For his words are living and enduring and precious for ever and for all eternity. For although they are words of simplicity and wholeness — yet it is very heavy and very difficult to receive them — on account of the multitude of curtains and screens that separate — and the confusions of mind of each person — and the foolishnesses of each person that are called by the world: wisdoms. These surround and twist the heart greatly in many bewildering ways.
And the essential in what weakens a person's mind and makes himself like a man of truth — until many of such so-called wise men say in their hearts: what use will such words be to me? For after all, I myself know the truth — what I am doing and what is being done with me — and so forth and so forth. Until one begins to distance oneself from crying out and from supplications. And it is written (Yerushalmi Berachos 9): One day you abandon Me — two days I will abandon you. Until, G-d forbid, days or years pass — and one becomes very distant.
Happy is the person who heeds him — to be diligent at the doorways of his Torah and his holy conversations day by day — to begin each time anew — to long and yearn with new and holy yearnings and desires — and to bring forth the longing from his mouth in words of conversations and supplications and cries and pleas and groanings and sighs — and to pour out his speech each day like a son before his father — however it may be, however it may be.
And even if one cannot speak at all — let him strengthen himself and prepare himself each time to cry out and to plead — however he can, however he can.
For no cry and no word is ever lost — and even a mere will-to-cry is not lost — for there is no good desire that is ever lost. [lait re'uta tava d'is'avad — Aramaic]
Happy are you, my son — if you strengthen yourself to walk in the path you described. But even more — you must urge yourself and strengthen yourself to be the greater part of the day — nearly the whole of it — in joy and gladness. To strengthen yourself to refresh your mind — to gladden yourself in all the ways you heard from me — whether through the good points, or through what we have merited to know from such a light, or through who has not made me a gentile — and the essential: through mili d'shtuta u'vdichuta (words of foolishness and jesting). And there is no need to elaborate on this — for you have already heard much about it. But for the sake of Hashem — do not forget one word of your learning — for all of it is greatly needed by you.
And greatly you also gave me life — in what you wrote that in your weakness you snatch a little learning each day. This is the right approach — and thus it is beautiful for you to accustom yourself: never to exempt yourself from words of Torah, G-d forbid — even in the time of weakness and preoccupation — and in every manner of confusion, G-d forbid — for always one can snatch some good according to the ways you heard from me.
And fulfil what our Sages, of blessed memory, said (Menachos 99b): Words of Torah — let them not be an obligation upon you — and you have no permission to exempt yourself from them. May my son be wise and gladden my heart [Mishlei 27:11] — and my eyes are to Hashem that it should be fulfilled in you: If my son is wise — my heart will rejoice — even I [ibid.]. Amen.
The words of your father — who awaits that you return speedily to your full strength — and who prays abundantly on your behalf.
Nussun of Breslov.
Overview: One of the most spiritually elevated letters in the collection. Written in Sivan 5590 — just after Shavuos — this letter begins with a moment of extraordinary intimacy: his son's letter arrives precisely as Reb Nussun stands in morning prayer at the words "Our Father, the Merciful Father — have mercy upon us." Everything that follows radiates from that coincidence. The great teaching on the curtains of false wisdom, the Yerushalmi on abandonment, the declaration that no cry is ever lost, and the citation of Menachos 99b — all are woven together into one of the collection's most complete letters.
The Talmudic principle — divray Torah lo yihyeh alecha chova (words of Torah should not be a burden upon you) — is one of the most liberating rulings in the tradition. It means: Torah study must never become so heavy a legal obligation that a person is crushed under it and gives up entirely. Even a moment, even a fragment — is enough, and is required. Reb Nussun applies it with precision to his son's situation of weakness and partial engagement.