Zalman Shazar - Correspondence With Rabbi Yisroel Dov Ber Odesser

Correspondence With Rabbi Yisroel Dov Ber Odesser

On a rainy Tu Bishvat night in 1957, Zalman Shazar was with a friend in Meron. There they saw a Hasid, Odesser, reciting the Tikkun Chatzot ("Midnight Lament") with intense fervor. They were very moved by this, and, when the Hasid had finished, they asked who he was. Thus began a lifelong friendship between Shazar and Odesser. Over the years, Odesser wrote many letters to Shazar, explaining the Breslov way of personal prayer and devotion, and urging him to return to God (Shazar was non-religious at the time). Shazar was greatly inspired by these letters and did become more religious. He later published the letters, along with a short biography of Odesser, in a Hebrew book entitled Ibay Ha-Nachal (in Hebrew: אבי הנחל). In 1995, this book was translated into English as Young Buds of the Stream.

The word "ibey" (אבי), meaning buds, in the Hebrew title of the book, is a reversal of the abbreviation of Odesser's name (ישראל בער אדסר). The Hebrew title "Ibey Ha-Nachal" therefore has the double meanings "Yisroel Odesser, the stream/river" and "Young Buds of the Stream".