By the Grace of G-d 5th of Teves, 5742 Brooklyn, N.Y.

Greeting and Blessing:

I was pleased to be informed that the Teves issue of the “Chabad Times” will mark the 50th — Jubilee — issue.

Since this Jubilee issue is scheduled to appear in or about the week of the Sedra Vayyechi, it is well to recall the timely story of the Tzemach Tzedek that has to do with this Sedra. As a little boy, he had just learned that “Yaakov lived in the land of Egypt 17 years,” which is the first verse of Vayyechi. The teacher observed that these were Yaakov's best years of his life. The little boy, who was to become the third leader of Chabad, asked his grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, the Founder of Chabad, how it was possible that our Father Yaakov could live his best years in such a place as Egypt?

The Alter Rebbe replied: “We have been taught in the previous Sedra (Vayyigash) that Yaakov had sent his son Yehuda ahead of him to Yosef to establish a Yeshiva in Goshen (Gen. 46:23, according to Midrash quoted in Rashi). Therefore, since learning Torah brings a Jew closer to HaShem, it is possible for a Jew to truly live even in a place like Mitzrayim.”

This story relating to the Founder of Chabad and his grandson, the famed Tzemach Tzedek, and being connected also with a passage in the Torah, certainly has an eternal message for every one of us:

“Mitzraim” is the prototype of all Exiles which our Jewish people has experienced during its long history. The Hebrew word Mitzraim (in the sense of metzarim, “constraints”) indicates all such situations in which a Jew finds himself constrained and limited in the development of his true Jewish spirit. But for the Torah, the Jewish spirit would languish and lose vigor and vitality in the darkness of the Golus (Exile), whether external or internal. It is the Torah and Mitzvoth (Ner Mitzvo vTorah Or) that illuminate Jewish life and provide the strength and vitality to overcome all hindrances and constraints, enabling a Jew, man, woman and child, to live a bright and meaningful life even in the midst of outside darkness.

I extend prayerful wishes to the editor and staff of the “Chabad Times” for continued and growing Hatzlocho in quality as well as quantity, in the publication of this popular and highly regarded periodical. May G-d grant that it should go from strength to strength to carry the message of Torah and Mitzvos, permeated with the light and warmth of Chabad, to an ever-growing number of readers, both near and far. For this is the true purpose of the “Chabad Times” of Cincinnati.

With esteem and

blessing,

M. Schneerson