[Kislev] 5730

Blessing and Greeting:

This is to acknowledge receipt of your letter, as well as the previous one, with the clippings. I am truly gratified to note your personal interest in what is happening in Lubavitch, as evidenced by the press clippings.

I sincerely appreciate your good wishes and felicitations in connection with our 20th anniversary.

I hope and pray that the memory of my saintly predecessor will inspire each and every one of us, in the midst of all our people, to follow in his footsteps in practical endeavor for the strengthening and spreading of Torah-Yiddishkeit in the daily life, in accordance with the principle of our Sages that “the essential thing is the deed.”

I deeply appreciate the anniversary gift, the Menorah that you sculpted. It is impressive in its ancient-looking form and is, of course, highly symbolic. As I have had occasion to mention before, one of the profound messages of the Chanukah lights is that a Jew should never be satisfied with the state of “light,” however satisfactory it may be on any particular day, but must add additional illumination, for himself and his surroundings, from day to day. I particularly want to commend you for your insight in giving this Chanukah Menorah a color and glaze suggestive of great antiquity. This is very appropriate, for it is related in the Talmud that, owing to the impoverishment which the Jews suffered at the time of the persecution in those days, they did not have a golden Menorah in the Bet Hamikdash, but were forced to use one made of tin.

I extend to you and yours my prayerful wishes for hatzlacha in your work and in all your affairs, materially and spiritually.

With blessing,

P.S. While I sincerely appreciate your thoughtfulness and sentiments, I am somewhat embarrassed that you think it necessary to express your friendship in terms of a gift of a work of art of your creation.

I am likewise taking the liberty of sending you a token of my appreciation through the enclosed. Needless to say, this should in no way be construed as compensation, Heaven forbid, but, as indicated, a token of reciprocity, and I trust you will accept it in this spirit.