[Before Pesach], 5724
Dr.
Greeting and Blessing:
On the occasion of the forthcoming Yom Tov of Pesach, I send you my prayerful wishes that the Festival of Our Freedom should bring you and yours true freedom, freedom from anxiety material and spiritual, and from anything which might distract from serving G-d wholeheartedly and with joy, and the strength to carry over this freedom and joy into the whole year.
Wishing you and yours a kosher and happy Pesach,
Cordially,
P.S. I take this opportunity to acknowledge receipt of your letter, with enclosure, for which you will herein find receipt.
Needless to say, a visit with me does not entail any obligation whatsoever to send a check. And although the mitzvah of tzedakah is very great, it is very great whenever it is fulfilled, quite independent of any meeting with me.1
I note from your letter that you wish to give me some spiritual gratification. It is surely unnecessary to emphasize that when a Jew does a mitzvah, it is a spiritual gratification to every Jew. Certainly if I have been, or can be, instrumental in inspiring you to do mitzvot, it is a source of considerable gratification for me. And while, insofar as the mitzvot are concerned, they are all equally gratifying, it would, in the present conditions, be of especial gratification to me if I were to receive word from you that you are putting on tefillin every weekday morning, and reciting your prayers, or at any rate a short prayer, as a good general way to start off the activities of the daily life, in accordance with our Torah and mitzvot. As a matter of fact, the mitzvah of tefillin is a rather fundamental mitzvah, as has been amply explained in various sources, and as is also indicated by the fact that we put on tefillin on the arm facing the heart, and on the head, the seat of the intellect. This indicates that the whole man, both in the realm of emotion as well as of intellect, comes under the influence of the religious experience in the act of performing the Divine commandments.
Moreover, the parchment scrolls within the tefillin contain portions of the Shema - “Hear, O Israel, G-d our G-d, G-d is One. And thou shalt love G-d thy G-d with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might”2 - emphasizing the basis of the Jewish approach, namely, the acceptance of the dominion of Heaven, and willingly and eagerly subjugating our mind and our heart to the supreme authority and wisdom of our Creator.
In the spirit of your letter, as well as of your check, I take the liberty of sending you a personal gift, namely, a pair of tefillin, together with an explanatory booklet. I cannot say that this gift is connected particularly with Yom Tov, since on Yom Tov we do not put on tefillin, (the Sefardim do not put on tefillin even during Chol Hamoed). However, I hope that you will be able to make use of the tefillin before Yom Tov, and after Yom Tov, and that you will do so with joy and gladness of heart. As a matter of fact, the mitzvah of tefillin has a very particular connection with the deliverance from Egypt.
With blessing,
Notes and sources
For the general content of this letter see also letter dated 12 Nissan, 5741.
1) See also letter dated 5 Teves, 5725 (feeling obliged to send a donation in every correspondence).
2) Devarim 6:4-5.
Published: The Letter and the Spirit, Vol 1 (Nissan Mindel Publications, 1998), 465.
Note: Letters printed in "The Letters 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.