Igrot Kodesh · Letter 3766 — Tzedakah

With the help of Hashem

12 Elul* 5715

Brooklyn

Blessings and greetings,

I received with pleasure your letter of 20/8, in which you tell me that you are feeling somewhat better. I hope that this improvement will continue, especially since we will shortly be inscribed and sealed for a good year.

Observing the world with a feeling of happiness is not, as you say, a means of hiding the truth from oneself, but rather a way of considerably easing one's life. This fact is well known, and medical science establishes it ever more clearly. A person's situation, including his bodily and physical reactions to events in his environment, depends to a very great extent on his own vision, on the manner in which he perceives these events.

It is remarkable to observe that proponents of an optimistic life have very often had lives marked by what one calls troubles. Conversely, many pessimists have had pleasant lives in which nothing was lacking — except inner satisfaction, profound happiness.

When one knows the childhood your parents had and what they experienced, one can see in this an illustration of what has just been said. Consequently, it is by no means surprising that Chassidus*, whose objective is to popularize what is most lofty and best, adopts as a fundamental principle that in every event one encounters, one receives the means to serve Hashem. Now, one serves Hashem only with true joy. It is solely on this condition that one serves Him fully.

On the occasion of the new year, which approaches, for us and for all of Israel, for good and for blessing, I wish you and all of yours to be inscribed and sealed for a good and sweet year, materially and spiritually.

With my blessing,

The Esrog* has just been brought to me and I thank you for it.

P.S. You may continue writing to me in Russian, although my reply is composed in Yiddish, for the convenience of my secretariat.