Your letter I received on Sunday — and today I received your second letter. And blessed is Hashem — on Sunday I had some comfort — for you gladdened me a little with your salvation. And even then on Sunday I knew that certainly more salvation and great mercy is still needed — and today I saw this in your letter. But we have already spoken much about this — that one must at every time give thanks for the past and petition for the future. And I have already reflected on my ways and the ways of the world and seen well — that if a person wishes to look at deficiencies — he will always lack much — for even the great wealthy people still lack very much that seems to them essential. But the reverse — when one remembers that everything is free grace — for a person emerges naked from his mother's womb [חֶסֶד חִנָּם, כִּי עָרֹם יָצָא הָאָדָם מִבֶּטֶן אִמּוֹ — Iyov 1:21: "naked I came from my mother's womb — and naked I shall return." Everything one has above the nakedness of birth is divine grace. Even a torn shirt — even patched shoes — is pure gift] [Iyov 1:21] — and everything one has is great kindness — then one can revive oneself greatly through whatever one has — even a torn shirt and patched shoes — G-d forbid — all the more so when one has some old garment even of coarse linen and so forth.
And even in matters of divine service — although there one must always look to ascend higher and higher — even so — when one sees that what is passing over him is passing — one must revive oneself each time through every good point and point that is in him. And similarly through all the sufferings and adventures that pass over a person — one must conduct oneself through all of this much. And the general principle: certainly according to the intensity of the bitterness of the exile — in body and in spirit — which now grows stronger — may the Merciful One protect — upon all of Israel in general and upon each and every individual — and according to the multitude of corruptions that each person knows in their own soul — certainly it is very, very bitter — almost impossible to live. But the essential existence and vitality is through a wondrous miracle from Him, Yisborach — through the enormity of His kindnesses, Yisborach — which He draws down each day and at every time. And all of this is included in his holy words of blessed memory [Likutay Moharan I:195] — in what he said regarding the verse in distress You expanded me [בַּצָּר הִרְחַבְתָּ לִי — Tehillim 4:2 / Likutay Moharan I:195: there is expansion even within the distress itself — the *tzar* contains *hirchav* within it] — that there is expansion even within the distress itself and so forth — apart from how He, Yisborach, takes one out of many distresses through His kindness. And I have already investigated for myself that the essential vitality regarding divine service is through I will sing to my G-d while I yet exist — and regarding worldly affairs and the burden of livelihood and suffering — through the above-mentioned in distress You expanded me.
And remember well these things — for we have already spoken much about all this — and even so it is forbidden for them to seem old to us — for they are our life. And regarding all of this — King David — peace be upon him — said: were it not for Hashem's help to me — almost [לוּלֵא ה' עֶזְרָתָה לִּי כִּמְעַט — Tehillim 94:17. The horrifying nearness of annihilation that was averted by divine help] [Tehillim 94:17] and so forth. And thus: if I said — my foot slips — Your kindness, Hashem, supported me [אִם אָמַרְתִּי מָטָה רַגְלִי — Tehillim 94:18: the divine support arrives at the very moment of self-awareness of the near-fall] [Tehillim 94:18]. And thus: He watches — Hashem will not abandon him to his hand [Tehillim 37:32-33]. And our sages of blessed memory said: were it not that the Holy One Blessed be He helps him [אִלְמָלֵא הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא עוֹזְרוֹ — Sukkah 52b: the yetzer hara cannot be overcome without divine help — it is structurally required] [Sukkah 52b] — and many more like this.
