Blossoms of the Spring - Letter 70

Letter 70

B.H. (Monday) Night of Tuesday 16 Cheshvon 723 (31 October, 1962). The holy Jerusalem.

My very flesh and bones, who is truly dearer to me than myself, Mr. Z. Shazar, who aroused his spirit and consecrated his expansive heart and his great talents, and he applied himself with all his strength, with great and overly exceeding enterprise, to magnify and publicize in all the worlds the name of the true tzadik, solitary in the world, who surmounts higher and higher than all the awesome tzadikim the unique ones of the generations, who protects and shields us, also now, in the midst of all types of darkness and alienation of these end of times. Fortunate are you a thousand fold, that the inners of your heart understands and feels the light of the absolute truth which shines now in all the worlds from beginning to end. Abundant Shalom.

From the utter exhaustion of my soul due to the troubles and acrimony which encompassed me from all sides, not upon you, my mind is not clear to write, however, for the sake of the pleasantness of your love which is engraved on (the tablet of) my heart, I was not able to restrain from performing my obligation incumbent on me, and I wrote with all my strength.

Hashem knows and is witness, and also your heart sees and feels, that your soul is bound with my soul always, every day and at all times, and specifically during hisbodidus and conversation with Hashem Yisburach, all my innermost interest is of you[1]. Being that my soul knows very well that your soul in her root is very extremely high and precious, and in the inners of your heart is rooted the point of the holy faith in Hashem and His Torah, and your heart burns like a burning fire to connect with all types of connections to the true tzadik and his loyal, koshe, and true men, who with his wellsprings of Torah wisdom shines into us absolute true faith, this faith which is the root and source of wisdom, through which one comes to conception of the Divine <hasugas Elokus>, to see eye to eye His Divinity, and His Kingdom, and His Dominion. But against this are spread out immeasurable obstacles and hindrances. Therefore, I am addressing you from the depth of my heart to put you up to the holy obligation incumbent upon us, to ponder deep thoughts, to surmount and to be emboldened with very strong will, to desire, and to yearn, and to long with the very expiration of the soul, to study his holy books every single day, to see their new awesome lights, until the good fragrance from the holy words enter your heart (bringing it further) to fulfillment and practice.

The bal duvur (-litigator-Satan-evil inclination) waylays a person constantly, and most essentially on his end and culmination, because a person, the more he ages, the more he needs to draw close to his root and rectification, and therefore the battle of the (evil) inclination intensifies upon him more, and there is no aitzu (remedy, advice, recourse) to be saved, just through the great power of the true tzadik and his holy books[2].

When two Israelites who love each other get together and meet with love and peace, and are happy upon seeing on another, then they bless "shehecheyunoo <He has given us life> vikeyimunoo <and has sustained us> etc.," for this is the main vitality and upholding of all the worlds[3]. It is necessary to seek and to find in every one of Israel some merit and good in order to love him as oneself, because every one of Israel – as long as he is called by the name of Israel, it is impossible that he does not have some good side and merit, and it is necessary to bind oneself with the good in them, and to be integrated together with them with love and unity!  The more the gathering of the true tzadik grows larger, the more the glory of Hashem becomes greater and the more they are subsumed in His unity blessed He[4].

With complete love and unity, and with desire and yearning to engage in the light of the daas (realization of knowledge) of the tzadik.

The transcriber Yisroel Dov Odesser

The virtue of the holy gathering <keebootz> who grasp themselves on the true tzadik with love, and great unity, and the utmost true harmony, with honor of their friends, and to guard themselves from all types of strife, and nullify their own honor completely opposite the honor of their true Rebbe this being the honor of Heaven[5], and they bind themselves with every point of the Judaism just to the true tzadik, and they draw upon themselves at all times the illumination of his holy daas (realization of knowledge), and they gather and get together all the time to speak with one another about fear of Heaven and of the illumination of the holy daas that the tzadik is engaged in shining in them – this holy keebootz (gathering) is very precious and lofty, and through this the tzadik who shepherds them can illuminate exceedingly to the dwellers of high <duray maluh> and to the dwellers of below <duray matuh>, and to strengthen all the fallen, and the downtrodden, and the exceedingly alienated, so that they also shall know the truth that Hashem is still with them, and by them, and very close to them, until they also return to Hashem Yisburach. And through this holy keebootz (gathering) there will be the redemption, and Messiah will come and rectify everything completely[6].

The transcriber

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[1] Psalms 87:7. See there different explanations of the words presented.

[2] Likutay Halachos, Yoreh Daya 1, Meat With Milk 5:7.

