2996 —התגברות על עצבות ויאוש על ידי לימוד תורה ומעשים טובים

B"H, 5 MarCheshvan, 5715.

Brooklyn.

Greetings and blessing!

In reply to your letter of the night after Shabbos Bereishis, in which you write that you feel sadness and despair, etc., and you guess that this comes to you from your study of the book Derech HaChaim.

It is well known, as explained in several places in Chassidus, how far they distanced the trait of sadness and how great a loss it is in the battle with the yetzer. You must therefore rid yourself of it as soon as possible, for it does not come from the side of good. And as with all undesirable things, the way to do this is by adding strength on the side of good, for even a little light dispels much darkness, and how much more so much light. When you study with diligence and perseverance, with fixed times and constancy of soul, our holy Torah, which gladdens heart and soul, as it is written, "פקודי ה' ישרים משמחי לב" ("The precepts of G‑d are upright, gladdening the heart" — Tehillim 19:9), the feeling of despair and even the feeling of sadness will automatically be nullified. This is especially so if you reflect on the matter of Divine Providence, that G‑d, Who is the essence of good, watches over each person in daily life, in general and in the finest detail, and a person has only to remain bound and see that the channel is open, which is done through the above matters, whose sum is strengthening oneself in the three lines of Torah, avodah and acts of kindness. May G‑d grant you success in all this, and may you give the good news that you serve G‑d (and although "oved" comes from the expression "oros avudim," worked hides, as explained in Torah Or at the beginning of Parshas Mishpatim, and this is great labor and toil, nonetheless you fulfill the command) with joy.

With blessing,

On behalf of the Rebbe, shlita

Publisher's notes

Sadness... in the book Derech HaChaim (עצבות... בספר דרך החיים): By the Mitteler Rebbe. In continuation of this, below, letter 3223.