By the Grace of G-d11th of Cheshvan, 5737Brooklyn, N.Y.

Greeting and Blessing:

This is to confirm receipt of your latest correspondence, which is acknowledged ahead of its turn, inasmuch as you have requested an urgent reply.

It is rather curious and surprising to see some people taking emergency measures in quite a normal situation and vice versa.

The above remark is apropos of what you write about your daughter. As you surely know, the highest goal of a Jewish woman is to be a good akeres habayis and in a way that “all the glory of the king’s daughter is within the home.”¹ In other words, the true akeres habayis takes the greatest possible pride in her home and family, which it is self-evident what kind of an education and training a Jewish daughter should receive, and in what areas she should excel.

It also follows from the above that a Jewish girl cannot find true fulfillment in a career or profession, any more than a husband can find true fulfillment by being a good cook, although, in exceptional cases, there are men who make a career of being a chef.

In light of the above, it would certainly be no reflection on the husband to say that he is not clever or smart at preparing tasty dishes, but it would reflect on his ability to say that he is not a good Rosh Yeshiva or not a good engineer (to cite your profession), for it is in the natural order of things that the husband should develop his fullest capacities and qualities in his field.

You should therefore not belittle the fact that your daughter would be attending a school where emphasis is placed on preparing the girl for a good shidduch, and to be a good akeres habayis, for it is here where a Jewish daughter finds true fulfillment and real pride in her Jewish home, as mentioned above.

As for the academic question of what should be done in the case of a boy who shows particular interest and enthusiasm to become a cook and what to do about a a girl who has special qualities that would make her a good engineer — considering the general principle that all G-d-given capacities have to be utilized fully — a letter is not the medium to discuss such a problem, especially as it is not relevant to your letter.

I hope and pray that you will find the right way to encourage your daughter along the lines mentioned above, to prepare herself to be a true akeres habayis and to find real fulfillment in it. If it is true, as you write, that she lacks the special qualities to become a good engineer and the like, you surely know that there is a body of scientific opinion that declares that when a person excels in one area, he is likely to be mediocre, or even less, in other areas. As a matter of fact, this is perhaps all the good because if a person excelled in more than one area, he or she would find himself or herself torn in different directions.

With reference to your assessment of your achievements in spreading Yiddishkeit, I believe I have mentioned to you before what we often heard from my father-in-law, of saintly memory, that just as one should not speak loshon hara about others, so one should not speak loshon hara about oneself.² As a matter of fact, it is often one of the methods of the Yetzer Hara to discourage a person from the full level of achievement by giving him the idea that he is inadequate and that it is no use trying harder.

As a matter of fact, I can now offer you ten jobs to promote Yiddishkeit, as enumerated in the enclosed general message,³ in which you can achieve a great deal, without infringing upon your duties connected with your engineering job, but only utilizing your spare time.

As indicated at the beginning of it, this letter has been sent to you by special delivery.

With blessing,