By the Grace of G-d8th of Cheshvan, 5735Brooklyn, N.Y.
Toronto M5P 2X7
Canada
Greeting and Blessing:
I duly received your letter, in which you write also chapter headings about your background and present situation.
I trust you know of the principle of our Sages that the essential thing is the deed, namely the actual fulfillment of the mitzvot in the daily life. Moreover, it has been amply explained that the deed, namely the actual practice of the mitzvot, has the additional merit of giving one a deeper understanding and insight into the significance of the mitzvot, and opens new dimensions also for the intellect and thought. This is illustrated by the well known analogy of a person who is undernourished and hungry, yet wishes to know how food or drink still hunger and thirst and are converted into energy for the body, etc. Obviously, if he should refuse to take food until he has first acquired the knowledge and science of nutrition, he will certainly defeat his purpose. But if he should immediately take in food, he will see at once that his hunger pangs will be stilled, and he will also be able more easily to concentrate on study, with the full use of all his faculties.
The same is true about the mitzvot, which are the food of our soul. And although, at first glance, it is hard to grasp how the kashrus of food, which is consumed by the body, is so vitally important for the health of the soul, it can also be seen from the above analogy that it is so. For, as we have seen, a hungry person who will eat a slice of bread and drink a glass of water can thereby derive the strength to concentrate on scientific study of nutrition, metabolism, etc.
The above has a bearing also on the question mentioned in your letter, namely to bring the significance of the mitzvot to the attention and understanding of others. Experience has shown that however much a person can influence another person by word and precept, he can much more influence his surroundings by showing an actual living example, which implements the spoken word in living fact.
With blessing,
Notes and sources
Published: The Letter and the Spirit, Vol 4 (Nissan Mindel Publications, 2017), 292.
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.