By the Grace of G-d 28th Menachem Av, 5711 Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mr.
Chicago, Ill.
My Dear Mr. ...
I have learned with pleasure of your forthcoming marriage. I send you and your bride my blessings of Mazal tov, mazal tov.
It is superfluous to underscore that from the moment of marriage a new era begins in the life of the two persons who have united into one to build together an eternal home among our people Israel into posterity.
As in the case of building a physical home, the important thing – even to those who otherwise attach much value to external appearances and superficialities – is the solid foundation upon which the entire edifice is to rest.
So and more so, in the case of the spiritual home, the important and vital conditions are not to be found in superfluous aspects, but in the reliability and character for the material to withstand all sorts of tests and all kinds of weather.
What I mean by the solid foundations of the Jewish home needs no elaboration to you. Throughout the ages, the Torah and mitzvos have been the solid foundations of our people and have given us courage and strength to endure the most terrible inhuman persecutions and tests to the limit of self-sacrifice and martyrdom. This power of self-sacrifice for Torah and mitzvos has made us indestructible.
It is my heartfelt wish to you and I am confident of it, that you and your chosen one will together build your home, from the start, upon the solid foundations of Torah and mitzvos, with an unshakable determination to make your home Jewish in every way, in thought and in deed, thus assuring yourselves real happiness, Jewish happiness.
With prayerful wishes and the blessing of mazaltov,
Notes and sources
Published: The Letter and the Spirit, Vol 5 (Nissan Mindel Publications, 2019), 38.
Note: Letters printed in "The Letter and the Spirit" are from the Archives of Rabbi Nissan Mindel A"H, the Rebbe's personal secretary entrusted with writing up the Rebbe's orally dictated responses. The “Nissan Mindel Archives” are comprised of secretarial copies, including first drafts, and may have subsequently been published with editorial changes. Therefore the letters as they appear in the book may not be the final signed version.