קמד

Your letter from Monday — and from Wednesday — I received yesterday at the appointed time. [לעת — "at the time, at the appointed moment" — from eis — a specific time; not "toward evening" but simply at the right time when it arrived] And it happened that I read the letter from Monday — in which you wrote about the magnitude of your illness and the suffering and tribulations of me and my wife and my sister who were then with me — which are beyond all estimate and reckoning — until I could not read the second letter. And my wife wept from the suffering. And afterward my wife told me to read the second letter. And the magnitude of the life-force with which your second letter gave us life — is beyond all estimate. So may Hashem Yisbarach give you life — and your wife, may she live — and your son — in all good — for long life and good years. And may He heal her completely from all her ailments — a healing of the soul and a healing of the body. And may He remember them quickly with salvation and mercy. May Hashem Yisbarach add upon you and upon your children — in the merit of all the Tzaddikim who are stored away as treasure in the cities of Judah — and in the merit of Rabbainu ז"ל and his holy disciple — for whom we are like one who peers through the lattices [כמציץ מן החרכים — from Song of Songs 2:9 — "my beloved stands behind our wall — gazing through the windows — peering through the lattices" — metzitz min ha'charakim; we catch only glimpses of the radiance of Rabbainu ז"ל and his holy disciple through the lattices — yet even these glimpses give us life] — to shelter in their holy shade. And we bear the pouring out of blood [שפיכות דמים — the public humiliation and shaming that drains the blood from the face; we bear this in order to shelter at least through this humiliation in their holy shade] — so that we may at least through our pouring out of blood — shelter in their holy shade. And through the Torah discourses that Rabbainu ז"ל said about illness of the lungs [חלי הראה — illness of the lung; Rabbainu ז"ל taught specific Torah discourses connected to healing of lung ailments; the wife's illness apparently involved the lungs or respiratory system] — may all the harsh judgments be sweetened from upon my wife, may she live — and may Hashem Yisbarach heal her with health in all her body.

And I am distributing here on her behalf — ten groshen — to the poor — oil for lighting and wine for kiddush on the festival. And I and my wife, may she live, and my sister, may she live, went today to the graves of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai and his holy disciples — and Rav Ami and Rav Asi — and Rabbi Yochanan the master of the land of Israel — and the holy Shelah [Shelah ha'Kadosh — Rabbi Yeshaya Horowitz ז"ל — the author of the Shnei Luchos ha'Bris — the "Two Tablets of the Covenant" — known by its acronym Shelah; he is buried in Teverya; a great master of the generation before the Baal Shem Tov] — to pray for her. May Hashem Yisbarach give her a complete healing — quickly and soon.

[The letter ends here — the remainder of the manuscript is not preserved.]

Written Thursday, Chol Ha'Moed Sukkos, 5643 (October 1882), from Teverya. A deeply moving letter — reading the first letter about the illness caused such pain that the writer could not continue to the second; the second gave them life. A distribution for the ill wife. A visit to the graves of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai and the Shelah ha'Kadosh. נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן