מב.

[This letter opens mid-sentence in the source text.] …Who has a noble and very lofty soul — hewn from a holy source, from the great ones of Israel, the pillars of the Torah. I greatly exult in the salvation of Hashem and His immense kindnesses that He performed with us — that after several years in which you gave your soul, you have bound and cleaved yourself to the light of the true Tzadik — the new light, who has revealed wondrous and awesome novelties beyond all reckoning that have never been revealed in the world. To give us life in these our generations — in the very ultimate complete darkness of these our generations — in the very ultimate of our lowliness — in which we have wondrously descended at the end of this last exile.

Of all those who have turned back from Hashem Yisburach and His Torah — through heresies and false faiths — when Israel now strays greatly after the vanity of heresies and false faiths. Now, now the time has arrived — that you strengthen your warm heart and sharpen and deepen your mind and your thought — to think and to long to have mercy upon the people of Israel with true mercy — to make known and to publicize in all the worlds the name of the true Tzadik found now in the world. Until through the increase of peace they all transform themselves to the faith of Israel and subjugate themselves to us of their own will. Set your heart well to every single word of the words of the Tzadik — from our words. The King Moshiach will draw down in the world the daas of the true Tzadik — with a wondrous revelation and a wondrous true intellect in ultimate perfection.

Through which all will walk in the paths of teshuvah and return to Hashem Yisburach — even those most utterly distant. For all of the Torah and the repair of all the worlds depends upon him — through the wondrous Providence of Hashem Yisburach.

And he will not intend for his own honor at all — only for the honor of Hashem Yisburach (alone) and for the honor of the Tzadik. Through humility, honor comes. When new honor comes to a person — great labor and great battle are needed. One must be very careful not to make use of the honor for one's own needs and one's own benefit at all. Only receive the honor for the sake of Hashem Yisburach and for the sake of the Tzadik, etc.

One must fear and tremble from the honor — for honor is a great danger, a mortal danger. Therefore when honor reaches a person — one must be very careful to receive it properly, for the sake of Hashem Yisburach alone. For if, Heaven forbid, he blemishes in the honor even by a hairsbreadth and does not receive it properly — it is possible to be taken away, Heaven forbid, through this. Every person must minimize his own honor and multiply the honor of the Omnipresent. And not be a pursuer of honor — only flee from honor. And then he merits to the understanding of the depths of the Torah. The essential honor of Hashem Yisburach is when the most distant ones bring themselves close to Hashem Yisburach — for then His honor Yisburach is made more precious and magnified greatly. And also a person must not say: how can I draw close to Hashem Yisburach — and I am so distant through my multitude of evil deeds? For on the contrary — the more distant he is — the more the honor of Hashem Yisburach will be magnified through him, when he strives to return and to draw close to Him Yisburach. For this is the essential honor of Hashem Yisburach.

According to the honor one honors the hand of the Tzadik — so does the honor ascend to its root. And the essential matter is to honor the God-fearing with a whole heart.

My dearest, Mr. Z. Shazar, who aspires and strives to swim and to soar in the wondrously and awesomely beautiful waters of daas (-realization of knowledge), which transform and elevate from the profane to the holy, from the impure to the pure — may Hashem lengthen your years in blessing and peace and all eternal good. My heart, my dearest — you must take to heart that all that we are speaking of regarding the greatness of Rabbainu za.tza.l., our intention is not merely to speak of it, but to walk in it, and thereby to rescue our soul through it from the Gehennom of this world, which is filled with anguish and pain… Chanukah is the aspect of the drawing down of the light of truth, to subdue the filth of falsehood — which is the aspect of the kingship of the slave — and to strengthen the truth, which is the aspect of the holy kingdom of the true son of the King. Through the light of the Chanukah candle one merits to draw down the illumination of truth even in the darkness of night, to nullify the exchange of the slave who was exchanged with the son of the King — that we may merit to clarify the true name, to know who is truly worthy to be called by the name of the slave's son, and who is truly worthy to be called by the name of the King's son — until the name of the true Tzadik is revealed and publicized, who illuminates to every one of Israel in every type of darkness and blackness, and rescues him from the flood of mighty waters, which are the aspect of the waters of the Flood that grow stronger every time to destroy the world, Heaven forbid. All the aspect of the falsehood and the exchange of the King's son who was exchanged with the slave is only in regard to the name — that they falsify and exchange the name from this one to that one, as in the awesome story2 — that the midwife exchanged the infants, and placed the King's son beside the maidservant, and the maidservant's son beside the queen, and through this the world erred and thought that the maidservant's son was the King's son, and the true King's son was the maidservant's son. Behold — the essential exchange is only in the name, because certainly the bodies of the infants cannot be exchanged, because the King's son, wherever he may be, is truly the King's son, and likewise in the opposite — the maidservant's son, wherever he may be, is the maidservant's son. Only the essential falsehood and exchange is in the name — for through the exchange it caused that they called the maidservant's son by a false name, calling him by the name of the son of a King, and similarly in the opposite, the King's son they called by the name of the maidservant's son. And so in all the exchanges and falsehoods in the world — whether one who is famous as a Tzadik falsely, or conversely — they dispute the true Tzadik and say falsehoods about him as though he were wicked; or both are Tzadikim, but one is greater than the other by thousands and tens of thousands of levels without measure — yet in the eyes of the world it is reversed, and the one of lesser stature is great and very famous to them, and the one of greater stature is small to them. And similarly all the other changes and exchanges that exist in the world — in the general world, and in particular in every country and every city — all of these exchanges and changes are only in the aspect of the name. For the true Tzadik, wherever he may be, is a true Tzadik, and he himself certainly cannot be exchanged, Heaven forbid — only the essential exchange is in the name, that they call him a false name, saying falsehoods about him that he is not a Tzadik, and so forth. And similarly when a wicked person or someone of lesser stature is famous under the name of a very great Tzadik — in truth, notwithstanding all this, this famous person, wherever he may be, is as he is — only the essential falsehood and exchange is in the name, that they call him by the name of a great Tzadik falsely! The true Tzadik — through the fire of Torah and daas which he reveals with flashing flames, in the aspect of "Are not my words like fire, says Hashem" [Jeremiah 23:29] — burns and utterly destroys all the thorns and thistles, which are the aspect of the false faiths of the famous false leaders, through whom heresy and difficulties and confusions are strengthened — the kind the heretics introduce regarding Hashem Yisburach and regarding His Torah and His true Tzadikim — and from there is the essential prolonging of the exile! The dispute against the true Tzadik — that has confounded us more than all the iniquities combined — because everything was being repaired through the true Tzadik, who illuminates for Israel holy pathways to return them from their evil ways and to repair them all. But the ba'al davar (-the adversary) spreads in length and breadth to keep people very far from the true Tzadik, upon whom the entire hope of Israel depends. And the greater a person is in stature, and the more elevated an aspect he possesses within himself — the more the adversary grows stronger against him, to prevent him from drawing close to this Tzadik. For if he would draw close — who knows what good and what repair for all of Israel would spring forth from it! 2 This refers to the Story of the Exchanged Children (Ma'aseh miShinui HaVeladot) from Rabbainu Hakadosh's Stories.

Israel Dov Odesser