To the Sons & Daughters of Our People

In preparation for Rosh Hashanah – Rabbi Sholom Ber Schapiro is presenting 2 Elul communal letters of the Rebbe, in the making – from the year 5711 and 5744. Notice the many handwritten notations, corrections, and additions of the Rebbe on each page. One was addressed to a group of students and the second, to Sons and Daughters of our People Israel.

In his introduction to The Letter and the Spirit: English Letters of the Rebbe (of which four volumes have been published to date by the NMP – Nissan Mindel Publications – with more to follow), Rabbi Nissan Mindel describes in fascinating detail the process by which the Rebbe would reply to the countless letters he received weekly. Both communal and personal letters. It is Rabbi Mindel, the royal scribe who faithfully and ably served the Rebbe for over four decades as personal secretary, who went in weekly to take dictation and who thereafter typed the letters in one of the four languages in which the Rebbe answered his letters.

Looking at the two samples we present here – letters which the Rebbe wrote on the theme of Elul and preparation for Rosh Hashanah – we can appreciate both the concern and respect the Rebbe showed for those he addressed, by the way he so carefully and meticulously chose each thought and each word so as to convey the precise message and sentiment to the one seeking his advice and blessing.

Often, letters would go through a number of drafts before the final draft was ready to be mailed. The two letters here have gone through extensive corrections and notations before the final draft.