לח.

The essential honor and greatness of the kingship is specifically through humility.

My dearest, Mr. Z. Shazar, possessor of a keen eye, to perceive and to grasp who is the true King over Israel, who has a wondrous instrument — when it is placed upon any type of creature or animal in the world, at once it begins to play the most wondrous and exquisitely pleasant melody, a pleasure so wonderful and immense to hear, that all the pleasures of the entire world are as nothing, uncounted and utterly nullified, compared to the wondrous pleasure of this melody. May Hashem give him life and guide him along the good path upon which he should walk.

My dearest and most beloved, as my soul — be strong and courageous! Do not panic, do not become confused, do not fall in spirit from anything in the world whatsoever, whatever may be — for blessed be Hashem, we have broad shoulders upon which to lean. Because specifically now, in this darkened world of right now, in the strength of the very depth of our fall and our descent — we have fallen wondrously low (in this orphaned generation, this impoverished generation) — Hashem has caused a new light to shine in the world, a novelty of novelties (awesome and exalted beyond measure), a pure and lustrous light, the light of all lights, supernal above all that is supernal, the like of which has never existed from the days of the world, which has the power to repair everything.

And therefore it is proper for us to roll about in mud and mire, and to crawl upon the ground, even among serpents and scorpions, until we merit to draw and to suckle from his holy light — for as long as a person strives and seeks and searches to draw close to the true Tzadik, he has hope, always. Even if he has fallen to the very depths of the lowest abyss, and below it, to the point where he barely knows how to distinguish between the holiness of Israel and the filth of the nations (for the Tzadik who is the aspect of Moshe elevates) — because through the Tzadik who is the aspect of Moshe, all are able to ascend from actual apostasy to the holiness of Israel.

My heart has been overturned within me — destroyed and demolished to its very foundation — and I am shattered with utter breakings without measure. And I sigh and weep with burning tears without pause — over the great loss that I have lost — with the passing of my righteous wife, may she rest in peace. I have no words in my mouth to tell of her praises, and to describe the greatness of the nobility of her holy soul. I console myself only with her wondrous righteousness and her beautiful and good deeds — that all the days of her life she merited to perform with self-sacrifice, from within poverty and distress and many bitter afflictions the like of which have no equal in the world. And all her aim and desire was to sanctify the name of Hashem and the name of the Tzadik — as is known to you somewhat of this. From the very depths of my heart I bless all of you — with the blessing of "Blessed be he who has come." And especially to your nephew who has merited to tread upon the holy soil of the land of our forefathers — the land of our desire and our hope, the land of our rest and our consolation — the place of faith and the holy wisdom, to know the Creator of the world Yisburach. May he receive blessing from Hashem — and may they succeed in all that they turn to — in the physical and the spiritual — for long and good years.

Hashem — through the multitude of the hidden recesses of His sealed and concealed ways and conduct, hidden from all thought and all investigation — has rained upon the earth a heavy rain and a torrent of mighty waters of heresies and apostasy in these latter days. Until all the high mountains — which are the honored and the prominent — were covered. And through His abundant compassion He prepared healing and salvation in advance — and sent us a man after His own heart, whom He found favor. And He called his name Nachman — saying: "this one will comfort us from our labor and from the toil of our hands" [Genesis 5:29]. And He commanded him to build the ark of truth and faith — so that all who wish to be saved should come and enter into his chambers, and close the doors upon them, and hide in the shadow of his awesome wisdom. For who can praise and who can express the immensity of the sublimity of his heroic deeds — that he performed wondrously with his wonders — to prepare and to provide food and vitality for the people of his household and for all the souls of Israel for every generation. That they should delight and take pleasure in the splendor and the glory and the pleasantness of his awesome Torah teachings and stories — taken from the field of the most supernal lofty wisdom that has never yet been revealed in the world — which are enduring and faithful and beneficial forever.

In the future the Holy Blessed One will take vengeance upon the people of His nation — from those false prophets and false messiahs who fill their bellies with honor and arrogance. And who present themselves as the Tzadikim and leaders of the generation — and hunt precious souls and prey and devour them with a foot of arrogance and falsehood. And who blind the eyes of Israel from seeing the light of the true leader-Tzadik, who reveals and illuminates the light of Hashem to all who come into the world from generation to generation. And the more humility the king possesses, the more his kingdom extends.

Israel Dov Odesser