Igrot Kodesh · Letter 2346 — Faith & Bitachon

B"H,

16 Teves 5714,

Brooklyn,

Greetings and blessings,

I am responding to your letter of this past Monday. As you ask me, I hasten to do so, although I do not know what I can add to what I told you directly when you came to see me.

I repeat therefore once again that you are in good health, that your thoughts and your bitterness are devoid of all foundation, all the more so since you consulted a doctor, who confirmed to you that this was indeed the case. You see therefore that you went to him needlessly, and that it would have been preferable to give this money [1] to tzedakah*.

May Hashem grant that at least in the future, you rid yourself of all these thoughts, you strengthen yourself in the study of Torah and in the practice of mitzvos*, with simchah*.

You allude to the fasts [2]. Now, you know the letter that the Baal Shem Tov* wrote on this subject to his disciple, the author of the Toledos [3], and what the Alter Rebbe* writes at the beginning of Iggeres HaTeshuvah*. Concretely, it is not for you to adopt such a practice. You have done so until now, and you will therefore do what is necessary to annul your vow, since you did not specify that you were doing so without a vow.

This year and next year, on the date that you had considered as a fast before annulling your vow, you will redeem it by giving tzedakah* and by establishing an additional study of the revealed part of the Torah and of chassidus*.

You tell me that one is proposing to you a way of earning your livelihood. If, as you write, this does not interfere with your pedagogical activity, you will be able to accept it. No doubt you will set aside a fifth of your earnings for tzedakah*. It would be good for it to be given to one of the funds founded by my father-in-law, the Rebbe, whose merit protects us.

With my berachah* that you serve Hashem solely with simchah*,

Notes:
(1) The cost of the consultation.
(2) See on this subject letters nos. 1151, 1275, 1342, 1673, 1897, 2383, 2394, 2475, 2476 and 2583.
(3) Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnoa.