Igrot Kodesh · Letter 1787 — Faith & Bitachon

By the grace of Hashem,

23 Menachem Av 5712,

Brooklyn, New York,

Greetings and blessings,

In consulting your invitation, I learned with pleasure that your bar mitzvah* would be celebrated this Shabbos, with the help of Hashem.

I wish you, after your bar mitzvah* at the age of thirteen, to accede to the study of Talmud at fifteen, then to know elevation in Torah and mitzvos. Our Sages report the principle of the Torah according to which one knows elevation in all that concerns holiness, which means that one must advance perpetually in all the domains of Jewish practice.

You know, no doubt, what the Baal Shem Tov taught his disciples and all those who follow him. He underlined that all is the effect of hashgachah pratis*, that is, that all the events of the lives of men in general and of Yidden in particular are in no way the work of chance. They are willed by Hashem.

Your bar mitzvah* will be celebrated during Shabbos Parshas Re'eh, and a teaching for daily existence must therefore flow from it. In fact, one finds in this sidra* numerous teachings, for the Torah has no limit. It is "longer than the earth and broader than the sea." I would like only to underline a single one, which appears at the very beginning of this sidra*, when Moshe, addressing himself, in the Name of Hashem, to all the children of Yisroel, young and old, belonging to all generations, whatever the place where they find themselves, says to them:

"See, I have placed before you today the blessing... the blessing that you shall hearken, the curse if you do not hearken."

Every expression, every word of the Torah is precise and full of meaning. In the verses that have just been cited, one notices that it is said, regarding the blessing, "that you shall hearken," without setting any condition. In the simplest sense, this blessing therefore formulates the assurance that "you shall hearken." By contrast, when it is a question of the contrary of the blessing, chas veshalom*, it is said "if you do not hearken," in the conditional.

All Yidden, in particular the one who makes his bar mitzvah* and from then on becomes obligated in the practice of mitzvos, can deduce from this that Hashem grants a blessing, to each Yid, in our holy Torah: "It is an absolute certainty that, in the end, you shall hearken to the mitzvos of Hashem." Indeed, each Yid possesses a nefesh ha'elokis*, which, without doubt, will carry out the mission entrusted to it.

By contrast, the second eventuality, "if you do not hearken," is stated only for the benefit of the doubt. With certain ones, it will never be so, for all their life is based on Torah and mitzvos. But even those who could, once, find themselves in the situation described by the rest of the verse, "you will turn aside from the way," chas veshalom*, have the assurance that it will be so only in a passing manner and that, in the end, "you shall hearken," as has been said.

I wish you to belong to the first category. From your bar mitzvah*, you will at once follow the way on which "you shall hearken to the mitzvos of Hashem" by studying Torah with ardor and by practicing mitzvos scrupulously. Thus, the blessing of which it is question in this verse will be accomplished, that of Hashem, which will mark itself in all your needs. And your parents will conceive much satisfaction from you, a Jewish satisfaction and also a chassidic one.

With my blessing,