Igrot Kodesh · Letter 996 — Tzedakah

By the grace of Hashem,
2 Iyar 5711,
Brooklyn, New York,

Among the many pearls one finds in the present sicha*[1], one of the most important, mentioned in paragraph 15, is the following, which will be somewhat abridged here:

"Previously, one knew that one had to 'be' — to be a Jew, to be a man who fears Hashem, to be a chassid*. Today, one must 'know' — to know Torah, to know Chassidus*, from which one distinguishes oneself by preserving a strong personality."

This is also one of the characteristics of the count of the Omer*, which introduces the forces of the intellect into those of the emotion[2] and allows comprehension to direct the personality. Thus, what one "knows" intellectually — the revealed part of the Torah, Chassidus* which is its inner teaching — allows one to "be" daily, to form, with one's own knowledge, only one and the same entity.

Such is also the purpose of the inner part of the Torah, whose revelation began on Lag BaOmer*, as this sicha* says in paragraph 21. It proclaims the unity, shows that every thing participates in this unity. For coarseness is only an apparent envelope, which one must refine, whose nature one must change. One must also bring out the true existence of matter, which unites it to its spirituality and to its soul.

It is in this manner that the soul and the body become one, constituting a man.

The means of obtaining such a result is the inner part of the Torah, which itself establishes the unity of the Torah, demonstrates[3] that its secrets and its revealed part — that is to say, its garment, or its body and its soul, or even the soul of its soul[4] — form only one and the same entity.

How much more so is it thus on Lag BaOmer*, since the one whose hilula* we celebrate on this day, Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, himself revealed these secrets of the Torah, "sacred words that had not yet been revealed. The Holy One, blessed be He, and all His holy hosts come joyously to listen to these secret words"[5].

Menachem Schneerson,

Notes
[1] Of the previous Rebbe, given on Lag BaOmer 5704, appearing in a kuntres of which the present letter is the preface. See Likkutei Dibburim, volume 4, page 1098.
[2] The Rebbe notes, in a footnote: "The chassidic maamarim* on the Omer explain all this at length. One will also consult the maamar* entitled 'Ani L'Dodi,' appearing in kuntres no. 57, of Lag BaOmer 5704."
[3] The Rebbe notes, in a footnote: "See the Kuntres Limud HaChassidus, chapter 11."
[4] The Rebbe notes, in a footnote: "See the Zohar*, volume 3, page 152a."
[5] The Rebbe notes, in a footnote: "Zohar*, volume 3, page 287b."