נג

Peace — to my beloved son, my dear one, our Teacher the Rabbi Yitzchok — may his light shine.

There is no leisure to extend. And I have asked you to send me at once the kerblich [the small coins held in trust from Rabbi Shimshon] from Rabbi Shimshon that are held safely with you — for the hour presses upon me greatly now. And may Hashem Yisborach strengthen your heart to be in joy always — and may He remove illness from your house. And inform me of your wife — may she live — for I have hoped in Hashem that she will have healing soon without physical remedies specifically [בְּלִי רְפוּאוֹת גַּשְׁמִיִּים דַּיְקָא — specifically without conventional medical treatment. The word davka — specifically, precisely — marks this as a deliberate and principled stance. As with the healing of Yosef Yonah in Letter 52 — "in our way, as is known to you" — this reflects the Breslov posture of trusting entirely in divine mercy and prayer rather than physicians]. And may Hashem Yisborach have mercy — that she listen to our words and not come to any doctor [דָּאקְטִיר — the Slavic/Yiddish loan-word for a secular physician] — and then it will be good for you.

And behold — what has happened with you: you have certainly already heard that Rabbi Moshe Chaim has already agreed that his son-in-law should travel — as he wrote me today. And in this too one can see and understand the salvation of Hashem at every time — that there is no obstacle in the world that He cannot break.

For Hashem Yisborach does not send upon a person a thing that he cannot bear in any way. [A principle rooted in the midrash — "the Holy One does not burden a creature beyond what it can bear" [Vayikra Rabbah 27:7; also Sh'mos Rabbah 34:1] — applied here specifically to spiritual obstacles and desires: every impediment placed before a person carries within it the implicit proof that this person has the power to overcome it] And this is an allusion [וְזֶה רֶמֶז — remez: not merely a suggestion or analogy. Remez is a technical term — the second of the four levels of Torah interpretation (PaRDeS: p'shat, remez, d'rash, sod). When Reb Nussun says v'zeh remez l'chol odom, he is saying that the event — Rabbi Moshe Chaim's reversal — contains within it a genuine embedded allusion to a universal truth, a teaching encoded in the particular by divine design] to every person regarding all his obstacles and desires — that certainly, if he did not have the power to break them, Hashem Yisborach would not have sent such things upon him. And certainly there is a path to draw near to Hashem Yisborach even from these very places — and understand this very, very well. And one must ask Hashem Yisborach very much that He have compassion upon him at every time — and that He show him the path of how to draw near to Him from these very places and from these very things that pass over him. And this suffices for now. The words of your father — who awaits to rejoice in you forever — who seeks your peace always with love. Nussun of Breslov.

[Hebrew: נָתָן מִבְּרֶסְלֶב...]