By the Grace of G-d 16 Elul 5711 Brooklyn 13, N.Y.

Sholom u’Brocho:

I am in receipt of your letter and card of Sept. 6 and 5 respectively. You are anxious to know whether our work is limited to the Yeshivah, etc. Let me, first of all, relieve your anxiety by assuring you that our work is far more extensive than you imagine.

Our work is not confined to the U.SA. alone, but also extends to Canada, Argentina, Brasil, Mexico etc. in this hemisphere, and to our Holy Land. France, England, Belgium, Holland, Australia, South and North Africa. Our program is designed to take in also Algiers and Tunisia (in addition to Marocco where our program has proved especially successful), Iran and Sweden.

Now that your misapprehension concerning the nature and scope of the Lubavitcher movement has been somewhat dispelled, I want to ask you, What practical effect this will have on you? For this new revelation to you can in no way discharge you from your personal obligations within your own sphere of activity.

Let me again emphasise what I have told you orally:

a) To prevent one’s work from going astray, and to ensure that it bring good fruits rather than the reverse, one must have G-d on his side. The Jew knows that Divine guidance and assistance are based on the prerequisite of the observance of the Torah and Mitsvoth, not only in volition, intellect and feeling, but simply and primarily in words and deeds of every day life.

(b) It is usually more difficult to apply oneself to the fulfillment of one’s immediate task in life under delusions of projects and schemes quite beyond one’s capacity which, consequently, remain in the dream stage, while useful and profits ole tasks which are within one’s reach remain undone. In other words, one should not lose sight of the trees for the wood, to quote a popular saying.

In order that you do not misunderstand me, I will be more specific. First of all, that you ought to get in line and follow the path of some 70 generations of our Jewish people, i.e. simply, begin life as a Torah and Mitzvah observant Jew.

Secondly, your immediate concern should be to endeavor to influence your environment to make it better and higher, without waiting for a corresponding improvement in the entire world.

By the first point, I mean simply put on Tefillin every day (except Shabbos and Yomtov), eat kosher food, observe the sanctity of the Shabbos, and the like.

By the second point, I mean that you begin with your relatives and friends and talk to them about Yiddishkeit not in an abstract sense (which would remain unproductive of practical deeds) but in simple terms of every day actions and religious practices.

I will conclude in the same vein which you write, namely that you will not feel hurt at my outspoken remarks, since you asked for them.

Wishing you a Kesivo vachasimo toivo

Re my advice to advertise in the Bklyn Eagle for an apartment, it was based on an experience of friends with identical almost requirements, which brought good results, and they are about to move into their apartment.

With regard to your articles which I returned to you after perusal, I have no special comments to make, except that they are too serious for the average niveau of general weeklies or monthlies to be accepted by them, unless you can find one that devotes space to such subjects. One general remark: Your articles have hardly anything to say about the practical precepts in every day life, although in the Jewish faith they are precisely fundamental.