[3] Oatzar Ha-yeeru; Shalom and Achdus, Ahavas Chavayrim, and Judging Favorably article 10, from Likutay Halachos, Orach Chaim 2, Blessing of Thanksgiving 6:61.

[4] Likutay Halachos, Laws of Blessings on Sightings and Blessings on Particulars 4:4 – regarding the commandment of loving one's fellow.

[5] Ethics of Our Fathers 4:12.

[6] Oatzar Ha-yeeru; Shalom and Achdus, Ahavas Chavayrim, and Judging Favorably article 8, from Likutay Halachos, Orach Chaim, Laws of Washing Hands for a Meal 6:79,80,82,100.

Saba Yisroel -- To See The Blossoms of the Spring

Chapter 2 – His Childhood

Once, in the summer of 753 (1993), before the prayers he spoke about his childhood, and he fired us up so much that afterwards we prayed with shouting and great kavana (concentration and intention). He said that H”Y gave him many presents from the time he was little, that he did not desire this world at all. At that time the modern, who go in short clothing, began to proliferate, but he waited to become of age and wear a long garment. They suffered from poverty, he said that poverty is a great gift, because from a full stomach it is hard to serve Hashem; one sleeps a lot, and specifically from the poverty he saw the vanity of this world. At night he would go to sleep, but it is necessary to eat, and much time was left (without food) and he had only a piece of bread. When he saw someone saying Psalms with Kavana, he would say, “fortunate is this person, he is committed to the ultimate purpose!” He himself experienced great delight in every word of his prayer and of the Psalms that he said, and this was one of the presents.

When he prayed in the synagogue, he would pray with all this strength and kavana, as though he was alone, and one of the elders (who was very miserly) gave him a large coin every day, until he amassed a sum and he asked his mother to buy him a siddur 'kol-boa' – that has in it all types of supplications and prayers – from Jerusalem. He also told us that he would get up at night to serve Hashem, and the house was hot like a cave, and he would like a candle with benzine, in order to study, and in his house --- they were extremely poor – they were very grieved by this, for they saw that before Shabbos they were very deficient in benzine in order to cook etc.. Until they made electric lights outside, and he rejoiced greatly then, for now he would be able to pray and learn the night for free.

Chapter 3

Blossoms of the Spring

R' Yisroel told someone to reach out to his (this person's) family through letters, just as he (Saba) had done with Shazar, taking Rabbainu's books and quoting them in letters of outreach.

R' Yisroel once called one of the friends on Shabbos and said to him, “Behold I authored Blossoms of the Spring, this is not a simple matter.” This was like saying that this book was not a simple copying from the books of Rabbainu that anyone could have done, so the matter needs study.

Chapter 4

Love of Friends

Once, someone told R' Yisroel that he sees that it is very difficult to make peace between the friends. R' Yisroel replied, “I remained alon, all of them (all my friends) deserted me, very good” etc..

Once, R' Yisroel turned to two friends and asked them if they were friends, good friends. And he said that the main point of friendship is to find the truth.

On the last Rosh Hashana he said to someone: We should merit to have a true chevra (group of friends).

To someone whose friends conflicted with him and didn't speak with him, he said: We didn't come to this world for friends, just to serve Hashem – to fulfill the Torah and the mitzvos.

Once, at the end of his life, he said: I searched the whole world, I didn't find a friend. So someone asked him, “How does one merit to be your friend?” R' Yisroel answered: The main thing is to pray with a fiery heart to merit to draw close to Rabbainu in truth (and in this way it is possible to merit to be his friend, that was the implication).

To someone who lived alone, in a place without friends, R' Yisroel said: Your friend is the Likutay Tefilos.

He said to someone that is good to be friends with someone who donates a lot of money for the publication (of Rabbainu's teachings). Once, someone wanted to give charity to one of the friends because he heard of his plight, and someone (else) convinced him that it would be better to give it to R' Yisroel (-for the publication). So when he agreed and came to R' Yisroel with the donation, R' Yisroel responded with unwillingness and doubt, and in the end he (R' Yisroel) said to him: Fine, give to so-and -so and mentioned the name of the friend in plight (all of this without them having told him anything about the matter, because it was clearly visible to anyone who looked truthfully, that everything was revealed before him).

He asked someone to ascertain that he was friends with someone who desired to learn a lot, and learned a lot every day.

Once, someone took enjoyment, in his mind, that R' Yisroel chastised his friend, and after a few minutes R' Yisroel turned to him privately and said to him: you are not in order.