By the Grace of G-d 26th of Iyar, 5732 Brooklyn, N.Y.

Greeting and Blessing:

 I was pleased to see you at the Fabrengen and join us in the L’chaim. Subsequently, I received the copies of your works. It was thoughtful of you to let me have them, and many thanks. And while they are not in my field, I trust I will be able to glean some useful points from them. For with all the multifariousness in the phenomenal world, to which expression has already been given in Tehillim, “How manifold are thy works, O G-d!” the many things in the world lend themselves to reduction into orders, departments, categories and the like. But beyond this departmentalization there inheres a kinship and interrelationship which bring the most variegated things closer together, so much so that it is hoped some day to discover a unifying principle that would embrace all creation. This, as you know of course, has been the tendency of modern science, particularly in most recent times.

However, what science has been striving to achieve scientifically has long been given us as an absolute faith, inherited from our first Patriarch, Abraham, the first Jew, of whom it is said “One (and only) was Abraham,” in his discovery of monotheism in an age when polytheism reigned supreme. And later, at Sinai, when his descendants, our people Israel, matured into nationhood, the first of the Divinely proclaimed Decalogue were: “I am G-d, thy G-d" and "Thou shalt have no other gods,” established monotheism as the very basis of our people — monotheism in its purest form, as chasidus explains it in Jewish concept, namely, not merely in the sense that there is only One G-d, but that actually there is no other reality; which is what is meant by Scripture: אין עוד מלבדו - "there is nothing beside Him,” since all that exists derives existence front His Being, as fully expounded in chasidus.

In light of the above, and in view of the fact that this faith unites all Jews, consciously or unconsciously, and on the basis of the bon mot of my father-in-law of saintly memory, to the effect that when two Jews come in contact, they must see to it that the encounter should be productive not only for their own benefit but also for the benefit of other Jews.

I am emboldened to urge you, as a scientist embracing the latest scientific tendencies referred to above, to use your utmost influence with your Jewish students and wider circle of friends to bring them ever closer to the realization of ה’ אחד ושמו אחד not just as a concept, but so that it would permeate their whole being in “thought, word, and action," as a living experience in the daily life. We have been assured that “Words coming from the heart enter the heart," and are eventually productive.

There is yet a further point that has to be accounted for. There are those who take the stance that they must first attain personal perfection, before presuming to guide others towards perfection. Indeed, they may cite a well-known Talmudic rule: קשוט עצמך ואח״כ קשוט אחרים “decorate yourself, before decorating others” (ב”מ ק“ז סע״ב). However, our spiritual leaders have already pointed out to us in recent generations that we live in a state of emergency, which is no time for setting up priorities, not think of one's self first, but everyone must do what he can for whomever he can.

Perhaps our Sages of old alluded to this when using the expression קשוט עצמך . If it is a matter of “decoration,” there could be justification for priorities, but not when it is a matter of פיקוח נפש ממש, of truly saving lives. For it is quite likely that if the opportunity to speak to a student is not immediately grasped, it may be too late to do so the next day, when the young man or girl, might be swept by any of a number of dangerous tides ravaging the campuses. There is no need to be more explicit to you, who, as a professor at an important university, knows full well the painful realities of the situation.

To conclude on a happy note now that we are on the threshold of the month of Mattan Torah, may every one of us, in the midst of our people Israel, receive the Torah with joy and inwardness.

With esteem and blessing,

[Sign.]

P.S. I was particularly gratified to learn that your daughter also attended the Farbrengen on Shabbos and participated in the Lag b'Omer Parade. I am enclosing a copy of a recent message to the Convention of the Neshei u’Bnos Chabad. I trust, that some points of it, at any rate, may be meaningful also to her at her age.