May Hashem Yisborach guard you from all evil, and remove illness from your midst, and grant you good and long life — Omain, so may it be His will.
Beloved children — you yourselves can understand the anguish from your letter — from what I have heard of the tidings from your household, one after another. May Hashem Yisborach already have compassion. But who can help today — none other than Hashem Yisborach alone. And we can do no more than beseech Him always — perhaps He will have mercy. No doubt you have heard what is happening here. Many say that here, chas v'sholom [G-d forbid], it has been worse than in Tultshin — very many people have gone missing [died]. May Hashem Yisborach already have mercy. And so — what counsel can I give you today? One hears every day that they will, chas v'sholom, seal off the town. In my own house as well, my daughter-in-law Chaya — may she live — is unwell. May Hashem Yisborach send her a complete recovery soon. The anguish and the suffering and the fears that each person carries in these times — you yourselves understand. Today it is impossible to give any counsel whatsoever. One cannot help — only to beseech Hashem Yisborach with mercy and supplication — perhaps He will relent, perhaps He will have mercy.
Meanwhile I look out every hour to hear from the children who are lodging at your home — what they are doing [how they are faring]. May Hashem Yisborach send them a complete recovery from Heaven soon, and guard all of you from now on, and gladden your souls with all goodness speedily.
Beloved children — for the sake of Hashem — strengthen yourselves, and do not let yourselves go. Have bitachon [trust] in Hashem Yisborach — He will not abandon you, chas v'sholom. But surely He will not stretch out His hand [Iyov 30:24] — He will yet help you and console you with all manner of consolations and great salvations. Whatever has been — it was surely all for the good. And going forward He will surely watch over you, and as a father who desires his son [Mishlai 3:12] — He will cherish you and save you with all goodness — and everything will be transformed to good. And more than this I cannot write, on account of the great anguish I feel for you and from every direction.
May Hashem Yisborach have mercy upon us and upon all of Israel, and say to the angel: Withdraw your hand [Sh'muel Bais 24:16] — and return to us and have compassion upon us.
The words of your father — who awaits every moment to hear the good from you. Please hasten to inform me at once from your household and of the welfare of each one individually. May Hashem Yisborach have mercy and cause us to hear good tidings from one another always. The words of one who awaits salvation.
Nussun of Breslov.
Inform us also of the welfare of my sister's son, Rabbi Aizik — may his light shine — and of the welfare of all our anshei shlomaynu [members of our community] and our beloved friends and companions. May Hashem have mercy in His abundant mercies from now on — upon us and upon all of Israel — for it is a time of trouble for Yaakov — and from it he will be saved. [Yirmiyahu 30:7]
Postscript — Would I Had the Wing of a DoveMy beloved son — would that He had given me the wing of a dove — that I could fly to you and see you face to face. But what is to be done — for the mountain stands high between us [Aramaic idiom; cf. Brochos 7a — here: the roads are sealed by the plague] — and for one who goes out or comes in there is no peace. For the sake of Hashem — for the sake of Hashem — be strong and resolute — now — even now — and do not let yourself be pulled after the sorrow so greatly, chas v'sholom. For Hashem is with you — fear not and be not dismayed. Trust in Hashem, for He will not forsake you. We are obligated to deposit our spirit and our souls into His hands, Yisborach — and the good in His eyes He will do with us. Now everyone knows that there is no counsel and no strategy — only to cast oneself upon Hashem Yisborach.
Remember now how much you gave yourself life with the verse Cast upon Hashem your burden, and He will sustain you [Tehillim 55:23] and so forth — this past summer. Now — now — the time has arrived for you to give yourself life with this verse more and more. And Hashem will save you. And at this time it is impossible to extend further — until a letter reaches me from you speedily — and salvation belongs to Hashem.
Postscript — The Half-Ruble; The Twenty-Four RedemptionsThe half new-ruble I received, and I did what is incumbent upon me — to pray to Hashem Yisborach on the eve of Shabbos close to the reception of Shabbos — and I recited the prayer of the twenty-four [esrim v'arba] kinds of pidyonos [redemptions] and so forth. May Hashem Yisborach rouse the heart of the tzadik who is able to perform this pidyon — and annul all the harsh decrees from upon us and upon all of Israel.
Blessed be our G-d Who has helped us until here — that we know even now of such exalted matters as these — which carry within them the power to give us life even now, and to gladden our souls always — if we but resolve to strengthen ourselves and to set our hearts well upon all the chassodim [acts of lovingkindness] and the goodnesses — eternal, wondrous, and awesome — which He has bestowed upon us in His mercy and the abundance of His lovingkindness.
Overview: One of the most raw and heartbreaking letters in the entire collection — and structurally one of the most unusual. Written during the cholera epidemic of 1831 that was devastating the Jewish communities of Breslov and Tultshin. Reb Nussun writes three successive passages in Yiddish — the vernacular of home and urgency — each followed immediately by the scribe's Hebrew paraphrase of his own words. This double-layer structure (Yiddish original / Hebrew gloss) is preserved in the manuscript and speaks to how the community both received and sanctified his most unguarded moments. Sick children are lodging at Yitzchok's home. Reb Nussun's own daughter-in-law is ill. The roads are sealed by quarantine. And yet — out of total helplessness — rises the most concentrated Breslov teaching: cast yourself upon Hashem. The scribal postscript noting that the plague subsided within a week transforms the letter retrospectively into a testimony of answered prayer.