מב

My beloved son, my dear one — may he live. [Yitzchok] Today I received your letter — and it was a great comfort to me that you merited to receive my letter. For I had great longing and much toil from Sunday until

yesterday — until I found a way to send you my aforementioned letter. May Hashem Yisborach grant that my words make an impression on your hearts — for it is not an empty thing — for they flow from a most great and awesome and mighty and exalted source. Now I ask that you reply to me at once with some length — clarifying for me what you can in the letter — and a little about the will of your father-in-law, of blessed memory: whether he also left some portion for you.

Beyond this there is no need to extend. May Hashem Yisborach strengthen your heart to discharge the obligation of the day — each and every day — all that your hand finds with your strength to do on that day — and not to carry over from one day to the next at all — as we have already spoken of this much. And still much prayer and hisbodidus [personal outpouring before Hashem] are needed to merit salvation and great mercy — to fulfil this in true truth, according to His good will. The words of your father — who seeks your peace always with love and awaits seeing you soon. Nussun of Breslov. Postscript — To Rabbi Mordechai And peace to my friend Rabbi Mordechai — what shall I say to you to console you? From yourself you will understand that all the things I write to my son who shall live are said to you as well — and to all of you. And keep my letters well — for to me myself they are very precious words — renewed each time from Him Yisborach in His great kindness. And they are your consolation for all the troubles — for the essential consolation is the true knowledge — through which we can draw true counsel to remain steadfast in His service, Yisborach, forever. Nussun as above. Second Postscript — Shavuos Approaching May Hashem Yisborach grant us the fear and joy and holiness and purity of the awesome holy festival which comes upon us for good [Shavuos]. If we remember even one point from the intense fear that flows at Shavuos — as it is written in the Shavuos prayer: even the whole world trembles before You… in thunders and lightnings [from the U'v'chen prayer of Shavuos Musaf — a liturgical formulation, not a Tanach verse] and so forth — one should shudder without measure even now. And if we still do not merit to this — at least now it is fitting to pour out our speech greatly like water before the face of Hashem — where are we in the world? — we have already counted more than six weeks, and still have not purified ourselves to feel the fear of Shavuos. May the Good G-d atone and protect us — and draw upon us in His mercy His great fear — that there be fulfilled in us: and in order that His fear be upon your faces so that you not sin [Sh'mos 20:17] — and through this may we merit great joy — as it is written: rejoice with trembling [Tehillim 2:11]. And this is the perfection of fear — when through it one merits joy. And we have already written and spoken much of this — that even through fear of punishment one merits to joy — through the ways we received of giving oneself life with all the good points and so forth. Nussun as above. Third Postscript — A Second Letter Arrived; The Kaddish After I wrote the enclosed letter, a second letter reached me from you — from the eve of the holy Shabbos. And I am astonished, my son — how did you not understand on your own that I am not at all particular about such matters? And what does it concern me if you say several Kaddishim each day with kavonah [intention] — which is a great and awesome praise — [d'tavar kol g'zizin d'farzela — דְּתָּבַר כָּל גְּזִיזִין דְּפַרְזְלָא: Aramaic — "that breaks all bars of iron," meaning it shatters all harsh decrees. This is a traditional formulation about the power of Kaddish found in rabbinic sources (cf. Soferim 19:12), not a line within the Kaddish prayer itself]. But if you say Kaddish — have in mind that it is also for my father, of blessed memory — who is your grandfather — and this is my honour: that you should honour me through good deeds [b'uvadin tavin — בְּעוּבָדִין טָבִין: Aramaic — "through good deeds/acts." Like milei d'shtuta earlier in this letter, the Aramaic signals an intimate, direct register] as much as you are able. But do not confuse your mind during the actual recitation with this — only beforehand you may think as above. My beloved son — I have already written you that no one has been travelling from here to Tultshin on account of the fears — therefore the letter was delayed until now. And today — Monday, after midday — your third letter reached me, in a voice of great and bitter outcry. And I do not know what more to write to you — for I have already written you much — and I have already replied to you in the first letter, and reminded you that I had already informed you beforehand many times: that it is necessary for every person to pass through many and various hardships [harpatkao's] — may the Omnipresent have mercy that it be with great kindness. What shall I say to you, my son — do you not see with your own eyes, every day and every time, the vanity of the world — how everything is vanity, and all the toil that is done under the sun — with each and every person? And already all the tzadikim of former and later generations cried out — and in particular our Master, our Teacher and Rebbe, of blessed memory — that the world deceives us entirely and so forth. And if we know all this — and yet even so it seeks to deceive us against our will — for the leaven in the dough holds back [Brochos 17a — the evil inclination, compared to leaven, spreads and expands against a person] and spreads and extends itself against each one as it extends — nevertheless the truth is the truth — for truth is one — and it is impossible to alter the truth in any way for one who wishes to look upon the truth. And for this it is good for us to give thanks to Hashem at every time — that at any rate we know the truth more clearly than the rest of the world — even more than the Chassidim of today.

