We began planning a second printing of To Know and To Care before the third of Tammuz. Now after that date, the public demand for this book has encouraged us to continue those plans without delay. For as the Rebbe said with regard to the Previous Rebbe's passing:[1] "Chassidim are not accustomed to making eulogies, but they tell stories."

In this edition, we have made no substantive changes in the text of the book. Accordingly, the references to the Rebbe are always in the present tense and the term Shlita is employed. Aside from the pressures of time, there is also an appropriateness in retaining such usage. As our Sages commented,[2] "Yaakov, our Patriarch, did not die. Just as his descendants are alive, so too is he alive."

The vitality which the Rebbe inspires in all aspects of our lives is - and will continue to be - a very real factor in the way we, the Rebbe's spiritual descendants, confront reality. In his lifetime, the Rebbe reached out to every Jew, and for that matter every human being, and helped them put the most into life, and get the most out of it. And his teachings - those recorded in texts, and those that emerge from the encounters that hundreds and thousands of people had with him - will continue to propel countless others to that goal.

During the year after the passing of his wife, Rebbetzin Chayah Mushka gwwb, the Rebbe constantly referred to the phrase:[3] "And the living should take it to heart." This is what is necessary at present - to take the Rebbe's message to heart and to energetically apply it in our own lives, and to share it with our families, our friends, and all those with whom we come in contact.

And this will lead, hopefully in the nearest possible future, to the age when "[G-d] will swallow up death for eternity, and G-d, the L-rd will wipe away tears from every face,"[4] with the coming of Mashiach and subsequently, the Resurrection of the Dead.

3 Tammuz, 5754

   

Notes:

1. (Back to text) Likkutei Sichos, Vol. II, p. 504.

2. (Back to text) Taanis 5b.

3. (Back to text) Ecclesiastes 7:2, Rambam, Laws of Mourning end of ch. 13.

4. (Back to text) Isaiah 25:8.