By the Grace of G-d 3rd of Sivan, 5734 Brooklyn, N.Y.

Greeting and Blessing:

At this time, on the eve of Shovuos, the Festival of Mattan Torah, I extend to you and all yours my prayerful wishes for a joyous and inspiring Yom Tov, and the traditional Chasidic wish - to receive the Torah with joy and inwardness.

With blessing,

P.S. I take this opportunity to acknowledge receipt of your letter of . . .

In connection with the Festival of Mattan Torah, it is appropriate to mention here the well known narrative of our Sages that when G-d was about to give us the Torah, the angels in Heaven appealed to G-d to give them the Torah instead, and to keep the Torah in Heaven. However, G-d replied that the Torah is meant specifically for earthly beings in this material world.

One of the insights into this narrative of our Sages is that the purpose of the Torah is to do away with the separation of Heaven and earth, in other words, to do away with a dichotomy between the material and spiritual, with a view to bringing about the ultimate perfection of both to the highest level of spirituality and holiness. And inasmuch as it is in this material world that the need for spirituality is the greatest, G-d gave us the Torah and Mitzvoth to be studied and observed here on earth. If one should wonder how can a human being have the power to change the very nature of the material and turn it into something spiritual and holy - the answer is that every Jew has a soul which is actually a part of G-dliness Above, and it is through this Divine spark that the Jew receives Divine powers to transform the material into the spiritual.

Moreover, the objective is not merely to achieve holiness in a certain area, but to create a chain reaction for the continuous sublimation and spiritualization of the world through Torah and Mitzvoth. This is also one of the explanations why before Mattan Torah G-d accepted only the children as guarantors for the preservation of the Torah and Mitzvoth. For, it is not only the children themselves who are brought up in Torah and Mitzvoth, but they are so imbued with Torah and Mitzvoth, that they will bring up also their children in the same way, and through the latter the chain will be continued through their offspring, and so on.

There is no need to elaborate to you at length on the above. But I will only cite, in conclusion, the well known dictum of the Alter Rebbe to the effect that G-d gives Jews material things, and Jews transform the material into spiritual. Applying this to your case, may G-d grant you material prosperity in a very generous measure, inasmuch as you are following this principle of converting the material into the spiritual, and in the manner of a chain reaction, as mentioned above.