Igrot Kodesh · Letter 2551 — Faith & Bitachon

B"H

25 Adar Sheni 5714,
Brooklyn.

Greetings and blessing,

I duly received your letter of 24 Adar Sheni, and I must begin my response by telling you that I was shocked by the content of your letter, after having been so by what happened, in a general way (see also letter no. 2574).

It is surely unnecessary to repeat to you what is quite obvious and has already been explained several times during chassidishe* farbrengens*. Hashem created nothing useless in the world. One must therefore use one's capacities in the manner defined by the Gemara* at the end of maseches Kiddushin: "ani lo nivreisi ela leshamesh es koni*" — "I was not created except to serve my Creator."

Now, you have the capacity to exert a positive influence on those around you and to guide your friends — this letter is addressed to a yeshivah* bachur*. I was therefore convinced that you were indeed acting in this direction, in accordance with the explanation of Chazal* just recalled, that you were drawing your friends close to avodas Hashem*.

Then, complaints were made about the advice you had given — it was said that you were adopting the position opposite to the one just described. From what you write to me, I see that this has indeed been the case. I was shocked by it, as I said above.

It is said: "ki adam ein tzaddik ba'aretz asher ya'aseh tov velo yecheta" — "there is no man on earth who is righteous and does not sin." I deduced from this that there had been a failing here, as you yourself say in your letter, and that you would draw the consequences from it. To free oneself from an unfortunate situation or a failing, it is not enough to forget it and not to think about it any more. For what happened has a consequence. There follows from it a punishment. You must therefore have the strength to say: "Since I am guilty, I deserve this punishment."

Even if you think that the punishment is disproportionate to the failing, you must at least recognize that, being personally involved, you cannot have an objective view. You therefore seek to minimize the act that was committed.

Moreover, even if, after telling oneself all this, the punishment remains severe, one must also take account of the age of the one who committed the failing — presumably one of the most senior talmidim* of the yeshivah* — and, much more so, of the fact that he moves within a group of which he is regarded as the leader, giving advice to others. Such a person must be more demanding of himself, not expecting preferential treatment in comparison with his friends.

Your letter indicates that you regard the punishment as a deliberate attack on your honor and on your person. You therefore wish to react by leaving the yeshivah*.

In the third place comes what astonishes and shocks me the most. I was certain that you and the other talmidim* regarded the yeshivah* as it must be regarded — that is, not as an institution in which one is a "guest," pursues one's studies for some time, then says goodbye to the "baal habayis" and leaves.

I thought one would understand all this. A yeshivah* is not built only on teachers and mashpi'im*, but also on young men, talmidim*. They must perceive it as a moral edifice, a part of which each one supports. It is not an accessory activity. One cannot consider that during one's free time one is freed from any commitment toward the yeshivah*. On the contrary, one must devote oneself fully to it, being convinced that it is one's own possession — that through it one is building one's own edifice.

Obviously, if all had such an outlook, it would not enter anyone's mind to outwit the yeshivah* and its leaders by leaving it.

An image will illustrate all this: when a man bumps his left foot against his right foot, he will not seek to punish the right foot, but rather to take every measure so that this not happen again.

Obviously, I am not writing all this to give you mussar*, but to express to you my consternation and my hope that the strengths that have been invested in you and the capacities that Hashem has granted you will allow the yetzer hara* not to be able to vanquish you and convince you to abandon the yeshivah* in which you have the possibility of studying the revealed part of the Torah and Chassidus*, with yiras Hashem*.

May Hashem grant that you be an example for your friends.

With my blessing for pure yiras Hashem*,