked, “How will I make a living?” and they said, “You will be a matchmaker.” Everyone who was in Uman for Rosh Hashanah certainly receives a spark of this chair and merits his soul–mate. Not only to find his soul–mate, but even after he finds and marries her, he has to spend his entire lifetime searching for her. Because, when he marries, he doesn’t yet see her uniquely positive attributes. He has to spend his whole life discovering her wondrous uniquely positive attributes. About this, it says, “A woman of valor, who can find her?” Who will merit to find that his wife is a woman of valor? Therefore, the Emperor’s daughter constantly warned them not to touch her boat—that they shouldn’t think that they had got some ordinary woman from the marketplace…
    Regarding the “sawing away” of Malchus and the drawing down of the Chassadim, there are two questions that we should ask. 1) If the Chassadim are drawn down during the days between Yom HaKippurim and Sukkos, why then aren’t those days actual festivals? 2) Why don’t the “inner Chassadim” enter from top to bottom, like the “outer encircling Chassadim” do [that is, from Chessed within Chessed down to Chessed within Hod, rather than the reverse, the way that it actually is]? There is really a single answer to both questions… They are not festival days because the intense judgments between Rosh Hashanah and Yom HaKippurim “swallow up” the incoming Chassadim. And the reason that we don’t start from Chessed within Chessed is because when the intense judgments “swallowed up” the Chassadim, they imparted some kind of a blemish. Instead, we start slowly, from the bottom up, and gather one “trace” after the next, of Chessed within Hod, and then of Chessed within Netzach, etc. until we merit Chessed within Chessed on Sukkos. At that point, the light of Chessed is completely revealed, and, not only do the judgments not weaken it, but it even sweetens all the judgments.
    The dancing is higher than everything and it emanates from the “World of Ta’amim”, from Arich, from Atik, and the seventy facets of the Torah emanate from them, the entirety of the Torah. It is brought in the Mishna Berurah, that the Ari attained everything that he did by virtue of his spending so much time dancing during Simchas Torah. He would go from one synagogue to the next looking for one more place where they were still dancing. It is also said about the Vilner Gaon that he was very particular about the joyous element of performing a mitzvah. Contingent upon how much a person sings and dances on Simchas Torah does he merit to learn Torah the entire year. Novel ideas open up for him, and he merits to really feel the light of Torah. Certainly, when a person feels the light in the Torah, he won’t budge from his book. This is what we are asking for when we ask to be “written in the book of life.” That is, in the holy Gemara, in Likutei Moharan, etc., that we should merit to feel the light in these holy books. A person also merits to dance and sing in accordance with the way he learned Torah during the year, because the letters themselves jump inside of him. When a person is full of the letters of the holy Gemara, no one has to tell him to do hisbodedus, the letters themselves beg to burst out of him and he runs on his own to the field to cry out to Hashem. Even the great ones among the Litvish would do this… The letters themselves make him jump and dance, just as it is said about the Sanzer Rav, that he would jump nearly to the ceiling and dance non–stop, and also in the Alter of Kelm’s yeshiva, as we mentioned previously…
    The Kedushas Yom Tov says that every step of dancing that a person does on Simchas Torah is higher than all the spiritual work that he does from Rosh Hashanah until Simchas Torah. The truth is, that all prayer and spiritual work doesn’t ascend by itself—it only ascends by virtue of the dance that is done following it. The Rambam says that a person who doesn’t dance is a “sinner and a fool”. A sinner, for being proud before Hashem. Instead, he must be like David HaMelech who leaped with all his might and didn’t feel any compunction about shaming himself before Hashem. He said to Michal, “Would that I would be able to shame myself even more!” Through this, he merited to be “alive and everlasting”. The image of him leaping and prancing is what is engraved in the Throne of Glory (Emek HaMelech, introduction 7,) [and the truth is, that the one student who laughed when the Ari called up the seven shepherds to the Torah, and when he called up David HaMelech he came dancing, didn’t live out the year]. This is the eternal reward of a person, his dancing. The more a person dances and sings, the greater will his eternal reward be, because the entire World to Come is all dancing. And it is precisely through this that a person shows his love of Hashem. Because a person loves fish and cake, etc. and also Hashem (meaning, that he loves Hashem the way he loves cake and ice cream). In truth, though, love of Hashem is revealed specifically through dancing, and it is then that a person can merit to thousands of mitzvos of loving Hashem with every second that he loves Hashem. Therefore, when we dance the entire night, a person merits thousands of mitzvos. And when he scorns this, certainly it is appropriate to call him a “sinner”. It is then, by dancing, that a person can merit to actually feel himself expiring with self–nullification and longing for Hashem, and he can then truly merit to receive the Presence of the Shechinah. All judgments are sweetened, and all the “princes of Esav” are nullified. This is why the Emperor’s Daughter was constantly playing music with the eleven minister’s daughters, to sweeten the eleven “princes of Esav”. This is also behind the fact that they would surround the altar with willows at a height of eleven cubits, to sweeten the eleven “princes of Esav”. In the merit of the dancing and singing of Simchas Torah, may we merit a total sweetening of the judgments, and to the complete redemption, speedily and in our days, amen.

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