רב

Yesterday I arrived here in Breslov in peace — and certainly you have alrea

[Hebrew: אֲהוּבִי בְּנִי חֲבִיבִי...]

My beloved son — the delight of my heart [מַחְמַד לְבָבִי — the delight of my heart: an especially intimate address — not the usual *machmad einai* (delight of my eye) but *machmad l'vavi* — of my heart itself. Written from exile in Nemirov on the eve of Rosh Hashanah] .

The bearer of this letter — Rabbi Nachman of Tulchin — will tell you of my preoccupation just now. But from my love for you and my longing — the necessity compels me to write you these few lines at any rate. Be strong — my son — and resolute — and trust in Hashem — for He will not abandon us . And we must return every day and remember what was written on the verse *batzar hirchavta li* — in distress You gave me expansiveness [LM I:195; Tehillim 4:2] — and in this is all our vitality now. And the vastness of the expansions that are within the very force of the distresses — they are our vitality and our strengthening — so as not to despair from prayer and crying and supplication [עֹצֶם הַרְחָבוֹת שֶׁבְּתוֹךְ תֹּקֶף הַצָּרוֹת — the extraordinary phrase: *otzem haharchavos sheb'toch toqef hatzaros* — the VASTNESS of the expansions WITHIN THE VERY FORCE of the distresses. Not merely within the distresses — but within their very force and intensity. The greater the pressure — the more vast the hidden expansiveness within it] — and to hope for His salvation always — for certainly He will help and save us for the sake of His great Name — through the great power of the holy elder upon whom we lean in this world and the next forever [בְּגֹדֶל כֹּחוֹ שֶׁל זָקֵן דִּקְדֻשָּׁה אֲשֶׁר אָנוּ נִשְׁעָנִים עָלָיו — "through the great power of the holy elder upon whom we lean." The *zaken dikdushah* — Rebbe Nachman — is the one upon whom Reb Nussun leans in every crisis of this world and the next. Written from exile — the leaning is the very substance of the hope] .

And by miracle he was saved from the captivity.) And in the kindnesses of Hashem I escaped. All Your breakers and Your waves have passed over me [Tehillim 42:8]. Just now I still do not know where I will spend Yom Kippur which is coming upon us for good. Behold — in the middle of the writing — the order arrived from the police to travel immediately to Nemirov. And certainly all is the kindnesses and wonders of Hashem. And I am ready to travel at once — and this is itself a great *chesed* for me — for the intensity of the fears that passed over me until now cannot be expressed — but in the kindnesses of Hashem I trusted — that I will return to my home in peace soon with the help of Hashem Yisborach. At present there is no leisure to speak of this — for the holy and awesome day of Yom Kippur is approaching and coming — and I am very preoccupied — and if Hashem wills it — after Yom Kippur I will see to write to you at length somewhat. Be strong and resolute — my beloved son — and see and understand — for everything is vanity of vanities — and certainly you have already shaken off many of the fears that passed over you — and for nothing you nullified yourself from what you nullified because of empty confusions. And so it passes over every person every day — as we already elaborated greatly in speaking of this on the Festival of Shavuos — these many years — that the *yetzer hara* finds a push and a confusion for every single day — and especially in these times — what passes over us. The words of your father — greatly preoccupied — who awaits salvation. Nussun of Breslov.

[Hebrew: נָתָן מִבְּרֶסְלֶב...]