[2nd of Iyar, 5734]Apr 26 74Brooklyn NY

Blessing and Greeting:

Just received your letter, enclosing invitation in connection with luncheon, tomorrow, on the occasion of your establishing a new home in Jerusalem.

I send you my prayerful wishes for hatzlocho in your new home—in the Holy City, which is called Shaar Hashomayim (The Gate to Heaven), through which the daily prayers of all Jews, wherever they are, ascend to G-d, as our Sages declare in our Holy Torah, also called Toras Chayim, because it is the Jew’s guide in his daily life.

The meaning of prayer is that by praying to G-d for the daily needs, the Jew recognizes and reaffirms that G-d is the provider and source of all blessings, while human endeavor is the channel and vessel to receive through them G-d's blessings for success. Similarly, Jerusalem is, first and foremost, the Holy City and Shaar Hashomayim, by personifying the holiness that must permeate its daily life, which is the channel through which also all its material aspects are blessed with success.

Thus your new home in Jerusalem will offer you the opportunity to give even greater expression to the sacred tradition of your family.

And, in this connection, may I cite a further ruling by our Sages: "Holiness does not depart from its place." This means that where holiness has found an abode, in terms of holy deeds and activities, the spirit of holiness remains hovering there even after moving to another place.

In concrete terms, as applied in your case: though you are establishing a new home in Jerusalem, I am confident that you will continue your ties in Detroit and the USA, continuing all your activities for the spreading of Yiddishkeit in your former precincts, and even on a greater scale. For Jewish hearts, particularly the hearts of our young generation, are open and yearning for Torah and Mitzvoth, and the challenge and opportunities have never been greater.

Please convey my felicitations to all your family and all participants in the auspicious gathering, together with my sincere wish that through their association with you and your good work, they, too, will partake of the holy spirit of the Holy City, the Gate to Heaven, as above.

With esteem and with blessing for happy tidings in all above.

Menachem Schneerson