And if even so your deeds do not go well — even so it is very good and precious, very very precious, that you know the truth in its truth. But just as it is a great virtue that you yearn so much toward the true purpose — so too there is in it a great deficiency: that you burn and cry out more than necessary. For more than necessary is — G-d forbid — close to destruction [h'risah]. And have we not already spoken to the very last point — that one must give oneself life even with a single point of our holy Jewishness which we hold in His great kindness? And you should not look at all at other people who do not give themselves life in this — even if they are far better than you, and yet even so they are in black melancholy and sadness — and even if they are from our own anshei shlomaynu [community]. For you should not look upon them in this matter at all — only listen to my words, which flow from his holy words, of blessed memory — to give yourself life at every time and every day from the fact that you are of the seed of Israel and who has not made me a gentile — and that we merit to perform many mitzvos each day — and in particular, in particular, the great wondrous and awesome kindness that we are held and bound to his holy name, of blessed memory. And if we had heard from him nothing except the Torah of Azamra l'Elokai b'odi [אֲזַמְּרָה לֵאלֹקַי בְּעוֹדִי — "I will sing to my G-d while I yet exist" [Tehillim 146:2] — the subject of Likutay Moharan I:282, which teaches finding and singing from the good points within oneself and all people] — that alone would suffice to give ourselves life through this holy Torah all the days of our lives — and to merit through it eternal life forever. All the more so that we also heard the story of Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua, and Kislev and Chanukah, and Chalifos [Exchanges], and Yovel [Jubilee], and Daray Ma'ala and Daray Mata [Heavenly and Earthly Dwellers], and those that encompass above time, and the cycles of days and of years and so forth — and we have also heard yet further awesome and wondrous things that were never heard in the world. What shall I speak. Know, my beloved son — our holy and sublime and awesome Rebbe, of blessed memory, knew all that would pass over you until the very end — and he already preceded awesome remedies for our grievous wounds — through all the Torahs and stories and conversations and the illumination of G-dliness that he lit in our minds. Be strong, my son — be strong. And the main thing is to go with what I have already written you — to make yourself at every time as if completely forgetting — and through this you will go out to freedom each time: from the galus ishto [גָּלוּת אִשְׁתּוֹ — literally "the exile of his wife": an oppressive domestic situation with his wife that weighs heavily on Yitzchok] which rests upon you — and from the other kinds of exiles and subjugations that rest on your mind as if holding you in their hand, G-d forbid. And in truth free choice is free — and thought is in the person's hand to turn it as he wills. And the main thing is not to begin to think at all — but as if you were born just now — and as if you do not know at all what was and what will be. And in that very hour gladden yourself with everything you can — both with the good points as described above, and with words of foolishness and joking and the like [מִלֵּי דִּשְׁטוּתָא וּבְדִיחוּתָא — Zoharic Aramaic: words of foolishness and laughter — playfulness, levity, humour — legitimate tools for breaking the grip of melancholy when nothing else avails]. And if from within this you can seize yourself into Torah and prayer — good. And if not — even so rejoice in Hashem and His Torah and His true tzadikim according to the above ways — and wait until the good time arrives when you can seize good and truth in His great kindness through a little effort — for without any effort at all it is impossible. For even the effort and toil in the service of Hashem — one can draw more of it upon oneself through joy and freedom. And more than this it is impossible to extend in writing — and I am confident that you will understand on your own how to take these words into your heart in a manne

r that will console and gladden yourself and others — and merit to fulfil the words of our Master, our Teacher and Rebbe, of blessed memory — and to walk in his holy ways — so that it be good for you forever. The words of your father. Nussun as above.

Nussun of Breslov.