Translation:Tales of Rabbi Nachman/16
There was once an astrologer king who saw in the stars that if the grain would not be harvested by a certain time, it would all spoil.
Being that time was short, he decided to hire workers and provide them with all their pleasures and needs so that they would be free to work day and night to finish harvesting before the deadline.
However, the workers enjoyed the pleasures and forgot about the task. The deadline passed and all the grain spoiled. Now what would they do?! The king would certainly be enraged with them.
A sage came along and advised them that the king loves a certain bird. If they would bring the king this bird, the king would be so delighted that he would forgive them for everything.
But catching this bird was very difficult since it lived very high up and they had no ladder and time was short. So again the sage advised them that since they were many, each one should stand on the other’s shoulders until they could reach the bird. But they argued among themselves, for each one wanted to be higher up on the human ladder. They wasted time arguing and the bird flew away. As a result, the king was enraged with them for their negligence in harvesting the grain.
The moral of the story is that G-d created man and provided him with all pleasures, with the intention that he would “harvest the grain” before he violated the Covenant, so that he would be able to serve G-d with a pure mind. However, man is negligent on account of his pleasures, and allows the “grain” to spoil and his mind to become sullied from sin.
But all is not lost, for there is the bird, which represents the tzaddik, through whom forgiveness for everything can be attained. Yet, on account of dispute and jealousy – each one wanting to be higher up – people remain distant from the tzaddik.