Igrot Kodesh · Letter 9433

By the grace of Hashem,

15 Tevet* 5728,
Brooklyn, New York,

To all the participants in the twenty-eighth annual dinner of the center of the Yeshivot* Tomchei Temimim* Lubavitch, may Hashem grant you long life,

I greet and bless you,

This year[1], the celebration of the central Yeshiva* Tomchei Temimim* Lubavitch also marks the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the first Yeshiva* Tomchei Temimim*, in Lubavitch*. It is written[2]: "This is the law of man"*[3], which underscores that a Jew and the Torah* form one single entity. Similarly, a Torah* institution is, in various respects, compared to a Jew. Both pass through the same exile, know the same wanderings, and live...

...until the Heavenly Will is fulfilled.

Seventy years is the span of human life, as it is said[4]: "The days of our years are seventy years"*[3]. After this, a new period begins, that of "trials"*, of eighty years. The Lubavitch* Yeshiva* has passed through a period of seventy years, and this was one of the hardest, most terrible periods in the exile of Israel. By the grace of Hashem, it is currently at the center of a chain of Lubavitch* Yeshivot* in many parts of the world, experiencing broad development and great creativity. It can be clearly observed that these Yeshivot* fulfill their mission and purpose, in accordance with the word and promise of their great and holy founders. This mission[5] consists of forming students who are wholehearted*[3] in the wholehearted* Torah* of Hashem[6], so that they may be candles to illuminate*[3] and enlighten[7], through the clarity of "the candle (which) is a Mitzvah* and the Torah (which) is a light"[8], through the revealed part of the Torah* and through its...

Notes

[1] See Likutei Sichot*, vol. 24, p. 499. See also letter no. 9419.
[2] Numbers 19, 14*. See Sefer HaMaamarim 5701*, p. 99.
[3] The Rebbe underlines the words: "This is the law of man", "The days of our years are seventy", "wholehearted", "wholehearted", "candles to illuminate", "one advances in what is sacred" and "trials".
[4] Tehilim* 90, 10.
[5] See in particular Igrot Kodesh* of the Rabbi Rayats*, vol. 10, letter no. 3701.
[6] Tehilim* 19, 8. See the discourse of the Rebbe Rashab* on Simchat Torah* 5659, printed in the supplements to Sefer HaMaamarim 5659.
[7] See Torat Menachem Hitvaaduyot*, vol. 4, p. 228.
[8] Mishlei* 6, 23.
[9] See the discourse of 18 Elul* 5657, in Sefer HaSichot 5702*, p. 133, which says: "By introducing the Yeshiva* in this manner, I am lighting the luminaries that the Baal Shem Tov* and our masters bequeathed to us, in order to hasten the coming of Mashiach*."
[10] Tractate Berachot* 28a. See the references accompanying letter no. 9380.
[11] See the Sifri* and Rashi's commentary on the verse Berachah* 33, 18, the Tur*, Yoreh Deah*, at the beginning of chapter 246, the Beit Yosef* at the same reference, the Shulchan Aruch* and the Rama*, same reference, paragraph 1.