מז.

A bad, bitter and cursed year — with all the curses

and the bans and the blows and harsh and evil diseases — to the wicked, the murderous and the base ones who dispute and pursue and speak slander and a completely false bad name against the truly God-fearing and the worthy.

And who insult and shame and desecrate Hashem and the Tzadik and our truly worthy people.

And especially the greatest wicked one among them — who is… for there is no wicked one, impure or abominable in the entire world like him.

He is a gilgul (reincarnation) of the wicked Haman, may his name be blotted out. And this defiled wicked one is the father of all fathers of impurity.

And all who come into contact with him are also the father of all fathers of impurity.

And certainly they will not rise at the resurrection of the dead (and will have no portion in the World to Come). May Hashem speedily cut off all the lips of falsehood of the accursed wicked ones — the desecrators of Hashem — the sinners and those who cause the many to sin.

May they be blotted from the book of the living — and may their name and their memory be wiped out from the world forever. Desecrators of Hashem — of whom in all the days of my life I have never seen such a wicked, murderous, cruel and base person as him — a man of blood and deceit, a liar, a cheat, a hypocrite, a flatterer, one who steals minds, an adulterer and a heretic, etc.

My dear and most pleasant, Mr. Z. Shazar — peace and all good.

Because of the greatness of your longing for truth, you have compelled me to write these words of truth even in my weakness. Flee quickly, save your soul — do not look back at all. Praise be to G-d, we have someone to rely upon. Praise be to G-d — there is and there is, in this generation, the power of the Tzadik, the Beggar who had no hands.

On the sixth day of the seven days of feasting, they were also joyful, and were longing to bring here that Beggar who had no hands. And behold, he came and said: Here I am — behold, I have come to you for the wedding. And he kissed them, and said to them: You think that I am a blemished person in my hands? I am not blemished at all in my hands — only, in truth I have great power in my hands, but I do not use the power in my hands in this world, because I need this power for another matter. And I have approval of this from the Water Fortress (fun das vasiriken Shlos — from the water castle).

For there is a story: Once a certain king lusted after a princess, and he worked with stratagems to seize her, until he succeeded and seized her. Once, that king dreamed that she stood over him and killed him, and he awoke, and the dream entered his heart. And he called all the dream interpreters, and they interpreted it for him literally — that the dream would be fulfilled literally, that she would kill him. And the king could not find counsel for himself as to what to do with her. If he kills her — he is distressed. If he sends her away from his presence — this angered him, because another man would take her, and this angered him greatly, because he had worked so hard to attain her and now she would come into another's hands. And even if he sends her away and she comes to another — then certainly the dream can come true, that she will kill him, since she is with another. If he keeps her with him — he fears because of the dream. And the king did not know what to do with her. In the meantime his love for her was damaged, little by little, because of the dream, and every time it was damaged more and more. And likewise her love also became damaged more and more each time, until there became in her a hatred of him — and she fled from him. And the king sent after her to seek her, and they came and told him she was found near the Water Fortress.

And who wishes to aggrandize himself and to dominate and to rule — like the wicked Haman who wished to dominate and to rule and to aggrandize himself. For there is a Water Fortress, and there are ten walls one within the other, and all of them are of water, and also the ground that one walks upon inside the fortress is also of water, and likewise there are trees and fruits there — all of water. The beauty of the fortress and the great novelty of this fortress is impossible to describe, for certainly it is a most wondrous novelty since it is a fortress of water. And to enter inside this fortress is impossible, for whoever enters would drown in the water, since it is all water. And the aforementioned princess — when she fled, she reached that fortress, and was walking around it. And they told the king she was walking around that fortress, and the king went with his army to seize her. When the princess saw this, she resolved to run inside the fortress — for she would rather drown in the water than be seized by the king and be with him. And perhaps even so she would be saved and be able to enter inside the aforementioned Water Fortress. When the king saw that she was fleeing into the water, he said: Since it is so — he commanded to shoot her, and if she dies, she dies. And they shot at her, and all ten kinds of arrows tipped with ten kinds of poisons reached her. And she fled into the fortress and entered inside it, and passed through the gates of the walls of water, and she passed through and entered inside all ten walls of the Water Fortress — until she came to the innermost part and fell there and remained in a swoon. And I heal her — meaning he who has no hands, the aforementioned one. And I am able to enter inside all ten walls, and I am able to draw out from her — from the aforementioned princess — all ten kinds of arrows, and I know all ten kinds of pulses through the ten — the ten fingers — for with each and every finger of the ten fingers, one knows one particular pulse from the ten kinds of pulses, and I am able to heal her through all the ten kinds of melody. And therefore I heal her. It turns out that I have such power in my hands. And now I give you this as a gift. And there was made there a great joy and an exceedingly vast delight. Rabbainu za.tza.l. said: Even if I knew nothing else whatsoever except this story of the Seven Beggars — that too would be a very great novelty, for this story is a most wondrous novelty. Our teacher Rabbi Nussun za.tza.l. said: The secret of this story is hidden from all the worlds — yet nonetheless we have permission to search and seek within it whatever hints we are able to find, as I understood from his words. And the matter is: the King's Daughter is the aspect of the souls of Israel, who is called a King's Daughter, in the aspect of "All the glory of the King's Daughter is within" [Psalms 45:14]. And the king who seized her is the evil inclination (yetzer hara), in the aspect of "an old and foolish king" [Ecclesiastes 4:13]. And he saw in his dream that she would kill him — for he himself sees and understands that in the end the souls of Israel will overcome him and kill him and remove him from the world, in the aspect of "and the spirit of impurity I will remove from the land" [Zechariah 13:2]. And he thought thoughts about what to do with her — and through this their love between them became damaged, and she fled from before him. That is: even when the soul of a Jew is subjugated beneath the yetzer hara — since he sees that in the end she will overcome him — through this he begins to think thoughts about the soul as to what to do with her, and through this their love between them became damaged. For at first there was some love and attachment between the soul of the Jew and the yetzer hara — for because of the enormity of her exile, having been subjugated in his hands, she forgot her own greatness, to the extent that she had some love and connection with him. But because the soul saw and understood that he is plotting thoughts against her, and wishes to utterly destroy her, Heaven forbid — through this she begins to grow stronger and to think about how to escape from him, etc.

Israel Dov Odesser