5725
Mr. . . .
Greeting and Blessing:
I have received your (undated) letter. You write that you are 16 years of age and that last year you entered a Yeshiva, but many questions and doubts are troubling you, affecting your faith and the fulfillment of the Torah and mitzvot. You are therefore prone to too many hasty conclusions, etc.
Although I do not know you personally, it is sufficient to read your letter to be astonished how you do not see the lack of logic in your letter. Surely you know that the overwhelming majority of the world’s population believe in G-d. Among all these millions of human beings, you must realize there are many whose specialty is philosophy, psychology and the like, who have studied these subjects not just one year, but many years, perhaps their whole lifetime. Has it not occurred to you that the questions which you mention are known to these great thinkers and to many other individuals belonging within the category of the overwhelming majority of believers, yet it has not shaken their belief to the extent of bringing them to deny, G-d forbid, their faith in G-d? I trust that the above will also indicate to you how illogical is your approach to Torah and mitzvot. I do not doubt your sincerity in saying that you do not understand certain things. However, considering that you are only 16 years old, and that it is no more than a year since you entered a Yeshiva, how do you expect to understand everything so soon?
You may be certain, however, that these questions and doubts are the work, of the Yetzer Hara, whose task it is to distract a Jew from fulfilling the Torah and mitzvot. If the Yetzer Hara would come to you and say, “Sure, there is a G-d, but nevertheless pay no attention to Him or His commandments, and do everything to displease Him” - you certainly would not listen. Therefore, the Yetzer Hara comes to you and says that there is no need to believe in G-d altogether, and it’s better to follow the views of the few atheists, rather than the vast majority of believers, etc., etc.
May G-d grant that you should succeed in getting rid of all distracting thoughts, and that you should have good news to report.
With blessing,
Notes and sources
Published: The Letter and the Spirit, Vol 1 (Nissan Mindel Publications, 1998), 50.
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.