The Lubavitch custom of using esrogim from Calabria

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The importance of public study sessions for the study of Chassidus

No. 592

The name of the recipient of this letter was not released.

B"H, 4 Iyar, 5710

Greetings and blessings,

...It was my assessment that you might possibly think that the challenge would be too great, because who knows what you would lose by fulfilling my suggestion and request.[372] Therefore when I was at the gravesite of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, hk"m, I recalled your [name] with a request that you find the power within your soul — or that you be granted the powers — to withstand what appears to you as a challenge and that very soon you will see that there was nothing to it, as explained in Chassidus[373] with regard to the concept of challenges.

Since I do not know you personally, I do not know the appropriate words to use to explain my outlook regarding this matter so that it will be well accepted and so that you will not suspect me [of implying] something that I did not intend. I will try to offer a simple explanation, for certainly, the more simple a matter is, the better.[374]

In general, every person, at all times and in every activity in which he is involved, is standing at a crossroads (at least with regard to his individual path) whether to turn to the right or to the left. This applies in particular at a time of general shock and to a person [charged with] a general responsibility and an activity of general [scope].

The meaning of the word histalkus [generally understood as "passing,"] is elevation to a higher spiritual plane. "The body is drawn after the head,"[375] for they are bound together. [This also applies in a spiritual sense.] All of us who are bound to my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, hk"m, "the head of the thousands of the Jewish people,"[376] are also obligated to ascend to a higher spiritual level and thus perform activities that were not relevant to them until the present time....

   

Notes:

372. (Back to text) [Apparently, the Rebbe had made a request of the recipient which would require him to forfeit some possible material gain.]

373. (Back to text) [See the second half of the maamar entitled VeYadaata, 5657 {translated as To Know G-d (SIE, 5753)}, et al., which explains the Divine intent of the nisyonos, challenges, that we are required to face.]

374. (Back to text) [Cf. Rosh HaShanah 26b.]

375. (Back to text) [See Eruvin 41a.]

376. (Back to text) [Cf. Tanya, ch. 2.]

The Lubavitch custom of using esrogim from Calabria

Table of contents

Search this book:

The importance of public study sessions for the study of Chassidus