By the Grace of G-d 16th of Iyar, 5740 Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mrs. . . .
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11234
Blessing and Greeting:
Your letter reached me with considerable delay. In it you ask my advice in regard to the suggestion that has been made to you to become the female District Leader.
If the question is still pertinent at this time, then as in the case of all matters of halachah, this is a question that should be discussed personally with a competent Rov, to whom you can relate in detail all that such responsibilities would involve, and he will give you the ruling in accordance with the Torah, Toras Chaim.
Since everything is by hashgocho protis, and this letter is being written during the days of sefira, which is the period of preparation for the Festival of Mattan Torah, I trust that you know the special role which Jewish women had in connection with receiving the Torah at Sinai when, as our Sages point out, the women were first approached about it by Moshe Rabbeinu, as indicated in the words, "Speak to the House of Jacob (the women, and then,) to the House of Israel (the men)."
With prayerful wishes for a joyous and inspiring Yom Tov, and the traditional blessing to receive the Torah with joy and inwardness.
With blessing,
Notes and sources
Published: The Letter and the Spirit, Vol 3 (Nissan Mindel Publications, 2016), 444.
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.