Ullim LeTroofah – Letter Twenty-Four | Reb Nussun: Wonders That Cannot Be Told

Ullim LeTroofah

עלים לתרופה

Leaves for Healing

The Sacred Letters of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov and Reb Nussun of Breslov, of blessed memory

LETTER TWENTY-FOUR

Sunday, Parshas Vayikra, 3rd of Adar Beis · Year 5586 (1826)
Written while away from Breslov — location not specified

Blessed be Hashem

My beloved ones and my brothers.

I have already cautioned you, and I caution you again — that you should set your heart carefully to all the matters that pass over us and over me in particular. Remember well, well, all that has passed in this matter — and when Hashem will have completed all His work, you will see and understand the wonders of Hashem — the wonders of the Perfect of Knowledge.

What shall I say, what shall I speak? — We will give thanks to You and recount Your praise [cf. the Shacharis liturgy] and so forth — and for Your miracles that are with us every day, and for Your wonders and Your goodnesses at every time and every moment. If G-d wills it, when I return home I will tell you a little — a very little — but not everything, for it is impossible to tell it in any manner except to each person according to what he is able to gauge in his own heart.

Be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous — to walk in the ways of our great and awesome Master, may the memory of the righteous and holy one be for a blessing — as I have instructed you, according to what I heard from his holy mouth. And just as I heard — so I have told you, in truth.

And Hashem, who knows and is witness — I merited to understand his awesome and wholehearted intention more than all the world — as he himself testified about me explicitly, with a full mouth, many times.

And the essential thing — that you strengthen yourselves in the Teffilos (prayers) and in personal speech between oneself and one's Creator. And to not fall on account of anything in the world — only to strengthen and to renew yourself at every time always. And beyond this there is no free time to elaborate.

The words of one who loves you in truth for eternity — who speaks in truth from the good point within the heart — who awaits to rejoice in your salvation in this world and the next, for eternity.

Nussun, as above.

Overview: This letter — one of the shortest in the collection but among the most charged — is addressed to the entire Breslov community. Reb Nussun is away from home and has apparently just experienced something of great spiritual magnitude — something he cannot fully describe in a letter, only in person, and even then only "a very little" and only according to each person's capacity. He writes to say: remember everything that has happened, be strong, walk in Rebbe Nachman's path. And then comes the extraordinary self-testimony: that Rebbe Nachman himself declared, explicitly and many times, that Reb Nussun understood his intentions more deeply than anyone else in the world.

Key Themes

Wonders That Cannot Be Told Reb Nussun does not describe what happened. He says only: when Hashem completes His work, you will see and understand. For now, he can tell only a very little, face to face, and even that — only according to what each person can gauge in their own heart. The experience is beyond language. This restraint itself is a teaching.

To Each According to His Heart "It is impossible to tell it in any manner except to each person according to what he is able to gauge in his own heart" — this is the Breslov understanding of spiritual communication. True teaching is not a broadcast. It is a meeting between what the teacher knows and what the student is ready to receive.

Rebbe Nachman's Testimony "I merited to understand his awesome intention more than all the world — as he himself testified about me explicitly, with a full mouth, many times." This is one of the most remarkable self-statements in Breslov literature — not boasting, but a solemn witness, invoked here as the basis of authority for everything Reb Nussun teaches and transmits.

Speaking from the Good Point The closing formula — "who speaks in truth from the good point within the heart" — is a Breslov teaching in itself. The nekudah tovah (good point) within every person is the concept of Likutay Moharan 282: finding the good in oneself and others, speaking from that point, is the basis of all true connection and encouragement.

Note on Parshas Vayikra

The letter is written on Parshas Vayikra — the opening portion of Leviticus, the book of the sacrificial service. Vayikra opens with G-d calling to Moshe from the Tent of Meeting. That Reb Nussun — who has just experienced something he cannot put into words — writes on this Shabbos about wonders and the limits of speech is quietly resonant: Vayikra is itself a book about the moment when human experience meets the Divine presence, and the structures that enable us to approach what cannot be fully named.