The Great Doctor — Even If Very Sick, Even If Struck — Hold On to Rabbainu

[Yiddish:] "My dear brother — I would very much like to see you soon. Do not worry — G‑d, blessed be He, is so great — and one does not know at all. There is such a place where everything is altogether something different — from sins they become merits [מעוונות נהיים זכיות — a Breslov teaching: in the presence of the true Tzadik, even one's sins are transformed into merits through the power of repentance and connection]. The essential: one must only hold on to the holy Rebbe. I spoke last week in Jaffa with R' Zev: even though one is wounded, even though one is ill, even though one is in danger, even though one receives so many blows — even how it is — the essential is that one has the great Doctor. Then it is already good. Everything will heal. But G‑d forbid — when one loses the great Doctor — that is the worst. That is terrible — when one is cut off, G‑d forbid, from Rabbainu the Holy one. But when one holds on to Rabbainu the Holy one — however it goes, however it is — one must already be joyful and hold on and dance from great joy. For 'if you have acquired understanding — what have you lacked? If you lack understanding — what have you acquired?' [דעת חסרת מה קנית, דעת קנית מה חסרת — a Talmudic saying (Nedarim 41a): "If you have acquired knowledge — what do you lack? If you lack knowledge — what have you acquired?" Used here in the Breslov sense: דעת — divine awareness and connection — is the only essential. Da d'iba kulei bei — "he who has this has everything" (Aramaic from the same Talmudic passage)]." The baal davar hides the point — so that one cannot be joyful. But one must reckon: I know of such a holy Rebbe — such a light as never before was in the world — and as his like will never come again. And I am called from among his people — and I suffer for his sake. And I know that there is the holy Tzion — for which one must have self-sacrifice. Whoever wants to have compassion on himself and save himself from both worlds — for eternity and forever — must give over his soul to come there and have verbal confession [וידוי דברים — the spoken confession at Rabbainu's grave: a core Breslov practice, considered the primary act of repentance]. And even before that — even when one already sees the light of the Tzadik's face and gives charity — as long as one has not yet had the verbal confession — there is "a way that seems right to a man — and its end is the way of death" [Proverbs 14:12 — a verse cited in Breslov teachings to warn against spiritual complacency: even proximity to holiness without the crucial act of verbal confession at the grave is spiritually incomplete]. And especially — to be there on Rosh Hashana. There is nothing above this. The holy Rebbe, of blessed memory, said that even from the "palace of the bird's nest" [היכל קן ציפור — a mystical realm described in the Zohar as the abode where the soul of the Mashiach awaits; one of the most exalted places in creation] he would descend to be with the fellowship on Rosh Hashana.

And as the Hidden Book and the Burned Book [הספר הגנוז, הספר הנשרף — references to two legendary Breslov texts: one concealed and one burned; their contents are considered supremely sacred. Being at Rabbainu's grave on Rosh Hashana surpasses even these.] — yet being with me on Rosh Hashana is still greater. And I have heard from the fellowship: it is worthwhile to be at Rabbainu's even just once — even if one were to die immediately afterward. Such a great light one feels there — literally the matter of Mashiach, etc. And however bad reincarnation is — it is worthwhile to be reincarnated nine times — the essential: once to be at Rabbainu's Tzion — even not on Rosh Hashana. And as the holy Rebbe, of blessed memory, cried out with a very great voice: "What shall I say to you? There is nothing above this! And if other Tzadikim do not say so — that is yet another difficulty. And whoever merits to be with me on Rosh Hashana — he does not need fasts. And whoever is not with me on Rosh Hashana — fasts will not help him." Therefore, my brother — you must know: this is the entire ultimate purpose. And without this — it is nearly nothing at all. You must know to yearn greatly for this. And as the Daughter of the King said: you cannot take me out — only if you choose yourself a spot and all year yearn to take me out. And whenever you have time — only yearn to take me out, etc.

And again I spoke with R' Zev mentioned above: the fellowship were once very pained when they said that the days of Shabbos and Yom Tov had passed. But they said: "We merited to snatch yet another day, yet another Shabbos." The rectifications happen by themselves. It is not written in the Torah that one must feel — for example — Pesach: that one should feel the light. Only: one should eat matzah in simplicity. And the rectifications happen by themselves — whether or not one feels anything. The essential: one performs the mitzvah in simplicity. Now please write to me immediately — a letter from me, your brother, who hopes to see you very soon in all goodness and joy — and to be saved very soon. Amen, so may it be His will.

Shmuel Horowitz, the Breslover. Joyfully! Hope! Hope! Hope! And again hope! And truly hope! And truly onward hope! And truly only hope! And only hope! And hope and hope. Knock! Bang! A holy good Shabbos! A good Erev Rosh Hashana! A good Rosh Hashana! Purim is coming — "the joy of Yaakov shone and was glad — Your salvation was theirs to declare" [the Shoshanas Yaakov hymn of Purim]. All the fellowship warmly greeting you with great love. And R' Noton and his wife Gutel, may she live, asking that you pray for them.