By the Grace of G-d Rosh Chodesh Sivan, 5724 Brooklyn, N. Y.

Greeting and Blessing: 

This year's Annual Dinner is taking place in the month of Mattan Torah, only a few days after the Festival of Our Receiving the Torah. I trust that each and everyone of the participants will, on this occasion, give expression to the spiritual stimulation of this festival, and to the practical message which it contains, particularly in connection with the forthcoming annual undertaking on behalf of the Yeshiva. 

It is worthy of note that the festival of Shovuoth has no independent date of its own, like any other festival, since no month or day is specified in the Torah as the time of its celebration, but only that it is the "Fiftieth Day" of the counting of the Omer; the counting which we begin on the second day of Pessach, on the day after the liberation from Egyptian bondage. 

In this way the Torah emphasizes that the festival of Shovuoth is the goal of the festival of Pessach; that the Season of the Giving of Our Torah is the culmination of the Season of Our Freedom - that the true and complete freedom both for the individual as well as for the community, and both materially and spiritually, can be attained only through the acceptance of the Torah. 

We live in a time and in a country where, notwithstanding external “freedom,” the society in general, and the young generation in particular, are still largely “enslaved,” and at a loss how to free themselves from the shackles of spiritual and mental confusion. The only hope that Jewish children should not be swept with this stream lies in a Torah — true Yeshivah education, where the golden chain of the Torah from Sinai is maintained; the Torah in all its sanctity, the Torah of Truth which must always remain intact, and cannot be subject to compromise or concession.

The Lubavitcher Yeshiva Achei Tmimim in Newark is an important bastion of Torah, which deserves the fullest support. It is both a great obligation as well as a unique Zechus for every Jew and Jewess to support this Yeshiva. I congratulate all the participants in the Annual Dinner and send my prayerful wish to you all that the Almighty should bless you in this Yeshiva undertaking, as well as in your personal affairs and in all your needs, materially and spiritually. 

With the blessing for success, and a happy and inspiring Yom Tov of Kabbolas HaTorah 

Signed /M. Schneerson/