FREE TRANSLATION

By the Grace of G-d
On the Day of Shem Hashem,
(Day after Yom Kippur), 5742
Brooklyn, N.Y.

To the Sons and Daughters of
our People Israel, Everywhere

G-d bless you all!

Greeting and Blessing:

Coming from the Holy Day (Yom Kippur), unique in the year, on which every Jew receives the confirmed inscription for a good and sweet year, in the realm of good that is revealed and evident,

And so does our — Jewish people as a whole, “one nation on earth."

All of us — individually and collectively — thus judged entitled to receive all the blessings, both material and spiritual, from the Source of blessings, the One G-d,

It is certain that in keeping with the halachah that all Jews are always ready and willing to fulfill the Will of our Heavenly Father, everyone — man, women, and child — is increasing one’s efforts in the observance of the Torah and Mitzvos, including, especially, the Great Rule of the Torah, v’ohavto lre’acho komoc-ho, “Love your fellow as yourself.”

Indeed, our being “all of us as one” makes us eligible to receive G-d’s generous blessings, in fulfillment of our prayer, “Bless us, our Father, all of us as one, in a state of Light of Your countenance,”

Leading also to the fulfillment ‘of our most cherished plea, “Hashem Elokim G-d of Hosts, restore us, light up Your countenance, and we shall be delivered” — with the true and complete Geulo (deliverance) through Mashiach Tzidkeinu.

In view of the great importance of the matter, a suggestion has been made, which is “not too hard for you,” etc., but very near and easy to do it, whereby to underscore the said mutual love and unity of our Jewish people, in a manner that is eternal and genuinely true; namely:

By everyone acquiring a letter in a Sefer Torah that will be (hand-) written for and in behalf of everyone, and all our Jewish people — the Torah being both genuinely true (Toras Emes) and eternal.

A Sefer Torah that will be written in accord with respective traditions, in Ashkenazic script, Sefardic, Arizal, etc. (“these as well as the others being the words of the Living G-d,” together with the spirit of “mutual affection and fraternity”).

Since to do a good deed in behalf of someone else requires no prior consent, it is hoped that the rule of lre’acho komocho will be applied in this case, too, in acquiring a letter in the Sefer Torah in behalf of one who, for one reason or another, has not done so personally.

And, as in all matters of Torah and Mitzvos, goodness and blessing, time is of the essence, and the sooner the better.

The money contributed for the purchase of a letter in the Sefer Torah, Toras Hashem, can in relation to its effects be considered in the category of money given to Tzedoko (having the same factors), namely, that “since with this money one could have purchased necessities of life, it is deemed as if one gave of one’s life to G-d,” and “it hastens the Geulo." Moreover, it is given for writing Toras Hashem, and our Sages said, “the Holy One, blessed be He, the Torah, and the people Israel are all one."

May G-d grant that the said proposal be accepted, and implemented, with pleasure and delight — commensurate with the importance of unifying all Jews,

Which is also symbolically emphasized by the Mitzvos of the coming Holiday: The Mitzvah of Succah and the Mitzvah of the Four Kinds (Esrog, Lulav, Myrtles and Willows).

With esteem and blessing for a Joyous Yom Tov,

/Signed: Menachem Schneerson/