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Translator's Introduction

Part A: Letters

   1.
"A guide for all the troops under your influence..."

2.
"Endeavors to create a medium within the natural order
do not contradict the concept of bitachon..."

3.
"One should not be too dejected or doubtful,
for this, too, is exploited by the [Evil] Inclination."

4.
"I do not know where you stand
with regard to bitachon."

5.
"If this blessing is sometimes delayed..."

6.
"In words that are appropriate to her present state of mind..."

7.
"One must have appropriate vessels to accommodate all these blessings."

8.
"Consider: Is G-d really in need of your worry...?
Or will He succeed in finding good solutions even without your worrying?"

9.
"I saw in a little book - it's called the Tanach..."

10.
"...a weakness in your trust, and
the remedy for this is to study Shaar HaBitachon."

11.
"And when a person is strong in his trust...,
he then sees [the result] with his fleshly eyes."

12.
"People study, and study - but when it comes to practical application, where's the trust?"

13.
"Just as He has a say in the big world,
He certainly has a say likewise in our little personal world."

14.
"This very thought - as to what will happen if,
G-d forbid, a misfortune occurs - is itself a misfortune."

15.
"Medical matters are not your Divinely-ordained mission in this world."

16.
"The income that G-d fixed for you [on Rosh HaShanah], which I am sure is generous,
no one can lessen and certainly no one can take away."

17.
"If you occasionally feel that this certain trust is wavering...,
you should avert your attention from this weakness, for it is no doubt only imagined."

18.
"Since you place your trust in G-d in questions of materiality and your livelihood,
surely that trust should be firm when it comes to one's children and their conduct!"

19.
"Several well-known incidents testify that
with staunch bitachon one can accomplish whatever is needed."

20.
"David HaMelech says, 'I will fear no evil, for You are with me.'
And 'for You are with me' relates to every single Jew."

21.
"Even when one does not see how this operates within the realm of nature,
G-d will carry out His [Will]."

22.
"It is disappointing and painful to encounter certain dispensable expressions in your letter.
Why do you do this?"

23.
"If a person thinks that his livelihood is meager,
he should donate more tzedakah than previously.
In that way he shows G-d that his charitable needs are greater than heretofore...,
and He will then provide a greater income."

24.
"At the same time, one must create a vessel on the natural plane
and follow the doctor's orders."

25.
"A man's trust is the measuring-stick..."

26.
"The tzitz was worn on the forehead,
and thus represents a trust that transcends mortal reason."

27.
"Not merely pushing through one day after another..."

28.
"You are already wealthy but do not know it."

29.
"One should not initiate - and introduce into the world - depressing lines of thought."

30.
"Especially in the present month of Elul, the month of Divine mercy,
each of you - or you together with your wife - should talk for at least a few minutes
on the subject of trusting in G-d."

31.
"It seems to me that this is the only organization within the precincts of Lubavitch
that is conducted in this way."

32.
"In the course of the year one only does accounting that will certainly not weaken
one's avodah, and - obviously - that will leave no room for the faintest trace of despair."

33.
A descent ought to arouse... greater powers of faith and trust,
whose external manifestation is a courageous spirit
and a lack of emotional reaction to an unpleasant phenomenon."

34.
"When you are firm in your trust and actually perceive the situation [as a trial],
the trial will cease to exist, and you will return to your former standing."

35.
"The Splitting of the Red Sea was actualized by [Nachshon's] strong trust and faith in G-d.
From this we learn the approach to be followed in finding one's match."

36.
"As I read there, you are worried about your children's health,
and you conclude by asking what you can do apart from weeping and lamenting.
First of all, one should stop weeping etc."

37.
"There is a well-known teaching of the Sages that
'a son can bring merit upon his father' - and upon his mother, too."

38.
"This is 'something concerning which none of us knows' - determining a specific time,
and not later, by which G-d, Who makes matches, should do so."

39.
"These days of Pesach are days of faith and trust,
when the Jews of those times went out with their wives and children
to a wilderness of venomous serpents and scorpions, relying only on a word from G-d."

40.
"Divine Providence applies in particular...
to a person whose position enables him to influence a certain circle.
After all, 'even the superintendent of the local irrigation well is appointed in Heaven.' "

41.
"We have seen it proved in practice that the greater a man's trust,
and the more he looks toward his future with joy,
the faster do these things materialize."

42.
"Let him take G-d as a partner, by pledging to contribute for tzedakah
a little more than a tenth of the profit, and preferably close to a fifth. His Partner will then undoubtedly bring him blessings and success."

43.
"The end of your letter, about your lack of joy, contradicts the beginning of your letter."

