Greetings to my beloved son, may he live.

I do not know what to write you right now. Let me know if you sent on all the letters that I to sent you. [Text missing]...and you will hear the rest from the deliverer of this letter regarding an overcoat or hat for my son, Nachman, may he live. Give me a clear response about everything. From all this you will understand what is being done with every person in his youth, his childhood and in his old age, both with regard to his many needs and with regard to his drawing close to G=d. For whatever may be happening to a person all the days of his life, from his childhood right up through his old age, he must see to it that he uses precisely that to come closer to G=d.

A person is only distanced from G=d in order to cause him to draw closer to Him and barriers exist only to increase desire. All suffering contains favors and in all crookedness there is some faairness. In all strict judgements there is kindness, and in all the falls and spiritual declines there is G=d. All the conflicts in the world, on the global level and locally within each city, between neighbors and within every household (all of which are really one, as is explained in the Rebbe's teachings Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom #77], all have peace hidden within them. Within bad times there are good times. The overall principle is that the whole world is full of His glory G=d's kindness and goodness fill the world, and everything is for the good. There is no place where He is not present. But to know all this and to receive vitality and sustenance from it, comes through the true tzaddik the tzaddik, foundation of the world, who sustains the world, as in "Were it not for the salt, the world could not endure the bitterness" (Likutey Moharan I, 23). What can I give back to G=d for all the good He has bestowed upon me by allowing me to know all this clearly! It is extremely difficult, though, to convey all this to you the way it is in my heart. Nonetheless, the little of this that you do comprehend in your own way and according to your own understanding is highly beneficial for you and for every single person, in This World and the Next. For with it, a person can draw close and attach himself to G=d every day, at all times and in any place at all -through good or bad, G=d forbid, up or down, day or night; whether he is lying down or rising up, at home or in the marketplace. Even if a person has absolutely no idea where he is, up, down or what, and he is just wandering like a lost sheep; no matter what, from all these places he can remember that, thank G=d, we believe in G=d, His servant Moshe, and the true tzaddikim in every generation - particularly, in the true tzaddik who shines in this generation, forever!

Fortify yourself, my son, and be strong! Know and believe that all this applies to you individually as well, through everything that you experience every single day! Believe that G=d is constantly doing new things and that, without a doubt, your end will be a good one, together with all of us, with G=d's help, and with the help of His kindness and wondrous salvation. For His kindness is forever. His kindness to us has been abundant and the truth of G=d stands forever!

The words of your father, writing hurriedly amidst pain and joy. Joy is implanted in my heart from one side, and G=d is my salvation and my hope that the other side which is the source of pain and sighing, G=d forbid, will turn into joy, as in the teaching, "Happiness and joy will take over" (Likutey Moharan II, 23).

Noson of Breslov