ז

Tuesday, the Torah portion of Vayaitzai [Parshas Vayaitzai — the portion recounting Yaakov's departure from Be'er Sheva, his dream of the heavenly ladder, and his years with Lavan; it falls in late November or early December], 5636 [= autumn–winter 1875–76 CE] — Teverya.

To the honor of our ohavainu — the wondrous young Torah scholar, veteran Chassid — the honor of the name of his Torah [כש"ת — kivod shem torosso] — Morainu v'Rabbainu Reb Nussun, may his candle shine.

Thanks to G-d for our lives — all of us are in the way of life. Would that Hashem Yisbarach remove the weakness of the heart from the wife [מ' יד"ל — an abbreviated name; yad"l likely stands for yichyeh l'orech yomim — "may she live for length of days" — or is an abbreviated personal name], may she live — of the recipient. [The writer opens not with the standard health formula but with a direct, heartfelt prayer for the recipient's wife — her cardiac condition is foremost in his mind and heart.]

Your letter together with the ten herrings [hering — Yiddish: herrings; salted or pickled herring was a staple food and a common practical gift exchanged between communities] I received properly. And I gave to the one conveying this letter one coin of 20 [para — a Turkish small coin, approximately 1/40 of a groshen; payment for the physical labor of carrying the letter] as payment for his trouble. And know that immediately upon my arrival I gave to Reb Kalman the sum of two bishlikim, as your distinguished self instructed me. Therefore — I do not know [וויס איך נישט — vais ich nisht — the writer switches mid-sentence into Yiddish: "I do not know" — a natural code-switch for Eastern European Jews of this period, for whom Yiddish was the intimate vernacular and Hebrew the language of sacred correspondence] — whether you are still instructing me to give on your account, for the herrings, another one bishlik — in which case the total would come to three bishlikim for Reb Kalman, may his candle shine. Therefore write to me whether I should give the said person another bishlik — and I will give it to him immediately. For I am concerned that perhaps you forgot that you had instructed me to give from his money two bishlikim. Therefore write to me. And also write to me what is now heard from your consular affairs [קאנצילאטין — kantzilatin — from the Italian or German Konsulat: the foreign consulate; in Ottoman Palestine, Jews who held European citizenship depended on their country of origin's consulate for legal protection, documentation, and intervention with the Ottoman authorities — a matter of vital practical importance for immigrant Jews] — so that I should know how to pray. And also write to me about our friend Reb Aizikl, may his candle shine — what has become of him? Is he going together with you to learn together? And let us strengthen ourselves from it — from the learning together [ונתחזק מחו — v'nischazek mihu — "and let us strengthen ourselves from it / from this" — the strengthening is drawn specifically from the Torah study itself, not merely from the company] — with settled, composed minds [בישוב הדעת — b'yishuv ha'da'as — inner stillness and composure; the Breslov ideal of serving G-d from a place of calm, not agitation or anxiety], as in former times [כמקדם — "as before, as in earlier days" — carrying a note of longing for a previous closeness that the distance has made harder] — to give life to my soul, which is bound to your souls. And also — what has become of your son Sender Chaim, may his candle shine? And what has become of the wife of our friend Reb Aitzikel, may his candle shine? For we are truly beloved brothers.

And also — yesterday I studied Likutay Halachos, the Laws of Shabbos, Part 3, Law 5 [a precise citation — not a general recommendation but a specific location within the work, as one friend shares a discovery with another: "go to this exact page"] — and it gave me life to a very great degree. Therefore I request of you that you too study the said law — and you will see wonders, and it will give life [ותח' — v'sichayeh — "and it will give life to" — the subject doing the reviving is the Torah passage itself; the life-force flows from the text into the soul] to your soul and to the soul of my friend Reb Aizik, may his candle shine.

May Hashem Yisbarach give you and us good and long life. Words of one who loves you, Nussun from Teverya, may it be established and built for good.