Why is it that in Rebbe Nachman's story the Wise Man with all of his wisdom ended up floundering his whole life, while the Simple Man, despite all of his intellectual shortcomings, ended up so successful? The Wise Man would seem to have had a much easier path to travel to success. The path of the Simple man, by contrast, was strewn from the start with difficult obstacles!
The answer is really very simple. For all his wisdom, the Wise Man lost his faith. Seeing his great success, he took all the credit for himself, and forgot about the hand of God in his greatness. In his hubris he lost his relationship with God.
Unlike the Wise Man, hubris was not an option for the Simple Man. However, he could have easily fallen into despair, a malady as bad, if not worse. Instead he made a conscious decision to remain strong in his faith despite all the travails he had to endure. These decisions need to be made prior to a person heading down the path to corruption. Originally, they each had fine attitudes. It was when each saw how their life was going that they had to face the choice. Was it to be haughtiness or faith for the Wise Man; depression or faith for the Simple Man.
The Wise Man could only achieve faith by realizing he was far from perfect, despite the wondrous abilities he possessed. For the Simple Man, he needed the realization that he was the person God wanted him to be, in the situation he was meant to be in.
I see a bit of myself in all this. The Wise Man that is (is that haughtiness?). How much of what I accomplished so far in my life, did I attribute deep within myself to myself, and how much do I truly give to God?
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