By the Grace of G-d 22nd of Shevat, 5734 Brooklyn, N.Y.

Greeting and Blessing:

This is to confirm receipt of your correspondence, and may G-d grant that you should continue to have good news to report.

I hasten to reply, since, a Jew must always endeavor to remove any suspicion from himself, and it seems that there may be some grievance that I should clear up. I refer to the question of the salary of Rabbi . . . As I have, of course, told . . . when he was here, and as you also understand and so indicate in your letter, when one has an employee who is expected to carry out his duties in the best possible way, he should receive a salary from the employer that would not give him cause for worry about parnosso. This is even more important in the area of mental and spiritual work, which requires the utmost concentration and dedication. I did not mention any specific salary, inasmuch as I do not know the conditions and standards in Manchester as to be more specific. But surely you know better what would be an adequate and appropriate salary in this case.

As for the question of where the money is to come from the answer has already been given in our Torah, which is eternal, and consequently its instructions are eternal. The question, "Whence shall my help come?" in Tehillim, which, our Sages tell us was raised by Yaakov Ovinu, was immediately answered, "My help is from G-d, the Creator of heaven and earth." It would have been sufficient to say, "My help comes from G-d"; so what is the significance of the addition of the words, "The Creator of heaven and earth," which we do not even find in the opening of the Ten Commandments (which we read last Shabbos)?

The explanation is that the Torah tells us that it is possible for a Jew, however great he may be, even as great as Yaakov Ovinu, to become anxious sometimes and ask, "Whence shall my help come?” But the Torah also gives the answer that sooner or later the help will certainly come from G-d, but it will be clothed in natural channels, for it comes from G-d, the Creator of heaven and earth, sending His heavenly help through earthly channels and vessels.

A further point that is indicated in the above, and I trust you will not take it amiss, is that when a communal worker finds himself in a situation where he asks where is the money to come from for the vital service which the community needs, he has to phrase the question not “Whence will help come?” but “Whence will my help עזרי come?” In other words, he makes it his personal concern, as if it were his own personal problem, personal business matter - which it is, and thanking G-d at the same time for having chosen him to be a sholiach to carry it out, and in a chasidic manner, with joy and gladness of heart.

With blessing,