Igrot Kodesh · Letter 889 — Youth

By the grace of Hashem,

5 Shevat 5711,

Brooklyn,

To the distinguished young man, Chassid who fears Hashem,

Rav Yechiel[1],

Greetings and blessings,

I was pleased to learn from your letter that you are trying to convince the young ... to study Chassidus*. You will surely not be content to influence one or two persons. You will multiply the number of your friends who take part in this study. You will emphasize to them, in particular, that there is no other way to study Torah while fearing Hashem. Otherwise, according to the warning of our Sages, in tractate Shabbos 31a, "it would have been preferable not to attempt the elevation."

You cite the halachic ruling of the Alter Rebbe in his Siddur, according to which one must interrupt between the tefillin* shel yad and the tefillin* shel rosh in order to answer Borchu*. You point out that this is not what his Shulchan Aruch* says in chapter 25.

This is indeed one of the points on which the Siddur of the Alter Rebbe diverges from his Shulchan Aruch*. In such a case, one adopts the latter opinion in time, that is to say, that of the Siddur. All these divergences have been compiled in the Piskei HaSiddur, of Rav Naeh, published in Yerushalayim in 5697[2].

The pidyon nefesh* contained in your letter will be read at the tziyun*.

I await your good news, and there is no good but Torah and mitzvos*.

With my blessing,

Menachem Schneerson,

Notes

(1) Rav Y. Ziskind. See, regarding him, letter no. 837.

(2) 1937.