3013 —איזון בריאות, צדקה, ושירות בשמחה במוסדות תורה

B"H, 11 MarCheshvan, 5715.

Brooklyn.

Greetings and blessing!

I was pleased to receive your letter of 7 Cheshvan, and I am even pleased that you complain of being asked to work for several institutions. Would that such a dissatisfaction, bound up with institutions of education in full holiness, with matters of tzedakah in general and proper education in particular, be said of all Jews. Certainly one must follow the instruction of the doctor who says one must take care, for this is the instruction of our holy Torah, "ונשמרתם מאד לנפשותיכם" ("You shall greatly guard your lives" — Devarim 4:15). But when G‑d wrote this into the Torah He at the same time wrote in the need to do tzedakah and kindness. So surely this can be done, and not only will it do no harm; on the contrary, the pleasure one feels in doing a good thing strengthens and increases the state of health, even of a Jew's body. So too in your case: surely, if you do not speak loudly, people will still hear what you say, and surely you will also find time to act for institutions and matters in full holiness. And as I told you several times in our conversations, you must be joyful, as it is written, "עבדו את ה' בשמחה" ("Serve G‑d with joy" — Tehillim 100:2), specifically. And since G‑d demands this of all Jews and of every Jew, He, blessed be He, gives the strength to carry out His demand.

With satisfaction, joy and pleasantness I have handed over the draft you sent, in accordance with the conversations we had here and as you pledged, without taking a vow, at the holy resting place of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe. I hope that by the time you receive this letter you will already have a receipt for it from the central office of the Tomchei Temimim yeshivos with a suitable covering letter. May G‑d help you to be able from now on to fulfill the wishes of your heart for good; for a Jew, however good he may be, has further possibilities to become better still, and may G‑d help you in this too.

And as is known, the story my father-in-law, the Rebbe, told about his father, the Rebbe: when he became four or five years old, on his birthday he went in to his grandfather, the Tzemach Tzedek, to receive a blessing (his birthday is 20 Cheshvan, and that year it fell in the week of the Torah reading of Vayeira). On going in to his grandfather, the Tzemach Tzedek, he began to cry. The Tzemach Tzedek asked him, "Why are you crying?" He answered that he had heard in cheder that week that "וירא ה' אליו" ("G‑d appeared to him"), that the Holy One, blessed be He, appeared to Avraham our father; and he was crying because he too would have wanted to see Him, the Holy One, blessed be He, and to him He does not appear. The Tzemach Tzedek answered him: "A Jew, a tzaddik of 99 years, who knows that he must still circumcise himself" (that is, that he must still improve, for he does not yet have the quality of "והיה תמים," "and be perfect"), "is worthy that the Holy One, blessed be He, should appear to him."

The words of tzaddikim, even when said to one person in particular and even when said to a child of four or five years, since they were told to us and are the words of tzaddikim, contain an instruction and moral lesson for many, many Jews, even in other places and other times. And the application is understood.

May G‑d help each one of us to rise in Torah and mitzvos with his whole will, and may He give the strength for it, always remembering that something is still lacking and that one must be a "והיה תמים," and trusting in G‑d that nothing stands in the way of the will, and that when one truly wants, G‑d helps.

With blessing for added observance of mitzvos and fixed times for Torah, and for long days and good years.

Publisher's notes

The story (דער סיפור): See Hayom Yom, 9 MarCheshvan; Likkutei Sichos, vol. 5, p. 86; above, vol. 5, letter 1239.