Rejoice, O rejoice in the salvation of Hashem, that you merited good and strong desires and yearnings. And with them you are achieving much for the benefit of the concerns of the Tzaddik, who is the true King's son. He is the Master of Prayer. He is the Seven Beggars. [See Rebbe Nachman's Stories.] He is the generalization of all the great and choice Tzaddikim, unique in the generations, who revealed such teachings and stories that have never before been heard, and they are our main hope for all generations of the world.

The awesome Stories, even though we have no grasp of or mental inkling about them, even so it is understood and revealed, literally perceptible to the eye of everyone, that they all contain very amazing and awesome words. Whatever idea or discovery we find in the Stories is just a general hint, less than a drop in the sea. For the secret of the essence of the Story itself is very far above and beyond our minds.

The story of the Master of Prayer is an amazing and awesome story, truly amazing. And according to its simple meaning it describes every type of sensible rebuke and straight path. And it arouses amazing desire to serve Hashem Yisborach in all who read it. And it tells in general about all sorts of mistakes and false reasoning of lies and errors that are found in the world. And about their discernment and rectification. And behold the Master of Prayer, who always was involved with prayers and songs and praises to Hashem Yisborach, was dwelling outside of civilization. Except that he was accustomed to enter the settlement in order to entice and to induce people to serve Hashem Yisborach, to go in His way. And whoever agreed with him, they immediately brought him outside the settlement. For most settlements of the world are very far from the true purpose of life, and all the behavior of the Master of Prayer and his men was to turn away from the custom of the settled world, the majority of which is drawn after the vanity of the world and its pleasures and lusts. And therefore the Master of Prayer, with his men, was forced to dwell outside of civilization. And in this place where the Master of Prayer was dwelling, there was a river before him and trees and fruit, and they ate from the fruit, and about their clothing he was not strict at all!

The True Tzaddik, who works at drawing people near to serving Hashem Yisborach, dwells with his men outside of civilization. Meaning that all his dwelling and behavior certainly is literally the opposite of the ways of civilization, whose actions are vain, and who pursue luxuries and are preoccupied with the vanities of time. But the Tzaddik with his men are completely far from all this and are satisfied with what they have [see Chapters of the Fathers 4:1]. And especially about clothes and garments they are not particular at all.

And they dwell completely outside of civilization, literally, in all their ideas and customs. And they toil only in prayer, and songs and praises to Hashem Yisborach, and repentance, and confession, and fasting, etc. And for these men any service of Hashem that appeared to the majority of the world that it would be very difficult to accept on themselves service like that; yet for these men all this is more precious than all the pleasures in the world. For they have more pleasure from a great mortification or fast or similarly than all the pleasures of the world. But even though they dwell outside of civilization, they still would enter the settlement all the time in order to draw more people near to the service of Hashem. And they conducted themselves in this with great wisdom, for the people of the settlement were waiting for the Master of Prayer to capture him. And this was because the world had become so confused and erring in their fallacious ideas that someone who was close to the true purpose of existence and spoke against their fallacious ideas, and who worked to draw people near to serving Hashem Yisborach, they rose up against him with hatred and a great war, and waited for him to trap him and to capture him. Therefore one must engage in this [entering the settlement to talk to people about serving G-d] with great wisdom!

The True Tzaddik, who is the Master of Prayer, has such foods that when people merit to eat and taste from those foods, they immediately throw away their lust for money, and they feel the great vileness of money, that literally stinks like excrement, until they are very embarrassed with the money, and the money is the greatest source of shame of all shames. And whoever has more money is more ashamed. And also low-status people, who lack money, are also embarrassed with themselves that they were so insignificant in their own eyes because of their lack of money. For now it is revealed to them just the opposite: money is the main source of shame. And therefore the rich were even more embarrassed. And they buried themselves in caves of dirt, due to the great shame that they had one from the other, until they could not raise their faces at all from the shame. For those foods of the Master of Prayer contain this remedy, that through them people despise money, with the essence of disgust, and throw away the gods of silver and the gods of gold, as it will be in the future! [See Isaiah 31]

One who truly wants to think about the purpose of life and is forced to live amongst people who are totally far from this purpose, must then also be careful that in his mind, at the very least, he will be outside of civilization. And to distance his thoughts and mind and all his behavior from every aspect of alien mannerisms, and alien traits, and evil ideas, and thoughts of falsehood that exist and are very common amongst most people of the settled world.

The author, who seeks your peace and prays for your salvaton and success.

Yisroel Odesser