44.
"One states as a fact, and regards as certain (G-d forbid),
that in a month's time his father's health will not be as it ought to be?!"

45.
"The instances in which doctors are mistaken in such matters are innumerable."

46.
"And G-d, Who since the Six Days of Creation has been 'arranging matrimonial matches,'
will no doubt make available to you, too, the match that will be suitable for you,
materially and spiritually in unison."

47.
"You ask whether the gates of Heaven have been closed (G-d forbid)
and why the way of the worthless prospers."

48.
"There can be nothing that is not good,
for in that place no one has any dominion apart from G-d alone."

49.
"This [mood] itself will increase the good tidings."

50.
"And may G-d grant that my trust in the ultimate victory of good and truth will be vindicated -
even with regard to political parties."

51.
"Despairing, and seeking miracles especially for one's battles with the [Evil] Inclination -
these are simply the wiles and the incitement initiated by the [Evil] Inclination."

52.
"It is self-understood that one cannot point out to G-d on the calendar
that this must happen at the time that appears right to oneself."

53.
"Bitachon is the conduit through which one receives outstanding success from Above."

54.
"They're cutting him up! He's groaning in pain,
but he can't free himself from these kidnappers and murderers!"

55.
"You write that it appears to you that your lot does not bring you success, and so forth.
Avert your attention from all of that, because it is not true."

56.
"When there is a full measure of firm trust - without learned debates or explanations -
that He is 'my light and my salvation,' then 'whom shall I fear?' "

57.
"With regard to the temporary inadequacy in your income,
it is a pity that you are taking it so hard."

58.
"In the spirit of lechat'chilah ariber, it could be suggested
that rejoicing over the improvement in one's health
should be advanced ahead of time, even though the improvement is not yet manifest."

59.
"When there arrives a moment that is not as one would have liked it to be..."

60.
"If so, what room is left for worry?"

61.
"It is my unequivocal opinion that [involvement in the Chabad institution in your locality]
is also the conduit through which the local members of the chassidic brotherhood
will receive their material livelihood."

62.
"I hope, too, that you will participate in the farbrengens...,
which heal and strengthen and raise the spirits of those who are downfallen
and of those whose hearts are bruised."

63.
"When a person is weighing in his mind what he should decide and how he should act,
at that time, too, G-d is watching over him and helping him."

64.
"When one realizes that this is only a test, it utterly ceases to exist,
and what is revealed is the inner meaning of that phrase: 'For the L-rd your G-d is elevating you' - over all the obstacles that veil and obscure [His Countenance]."

65.
"If people had made a habit of sharing [their] good news and writing about it frequently,
they would have had less - or no - need to set up bonds of communication by writing about things that are the opposite of good news."

66.
"When a soldier sets out to the battlefield,
he strides forth to the joyful rhythm of a triumphal march."

67.
"And as it becomes increasingly engraved in one's understanding
that one is standing before the King of kings,
...there will be a corresponding decrease in one's anxiety
about what others will say about the manner of one's speech."

68.
Through the Zohar, G-d opened up a new wellspring that provides a profounder
G-dly understanding, and faith, and trust.

69.
"Repentance, too, must be done out of a firm trust in G-d, and not (G-d forbid) out of despair."

70.
"You write that you would like to have more children, but that there is a financial question."

71.
"There were a few reasons for my not answering your previous letters.
One of them was that I wanted to see how Divine Providence
would guide you in the course of the summer."

72.
"My intent [in writing of Divine Providence] is not to act as defense counsel (G-d forbid)
for the above-mentioned [medical] situation."

73.
"The stronger and more disproportionate is one's trust,
the more disproportionately will one's trust be manifestly vindicated -
by the bestowal of G-d's blessings, both material and spiritual."

74.
All the above [regarding responses to the Gulf War] relates to action.
As to how one should feel, I have made my position clear on several occasions.

75.
"You will then have less time to think the opposite of the directive to think only good."

76.
"You see miracles..., yet you insist on seeking out depressing subjects."

77.
"You have been promised that G-d is your guardian."

Part B: Talks

"A Weighty Task Indeed"
A Thought from the Rebbe Rashab

"When there is still a straw to hang on to"
A Thought from the Rebbe Rayatz

In Good Hands
100 Letters and Talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson
on Bitachon: Trusting in G-d
Part A: Letters
19.
"Several well-known incidents testify that
with staunch bitachon one can accomplish whatever is needed."
Compiled and Translated by Uri Kaploun

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  18.
"Since you place your trust in G-d in questions of materiality and your livelihood,
surely that trust should be firm when it comes to one's children and their conduct!"
Search this book:
20.
"David HaMelech says, 'I will fear no evil, for You are with me.'
And 'for You are with me' relates to every single Jew."  

