מא.

The essential honor of Hashem Yisburach most of all is through the Tzadik — who brings all the distant ones close to Hashem Yisburach. For this is the essential wholeness of the magnification of His honor in perfection — that through his power (his mercies) we nullify our paltry and very deficient intellect and walk in the ways of the Tzadik. May Hashem strengthen your heart and arouse you with a great arousal — to think and to long to have mercy upon the people of Israel with true mercy.

May Hashem lengthen the days of your life and strengthen your heart. May Hashem strengthen your heart and magnify your daas — and arouse you to think and to long to have mercy upon the people of Israel — to illuminate their eyes with the light of the new lights — the light of all lights — which now illuminates in the world, the like of which has never existed in the days of old. And to bestow His good upon the entire world — for all of them need to benefit from his Torah.

My dearest heart, Mr. Zalman Shazar — who abandons his own honor and casts his life away in order to glorify and to publicize in the world, with a great thunderous voice and with a warm and impassioned heart, the name of the Tzadik, the Beggar [der Bettler], the hunchback [der Hookir] who elevates the entire world from the scale of guilt to the scale of merit, from all the bad places to the aspect of "above place." Fortunate is his portion and his lot. The Tzadik is faithful — to make peace for him, portion facing portion. Blessing and peace and life. And upon his Torah depends the vitality and the repair of all the worlds. My beloved brother — be very strong and courageous with all your might! Do not panic, do not become confused, and do not fall in spirit whatsoever from anything in the world. For blessed be Hashem, we have broad shoulders upon which to lean — as Rabbainu za.tza.l. said: "Ich bin nit a ba'al chatotros" {I am not a hunchback} at all — on the contrary, I have shoulders that are of the aspect of "the few that contain the many," and I have approval for this. For once there was a conversation and a story, that there were people who boasted about themselves in this regard, in this quality — that each one boasted that he possesses this quality of "the few that contain the many." And at one of them people were smiling and laughing. And the rest, who boasted of this quality of "the few that contain the many," their claims were accepted. But the quality of "the few that contain the many" that I possess is greater than all of them. For one of those mentioned boasted that his mind is of the aspect of "the few that contain the many" — because he carries in his mind thousands and tens of thousands of people, with all their needs, and all their conduct, and all their situations and movements — all of it, entirely, he carries in his mind. And therefore he is "the few that contain the many," because his mind carries so many people together with all the above. And they laughed at him and said that people amount to nothing and he amounts to nothing. And one of them spoke up and said: I have seen "the few that contain the many" of this kind — for once I saw a mountain that had a great deal of dung and filth placed upon it, and it was a wonder to me how so much dung and filth had come to be upon that mountain. And there was one man there beside that mountain, and he said: all this comes from me — because that person was sitting there beside that mountain and was constantly throwing upon that mountain his own dung and excrement from his eating and drinking, and defiling it there — until through him the dung and filth accumulated greatly upon that mountain. It turns out that this man is "the few that contain the many" — because through him the dung multiplied so greatly! And so is the quality of "the few that contain the many" of the aforementioned man who boasted of his mind, that it holds so many people! The conclusion — see the Story of the Bettlers, the fifth day.1 The transcriber who loves him with all his heart truly, and supplicates for his wellbeing and his success. May Hashem grant him strength and health to complete such a merit for the public the like of which has no equal — that he has begun to publicize the name of the Tzadik, upon which the entire complete redemption depends. 1 This refers to the Story of the Seven Beggars by Rabbainu Hakadosh za.tza.l., the story of the fifth beggar — the one who had no hands.

Israel Dov Odesser