Igrot Kodesh · Letter 7113 — Faith & Bitachon

By the grace of Hashem,

10 Kislev* 5720,

Brooklyn,

I greet you and bless you,

I am responding to your letter, which you introduce at once with an explanation. Obviously, this was entirely unnecessary, especially since when one writes to someone, one expects a response in return and one wishes, moreover, that this letter be useful. One must therefore write it as one feels. Nevertheless, I must respond to this explanation, which was intended to justify your assertion that: "you are not a Chassid*." Then, immediately after that, you specify that your father, for his part, was one. There is indeed a contradiction here, for evident qualities are transmitted by inheritance. It follows that the moral qualities that the parents themselves internalized and acquired must be found, in a much deeper and much stronger manner, in the children.

According to your letter, I imagine that you know how deeply a Chassid* is permeated by his feeling. How much more was this so in the era of your parents, as the common expression says: "in the manner things were done where we previously resided." And this feeling was intimately linked to the life of their soul. It is therefore a certainty that the children inherit it, but, as is also the case with other traits, certain aspects are revealed and evident, while others await the propitious moment to do so. And there are yet others that one wishes to hide or, in any event, prevent from being revealed. Yet it is certain that they are there, that they exist, like everything that lives and is in the world. One can in no way make them disappear. At most one can change their form, but it has never happened that they were destroyed before they were even formed. And if one intends to fight against them — but I am certain this is not the case regarding you — or, at most, to remove all their influence, feeling that it is better this way, that in this manner one cannot be held to what Chassidus* demands, one risks being destabilized, standing out from one's surroundings, which makes necessary the effort one is unwilling to make.

Of course, this lengthy introduction was not written to deliver a discourse, as they say, still less to moralize, Heaven forbid, but rather to make known to you my conception regarding these people from various backgrounds, in the hope that they become aware that each of them, deep within, possesses a treasure of immense value. Therefore, every day lost is regrettable if it is not used to attain this goal, even in daily existence. And without a doubt, this feeling will be so intense that, despite the effort it requires, one will wish to reveal this treasure that is deeply hidden within oneself.

I pass to the second paragraph of your letter and I specify that there is no need to have confidence in the other, but rather to have confidence in oneself, in one's Yiddishkeit* — that is, in the expression of the Alter Rebbe* in the Tanya*, in "the second soul of Israel, which is a particle of the supernal Divinity, truly." I also take the liberty of writing to you, though briefly, about the conclusion of your letter, in which you speak to me of your daughter. The best way to guide students and influence children is not so much verbal, even when one repeats oneself many times. It consists, more precisely, in being a living example. If one expects from the other a complete adherence, one must oneself have an attitude that is more than complete. If one tells oneself that this is an influence that will change the life of one's children for many years, then of one's grandchildren, when Hashem grants the blessing of having them, one will understand that every effort in this direction is justified and that it can exert its effect "to the end of the world" and of the generations. With my respects and my blessing to give good tidings of all this,