Musician & Instrument

The musician playing the instrument must gather the good spirit – the spirit of prophecy – and separate it from the sad, depressed spirit. He must understand music in order to know how to sift out and gather up the parts of the spirit and put them together in order to construct the melody, namely the joy, in order to build the good, prophetic spirit, which is the opposite of the depressed spirit. He must move his hand up and down the instrument in order to channel the joy and bring it to perfection.

(Rebbe Nachman of Breslov)