By the Grace of G-d 5th of Teveth, 5733 Brooklyn, N.Y.

Greeting and Blessing:

I am in receipt of your letter in which you write that you have a problem of faith.

Let me state at the outset that it is not so much a problem of faith as of approach. Judaism is primarily a religion of action, faith taking a secondary place. Faith in G-d is an inborn quality with Jews and it flourishes as it is nurtured by the actual fulfillment of Divine precepts in the daily life. This is also the great principle of naaseh v’nishma, “we will do and we will understand,” with which the Jewish people accepted the Torah at Sinai. The doing comes first and this very doing makes the Jew susceptible and sensitive to the Divine influences inherent in the Divine commandments, so that he can gain new insights and deepen his faith and all doubts vanish as a matter of course.

By way of illustration, when a person is hungry his capacities to understand and appreciate things in their true essence are greatly reduced and if he has not had food for a long time he may be totally oblivious to the most tangible things around him. What such a starving person needs, first of all, is not the theoretical exposition as to how physical food is digested and converted into life-giving energy sustaining the body and soul, but actual food to eat. The same and more so, is it true with a starving soul. For a Jewish soul must have its daily, indeed constant, sustenance, namely, the study of the Divine Torah and the fulfillment of the Divine precepts in the daily life. That is why the Torah is called Toras Chayim - the Torah of Life - not merely for life in the Hereafter but here and now. And when the soul is starved, its intellectual and spiritual capacities are affected incomparably more than the physical body is affected by the lack of physical nourishment. If for the time being there are doubts or little faith, it is only because the person is still spiritually undernourished. He should not allow himself to be discouraged, for the problem will diminish with every food intake, until it will disappear.

With regard for your desire to see me personally, there is no need for this, for my reply is already contained in the above lines. Besides, there is a long waiting list and why wait, when the solution to your problem has already been indicated above.

With blessing,

For the Lubavitcher Rebbe

By (secretary)