Write Back, and Write at Length

Rav Gershon wrote often to the Baal Shem Tov, to his relatives and to his friends, and asked each of them to write back at length and not to shorten their words. His soul was thirsty, he said, and their pleasant words were like cold water for a weary soul, like good news from a far-off land. He described his own life in Chevron as lonely, sitting alone in his beis medrash day after day with his small son, honored and cared for by the Sephardic sages, yet unable to find someone whose heart matched his own. His letters teach that distance makes the words of loved ones more precious and that a few warm lines can bring life to a person who is far from home.