Siman 464

(21.) Regarding the reports from Berdichev — when they told him several kinds of incidents about several kinds of people there — wealthy men and other people and the current famous ones etc. — he answered and said: "If we were to combine all those incidents of all those kinds of people found in Berdichev — together with all those tzaddikim, meaning the aforementioned famous ones — all of it is nothing." And like a tree that grows in an orchard or field where many many trees grow — and even in one tree there are several changes... — and there are several and many changes and corruptions like this found in a single tree, in the leaves and the fruits and the like. And nevertheless the tree is a tree — all the more the whole orchard, in which several and many trees grow. The parable is somewhat understood by one who understands: although there are now in the world many who corrupt completely, and there are some who are somewhat kosher and nevertheless have several and many kinds of corruptions, and among them the publicized ones of falsehood — nevertheless the holy tree is a tree, all the more the whole orchard in which several and many trees grow — that is, souls. For all the aforementioned are not counted as anything, like the aforementioned parable: