Igrot Kodesh · Letter 9139

By the grace of Hashem,

22 Iyar* 5726,
Brooklyn, New York,

I bless you and greet you,

I have duly received the book of your husband, may he rest in peace(1). I thank you for thinking to send it to me. Moreover, I consider it my duty — as difficult as it may be — to share with you my negative position regarding the introduction of characters and events from our holy writings into allegorical narratives, especially when these narratives obscure their aura and their exceptional nature. It is true that poetry customarily takes certain liberties. Nevertheless, this should not be so, in my view, when it concerns biblical figures and events whose existence and actions continue to exert an influence, even today, upon Jews of all ages and even upon non-Jews. One must avoid using the freedom that poetry allows — including when used to enhance these figures beyond the manner in which they are presented in the Bible. Indeed, the reader might conclude that if part of what is reported is exaggerated, the same applies to the whole. All the more so when this freedom is employed in the opposite direction(2).

As I have said, it is difficult for me to say more on this subject, especially since the book demonstrates that the author's intention was good. Furthermore, it is against ethics, against Jewish morality, to speak at length in criticism of someone who is already in the World of Truth. Nevertheless, I cannot allow myself to remain silent about a general "protest." I will also make a secondary remark — which may not be secondary at all(3). It was therefore particularly gratifying to see, in the poem intended for the "children's journal" which you enclose and of which you are the author, an expression formulated in the spirit of tradition, intended to draw the children who read you closer to the light of Shabbat* and its holiness. With my respects and my blessing,

On behalf of the Rebbe Shlita*,
the secretary,

Notes

(1) See Likutei Sichot*, vol. 33, p. 249.
(2) To denigrate these figures.
(3) Which is not secondary but indeed primary.