רפז

The words of your father.

[Hebrew: אֲהוּבִי בְּנִי חֲבִיבִי....]

Nussun of Breslov.

Peace and life — to my beloved — my dear son — the rabbinical scholar — and so forth — our Teacher the Rabbi Yitzchok — may his light shine.

[Hebrew: נָתָן מִבְּרֶסְלֶב...]

He received his letter just now. And he has already heard before about the illness of your son — may he live — and certainly his pain is his pain — but to Hashem the hope that He will send him complete healing from heaven swiftly and quickly — healing of the soul and healing of the body. And to give him life through his words — the leisure does not permit just now — and also they already spoke greatly when he was here. But know my beloved son — that today he reviewed with the anshei sh'lomaynu — and spoke greatly about this — that it is fitting for us to rejoice very very greatly every day and day — in what we were saved from being an opponent to such a true light — which is only our hope forever. The words of your father. Nussun of Breslov. And all the more one feels the distresses of one's heart — in body and soul and livelihood and so forth — the more one must turn the matter to greater joy and gladness — for even so I merited — while passing through such a place of distress — with such bitterness — to be saved from being an opponent to our life-force and our hope — which is the only one that sweetens the bitterness of the world — as it is written in the holy Zohar: *"ilmalei milcha"* and so forth. [אִלְמָלֵא מִלְחָא — "were it not for the salt" — from the Zohar, cited in Likutay Moharan I:2. The full teaching: were it not for the salt — the meat would be inedible. So too — the true tzaddik is the salt of the world — the one who sweetens and preserves everything. Without him — the bitterness of the world would be unendurable. This is why even in the depths of suffering — the knowledge that our Rebbe exists and his Torah is alive — is itself the sweetener of all bitterness] And one must return to this also several times in one day — and be thankful for the past — for all the chesed that the Master of chesed did with us. And in particular that we also merited to taste a little from the sweet nectar of his pleasant words that give life to the soul forever. *"Ilmalei la aseinah l'alma ela l'mish'ma mila chada minhon — dayeinu"* — were it not that we came into the world except to hear one single word from them — dayeinu [אִלְמָלֵא לָא אָתֵינָא לְעָלְמָא אֶלָּא לְמִשְׁמָע מִלָּה חֲדָא מֵהֶם דַּיֵּינוּ — Aramaic — an echo of the Talmudic teaching (Chagigah 3b) — were it not that one came into the world except to hear one teaching — that alone would be sufficient. Applied here to hearing even one word from the Rebbe's holy Torah. Reb Nussun says: were it not that we came into the world except to hear one single word from them — dayeinu — all the more so that we merited to hear so much more] — all the more so and all the more so. And through this one can also enter to cry out about the future — and to pour out one's heart like water before the face of Hashem — since we see that still His mercies are with us and still His beloved-ness is upon us. But the essential is to return every time to joy — which is the essential of strengthening. *"Sos nasis b'Hashem ki rachamav lo chalim"* — "I will greatly rejoice in Hashem — for His mercies have not ceased" [שׂוֹשׂ נָשִׂישׂ בַּה' כִּי רַחֲמָיו לֹא כָלִים — Reb Nussun's formulation drawing from Yeshayahu 61:10 and Eichah 3:22. The emphasis: His mercies have not ceased — they have not run out — as we have seen countless times] — as we have already seen countless times. Until here His mercies Yisborach have helped us — in Him we trust that He will not abandon us forever — and make our end better than our beginning — nagila v'nismecha bishu'aso.