עב

My beloved son, my dear one. [Yitzchok] Your letter I received through the bearer of this letter and through Rabbi

Eliyahu — also half a new ruble for a pidyon [פִּדְיוֹן — a redemption offering: a small sum given to a Tzadik or intercessor as a spiritual vehicle for prayer on the giver's behalf] — and my heart churns deeply at your distress [וְהוֹמֶה עָלַי לִבִּי — the verb homeh — from the root המה — is not merely "trembling" but the specific biblical word for the deep churning or tumultuous roar of the heart: the same verb as in Tehillim 42:6 (lamah tishtoachi nafshi v'tahami alai — "why are you cast down, O my soul, and why do you roar within me?") and Yirmiyahu 4:19 (homiyot libi, lo acharish — "my heart churns, I cannot be silent"). It is the sound of emotional depths being violently stirred — the visceral tumult of a soul moved to its foundations. Reb Nussun places his response to Yitzchok's pain in this register: not mild sympathy but the full churning of the heart] — but you are agitating about the matter more than is necessary. For I have already anticipated informing you that a person must unavoidably pass through many depths and so forth. Certainly you did well in sending to pray and to make a pidyon — for we have nothing with which to be saved except through prayer and charity and so forth. But in your letter you are agitating about the matter more than necessary. In truth I know the pain of your heart — even so the obligation is to sustain oneself at every time — and to perform a complete severance of attention from your sorrow — and not to be wrapped up in the sorrow so much, G-d forbid. And the essential thing: do not think and do not worry at all from day to the next. And let there be in your heart nothing but the sorrow of that day alone — and this one can easily bear — and one can also perform a complete severance of attention from even the sorrow of that same day. And so on the following day — think only of that day — and in the meantime Hashem Yisborach will have mercy and save you speedily — for He will not contend forever [כִּי לֹא לְעוֹלָם יָרִיב — Tehillim 103:9: "He will not contend forever — nor will He harbour anger eternally." One of the great verses of divine compassion in the Psalms: no suffering lasts beyond its appointed limit. The assurance that the present trial has a bounded end] and so forth. And behold — my own mind is not clear now either — from the greatness of my preoccupations — in particular the matter of the holy building in Uman which rests upon my head and it is hard for me to divert my attention from it — therefore it is impossible now to extend at all. And see to send me — for the sake of Hashem — in the coming week the sum that you promised for the building. And be strong and resolute, my dear son — and express your personal speech before Hashem Yisborach each day — and do not think from day to the next at all. And sustain yourself with all the holy words and conversations that you heard from me at the holy festival just passed — and all that you heard previously — for there is in them the means to sustain yourself at every time with the help of Hashem Yisborach. And may Hashem Yisborach send speedily a complete healing from Heaven to your wife — and grant you success in your livelihood — and may there be peace and tranquillity in your home — and may you merit to be a proper man in truth according to His good will. Omain. The words of your father — who awaits your salvation. Nussun of Breslov.

[Hebrew: נָתָן מִבְּרֶסְלֶב...]