In this book have been collected selections from the letters that the author, Rabbi Yisroel Ber Odesser, may his light shine, sent to his dear friend [Mr. Shneur Zalman Shazar, former President of the State of Israel]. Their foundation is in the writings of our Master and Teacher, Harav Rabbeinu Nachman of Breslov, and his students. The fiery enthusiasm that is evident in the letters makes them a certificate of faith of great value in a generation of little faith.The faith in the Chassidic Tzaddik that is revealed in Breslov Chassidus has been extraordinary from the begining of its development until today. Only this Chassidic movement guarded its faith in its Master and did not choose another to sit in his chair and to inherit his crown of Torah and leadership. His unoccupied chair, which stands encased in the Breslov synagogue in Jerusalem and which was smuggled out, piece by piece, from Uman [the burial place of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov] in the Ukraine, from behind the Iron Curtain, symbolizes this faith that no one else ever will sit in his chair. The first Master of Breslov Chassidus is also the last, and also the last in the development and preparation of Israel for the Redemption. This Faith is extraordinary not just because of its essential idea, but even more because of the powerful emotional impact that it has on the heart of the Breslover Chassid.

The Breslover Chassid cleaves not only to the teachings of his Rabbi, but, as it were, also to his physical incarnation, as he imagines to himself. The books of Rebbe Nachman, the teachings, conversations, advice, and stories, are always for the Breslover Chassid like oral teachings, and they illuminate and ignite, conquer and sweep over the soul as though they are now leaving the holy mouth of Rebbe Nachman. It is as though the Chassid is feeling the breath of his Rebbe in them.

That same radiant light of his presence that in his lifetime his followers felt with all their souls and strength, as they themselves attest in the conversations and stories that have reached us from them, is wrapped up and guarded in the pages of his published books, and from these pages it influences every soul that is open to reading them. Thus the great and deep love to which the faith of the Breslover Chassid in his Rebbe is connected, a love that has stretched through generations and that erases boundaries of time and place, and which draws near the presence of the Rebbe to the eyes of the spirit of the Chassid. Love that intrigues the soul of the Breslover Chassid and makes it sensitive and open to absorbing the words of his Rebbe, making it a vessel for the light that is in his teachings.

What sustains this Faith and Love until today? There is no doubt that the heritage of the teachings of Harav Rabbeinu Nachman of Breslov occupies a totally unique place in all of Chassidic literature. In this literature there are very few books like the collected teachings [Likutay Moharan] of our Teacher Harav Rabbeinu Nachman , in which the loftiness of his ideas and the coordination of his grasp of the Written Torah, or of a statement from the Sages of blessed memory, are balanced in such a way, with such acuity and sharpness that flows abundantly without effort, as it were, literally a flowing stream, gathering and collecting supporting arguments from all parts of the Written and Oral Torah, both the revealed and the hidden. And these supporting arguments seemingly rejoice and hurry on their own, from near and from afar, to join the tractate of intellect that is being fashioned in the mind of Harav Rabbeinu Nachman and that is now found, with all its vibrant vitality, in a book [Likutay Moharan].

And there is no need to mention the heritage of the story of Harav Rabbeinu Nachman, that has no example or parallel in all of our literature with regards to its variegated form, its poetic view, and deep understanding of the existence of man and the world. And the boundaries of these two domains nourish one another: a great and luminous poetry moves in the study of the collected teachings of our Teacher Harav Rabbeinu Nachman. The adjective sweet, which is so commonly used in describing the taste that the Breslover Chassid tastes in the teachings of his Rav, expresses this without understanding. And very sharp conmprehension distinguishes the remarkable symbolism that is in the stories of Our Teacher Harav Rabbeinu Nachman. Despite all this, it is difficult to see in the literary heritage of Harav Rabbeinu Nachman the unique source that sustains that same faith and love that distinguishes Breslov Chassidus from its beginning until today.

Faith, like Love, sustains itself. She is the fuel, the wick, and the flame, all together in one. Possibly the essence of Breslov Chassidus is in this great faith that she initiated in the midst of the territory of the Chassidic concept of faith in Tzaddikim, faith that pierces and descends until the foundations of the soul, that permeates the person's entire being and that does not weaken from him forever. This is not a matter of Shabbos and Yom Tov alone, a public matter alone. She surrounds the entire person and penetrates him entirely. As though she watches over him and enables him to see, with every cell of his being, perception of the Divine.This is the purpose and the effect of Chassidic faith in Tzaddikim in general. In Breslov Chassidus this faith is ignited with such fiery power, in the words of Harav Rabbeinu Nachman himself, in the stormy dedication of his great student, Rabbi Nassan, in the love and self-sacrifice of his other students and their students, until it seems a wonder, and sometimes an incomprehensible wonder, even in the eyes of Tzaddikim and Chassidim. This great Faith, once initiated, sufficed to sustain itself in its own time and for generations. A flowing stream a source of Faith, a source of Love. From the beginning she was promised that she would charm and fire the soul until the Coming of the Messiah.

The Publisher