By the Grace of G-d Erev Shabbos KodeshParshas Ki-Sisso 19th of Adar I, 5746 Brooklyn, N. Y.

Greeting and Blessing:

I was pleased to receive your letter of the 9th of Adar I, about the forth-coming Fifth Annual Dinner. May HaShem grant that it should be with much Hatzlocho in every respect.

Especially as it is taking place in the auspicious month of Adar, doubly auspicious this year, being a Leap Year, with two months of Adar, and, indeed, right in the middle of this highly favorable period in our Jewish calendar.

Everything in Jewish life is meaningful, and a Jew is expected to find the deeper meaning of things, particularly when it concerns such an important thing as our Jewish calendar.

The extraordinary phenomenon of adding a whole month in a Jewish Leap Year stems from the fact that our Jewish calendar is based on the moon’s revolutions around the earth. It takes about 29½ days between one new moon and the next, that is to say between the first appearance of the moon in the sky as a narrow, crescent (Molad, "birth"), and the next. This makes the lunar year some eleven days shorter than the solar year. Since the Torah specifies that our festivals must be celebrated in their due season (Pesach in the spring,¹ Succos in the fall,² etc.), and the seasons of the year are determined by the sun, it is required, every two or three years, (when the difference adds up to about 30 days), to reconcile the lunar year with the solar year, in order to prevent our festivals from "travelling" around the year, from season to season.

There is a symbolic moral lesson in this unique feature of our Jewish calendar in terms of human conduct, especially Jewish conduct.

The additional month in a Leap Year not only makes up the discrepancy of the lunar year vis-a-vis the solar year, as mentioned, but also exceeds it by several days as "an advance" on account of the next year or two.

Similarly a Jew is expected, first of all, to make good past deficiencies and, indeed, do more than that. This applies not only to actual failures in the past, but also to "relative" deficiencies in terms of one’s advancement in Torah and Mitzvoth, as a Jew is expected to advance with advancement in age, knowledge and experience. In other words, compared to one’s level today, yesterday's achievements, though quite sufficient unto themselves, do not measure up to today's level. This is what we learn symbolically from the Leap Year. For, counting according to the moon is what we are supposed to do, and it is quite sufficient in itself. Yet, in the course of time a discrepancy or deficiency develops, and it has to be made good, and more than that, as indicated above.

What is true of an individual, is certainly true of a congregation. As the congregation steadily grows and advances in membership and activities, it must, at the same time, advance in the quality of its spiritual services to the membership in accordance with the imperative מעלין בקדש - "To Keep things of holiness on the ascendancy"³; and do so from time to time by "leaps and bounds."

With concerted and determined efforts by the worthy Rabbi, lay leaders, and all esteemed members and worshippers - Hatzlocho is assured, both materially and spiritually.

With esteem and blessing for Hatzlocho and Good Tidings,

M. Schneerson