With thanks to God, Tuesday, Tzav, 5591. Breslov.

Greetings to my beloved son, Reb Yitzchak, may he live.

I received your letter. I arrived safely home yesterday, barukh HaShem. The roads were bad because the snows were melting and we had a lot of trouble travelling. From the Monday of Pikudey until the Monday of Vayikra which was Erev Rosh Chodesh Nisan I was in Uman and I spent last Shabbat in Ladizin.

While I was very distressed by your letter in which you cry bitterly over the "great floods" which constantly inundate you (may God have mercy on you from now on), there was one thing which really made me happy. I saw that, with God's help, your heart is strong in its great desire and yearning for God and His Torah. This is extremely valuable. May you continue to yearn and to long intensely for Him all your life, because God values these holy yearnings and desires them very much.

Know and remember this well, my son: Man came into the world only to believe in God. This is the reason for his creation and the entire world and everything in it which depend on Man. This is expressed in the verse (Psalms 33:4), "All of His works are by faith." A person must constantly renew his belief in God and his yearning for Him. We have inherited our belief from our ancestors and the essence of our belief is relying on them and walking in their ways. Nonetheless, belief in God must spring forth anew in a person each day, it must go into his heart and soul and expand his awareness each day anew, as it is written: "these words which I command you today will be upon your heart." The Sages comment: "View them as new every day, and do not let them be like an old edict which no one considers important" (Rashi, Deuteronomy 6:6). It is no coincidence that this statement is made in the paragraph containing "Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is One," because it is our belief in One God which is the foundation of the entire Torah, and it is precisely this holy belief which must be reborn each day.

God recently sent me the idea that this is the reason, when we accept upon ourselves the belief in His Blessed Unity, that we first say the words, "Hear, O Israel!" At first it would seem to be enough to say just the Unification itself: "The Lord our God, the Lord is One." So why do we need to say, "Hear, O Israel!"? The reason is that "Hear, O Israel!" comes to awaken a person's heart so that he will attend closely and carefully to what he is saying and so that he will view it as altogether new every time. This is why we say Shema Yisrael, "Hear, O Israel!" first: because when a new proclamation is being made it is often introduced with: "Now listen carefully to what I am about to tell you!"

This is precisely the purpose of the two words, "Shema Yisrael," which are said prior to the actual proclamation of His Unity. They serve to arouse the heart of Israel to listen with their ears to what they are saying and to hear it in their hearts as well, so that they view it as new. This explains what the Sages commented on this verse (Berakhot 13a): "Hear, O Israel! - Let your ears hear well what you are proclaiming with your mouth!" That is, bend your ear and listen very carefully to what you are saying. Don't let it be like something old, God forbid! For while the foundation of our belief in God is ancient indeed and has come to us from our holy ancestors, and while this is what constitutes the foundation of our faith, you must nonetheless hear and reaccept this belief anew in your heart every day (see Likutey Halakhot, Kriat Shema 5:2).

It is impossible to communicate this, neither in writing nor with spoken words, because each person, according to what he feels and knows in his own heart, can stand shuddering and trembling in amazement at the ever-fresh, ever-renewed glimmering of the truth of our holy belief in the Life of Life, the Unique, First and Eternal, Who created everything that exists with lovingkindness, may His Name be blessed and exalted forever. Belief in God can fill anyone in the world with fresh energy and life. It makes no difference what level he is on, because "His Kingship rules over all!" This applies particularly to you, my dear son, from all that I know of you and after everything you have told me in your letters.

So fortify yourself to really hear what I am saying, to strengthen yourself and to constantly bring yourself to joy through your holy faith! That we were worthy to be from the seed of Israel and to believe in God, His Holy Torah and the true tzaddikim. Get into the habit of drawing new joy from this every moment of every day! Implant it deep in your heart, and remember well what we say each day, "How fortunate we are! How good is our portion! How pleasant is our lot! How beautiful is our inheritance! How fortunate we are that twice a day, every day, morning and evening, we say Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is One!"

How many people say these words every day and do not know the vitality and great joy that they hold! Yet these people too are alive only because of this. For it is belief in God that gives us our life and sustains us, as it is said, "for they are our life and the length of our days." But how much better it would be if a person at least tried to know something about his life: that the only vitality and true good that he has derives from holy belief in God with which every one of us, from the greatest to the most lowly, has been privileged. And whether or not a person has money, the days and years still pass like a shadow, and nothing remains except the vitality which he drew from his belief in God. This will endure for all eternity, as is said, "His Kingship and His Faith endure forever!" A person must always know that no matter what happens to him, body, soul or money, good or bad; whatever it is, every single thing in the world embodies within it the vitality which derives from belief in God and which sustains absolutely everything.

A person must pay careful attention to this and at every moment accept upon himself and fulfill "Hear, O Israel!" - to listen carefully to everything in the world, because contained within it is His Blessed Unity. And this paragraph itself continues and explains: "You will love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with your whole soul and with all your possessions. And these words that I command you today will be upon your heart, when you are sitting in your house or walking on the way or lying down or getting up." That is, a person needs to hear a declaration of his belief in the One God, may He be blessed, through everything that happens to him. For a person can cleave to God through anything in the world, as our master, teacher and Rebbe has written in many places (Likutey Moharan I, 54:2, Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom, p.162).

I cannot continue, and besides, it is time for the Afternoon Prayers. May God give you the strength to grab much Torah and prayer, charity and good deeds from this passing shadow, so that you may have eternal good.

The words of your father who hopes for your eternal salvation.