By the Grace of G-d4th of Sivan, 5724Brooklyn, N. Y.
Mr. . . .
New York N.Y.
Greeting and Blessing:
I was deeply grieved to hear of the passing of your wife, may her soul rest in peace. Please accept my heartfelt sympathy and traditional expression of condolence.
May the Almighty comfort you in the midst of the other mourners for Zion and Jerusalem.
The inclusion of the bereaved with the other mourners of our people in this hallowed expression of condolence is significant. It underlines the fact that the sorrow of an individual Jew upon the passing of a dearly beloved one is not his alone to bear in isolation, but is shared by all Jews, inasmuch as the Jewish people form one organism. This makes it easier to bear one's loss, which is the loss of all. May you not know of any sorrow in the future.
It is my prayerful wish at this time, as my heart goes out to your orphaned daughter that you will devote your fullest attention to her education and bring her up - again to quote a traditional but happy phrase – to a life of Torah, chuppah and good deeds. I hope and pray that she will be a source of great comfort for you, in addition to the comfort which you will derive from your work in the public good, which you carry on with such discretion that few know of its full scope.
With blessing,
Notes and sources
Published: The Letter and the Spirit, Vol 3 (Nissan Mindel Publications, 2016), 279.
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.