Know and remember well these things — for we have already spoken much and even so it is forbidden for them to seem old. And indeed I myself know — that from my earliest days until today — almost never was there a time when all that passes over you did not also pass over me — and each time it seemed to me that there was almost no hope — G-d forbid — were it not that Hashem helped me each day through His wondrous ways — that He preceded to revive us through the seven restorers of taste [בְּשִׁבְעָה מְשִׁיבֵי טַעַם — a specific Breslov teaching: Likutay Moharan I:54 — the seven spiritual sources of renewal and sweetening that restore vitality and meaning when they have been lost. The phrase hikdim — He preceded — echoes the principle of refuah kodem la'makah (Letter 93): Hashem provides the cure before the wound, the shiva m'shivei ta'am before the bitterness arrives, so that one is never without a source of revival. The seven restorations are rooted in the seven divine attributes; they are the structural provision against spiritual dissolution] [Likutay Moharan I:54] — through the flowing stream that is the source of wisdom [עַל יְדֵי הַנַּחַל נוֹבֵעַ מְקוֹר חָכְמָה — Mishlai 18:4: mayim amukkim devarim b'lev ish, v'nachal novea m'kor chochmah — "deep waters are the words in a person's heart — and a flowing stream is the source of wisdom." This verse is the literary and spiritual source of the Rebbe's name: Nachal Novea — the flowing stream — echoing Nachman. The Rebbe is identified with the flowing stream of Mishlai: the inexhaustible, life-giving source of wisdom that revives those who drink from it. Reb Nussun thus identifies the Rebbe himself as the agent of the shiva m'shivei ta'am — through the Rebbe's teachings, the seven restorations reach us] and so forth.
And the time of Minchah has arrived — and the messenger has also now come to my home — and the day is passing and going. And so the heart bids farewell to the spring — and the spring to the heart — with such songs and praises — and when the day finishes — the heart would — G-d forbid — depart. Meanwhile the great man arrives — the true man of kindness — and gives the heart a day as a gift [אוּן סֶע גִּיזֶעגִינְט זִיךְ דָאס הַארְץ מִיט דֶעם קְוַואל... דֶּעַר אֶמֶתֶּעַר אִישׁ חֶסֶד שֵׁיינְקְט אַ טָאג דֶּעם הַארְץ — Yiddish: the heart and the spring (kvall) bid farewell with songs and praises. When the day ends the heart would be extinguished — but the great man arrives — the true ish chesed, the Rebbe — and gifts the heart another day. The manuscript provides the Hebrew translation in brackets confirming the content] — so that happy are the ears that hear such things — even today — and there was very great joy there — and so we too are certainly required to rejoice through this — even in the mud — in body and spirit. Even so — amidst such mire and thick mud [רֶפֶשׁ וְטִיט הַיָּוֵן — Tehillim 40:3: "He drew me up from the roaring pit, from the thick mud." Even in the heaviest, most sinking mire — Hashem draws one up] — and such depths of sea that have spread now in the world because of our many sins — in the footsteps of the Mashiach [בְּעִקְבוֹת מְשִׁיחָא — Sotah 49b: the generation immediately before the Messianic arrival, characterized by unprecedented spiritual decline] — we merited to hear such awesome wonders — wonders of wonders. And if we were to say wonders of wonders ten thousand times — it would not suffice for a single word of this awesome matter the like of which has never been heard in the world. And still — how fortunate are we, how fortunate are we.
The words of your father.
Nussun of Breslov.
Overview: Parshas Lech Lecha, Wednesday. *Arom yatza ha'adam* (Iyov 1:21). *Batzar hirchavta li* (Tehillim 4:2 / LM I:195). *Azamra* for spiritual service; *batzar* for material suffering. *Shiva m'shivei ta'am*: now identified as the Rebbe's specific teaching in Likutay Moharan I:54 — the seven spiritual restorations that Hashem provides in advance (the *hikdim* principle). *Nachal novea m'kor chochmah*: now identified as Mishlai 18:4 and the literary source of the Rebbe's own name — the Rebbe is the flowing stream, the inexhaustible source of wisdom, the agent through whom the seven restorations reach us. The Yiddish passage: the heart and the spring, the true *ish chesed*. *Reifes v'tit hayaven* (Tehillim 40:3). *Ikvy meshicha* (Sotah 49b).