Even though I’m not Breslov, I ended up getting a 2-volume set of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Bender’s lectures called Words of Faith (Diburei Emunah), which was translated from a Hebrew translation of Rav Bender’s original Yiddish.
 
He offers a lot of passionate and thought-provoking advice accompanied by many fascinating true stories, both of his own life and the lives of other jaw-droppingly special Jews.

I highly recommend acquiring this set to reread again and again.
 
To keep as close to the original tone as possible, the compilers obviously chose as literal a translation as possible, choosing strict accuracy over style and at times, incorporating the original Yiddish into the text.

Yet the lectures (some of which are only a paragraph or two) make for some of the most compelling reading and provide tremendous mussar and inspiration.
 
There is no dry sermonizing here.

Rav Bender’s words exemplify the passion of Torah Judaism.

​His heart was not only awake but on fire for Hashem.
 
Rav Bender was a complete tzaddik and it’s quite an experience to read his actual thoughts, his viewpoints, and many stories he heard and experiences he underwent...all described directly from him.
 
For example, if I start enthusing about another Jew’s greatness and self-sacrifice, it’s not that big a deal because who the heck am I? Because I am very far from spiritual perfection, I’m easily awed by any example of tzidkut.
 
This is one of the unspoken issues with biographies of great people. Those of us who are regular people can’t really explain or portray the tzaddik or tzaddikah properly because we lack the perspective that spiritual greatness would give us.
 
Having said that, there are extremely worthwhile biographies of great people. Some of the best biographers are Sara Yoheved Rigler, Yonason Rosenblum, and Yisroel Besser.
 
But when at all possible, it’s best to hear from the great person him- or herself AND descriptions of spiritually great people by other spiritually great people.

And Words of Faith does both.

At the beginning of the first volume, we meet several righteous converts. Here's one of the first (Words of Faith, Vol. 1, pgs. 14-16) told in Rav Bender's own words:

This was at a time when Communism had taken hold, in addition to the standard anti-Jewish sentiments of the local Christians.

Of course, I would also describe these people with great awe and admiration. But this is a great tzaddik doing so. He’s seeing them with exalted spiritual vision.

​Can you feel the difference between his expressing of admiration and that of a regular person?
 
Then he goes on to describe a Sinitsa convert who was learned:

He then describes the enormous, stout centuries-old trees that grew there in watery areas, such as rivers and “endlessly deep marshes.”

Rav Bender doesn’t mince words.

He wasn’t there, but his empathy is so profound that he speaks as if he himself saw these trees and the terrible suffering of the people who slaved there.

​He doesn’t forget to mention that “millions” of people were sent there. This obviously includes people who aren’t Jewish, whose suffering and deaths clearly pained him too, judging by the tzaar he obviously experiences in the recalling.
 
He continues:

“Our” convert. Is that how we normally describe people who joined the Jewish community?

Rabbi Bender obviously cherishes this man as a brother with great fondness and warmth. This convert is not “other” but “ours.”

And the truth is that, coming from a regular person, describing one of your newer fellow Jews as "our" convert might even feel condescending or patronizing for that convert. It could actually be an icky experience.

​But coming from a tzaddik, it's totally different.
 
Then Rabbi Bender describes how the government officials offered this learned man a cozy position teaching indoors, protected from the harsh labor and horrific cold.
 
The downside? He would have to work on Shabbat:

Despite the fact that a tzaddik like Rav Bender would also likely refuse the proposition, he still acknowledges that it the option is "enticing." He has no problem acknowledging the reality of the whole situation.

Also...do you ever describe people as behaving with “holy brazenness”?

​But let’s say I did. It just wouldn’t sound the same. But when a true tzaddik labels something as “holy brazenness,” then that’s a whole other ballgame.

Rav Bender then describes how this holy man grew continuously weaker, turning white and transforming “from a he-man to a shadow of a human being.”

​The man’s wife came to visit him in the forest and fainted upon seeing his emaciated appearance. Out of concern for him, she begged him to acquiesce, citing pikuach nefesh as a halachically legitimate reason to violate Shabbat.

But Rav Bender describes the man's response:

Seen through the eyes of This World, the nameless convert’s story has a tragic ending.

No miracle came to save this incredible man.

He just died unnamed with his grave and specific death unknown.

It's chilling and depressing as perceived through the physical world.

And Rav Bender certainly empathizes with the man’s suffering.

But Rav Bender is also very aware of the Heavenly reward this convert ended up receiving and continues to receive: “Happy is he!”

Hashem and all of Heaven know all about this holy man and that's all that really matters.
 
