The need for outreach activities

Table of contents

Search this book:

Acknowledging a miracle that happened to one’s Rebbe

No. 501

This letter was addressed to R. Shneur Zalman Duchman, one of the active members of the chassidic brotherhood.

B"H, 6 Tammuz, 5709

Greetings and blessings,

I thankfully acknowledge receipt of your fourteenth letter.[469] Enclosed is the kuntreis for the Holiday of Redemption,[470] a letter from Machne Israel,[471] and, “the last is most cherished,”[472] a letter from the Committee for Maamad. You will, no doubt, find appropriate means to share all three with people at large. I have already written to R. Mordechai HaKohen Perlow[473] that the time has come that, at the very least, all the diverse people in your surroundings to brought under the flag of the chassidic brotherhood.

With regard to what you wrote — that R. Hillel of Paritch never saw the Alter Rebbe[474]: this is true. Regarding the manner [in which he] heard a maamar from the Alter Rebbe, we heard [the following] from my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe Shlita, several years ago.[475] R. Hillel very much yearned to see the Alter Rebbe. When the Alter Rebbe visited [his] region, R. Hillel followed after him, but wherever he would go, the Alter Rebbe had just left. Once, before the Alter Rebbe arrived in a certain town where he was scheduled to stay, R. Hillel acted cleverly and came to the town. R. Hillel hid under the couch in the room that was designated for the Alter Rebbe. His intent was that after [the Alter Rebbe delivered] the maamar, he would emerge from his hiding place and [ask the Alter Rebbe] to resolve a very challenging question he had in the tractate Erachin. While he was lying under the couch, he heard the Alter Rebbe’s voice, speaking in sing-song as he would often do: “A young man who has a question regarding the tractate Erachin should [first] evaluate himself.”[476] R. Hillel fainted. When he came to, the Alter Rebbe had already left the town.

Under separate cover, with the intention that they be shared with people at large, we sent you [Kuntreis] Bikur Chicago and the copies of Kovetz [Lubavitch] with the discourse on the Resurrection of the Dead[477] that you asked for. The first collection of the letters [of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe Shlita] is already out of print.

There is a necessity for the renewal of the Torah at all times as indicated by the statements in [Tanya,] Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah, ch. 2, regarding nigleh, the revealed dimension of Torah Law, which is called “the light of the Torah,” and regarding pnimiyus haTorah, Torah’s mystic secrets, based on the statements of the maamar entitled BeYom HaSheni (2 Nissan, 5685) and the maamarim of Shavuos, 5700 (which are now in the process of being published). Explanation is given there regarding the difference in the process of renewal undergone by the Torah, by souls, and by the worlds. (On the surface, it appears from [the latter source] that souls are not in need of renewal. Ostensibly, that concept is entirely implausible. This is not the place for discussion of the matter.)

A proof for the concept of renewal in relation to the Torah — in addition to the wording of the blessing for Torah study which praises G-d as Nosain HaTorah, “Who gives the Torah,” using the present tense — can be brought from our Sages’ statement (Yalkut Shimoni, Eichah): “Whenever one reads and studies the Torah, the Holy One, blessed be He, reads and studies opposite him,” and from our Sages’ statement (Sifri, Parshas VaEs’chanan): “Every day, [the words of the Torah] should be as new in Your eyes.”

With greetings to our entire brotherhood,

M. Schneerson

   

Notes:

469. (Back to text) [R. Duchman would send memoirs of stories of the previous generations of chassidim to the Rebbe who would share them with the Previous Rebbe.]

470. (Back to text) [I.e., Yud-Beis/Yud-Gimmel Tammuz, the anniversary of the Previous Rebbe’s release from prison. See Sefer HaMaamarim 5709, p. 183ff.]

471. (Back to text) [The letter, reproduced in the Rebbe’s Igros Kodesh, Vol. III, p. 130, speaks of preparing a book of pictures of Lubavitcher chassidim and their families all over the world to be given to the Previous Rebbe.]

472. (Back to text) [Bereishis Rabbah 78:8.]

473. (Back to text) [See the previous letter.]

474. (Back to text) [It is necessary to reconcile the above with the statements of Likkutei Dibburim, Vol. III, p. 524a, which speaks of a teaching that R. Hillel heard from the Alter Rebbe.]

475. (Back to text) [See also Sefer HaSichos 5698, p. 276; Likkutei Sichos, Vol. II, p. 400; Vol. XXIV, p. 171.]

476. (Back to text) [The Alter Rebbe’s words involved a pun. The root of the word Arachin (“evaluation endowments”) is erech, which means “evaluate.”]

477. (Back to text) [Printed in the Rebbe’s Igros Kodesh, Vol. II, Letter No. 200.]

The need for outreach activities

Table of contents

Search this book:

Acknowledging a miracle that happened to one’s Rebbe