Igrot Kodesh · Letter 202 — Siddurim Printed for European Holocaust Survivors

To the dear Mr. Tzadok Rivkin, upon whom Hashem will grant a long and good life,

I send you greetings and blessings.

We are pleased to inform you that, despite the enormous difficulties recently encountered due to the strike and the inability to procure paper, we have succeeded in printing, for our brothers in Europe[1], the Siddurim* for which you provided your contribution by funding the first edition.

Under separate cover, we have sent you several Siddurim.* In the coming days, the first shipment of Siddurim* to the refugee camps in Europe is to take place.

There is no need to elaborate on the immense Mitzvah* you have performed in funding the printing of these Siddurim* for our brothers, who are martyrs. Imagine that multiple times each day — when they pray, eat, and recite blessings — they will make use of this Siddur,* and will say to themselves that they must express their gratitude to a Jew by the name of Tzadok Rivkin, living in the distant city of New York, who gave them the ability to pray and to implore Hashem as they have always done, as their parents and grandparents did before them. Moreover, in certain schools, dozens of children also use these Siddurim* as study books.

Tractate Bava Kama* 92b derives from the verse (Shemot* 23:25), "You shall serve Hashem your Hashem," the following reading: "How does one serve Hashem? Through prayer" — that is, through Shema Yisrael* and the Amidah.*

We express our wish that the merit of having given thousands of Jews the ability to serve Hashem protect you, so that the terms of that very verse be fulfilled in you: "He will bless your bread and your water. I will remove illness from your midst. I will fill the number of your days." May you be in good health and have a long and good life.

Rav Menachem Schneerson,* Director of the Executive Committee[2]

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