If I ended the story with those words, it would just sound weird. But from a tzaddik, those final words have a different ring to them.
 
Words of Faith contains many stories like the above. And I can’t help wondering whether the mind-boggling mesirut nefesh these Jews had for Hashem’s mitzvot is what protected Russian Jewry from the worst of the Shoah.
 
Yes, Russian Jewry certainly suffered in labor camps during that time, but the Nazis and their death camps never made it there.
 
It’s these uncelebrated acts by unknown yet holy Jews that can be the most powerful.

*Note: In transcribing the text, I cleaned up the translation a tiny bit by adding punctuation and syntax.

Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 4|Part 5|Part 6|Part 7|Part 8|Part 9|Part 10|Part 11|Part 12|

​The truth is sometimes very disturbing and I'm even reluctant to bring the whole thing up. But there are lessons to be learned here...
 
(Note: Tongue-in-cheek comments are scattered throughout in italicized parentheses. Like this one.)

There were Jews who voted for Hitler—and they weren't Torah-observant Jews.
 
There were Jews who both supported much of the Nazi agenda and voted for the Nazi party.

In fact, there were even two pro-Hitler Jewish organization:

• The Association (AKA League) of German National Jews (Verband Nationaldeutscher Juden)​
• The German Vanguard—Loyal German Jews (Der Deutsche Vortrupp — Gefolgschaft Deutscher Juden)

...just as there is the National Jewish Democratic Council, Partners for a Progressive Israel, and non-affiliated-sounding groups like J Street.

​The Association of German National Jews (Verband Nationaldeutscher Juden) published a pro-Hitler monthly magazine The German National Jew (Der Nationaldeutsche Jude), which had a circulation of 6000(!) by 1927.
​
(In 1933, Germany's Jewish population numbered 505,000 with 400,000 German Jews and the rest mostly Polish Jews, many of whom were born in Germany to Polish-Jewish parents.) 

See if the goals of the Association of German National Jews sound familiar:
 
"...total assimilation of Jews into the German Volksgemeinschaft [a racially based “people’s community”], self-eradication of Jewish identity, and the expulsion from Germany of the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe." (Who's Who in Nazi Germany by Robert S. Wistrich)
 
(Replace “Eastern Europe” with “Eretz Yisrael,” and how different are today’s far-Left Jews and the original pro-Nazi Jews?)
 
At that time, Eastern European Jews comprised a large segment of obviously Torah-observant Jews, whom anti-religious Leftist Jews usually find distasteful. So the desire to expel Eastern European immigrants was the desire to expel Torah values.
 
In addition to disliking religious Jews, the group’s founder also despised Zionists—i.e., Jews who wanted to reclaim their Homeland.

(Hmm…a group of secular Jews who votes for Socialists and despises religious Jews and pro-Israel Jews? Gosh, this sounds familiar…)

Note: Deeply religious & caring Jews also reject Zionism—because they reject the distortion of the holy idea of settling Eretz Yisrael into a wholly secular nationalist idea devoid of any religious significance, which resulted in the widespread desecration of mitzvot & Torah values within Eretz Yisrael.

In contrast, the pro-Hitler Jewish groups rejected Zionism because they rejected a separate Jewish identity & Torah as a whole. They wanted fellow Jews to assimilate into their surrounding culture—the "self-eradication" mentioned above.
 
Ironically, this group fought against the Nazi boycott of Jews while stating that Jews were being fairly treated.

Another pro-Hitler Jewish Nazi group, The German Vanguard—Loyal German Jews (Der Deutsche Vortrupp — Gefolgschaft Deutscher Juden), began as a group of 150 university students in February 1933—just after Hitler came to power.

​This group was very similar to many Jewish Liberals today because unlike the above German-National wackos, they wanted to preserve their Jewish identity while stressing their deep-seated connection to German culture. (See the short PDF here.)

Furthermore, it's no coincidence that this most radical and self-destructive group started in a university with a professor as their leader.

​Their founder, a Jewish professor of History and Religion, stated:

"National Socialism saves Germany before the end; today, Germany is experiencing its national revival."
 
National Socialism is Nazism. Can you believe that a Jew is saying that Nazism saves Germany? 

This sentiment is eerily similar to the sentiment many Liberal Jews (and non-Jews) expressed about Barak Obama.

And the fact that it's a university professor leading the insanity is no coincidence.

Back in Germany’s 1930s, a joke went around that these pro-Nazi Jews ended their meetings with the Nazi salute while shouting, “Down with us!”
 
Today, you could make the same joke about Leftist American (and Leftist Israeli) Jews.
 
