סה

And behold — on Shabbas Shirah night — thoughts came to me about the matter of the parsha which speaks of the journey to Eretz Yisroel. For the parsha begins: "And it came to pass when Pharaoh sent out the people" and so on — that is: Israel went out from Egypt. And it is known that the entire Exodus from Egypt was in order to come to Eretz Yisroel. As it is written (Shemos 3): "I will bring you up from the affliction of Egypt to a good Land" and so on. And so this parsha immediately speaks of the matter of the road to Eretz Yisroel — as it is written there: "G-d did not lead them via the Philistine road — for it was near — to Eretz Yisroel that they were going" — according to Rashi's explanation and so on. And I found in this entire parsha very fittingly the entire matter of my journey to Eretz Yisroel. For it is explained in this parsha that to come to Eretz Yisroel — one must take a roundabout way. "And G-d turned the people around — by the way of the desert — by the Sea of Reeds." For we too — G-d turned us about. For our straight road to Eretz Yisroel was via Odessa. And the holy community of Odessa was close to us — to the holy community of Breslov. And every day there were many travelers going back and forth from Breslov to Odessa. For most of the commerce of most of that city and of its surroundings was in Odessa. And I was compelled to take a roundabout way to Odessa — all the way via Kaminka and Tcheirin and Tchirkas and Kremintchoug and so on — until I came to Odessa. For the Torah applies to every person and every time. And it pleased me greatly that I found a great hint to my journey — explained in the Torah in this parsha. And then I began to think in my mind about some reason and explanation for why one needed to take precisely a roundabout way when one wished to come to Eretz Yisroel. But I had not yet found a proper and well-explained reason — only from afar some hints to this appeared. And I spoke about the content of this conversation at the Shabbas night meal before the assembled — about how it was explained in the Torah that to come to Eretz Yisroel one needed to take a roundabout way. And they did not understand my intention. For they did not know that I intended to travel to Eretz Yisroel on this journey. And behold — afterward a certain reason occurred to me as to why one needed to take precisely a roundabout way when wishing to come to Eretz Yisroel. And it was clearly visible according to the Torah of Rabbainu zichrono livracha. I said — let me incidentally write this here as well. And it is as follows: for it is explained in the Torah "Let there be a double portion of your spirit upon me" [§66 in Likutay Moharan] — that all the obstacles in the world concerning a holy matter — all of them are for the sake of the yearning — in order that the yearning should intensify more and more. And the greater the desired object — the greater the obstacle — so that the yearning should intensify more and more and so on. Study that entire passage there well — for these are matters that are very very practically necessary. And whoever takes these words into his heart properly and truly — will be able through this to shatter and overcome all the obstacles in the world — and to attain and reach any holy matter he wishes. For there is nothing that will prevent him. For if his yearning intensifies — he will shatter all the obstacles. For all the obstacles came only for the sake of the yearning — as mentioned. For through the obstacles one can understand how great is the level of the desired object. And the more the obstacles intensify — through this one can understand how great the level of the desired object is and so on. Study all of that there well.