By the Grace of G-d
1st day of Rosh Chodesh Adar, 5712 [1952]
Brooklyn

Greetings and Blessings!

Your[153] letters of 22 and 29 Teves and 4 and 7 Shvat were duly received.

From what you write about the mikveh, it appears that the other party would not be influenced by halachic proofs and legalistic argumentation and disputation. I am afraid that [their opposition] is nothing other than a willful insistence to win the tussle. For otherwise, it is utterly incomprehensible how anyone could raise objections to the construction of a mikveh in a manner prescribed by the outstanding scholars of various circles in past generations.[154] They, too, were undoubtedly well versed in the study of the Talmud,[155] the works of the Rishonim[156] and the Acharonim,[157] and of our people's [later] luminaries, and they handed down their halachic rulings accordingly. What a pity that within our own chassidic brotherhood[158] there is no comparable resoluteness whatever, even after a directive on this very subject - on the resolute [loyalty] that should characterize a Jew who has come close to a man whom he regards favorably, and how much more so when that man (of blessed memory) is his Rebbe and nasi.

You can plainly see, even with fleshly eyes, how those people stop at nothing in order that the view of a man in whom they perceive mortal qualities should materialize. Yet in spite of that, you do not do whatever can be done in order that another view should materialize - the view of a man who was, as clearly as daylight, a G-dly man. I.e., his mind was G-dly, and he was accepted by tens of thousands of Jews as their guide in every detail of Torah and mitzvos. The analog with regard to the subject under discussion[159] is self-explanatory.

You ask whether you should show [your colleagues] my telegram etc. Several well-known incidents testify that with staunch bitachon one can accomplish whatever is needed. The same applies here, too. I am certain that if, when you received the telegram, you had proceeded confidently, without being overwhelmed by the supposed awe of mortals, the directive of the Rebbe Rashab would have overcome all [obstacles] and would have materialized. But since [your colleagues] advised the opposite, and as a result you too fall into doubt and the subject requires support and questions and clarification, I am extremely doubtful as to whether you will [now] be able to proceed unflinchingly - and consequently, such steps would probably harm the cause. For, as is well known, a person who "hops between one opinion and the other"[160] can do even more harm, even in matters of great import, than a person who leans to the opposite side.

My intention is not, G-d forbid, to rebuke, but my heart is pained. Each one of us, with our mortal eyes, has seen so many miraculous things that were wrought by our Rebbeim, and has relied on them even in life-threatening situations, both materially and spiritually. Yet despite all that, it happens that at times (and I regret to say that in some cases this is at relatively frequent times), when put to the test by the opposition raised by the other side, [some chassidim] lose their self-assurance and begin to seek out ways and means and counsels and whatnot, and become diplomats and so on.

Moreover, this attitude provides additional proof that much is still lacking in the task of disseminating the wellsprings [of the teachings of Chassidus34] outward. For, as is explained at length in the literature of Chassidus, if there is to be even a little [chassidic light] outside, there must be an abundance of it within.

May G-d grant every one of us an ample environment and help each of to fulfill his mission in this world, and may He draw us out of the straits to a truly unbounded spiritual freedom [...].

With blessings,

[...]

   

Notes:

  1. (Back to text) Igros Kodesh, Vol. 5, p. 241, Letter 1441.

  2. (Back to text) The name of the recipient of this letter has never been made public. It is clear from internal evidence, however, that it was addressed to a Lubavitcher rav who had been ambivalent in his responses to the local misnagdim who were making every effort to prevent him from constructing a mikveh modeled after the two-tiered mikveh in Rostov-on-Don. The technical specifications of that mikveh (uncovered intact in 1999 and now in daily use) had been dictated in minute detail by the Rebbe Rashab to cover every possible halachic requirement.

  3. (Back to text) In the original, Shas (acronym for Shishah Sidrei [Mishnah]): the Talmud in its entirety.

  4. (Back to text) Lit., "the former [scholars]": the medieval commentators on the Talmud up to the sixteenth century.

  5. (Back to text) Lit., "the latter [scholars]."

  6. (Back to text) In the original, Anash : an acronym for anshei shlomeinu (lit., "the men of our peace"; cf. Yirmeyahu 38:22, Ovadiah 1:7), a cordial term signifying the chassidic fraternity.

  7. (Back to text) I.e., the construction of the current mikveh.

  8. (Back to text) I Melachim 18:21.


  18.
"Since you place your trust in G-d in questions of materiality and your livelihood,
surely that trust should be firm when it comes to one's children and their conduct!"
Search this book:
20.
"David HaMelech says, 'I will fear no evil, for You are with me.'
And 'for You are with me' relates to every single Jew."  
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