Igrot Kodesh · Letter 3167 — Prayer

B"H

5 Teves* 5715,
Brooklyn.

Greetings and blessing,

I reply to your letter of 2 Teves*, as well as the previous one. You tell me that, despite the passage of time, you do not feel that you have progressed. You must know that this is an intervention of the evil inclination, intended to weaken your service of Hashem in general and your study of the Torah* in particular, by seeking to convince you that all of this will bring you nothing.

As with everything pertaining to the "other side," you must therefore not engage in dialogue. On the contrary, you must strengthen your service of Hashem, and it is by ceasing to think about all of this that one succeeds in freeing oneself from it.

Regarding the second point about which you write me, forgetting is also necessary. You must increase the words of Torah* and of prayer. In addition, you will learn by heart several chapters of Tanya* and of Mishnah*, as well as the Chassidic* discourse entitled "You shall honor the elder," which is found in the Likkutei Torah*, at the end of Parshas* Kedoshim*. But above all, as I said, one must forget what happened. For the moment, one must not even think about the rectification.

Obviously, striving to bring another person closer to the Torah* and the Mitzvos* enables one to reveal the blessing of Hashem in a fruitful manner, in everything a person needs. No doubt you are doing this in your surroundings in general and among your friends at the Yeshivah* in particular.

May Hashem grant you success.

With my blessing,