By the Grace of G-d 5th of Nissan, 5735 Brooklyn, N.Y.

Blessing and Greeting:

I was pleased to receive your regards. I was particularly glad to hear that the matter regarding your late husband’s sculptures is being satisfactorily resolved. May G-d grant that the other still unresolved details should also be finalized to your satisfaction.

I want to express my sincere appreciation of your thoughtfulness in giving such eloquent and tangible expression to the affinity and warm sentiments that your husband of blessed memory shared with me for many years. I shall treasure the sketch of the “Tree of Life” sculpture as a meaningful symbol.

May I add that this work is meaningful also in other ways. For example, the eternity of the soul is, of course, a basic tenet of our religion, but its eternity is also expressed in terms of the good deeds and contributions a person has made in his lifetime on earth. This is particularly conspicuous in the case of a person who was Divinely gifted with extraordinary talents, such as your husband was endowed with, which won him widespread admiration and world renown, hence, corresponding influence in the world of the spirit and the ideas which he exemplified.

The symbol of a “tree” is especially apt here, for it is a metaphor used in the Torah for usefulness, productivity and regeneration in human life.

To conclude on a timely note, with the approach of Pesach, the Festival of Our Liberation - one of the basic ideas of this first (in both time and moral teaching) festival is the true concept of liberation, which must comprise freedom from both material and spiritual hindrances. Not only must the material world and man’s physical nature not impede a person’s spiritual development and fullest expression, but matter itself must be permeated with spirituality and elevated thereby. This is also exemplified in the creative work of a gifted sculptor, who takes a piece of inert matter, imbues it with “life,” and makes it the transmitter of his lofty ideas, feelings and aspirations.

With the traditional blessing for a Kosher and Happy Pesach,

Cordially,