518 —הנהגת יארצייט, הגהות תניא, והכנה לאלול

B"H, 27 Menachem Av, 5709.

Haraha"g vaharaha"ch vavac"h iy"a nu"m etc. Harach"e

Shalom u'Vrachah!

a) My letter from the 3rd of Menachem Av surely reached you, and it is surprising that you did not confirm its receipt. Nevertheless, I am confident that you fulfilled my requests mentioned there, especially regarding the yahrzeit. Please inform me about this.

b) I repeat once again with urgency regarding the edits to Tanya... and everything related to Shd"ch as written above. Thank you in advance.

c) After my previous communication, I received a letter from Warsaw from a man signing himself Mordechai Onrad. He writes that he was together with my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and his mother (may G‑d avenge their blood) in Treblinka. Their yahrzeits are: my sister-in-law—14 Elul; her son (my brother-in-law)—25 Cheshvan; his wife (my sister-in-law)—the second day of Rosh Hashanah. I do not know the health situation of the Landa family and rely on your discretion to decide whether it is appropriate to inform them of this matter. If you do tell them, please let me know.

d) I continue my previous instructions regarding the above. For now—unless I write otherwise—please arrange for all yahrzeit customs to be observed on those dates but without publicizing this matter since in the house of my father-in-law the Rebbe shlita they are not yet aware of all this.

e) If you reveal the above to Landa, please add that they should not mention this in their letters here for the reason stated above.

To conclude briefly with something relevant to these days from what I said at last Shabbos Kodesh's farbrengen: "Elul," as brought in Kisvei HaArizal and Sefer Musar on Elul—the entire month is one of accounting and preparation for teshuvah; it is avodah of "or chozer milmata lema'alah," whose initials are "Ani l'dodi v'dodi li" (I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine). The particulars of teshuvah work are in three lines: giving a coin (tzedakah), praying, and walking from shul to beis midrash—the initials spell "ish l're'eihu u'matanos la'evyonim" (each person to his friend and gifts to the poor), which refers to acts of kindness including loans (even for the wealthy) and tzedakah (which is less than loans and comes after them). The initials "es levavecha v'es levav" (your heart and the heart [of your children]) refer to service of the heart—prayer—and first one must correct oneself (your heart), then others (their heart). The initials "ana leyado v'samti lecha" (if he did not intend but acted unintentionally...) refer to Torah teachings received—see Makos 10a—for every sinner kills a soul, a person of holiness, but only unintentionally since no one sins unless a spirit of folly enters him; true teshuvah is teshuah—Torah study—see Iggeres HaTeshuvah chapter 8. Much more could be said about all this but this is not the place.

Summary

The Rebbe writes about honoring yahrzeits discreetly while urging diligence in communal Torah projects like Tanya editing. He teaches that Elul is a time for self-reflection through acts of kindness, prayer, charity, and Torah study as preparation for teshuvah.