As things worsened, this professor still insisted that there was a place for Jews in Germany and maintained his certainty that it was possible to negotiate with Hitler and the Nazi party.
 
(Negotiate with people who want you eradicated? Is this sounding familiar?)
 
A self-described “Prussianist” (i.e., power belongs to the totality; the individual serves the totality, which is sovereign — each citizen is assigned his place in the totality; the citizen receives orders and obeys them, accompanied by discipline and certain racial characteristics — the best of the race, so to speak), the pro-Nazi professor presumably admired the Nazi’s authoritarian socialism.
 
This professor & group leader finally woke up around 1935, but only because of total Nazi rejection. As he stated: “I can no longer represent a cause whose fighters aim to strip all the Jewish elements as quickly and as far as possible, to be regarded only as a German nationality ..." — meaning that assimilation & pandering weren’t enough.
 
To his great disappointment, the Nazis didn’t want total Jewish assimilation (which was fine with him); they wanted total Jewish elimination.

Around 1938, this wacky idealist decided to form a Jewish-Christian group against the Nazis.

But this interfaith unification didn’t work either.
 
(Hmm...an interfaith group fighting terror against Jews? You mean, it has been tried before and doesn't work??!!)

Fortunately, the Nazis decided he must be a threat to them and targeted him personally, which compelled him to escape to Sweden.
 
His parents died in death camps and he later regretted that he hadn't done more to influence all Jews to flee.

Alas, he never learned his lesson. In 1945, he joined with German group of Social Democrats — but never felt like he fit in anywhere.
 
He also never lost his faith in his belief in the "decency" of the German people while considering Nazism an aberration among the German people. He even encouraged his fellow Jews to return to post-Hitler Germany.
 
After he himself returned to Germany and joined a university staff, he worked on rehabilitating the country. When asked questions about Nazism, he answered carefully so as not to offend all the former Nazis.
 
(Right! We don't want to "offend" people who go along with or even actively participate in genocide. Feelings are more important than facts!)

Though he greatly resembles Liberal/Leftist Jews of today, he always labeled his views & positions as “conservative.”

​But Prussianism sounds an awful lot like Communism, with its emphasis on the "society" and not the "private free citizen."

Also, like Communism, Prussianism defined a person by his or her work and not by a person's leisure (as Prussianism considered the British to do).

(For example, defining a person by work means that person's main identity is as a lawyer, a construction worker, a teacher, a doctor, or a janitor, etc. Defining a person by his or her leisure means the main identity is as a golfer, a poet, a bridge player, or a skater, etc.)  
 
We’ll end with a 1934 statement from the Association of German National Jews:
"We have always held above our own well-being the well-being of the German people and the Fatherland, to which we feel inextricably linked. Thus we greeted the results of January 1933, even though it has brought hardship for us personally."
 
(Hitler yemach shemo was elected in January 1933. How altruistic of them!)
 
This is exactly what liberals do today. They are willing to demean themselves for the sake of whatever they perceive as the greater good and out of a sincere desire to be “fair.” 
 
With a few exceptions, the following are now true in our times:

• Liberal white men proudly agree that they need to “check their privilege.”

 

• Liberal white university students insist on affirmative action for most minorities (excluding Pacific Asians), even though it discriminates against themselves both financially and academically (and the non-white racial minority: Pacific Asians).

 

• Liberal Jews side with Arab propaganda against Israel, often claiming that their duty as a Jew compels them to do so. (This is more true of younger Liberal Jews and less true of older Liberal Jews.)

 

• Liberal Jews continue to support Obama despite his deal with Iran, which wants to commit genocide against Israel.

 

• Liberals insist on continuing immigration from countries that not only reject Western values, but even uphold values that violate basic human rights, leading to beastly crimes against the very people who've opened their arms to them, and beastly crimes against the very people (women, children, and the poor) Liberals claim to protect.

​

• Liberals support the "right" to abortion (and some even support the right to 3rd-trimester abortion, even if they personally wouldn't ever do such a thing) even though it destroys their own child and increases the incidence of depression, infertility/miscarriage, and suicide in the woman.  

(There are many more examples of Liberals/Leftists supporting policies that hurt themselves.) 
 
For more correlations between pro-Nazi Jews in pre-WWII Germany and Leftist Jews in America today, please see American Jews are Making the same Mistakes German Jews Made 80+ Years Ago and They May Again Pay the Price. 
 
It's important to note that both the Communists and the Nazis ended up eventually rejecting and then persecuting even their most dedicated Jewish supporters no less than they persecuted their Jewish opposers.