אות - קנו

I heard in his name that he said: he had already said several Torahs about his illness (326). For after coming from Lemberg he mentioned almost in every Torah the matter of the lung — for this was his illness, for he had the cough [tuberculosis], may the Merciful One protect us, which is an illness of the lung. And he said: according to the abundance of the Torahs he said about this, he should already have been healed by now — but the deficiency is from the deficiency of faith of the listeners, whose faith is not strong enough.

326. RAK: The Torahs 2, 5, 7, and 8 in Likutay Tinyana explain the matter of the lung.

He related that once in his youth he was at a certain rabbi's home etc. And he said that at that time he still had not attained the level of now — that he could speak with the world and even so be attached to Hashem Yisburach and engage in Torah literally. For do you think that one arrives at all the levels all at once?! This is not so — rather one must toil greatly and exert greatly in one's service (what is called "hariven") before one arrives at any good level. And then it was hard for me to be together with the world, because he wanted to engage in the service of Hashem (327). And so he said many times when he was telling about the great heights of his attainment etc. — he was accustomed to say: "Ich hob ober zeyer giharvet — ich hob asach gifost" [But I very greatly labored — I fasted very much etc.] (328).