Explanations concerning ch. 32 of Tanya | Table of contents | Bar mitzvah blessings; instructions concerning the Lubavitch community in Jerusalem
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Explanations concerning ch. 32 of Tanya | Table of contents | Bar mitzvah blessings; instructions concerning the Lubavitch community in Jerusalem
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No. 245
This letter was addressed to Aryeh Leib Brayilavski who undertook the responsibility to raise money for the printing of texts of Chassidus in Shanghai.[77]B"H, 16 Menachem Av, 5706Greetings and blessings,
It was with great joy and satisfaction that I received the report from our mutual friends, the young men who arrived from Shanghai, that you undertook the proposition to devote yourself to raise the means to print the texts of our holy teachers, the teachings of the living G-d, in Shanghai.
As is self-evident, I conveyed the matter to my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe Shlita, who was exceedingly happy to hear this and hopes to hear good news from you in the near future.
I am certain that, to you, it is unnecessary to elaborate on the immense merit generated by giving thousands of Jews the opportunity to study texts that contain the teachings of our Rebbeim. I would like, however, to touch on one example mentioned in the words of our Sages.
Our Sages[78] relate that the entire difficulty of exile began as a result of lashon hara, undesirable speech, spoken by the spies [sent by Moshe]. Through this, they brought calamities on themselves and on generation after generation that followed including our own generation.[79]
The Talmud (Arachin 15b) relates that the advice to correct [this flaw] is through Torah study, as it states:[80] "The remedy for the tongue is the Tree of Life." And "the Tree of Life" refers to the Torah.
The enormity of the punishment for undesirable speech -- which is heard only by people in a specific place and at a specific time -- gives us some appreciation of the great merit and reward that one receives for speaking [words of] Torah in a particular place and time. And from that we can extrapolate the magnitude of the merit and reward for printing [words of] Torah. For then the text and the words of Torah it contains reach people in all other lands. And the text remains and is studied tens and hundreds of years after it was printed.
I conclude with the wish that this great merit will sustain you in all that you need, and that you will continue to participate in similar projects that involve you in Torah, its mitzvos, and good deeds.
With the blessing "Immediately to teshuvah, immediately to Redemption,"
Rabbi Menachem SchneersonChairman of the Executive Committee
Notes:
- (Back to text) [See Letters 213, 227, and 239, which mention the printing of texts of Chassidus in that city.]
- (Back to text) [See Arachin 15a.]
- (Back to text) [The portion of the letter that follows is a restatement of concepts included in Letter 237.]
- (Back to text) [Mishlei 15:14. We have translated the verse according to the context of the Talmudic passage.]
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Explanations concerning ch. 32 of Tanya | Table of contents | Bar mitzvah blessings; instructions concerning the Lubavitch community in Jerusalem
|
| Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4 | Volume 5 |