5743

Greeting and Blessing: 

This is in reply to your recent letter. 

To begin with the concluding paragraph of your letter, about the advisability of making a change - it is my opinion that, (on the basis of your description of the situation), it would be advisable for you to continue in your present position at Cambridge, which would also be beneficial for your parents. I do not see how your moving to Eretz Yisrael would strengthen your influence on your son, especially in view of the fact that the younger generation there tends to feel and act more independently of parental influence. At any rate, since you recently spent a year there, you are surely familiar with the situation in Eretz Yisrael in this regard. 

As to what you can do to guide your son in the direction of Torah - you are no doubt aware that nowadays it is often easier for parents to influence adolescent children through the mediation of friends than by attempting this directly themselves. Children who begin to feel that they have come of age are inclined to shun parental advice because they fear that their parents still consider them immature, (or something of the sort), but they would be a deal more receptive to the same advice coming from "objective" sources. Therefore, it would be well if you could find friends in Boston with whom to try to influence your son in the right direction. This would be most effective if done in a way that would not make it obvious that they are intervening at your request. 

There might also then be a chance to persuade him to attend a Yeshiva - such as Yeshiva University, for example with a dormitory where he would come under the influence of suitable peers. 

But I would like to turn to another topic, which I trust you will not take amiss. I am somewhat surprised that in your letter you did not mention your contacts with our brethren behind the Iron Curtain; nor allude to any activity intended to help many of them who have come out of that place. You are undoubtedly aware that a considerable percentage of them require a great deal of encouragement in terms of incorporating Torah and mitzvot in their everyday life and conduct. influence (moral/spiritual) in this direction from one who is himself an escapee from the same place, and knows the problems at first hand, is likely to be vastly effective, especially when accompanied by a living example. 

Of course, there are those who may feel that they are not so well suited for such communal activities. But if this, or any other reason, may have been excusable in normal times, it cannot be valid in times of emergency, especially where pikuach nefesh is concerned, for this supersedes everything else. 

Needless to say, it is not my intention to sermonize. But, seeing what is happening to many of our brethren who have come from behind the Iron Curtain - because no one has attempted to reach out to them - I have no choice but to relay their SOS. 

May G-d grant that you have good news to relay in all that has been mentioned above. 

With esteem and blessing,