Igrot Kodesh · Letter 322 — The Previous Rebbe's Memoirs — Torah as Living Instruction

By the grace of Hashem,

22 Tevet 5708,

Dear Mr. D. L. Mekler[1],

I send you my greetings and blessings.

I have been told that you have already returned from your trip to Europe. I hope it satisfied you in every respect.

I have the pleasure of sending you a copy of the memoirs of my father-in-law, the Rebbe Shlita*. We will send you additional copies if you wish.

I will say a few words about the significance of these memoirs.

Every detail of the Torah* has immense importance. The order in which it is presented also has much to teach us.

Torah* shares its etymology with Hora'a*, meaning instruction. It is by no means a collection of stories; on the contrary, it is a work that conveys a lesson. It presents first the book of Bereishit*, then Shemot*, Vayikra* — but not solely according to the chronological sequence of events it describes, for such a criterion suffices for a history textbook, but not for a guide to life.

Its ordering is therefore also, and above all, the rule establishing what the life of an individual, a community, and a people ought to be.

The beginning of this instruction is not the pronouncement of the commandments and prohibitions, but the account and presentation of the example given by certain individuals, and even entire generations — parents, relatives, or ordinary people — who adopted the fitting way of life.

These individuals, so to speak, blazed the path, demonstrated clearly what a true life must be, showed how to overcome the various obstacles they encountered, and established without ambiguity what is the right path in life.

Only thereafter are the precepts, commandments, and prohibitions stated — which are the practically self-evident conclusion drawn from the life stories recounted beforehand.

Such is the significance of the memoirs.

Their primary purpose is not — however important that may be in its own right — to recount the biography of this or that individual, so that we might know what life was like in that era[2] or who these figures were.

Their foremost aim is to give us an example of how a Jew*, a Rav*, a scholar, a merchant, a craftsman, a peddler lived — each one in his own way a great Jew*.

In this way we can determine what, in our own era, is the right path, and lighten the difficulties one faces when walking it.

I close by once again thanking you warmly for your precious contribution to this important undertaking.

With my respects and greetings,

Rav Menachem Schneerson,

Director of the Executive Committee,

Notes

(1) David Leib Mekler is the editor of the Previous Rebbe's* memoirs.

(2) The Previous Rebbe's* memoirs are not autobiographical but rather a collection of accounts from the era of Chassidut's* formation, or the period that preceded it.