By the Grace of G-d Lag b'Omer, 5731 Brooklyn, M.Y.

Blessing and Greeting:

The Convention is taking place this year on Shabbos Mevorchim Sivan, the month of Mattan Torah. And inasmuch as everything is by Hashgocho Protis, it is an opportune moment to dwell on one of the aspects of Mattan Torah which has a direct bearing also on the Convention.

Torah from Sinai begins with the Ten Commandments, of which the first two: "I am G-d, thy G-d"¹ ( – the root and foundation of all positive Mitzvoth)² and "You shall have no other gods"¹ ( - the root and foundation of all prohibitions)² proclaim the Unity of G-d. A pre-condition to Mattan Torah was the unity of the Jewish people (as it is written, And Israel encamped there facing the Mountain³ – in the singular form, indicating, as our Sages explain,⁴ "as one man with one heart"). The essence of Mattan Torah is to realize in the material world the Unity of G-d, through the "one nation on earth,"⁵ the Jewish people, fulfilling the 613 Mitzvoth of the one Torah.

At first glance it is difficult to understand how such unity can be achieved, considering that G-d Himself created mankind as diverse individuals, differing in their opinions ("as they differ in their faces so they differ in their minds"),⁶ living in a world which He likewise created variegated as to climate and physical features? How can a whole nation attain true unity within itself and bring unity into such a diversified world?

The explanation is to be found in the verse, "And they stood themselves under the Mountain"⁷ – all of the 600,000 adult Jews, with their wives, sons and daughters. This means that, as they were about to receive the Torah, they all submitted themselves to it so completely, that all mundane matters ceased to exist for them, as it were; their self-effacement (bittul) and joy of receiving the Torah left room for nothing else. And since the "Mountain" was the same for all, and all were permeated with the same feeling of self-effacement and joy, this brought true unity into all the 600,000 individual Jews with their families, and also unity of G-d into the world, through the one Torah.

The Jewish people began with one family, that of our father Abraham, and ever since then the Jewish family has been the foundation of our people. In the family, too, each member is a separate individual, with a particular function and purpose in life assigned to him and her by Hashgocho Protis. Unless there is unity in the family, there can be no unity of the Jewish people. How is family unity achieved? In the same way as mentioned above: When all the members of the family accept the One Torah from the One G-d in such a way that the Torah and Mitzvoth are the only essential thing, and all other things are merely secondary, and have a significance only insofar as they are related to the essence then there is true unity in the family.

In attaining this family unity – bearing in mind also that Jewish families are the component parts of the Jewish people, hence the basis of the unity of Klal Yisroel, as mentioned above – the Jewish mother and daughter have a most important part, being the Akeres Habayis,⁸ as has been underscored on previous occasions.

Needless to say, the said unity must be a constant one, without interruptions; this is to say, it must be expressed not only on certain days of the year, or certain hours of the day, but in every day of the year and in every hour of the day. This means that a Jewish home must be wholly based on the foundations of the Torah and Mitzvoth, and so permeated with the spirit of Torah dedication and the joy of Mitzvah that this should be reflected also in the conduct outside the home, in the street, and in the entire environment.

Herein lies the essence of the "integrity" and unity of the Jewish family and of Jewish family life – the main theme of this year’s Convention.

It is to be hoped that this point will be brought out at the Convention with the proper clarity and forcefulness, together with its aim and purpose - its realization in the daily life, in keeping with the basic principle of our Sages of blessed memory: The essential thing is the deed.⁹

With blessing for Hatzlocho spiritually and materially, and for good tidings –

/Signed/ Menachem Schneerson