נז.

My dearest, Mr. Z. Shazar — member of the holy band of the Ba'al Tefila, who is the wonder of all wonders of the Creator Yisburach, upon whom all the salvations of all Israel depend — peace and life and all good.

In my simplicity I will go to fulfill my obligation — to remind you and to urge you every time to flee to the Tzadik and to think about the true purpose. For I am obligated to serve the Tzadik and to fulfill his command and his will — who longs to bestow his goodness upon all Israel. But your choice is free. And Hashem in His mercy will help us and incline our choice toward good — that we merit to begin from now to spend all our days searching and seeking the true Tzadik, who has dug and revealed wells of living waters to heal the ailments of the souls of Israel — for us and for our generations and for all generations of the seed of Israel. And all who wish to merit to draw from these holy wells the things that give the soul life for all eternity and forever and ever — let him come and merit. And if the obstacles spread themselves against him like iron bars and copper gates — it is already known to us from of old that it is impossible to draw close to the Tzadik except through breaking through immense obstacles.

Remember all of this well — and rouse yourself and strengthen yourself, and do not be what they call a shlimazlnik {an unlucky, unserious person}. The awesome story of the Ba'al Tefila is a wondrous and awesome tale, wonder of wonders. And beyond the roots of things and the great inwardness that exists in all these stories — which is most wondrous and hidden from human intellect — even according to their plain meaning, every single matter contains within it a moral lesson, a wondrous and immense moral lesson, which greatly arouses the heart to draw close to Hashem Yisburach. And it tells, in general, about almost every kind of error and corruption and false and erroneous notions that are found in the world — and about their clarification and their rectification. All agree that the essential thing is the purpose. And all are compelled to admit that whoever strives more and is closer to the purpose — he is worthy to be head and king over all. But from the time the great storm wind confused and completely overturned the world — water into dry land, dry land into sea, desert into settlement, etc. — and the King and the Queen and the King's Daughter and the infant and the entire holy gathering of the King and his people scattered and dispersed — then all the world

s became confused and overturned from their true order, and all the people of the world became confused and scattered and divided into factions and factions regarding the inquiry of "what is the purpose." And each and every faction strayed and became greatly confused through their evil desires — in their strange opinions and fabricated and false notions — until they became thoroughly confounded and greatly erred, and overturned the truth from one extreme to the other. Some of them said that the essential purpose is honor — to be the greatest pursuer, Heaven forbid, of honor, and to attain it. For there are people who are most enamored of honor, and who pursue honor greatly — and who lose their eternal world and this world as well, for the sake of a little honor they wish to attain. This one wishes to be honored and esteemed through his wealth — to have a name and honor among magnates and officers and the nobles of the land, etc. And that one wishes to be honored and esteemed through his Torah and his service — and strives all his days to be accepted as a Rebbe and a leader. Whereas in truth, on the contrary — the matter is the very opposite. For the essential purpose of all creation is only the honor of Hashem Yisburach and His Torah and His true Tzadikim — which it is impossible to merit except when one diminishes one's own honor entirely and flees from honor completely in truth, and knows one's own pettiness and lowliness, and one is contemptible and despised in one's own eyes, and honors those who fear Hashem, and strives and labors all his days to increase the honor of the Omnipresent — which is the honor of the Torah and the true Tzadikim — and genuinely and fully nullifies his own honor. But they overturned the truth from one extreme to the other, and strayed from opinion to opinion and from reasoning to reasoning — until they said that the essential purpose is honor, to pursue honor as greatly as possible. And they had proofs and arguments and great reasonings for this — that the essential purpose is honor, to pursue honor greatly. Heaven save us from this opinion! And similarly another faction erred in their evil reasonings and moved from one reasoning to another — until they went mad and said that murder is a mitzvah, and that it is the purpose. And they had many reasonings and proofs for this. And in truth, even though at first glance it seems far-fetched to believe that people like t

his could be found — who have reasonings that murder is a mitzvah — in truth there are such errors in the world through which it is possible to err and to say that murder is a mitzvah, until they actually came to anger and actual murder. And similarly the other factions — and each one had many reasonings for their error, to the point where one could truly be misled by them. To be continued with the help of Hashem. The transcriber, who gives his life for your true welfare and salvation — may your wellbeing grow for length of good and healthy days. Yisroel Odesser

Israel Dov Odesser