Recently, a handwritten leaf from Likute Tefillot by R. Nosson of Breslov (the Breslover Rebbe’s main student) went through my hands.
Breslov chassidim were intensely persecuted in the first generations following Rav Nachman’s passing, and much of the original printings of their sefarim and original material were destroyed and hidden by people who opposed Breslov chassidim. Thus, original Breslov material is extraordinarily rare.
R. Nosson would write down his tefillot while praying, and tradition has it that the stains that appear on his handwritten leaves are those of tears he shed while praying.
The page pictured here is only one of three known pages of Likute Tefillot in existence that were written by Rav Nosson. It was previously in the procession of R. Shmuel Horowitz (1905-1972), who endangered his life after the communist revolution by traveling to Uman, where he was arrested by the local regime and nearly put to death for being a spy.
R. Levi Yitzchok Bender (1897-1989), a leader of Breslov chassidim in the previous generation, wrote of seeing leaves in the early 20th century in Uman as well as the tear stains of R. Nosson.
