Igrot Kodesh · Letter 187 — Military Chaplaincy, Pesach, and the Self-Sacrifice of the Kohen
Volume 2 · Letter 19
By the grace of Hashem,
13 Nissan 5705,
To our dear friend, the great Rav, Hashem-fearing, Rav Avraham Goldberg, Fort Bragg, North Carolina,
I greet you and bless you,
I thank you for sending us the list of members of the rabbinical association currently serving in the military. We are pleased to see the interest you take in our Jewish brothers who have been mobilized. You seek thereby the good of the greatest number.
I will evoke the festival of Pesach,* which is approaching.
The first Pesach* observed by all generations was celebrated in the second year after the Exodus from Egypt. The one in Egypt, by contrast, was different in many respects and therefore had an exceptional character.
Our Sages emphasize that the children of Israel prepared for this second Pesach* by slaughtering the red heifer,[1] of which it is said that "it purifies those who are impure and renders impure those who are pure."
Thus, the Kohen* — and even, according to one opinion, the High Priest* — is asked to become impure[2] — to be sure, with a minor impurity, which compelled him to momentarily leave the Temple and interrupt the divine service he was performing there — in order to offer a Jew, including one who had become impure through contact with a corpse, the possibility of purifying himself and being able to enter the Temple once again.
Moreover, the red heifer is therefore called a "Decree of the Torah,"* constituting one of its "great principles." The lesson that each of us can draw from this is self-evident.[3]
With my blessing for a kosher and joyous festival, immediate teshuvah,* and immediate redemption,
Rabbi Menachem Schneerson,
Director of the Executive Committee[4]
Notes:
(1) In order to purify themselves so as to be able to offer the Pesach* sacrifice.
(2) See, in this regard, letter no. 240.
(3) The Rebbe compares here the action of the High Priest toward the impure person to that of the rabbi toward the soldier.
(4) Of Merkaz L'Inyanei Chinuch.*