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Blessings for the Pesach holiday

No. 583

This letter was sent to the students and teachers of Yeshivas Achei HaTemimim of Pittsburgh.

B"H, 12 Nissan, 5710

Greetings and blessings,

Your donation for maos chitim[345] was received. Enclosed is a receipt.

Also enclosed is the kuntres for the Pesach holiday which has just been printed. You will certainly share it with others.

At every opportunity, particularly on Shabbos and Yom Tov, when everyone is in a more spiritual frame of mind than during the week, we — those who had the merit to be his students and to be bonded with him — unite with the ray and the essential spirit of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, hk"m, as alluded to in Epistle 27 of the Alter Rebbe in Iggeres HaKodesh [of Tanya]and its explanation.

My revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, hk"m, dedicated his life for the benefit of [the Jewish people] as a whole and for [every Jew] as an individual in particular, and most particularly, to those who bound themselves to him. He certainly conveys his influence to them at present as well.

Nevertheless, the influence [he conveys] is at present — to a certain degree — different from what it was previously. For at present, [his] soul is free from all the limitations and constraints of the body[346] and can ascend to one peak after another. (This is the meaning of the term histalkus.)[347] Hence the influence that he grants — both the material and the spiritual influence — is also on a higher and more elevated plane.

As a natural consequence, this demands that a recipient adapt himself to that higher influence by elevating himself.

Throughout his life, my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, hk"m, taught us how to proceed forward, not only on the level of thought, but also in actual fact. Even now, his lips are moving even in this world[348] through his numerous teachings, maamarim, talks, and letters. Through fulfilling his desire and will in actual practice, we generate the mediums through which to receive the elevated influence that he wishes to convey to us.

The time of Pesach and the exodus from Egypt — the transcendence of one's boundaries and limitations that each of us undergoes, departing [even] from one's Egypt of holiness and how much more so from the limitations of his mortal intellect and animal soul — is a particularly auspicious [time] to advance in spiritual matters. (One must, however, be careful to protect oneself from the deceptions of the "clever one.")[349] Thus these are [times] especially conducive to receive elevated influence in both material and spiritual matters. A way to [make oneself open to such influence] is not only to give maos chitim to the needy before Pesach, but to assist those who are needy and poor in the Torah and its mitzvos throughout the entire year.

With blessings for a kosher and happy Pesach holiday and great success in your studies and in your holy work,

M. Schneerson

   

Notes:

345. (Back to text) [Money given the poor to enable them to purchase their Pesach needs.]

346. (Back to text) [See Tanya, Iggeres HaKodesh, loc. cit., where similar ideas are explained.]

347. (Back to text) [I.e., the term literally means "withdrawal," i.e., ascent upward. Although it is also used to refer to the passing of a tzaddik, it has a positive intent as explained in the Rebbe's letter above. See also the Rebbe's letter published as an introduction to the Purim Kuntres in Sefer HaMaamarim 5710, p. 130.]

348. (Back to text) [See Yevamos 96b-97a which speaks about the lips of a Sage moving in the grave when his teachings are repeated by students in this world.]

349. (Back to text) [I.e., the yetzer hara.]

A gift for a groom

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Blessings for the Pesach holiday