It is not every day that an author orders one of his own books to be burned, particularly when he never repudiates anything he has written. Yet that is exactly what Nahman of Bratslav, grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, did in 1808. This unusual act is at the origin of the questions M.A. Ouaknin has asked himself about Nahman, his work and the rabbinic and mystical teachings on which the famous Hasid was nourished.

Initially, it is a question of knowing what the status of the book is; are all books equal? The Talmud, in chapter 16 of the tractate Shabbat, explains that, although it is not permitted to put out a fire on the Sabbath day, it is possible to save certain objects. Of these, holy books have absolute priority. All books are therefore not holy, even among those devoted to deepening the study of religion. This explains Nahman's view that books distance us from the Blessed Name. In actuality, referring to the concept of tsimsum (retreat), Rabbi Nahman considers that God has withdrawn from the world, that he is totally separated from it, although the world cannot exist without Him.

Next, to reach out towards God, one needs to ask oneself questions. Rabbi Nahman refers to the tradition of mahloket (Talmudic debate) but he makes it more extreme, thinking, in accordance with cabbalistic tradition, that ‘the real question does not expect an answer and that if there is an answer, it does not settle the question …’. The distance between the teachers who discuss the Talmud, through time and space, is not abolished; on the contrary, it is, as Blanchot states, preserved and made pure by the precision of the word. What is more the word must be precise, because Rabbi Nahman thinks that ‘whosoever speaks more than is necessary introduces errors’. Here we have a criticism of the institution of the rabbinate where teachers are confused by their gigantic knowledge.

In order to innovate one must act like someone who does not know, in other words, escape from the dogmatic discourse produced by the institutions. In the cabbalistic and Hasidic tradition, reading has to be done with 'designifying’ eyes and immediately ‘resignified’, more unconsciously than consciously; with new eyes. In the Talmudic tradition, Rabbi Nahman resists the dogmatic world which violently and shamelessly faces us.