What makes the Jews unique? What keeps us together and sets us apart? The Avner Institute presents the Rebbe’s warm advice to a woman facing challenges in her spiritual return – that the true path and defining goal of the Jewish nation is adherence to the “Tree of Life,” the 613 commandments given on Sinai, and the strength to ignore dissenters.
Dedicated in memory of loving memory of Hadassah Lebovic A”h
“To Improve the Present and Future”
By the Grace of G-d
8 Adar II, 5727
Brooklyn, NY
Blessing & Greeting:
Your cable reached me with some delay. I also received your recent correspondence.
Upon receipt of your cable, the following reply was cabled back to you, “Replying to your cable, wishing you successful treatment, good news with blessing.”
May G-d grant that you should have good news to report, especially as we are now in the auspicious month of Adar. The auspiciousness of this month is, of course, connected with the miraculous Purim festival, in which Jewish women have a particularly important part, for Esther, together with Mordecai, as much the essential figure as Esther, and as we say in the Purim prayer, “In the days of Mordecai and Esther,” yet the Megillah containing the story of Purim, and which is one of the sacred books of the T’NaCh [Bible], is not called after Mordecai, nor after Mordecai and Esther jointly, but solely after Esther – Megilas Esther – the “Book of Esther.”
Inner Conflicts
With reference to your letter, I read with considerable interest your outline of your curriculum vitae. I am gratified to note that you are conducting your home in the way of our sacred Torah, called Toras Chaim because it is both the source of true life as well as the true guide in the daily life, despite the difficulties which you had in the past, and are still experiencing to some extent.
To be sure, that period of time in the past when the daily life should have been different, requires rectification, especially by means of a determined effort to improve the present and future, so as to make up for the past. On the other hand, human nature is such that things that come easily are taken for granted, and are not so appreciated and cherished as things for which one had to fight and struggle. Thus, the level of Yiddishkeit which you and your husband have attained through real efforts has permeated you more deeply and thoroughly, and may G-d grant that you should both continue in this direction together with your children, without allowing yourself to be hindered or influenced in any way by the difficulties which you describe in your letter.
On the contrary, the difficulties themselves can serve as a challenge and stimulus to greater spiritual advancement, as is also explained in Chassidic literature, namely that one could learn a lesson even from the yetzer hara [evil inclination]. For, it is clear how persistent and relentless the yetzer hara is in doing its duty to distract a Jew from the way of the Torah and mitzvoth, by presenting him constantly with various difficulties, temptations and all sorts of arguments to the contrary. So much so that the yetzer hara often appears in the guise of piety and “the voice of morality,” such as that the commandment of honoring one’s father and mother, the need to preserve peace and harmony, and the like justify a deviation from the way of the Shulchan Aruch [Code of Jewish Law]. The determination and dedication of the yetzer hara to its duty should therefore serve as an inspiration how much more should a person be devoted and dedicated to his real task, considering that the Jew has a Divine soul and a natural inner drive towards the good and the holy, which should make one truly thrilled to be able to serve G-d with joy and gladness of heart.
Members or Outcasts?
In connection with the above, I must take exception to the expression which you use in your letter that you sometimes feel like “outcasts” within your family whose ways have parted from the Jewish way of life and who resent your adherence to traditional Yiddishkeit. As a matter of fact, the situation is precisely the reverse, for if anyone is to be considered an outcast, it is the one that excludes himself from the way of the Torah and the Jewish tradition which goes back more than a hundred generations to the time when the Jewish people became a holy nation at Mt. Sinai.
Jewish history has clearly demonstrated what has been the mainstream of Jewish tradition and the very basis of Jewish existence throughout the ages. We have always had deviationists, from the time of the Golden Calf worshippers to present-day assimilationists. But all these have been passing phenomena which came to a more or less swift end when some of the deviationists returned to the mainstream of Jewish tradition, while the others, the outcasts, were lost. The same was true in regard to the Baal worshippers during the period of the first Bais Hamikdash [Temple], followed by the first Christians, later the Karaites, etc. etc.
The common denominator that bound all Jews together, and served as the basis of Jewish survival, cannot be considered in terms of territory – for Jews have been without a country for the greater part of their history. Nor can it be considered the language – because Jews spoke different languages, at different times and countries, and even during the time of King Chizkiah, there were Jews who spoke Aramaic. Nor can other cultural or social factors be considered as the common denominator of Jewish survival, since these too have changed from time to time and from country to country.
The only things which have not changed in Jewish life are Shabbos observance, Kashrus, Tefillin, and all the other mitzvoth of the Torah, both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. It is therefore the Torah and mitzvoth which is the basis of Jewish life and survival. Consequently, the more one’s daily life and conduct adheres to this pattern of Jewish living, the more one is attached to the Jewish people, and conversely, the more concessions one is willing to make, the more one lessons one’s bonds with the Jewish people, until one may become an outcast, G-d forbid.
As for the “charge” that some people make to the effect that this kind of traditional Jewish life is “fanaticism” and the like, this is also nothing new, for there have always been Jews, from the time of the Golden Calf worshippers mentioned above, who considered themselves “modern” and called others fanatics, fundamentalists, and the like.
Choices & Changes
With regard to your personal question (if the question is still valid) as to the advisability of your taking a position in the educational field, a position which some of your local Chassidic friends who know you and know the position, have urged you to accept, it is surely unnecessary to emphasize to you at length the importance of education, and the privilege of being able to educate Jewish boys and girls. It should be borne in mind that every little bit of good influence while the children are young is multiplied many times as the child becomes of age. The obvious illustration is that of a seed or seedling, when even a small scratch or defect at that stage could become crippling to the adult tree, while every little benefit at that stage is multiplied many times.
I send you my prayerful wishes for the fulfillment of your heart’s desires for good, especially for a refuah [cure] and good health, and the fulfillment of the mitzvoth with joy and gladness of heart, and hope to hear good news from you,
With blessing,
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P.S. Your previous letter (of the week of Vayakhel) was also duly received, but for certain reasons not previously acknowledged.
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