נג.

My heart and my longing, Mr. Z.

The true Tzadik has revealed words that give life to all souls — from the smallest to the greatest — from the loftiest heights to the very ultimate of the lowly levels. Incline your ear and hear (well) — open the eyes of your intellect and see and understand and behold the truth of truth! Remove from yourself the crookedness of heart and the wisdoms of vanity — distance them from you. Have mercy upon your soul — and incline your mind toward the true truth.

Shazar — who roams in the field of the Tzadik, to search and to gather his conversations and his Torah teachings, which are paths and highways and broad roads to attain and to know the Creator Yisburach — blessing and peace for a long life.

One must take care to remember well, to believe in oneself — that the root of one's soul is very great and very elevated, and it is rooted in the true son of the King — only that it has descended into the earthliness and physicality

of this world, precisely so that through this he will desire and long to escape and to flee with all his strength to the Tzadik who has paved the paths of teshuvah (-repentance/return), and widens them, and draws down true and correct counsels and wondrous rectifications — until he comes to the source of his soul and merits to return to Hashem and receive His mercy! Even when a person has transgressed what he has transgressed, and has fallen into the nethermost depths

without limit — Hashem Yisburach is found even there, and contracts Himself and conceals Himself through the ways of His awesome wonders, and reminds him every time with many and varied hints to strive with all his might to bind himself to the Tzadik — so that he merit through him to complete faith, which is the general principle and the very foundation of the entire Torah! Certainly it was from Hashem that He arranged for you through wondrous providence, through many kinds of hints and causes, the Tzadik — der grosser Man, der emmetser Ish Chessed {the great Man, the true Man of Lovingkindness}1 — in whose Torah one can find every sought thing.

But your immense longing and the burning of your good heart toward truth also merited you to this. Look with the eye of truth and take this deeply to heart — until all the lights and the rectifications of the Tzadik illuminate upon you. Fortunate are you — how good is your portion and how pleasant is your lot! The essential purpose of the creation of heaven and earth was only for this — that a person should begin anew every single time, as though he were born today, as though today is the very beginning of his start! Rabbainu za.tza.l.

warned greatly that it is forbidden to be old — meaning, to begin anew every time, and to think every time that he still has no existence at all — as though he has still not come into existence in the world, and he needs to begin to prepare himself so that he will have an existence in the world. And even one who is a great elder and has still not at all begun to do teshuvah, and he is very far from the holiness of the Torah as he is far — even so, it is forbidden to consider himself old, and let him not fall in his mind as though he has no further hope, Heaven forbid. And let him not say in his heart that he has already grown old in his deeds to the point where it is impossible for him to change. Rather — all the days that he lives upon the face of the earth until the day of his death, as long as the soul is within him, as long as he is able to move even one limb — let him overcome himself to educate himself every time, and begin afresh every time to prepare himself so that he will have an existence in the world.

And let him strengthen himself to make some beginning — whatever is possible — whether a small thing or a great thing. And let him give himself life from the little by little that he still merits to toil within the holiness of Israel. For no light movement, or sigh, or cry, or holy longing — even in the nethermost depths — is ever lost forever. And when he is strong in this, certainly Hashem Yisburach will help him to draw close and to return to Him Yisburach — and all the preparations and the desires and the longings and the yearnings and the small measure of toil he had to draw close to Hashem Yisburach — all of them will gather to help him! All the desires and evil traits of a person embitter a person's life — and through this, the person is like one wandering in a wilderness, in a place of chaos and emptiness and darkness. And all of this can only be repaired through the true Tzadik, who is the foundation of the world! The heart of a Jew in its inwardness is certainly always burning with love for Hashem Yisburach and for His Torah in truth. But the Satan and the evil wisdoms grow stronger every time against the good in a person, and wish to distract him from both worlds through his desires and his vanities. And the more one tunnels against it, the stronger it grows — and therefore it is a very great and lengthy war. But even so, the person would certainly overcome the evil — but the greatest obstacle is the old and foolish king, the impure one, the one clever for evil, the aspect of the klipa (-shell/husk) of Bilam — who, because of the abundance of the filth of his evil desires, especially the lust of licentiousness (taavas ni'uf), had an inflated arrogance and an evil eye, etc., which is the aspect of jealousy, lust, and honor.

And it was not enough for him that he was so misled and defiled himself so greatly — his evil and impure inclination further incited and led him astray, until he stood against the true Tzadik, the aspect of Moshe Rabbainu, and was greatly envious of him, and wished to entirely hide and conceal his light from Israel. And from him branch out all the troubles and exile of Israel, and all the corruptions and all the blemishes — from then until now, as we are in this bitter, darkened generation. But "Many are the thoughts in the heart of a man, but the counsel of Hashem — that shall stand" [Proverbs 19:21] — and His hand is always uppermost, and He completes and prevails always, and "the lip of truth endures forever" [Proverbs 12:19]. The transcriber, who supplicates and prays always for his success and his salvation in this world and the next. He seeks his wellbeing with love and longing, to meet in Purim with joy and dancing, to the melody: Shoshanat Ya'akov tzahala v'samcha — The rose of Yaakov rejoiced and was glad, when they together saw the light of the Tzadik. Yisroel Odesser 1 Der emmetser Ish Chessed — the True Man of Lovingkindness.

This refers to the third day of the Story of the Seven Beggars, the beggar who could not speak, whose greatness is attested by "The Great Man — the True Man of Lovingkindness." See there at length.

I give great thanks to Hashem with my mouth — that He has strengthened and encouraged us to gather wondrous treasures and precious, eternal, life-giving healings for the souls. One who looks upon them with the eye of truth will see within himself the precious splendor of their greatness — and the truth will testify to itself. May Hashem send us His light and His truth and always guide us in the path of truth. And may He incline our hearts to serve Him all the days of our lives in truth — to love peace and truth. Were it not for his outstanding disciple — our master and teacher Rabbi Nussun, may his memory be for a blessing — this new wondrous light would have been entirely concealed and hidden from the world! Very many and great are his deeds and his acts that he has prepared for us — to give us life as of this day. And his acts that he performed and prepared for all — for us and for all the generations — and has provided us with treasuries upon treasuries of faith and daas — that we never be shaken. Until all who see this great and awesome sight will be astounded and astonished and tremble. He will be astounded and astonished — he will be bewildered and tremble — all who see this new and awesome wonder — without end and without limit — which gives life to and sustains us through his wisdom in this generation — for all generations, in every generation and generation. Know, my brother — that everything that has happened to us all the days of our lives, and everything that happens in the world — is all hinted at in his holy Torah. And all who attend to this will be astounded and amazed. Know, my brother — that one who truly desires the truth — will certainly merit to understand the truth. Even though he has many difficulties and crookednesses, etc. I have set my heart to write — in these our generations, in which hearts are going and diminishing — because of the very extremity of the darkness (of this) of these our generations, in which hearts are going and diminishing. Hashem knows the truth — that the matter of writing is very hard for me. The matter of writing is very hard for me — for hearts are going and diminishing. …With great warmth and great passion — whose heart blazes like a burning fire without measure and without end — to make known and to publicize in every place in the world the secret of the awesomeness of the greatness of the Nachal Noavaya. Who alone is able to take us out from the darkness — and to redeem us from all the darknesses passing over us. Which is the end of the era of the exile in these our generations.

Israel Dov Odesser