Igrot Kodesh · Letter 1835 — Tzedakah

By the grace of Hashem,

10 Elul 5712,

Brooklyn,

Greetings and blessings,

I received with pleasure your letter, which was not dated. You recount to me how the years of the war passed and the miracles which Hashem accomplished for you. I am particularly satisfied to see that you knew how to discern these evident miracles and this hashgachah pratis*. I hope that you will retain the lesson from it throughout your life, which will count long days and good years. You will always remember and you will have, permanently, before your eyes the fact that Hashem directs not only the world in its globality, but also each detail of what concerns us, at every stage of life.

One must therefore take the decision and have full consciousness that the only means of obtaining true happiness is the study of Torah and the practice of mitzvos with yiras shamayim*. May Hashem come to your aid so that you may easily put your good decisions into practice in your daily existence.

You ask me whether you must pursue the studies which you have begun or take an agricultural holding in Kfar Chabad.

Here is my opinion. You tell me that you began these studies several months ago. You must therefore pursue them until their term. You will settle in Kfar Chabad. If, in this village, you do not find sufficient work in this domain, you will also acquire an agricultural holding. Your specialty will then be a complementary activity.

In any event, you must reside among the chassidim*, in the Kfar. That is how you will know success, materially and spiritually.

You no doubt take part in the public Torah teachings in the Kfar. You also observe the studies instituted by my father-in-law, the Rebbe — those of Chumash, Tehillim*, and Tanya, which are well known.

Wishing you to be inscribed and sealed for a good and sweet year,