Seeking funds for the educational activities in France and North Africa

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The significance of Beis Nissan

No. 572

This letter was sent to R. Benyamin Gorodetzky, a chassid who headed the office for the aid of refugees which received financial assistance from the Joint.

B"H, 24 Adar, 5710

Greetings and blessings,

I gratefully acknowledge receipt of your letter from the 16th and 17th of Adar, together with the number and list of the children from [North] Africa.

In the interim, you have received my previous letter and a copy of [my] letter to R. Michael Lipsker[278] who agreed to begin his work. Surely he has already been in contact with you concerning this matter. Please rush the matter to the greatest degree possible and assist him [so that,] with G-d's help, [he will] receive a visa and the like.

Mr. Yitzchak Sholom, the head of Otzar HaTorah, expressed the willingness of his organization to take upon itself the expenses of the maintenance of institutes of Jewish education in [North] Africa after they have already been established and there is an existing institution. Particulars were not discussed at all, but it is likely that they will demand that their name be mentioned. Please share your opinion — both in general and in particular — of the above.

I am not aware of the details of the situation of R. Shlomo Matusof. (Based on what you wrote — that you promised him that there would not be any involvement or efforts from here to restrain him — I have not written him concerning the above.)[279]

Nevertheless, I simply don't understand — even though, at the outset, he stipulated that he is exempt [and this is not his responsibility] — why and for what purpose he should leave his watch which is apparently a broad platform and one in which he was successful? Why should he go to look and seek out [opportunities] in a new land and in another field, leaving a [situation that serves as] a medium to contain and draw down the blessings of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, hk"m. Even now, "the staff of G-d" is in his hand to draw down manna, a well, and the clouds of glory,[280] both in material and spiritual matters, to all those who maintain their connection and follow "the paths in which he instructed us"[281] with greater strength and with greater power.

With wishes for all forms of everlasting good and with greetings to all those who seek our welfare.

M. Schneerson

   

Notes:

278. (Back to text) [Letters No. 568 and 569 above.]

279. (Back to text) [R. Shlomo Matusof was living in Marseilles at that time and planning to go to Eretz Yisrael. After this letter, he moved to Paris, married, and later emigrated to Morocco to take a leadership role in Lubavitch activities there.]

280. (Back to text) [I.e., the Rebbe was implying that just as Moshe was the ultimate source for these three influences which maintained the Jews during their journey through the desert, the Rebbe Rayatz is the source for all the spiritual and material influences of our generation.]

281. (Back to text) [The Rebbe is borrowing the wording used by the Alter Rebbe in Tanya, Iggeres HaKodesh, Epistle 27.]

Seeking funds for the educational activities in France and North Africa

Table of contents

Search this book:

The significance of Beis Nissan