Letter 387

The inwardness of your heart and my heart — know and feel the merit that we have merited. To bind ourselves to the light of all lights — the pure and the lustrous — the most select of the most select Tzadikim — the Nachal Noavaya Mekor Chuchma. In whose springs of the wisdom of His Torah — He illuminates within us a true and genuinely true faith — holy and upright. Which is the source of wisdom — through which one comes to the conceptions of G-dliness and His wisdom. Therefore I entice him toward good — to think deep thoughts with a strong will. To overcome himself to always contemplate his books every day — to see and to hear the new lights within them. Until the fragrances — the holy spirits from the holy words — enter our hearts — for fulfillment and for deed. For the adversary always lies in ambush for the person — and especially for his end and his conclusion — especially now in these generations. And it is impossible to leap and to jump over the Gehennom that is this world — except through the power of the true Tzadik and his holy counsels — the deep and sincere and very simple ones — for each and every one — in every place and every time — however things may be.

"And from your own flesh you shall not hide yourself" — namely — not to hide your eyes from having compassion upon your flesh — namely the flesh of your body. For one must have very great compassion upon the body — to see to purify it. So that it is able to inform him of all the illuminations and the attainments that the soul attains. For the soul of every person always sees and attains most lofty things. But the body does not know of them. Therefore every single person must have very great compassion upon the flesh of the body — to see to purify the body. Until the body sees and beholds the most supernal attainments that the soul always attains. And this is the aspect of "And from my own flesh I behold G-d" [Job 19:26] — specifically from my flesh. But when the body has brazenness — from the aspect of "and the dogs — brazen of soul" [Isaiah 56:11] — who is strong and firm in the desires — the soul cannot lean upon and draw close to the body — to inform it of its attainments. And this is the aspect of "From my own flesh — I behold G-d" — specifically from my flesh. Through the flesh of the body one beholds G-d.

Namely…