Igrot Kodesh · Letter 9003 — General

By the grace of Hashem,

7 Tammuz 5725,

Brooklyn, New York,

To the attention of Dr. Shlomo Shoham,

Director of the Institute of Criminology of

Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan,

I send you my greetings and bless you,

I acknowledge receipt — with delay, owing to my many activities — of the two books and ten articles which you were kind enough to send me. I thank you for thinking of me.

This discipline does not fall within the domain of my 'expertise,' but I will of course read everything attentively, since it concerns a fundamental problem for young people and even for older ones. Indeed, it was the content of the discussion about youth that we had with Mr. Slonim which led us to mention your work. I emphasize the idea of young people because, according to the formulation of Chassidus*[1], 'every problem can only be sweetened at its source'[2] — but it is of course clear that every older person is, in and of themselves, an entire world. However, such a person can sometimes be a world diminished by deficiency, which must be repaired and treated. If you have published other works, I hope you will send them to me as well. With my regards and blessing,