Sunday, July 22, 2012

Rebuke

The delight of my heart, finer then gold and pearls, Mr. Zalman Shazar. May the Almighty extend your years with the supreme pleasantness, in a manner that you will cast off and nullify your wisdom and intellect to the sweetness of the light of knowledge of the Tzaddik, the True Sage.

Heartfelt Brother, Gevald! [untranslatable Yiddish expression meaning approx. it cant be!] You are sleeping! How much longer will you sleep? The time is passing and roaring and storming and running and flying fast, more then the shadow of a bird that flies in the air, and it is possible that the day has come for the body to expire. And what shall we do for the last day? There is no wisdom and no advice except to flee to the True Tzaddik, the Elder of Elders, the Saba [literally grandfather, but connoting a very wise old Sage] of Sabin, the choice of the choicest Tzaddikim, who through, his mighty greatness and awesome power, is able to repair everything (again here we also see the True Tzaddik can repair everything).  Even souls, that are so flawed and damaged that it is impossible for them to be repaired in any way.
Even though it is a great thing to rebuke ones friend when he sees that he is not acting properly, even so not every person is capable of rebuking. For the rebuke of someone who is not fit for this, not only does not help but even defiles the smell of the souls who hear his rebuke. For through his rebuke he arouses the bad smell of the evil deeds and evil characteristics of the people that he rebukes, and through that he weakens there souls. But the voice of the proper rebuker strengthens the power of the soul, because he adds and gives a good smell to the souls through th voice of his rebuke, and they merit to perfect faith. And through that the glory of G-d is greatly enhanced. For the main glory of G-d [the blessed L-rd] is when people who are outside of holiness bring themselves near inside the holiness. This is the main glory of G-d, and in such a manner is elevated and enhanced the name of the Holy One Blessed be He above and below. And through this peace is drawn down into the world. This matter of rebuke is from the things that I   wrote two years ago to the prime minister, Mr. David Bengurion, it is worth requesting that he show you the letter, because it is very perinent.

Yisroel Dov Odesser
Tiberias

3 comments:

  1. You stopped one sentence too soon. Read the next sentence and Saba explains what he means by "everything".

    ReplyDelete
  2. He says "everything"; then.. "even souls"...

    ReplyDelete
  3. You are free to interpret it however you want. You can believe whatever you want but it doesn't make it correct.

    ReplyDelete