By the Grace of G-d10th of Iyar, 5732
Greeting and Blessing:
This is to acknowledge receipt of your personal letter with enclosure.
Although I wrote to you an official acknowledgement to the Manchester Shechita Board for the greetings and good wishes in connection with my birthday, this is an opportunity for me to express to you also my personal appreciation, and may G-d grant that the blessings that Jews extend to one another should be fulfilled.
As requested, I will remember you in prayer for the fulfillment of your heart's desires for good, when visiting the holy resting place of my father-in-law of saintly memory. May the zechus of your tzedoka for which receipt is enclosed, additionally stand you and your sister in good stead.
Since you write that you are now retiring from your official duty to the community, it is surely unnecessary to emphasize to you that a Jew never retires from service, for he is always duty bound to G-d and to his fellow Jews. Indeed, now that you will be free from your other duties, you will have more time to serve the community in many ways, particularly in the spreading of the Torah and mitzvot, and may you do so in good health with joy and gladness of heart especially as פקודי ה’ ישרים משמחי לב.
Moreover, your work for the zechus horabim will stand you in good stead in every respect.
I regret that this acknowledgment has been unduly delayed because of the intervening Yom Tov and busy days before and after Pesach.
With blessing,
Notes and sources
Published: The Letter and the Spirit, Vol 2 (Nissan Mindel Publications, 2013), 364.
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.