Rav Nachman describing the impact of Modernity

There was was once a time says the master of prayer when each of us had gone to his own special place. The warrior. the orator. and all of the king's men - each had gone lo renew his particular strength.

At that time a great wind storrn swept over the world. The entire earth was confounded. Dry land was transformed into sea and sea into dry land. Deserts came up where there had been towns. And new towns sprang up in areas where there had only been desert. The whole world was turned upside down by the wind.

When the wind came into the king's palace, it did no damage at all. As it whipped through the palace, however. it grabbed up the beautiful child and carried him away in an instant. The king's daughter ran off in pursuit of her child. Soon she was followed by her mother. the queen. and then by the king himself. Thus all of them were scattered and nobody knows their place.

None of us was there when this happened, as we each had gone off to renew our strength. When we did return to the palace. we found no one there .... Since then we have all been scattered. and none of us can now get back to that place where he needs to go to renew his strength. Since the wind came and turned the entire world around, changing land into sea and sean into land. The old paths no longer are of any use. We are now in need of new paths because all the places have been altered. Meanwhile we can not renew out former strength. We do, however, retain an imprint of those former times and that in itself is very good.