Igrot Kodesh · Letter 4840 — Faith & Bitachon
Volume 14 · Letter 95
B"H
17 MarCheshvan* 5717
Brooklyn
Greetings and blessings,
I am responding to your letter, which is composed of two parts. Now, the first gives the answer to the question posed by the second. Its formulation is as follows: it is difficult for you to be the victor in your struggle against the yetzer hara*.
The answer is thus found in the first part of your letter. Indeed, each time you were supposed to do something, you found a reason justifying your inaction. These reasons were diverse and varied. And you do not even mention what you could do, as if the statement of the Mishnah* — "I was created to serve my Creator" (Kiddushin* 4:14) — did not apply in your city, or as if, in that place, the service of Hashem consists of doing business.
May Hashem grant that you become conscious of having been a student of the Yeshivah* Lubavitch, that is, before all else, "a candle to illuminate" — through "the candle is a mitzvah* and the Torah* is a light" (Mishlei* 6:23) — as well as through the luminary of the Torah*, Chassidus*. All other concerns are dependent upon this and secondary to it.
If you meditate sincerely upon all of this, you will be truly seized by it. Then you will know what you must do and how to do it. Every day that passes without your devoting yourself to this is a loss, since "I have not guarded my vineyard" (Shir HaShirim* 1:6).
With my blessing,
On behalf of the Rebbe, shlita*,