3032 —עזרה בעת נעורים ובעת זקנה, ציטוט הבעל שם טוב והצ"צ

B"H, 16 MarCheshvan, 5715.

Brooklyn.

The Rav and Chassid, the veteran Chassid, a G‑d-fearing man, distinguished and honored, etc., R. Avraham Sender, shochet and bodek

Greetings and blessing!

In reply to your letter of Monday of Parshas Noach. You surely received my letter with the booklet in its time... I saw Divine Providence too, in that precisely in these days a copy of a maamar of the Tzemach Tzedek came my way. And since your honor wrote to me on the matter of "אל תשליכנו" ("Do not cast us off" — see Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, beginning of siman 171; in the Shulchan Aruch of the Alter Rebbe, end of siman 167) "לעת זקנה" ("in old age"), I noted also the explanation of this in the maamar there on ch. 7. Since you were the cause of this, I copy these lines, and this is the content of the matter.

In Ohr HaMeir, Yisro, in the name of the Baal Shem Tov: Do we not need His help in the time of our youth? And the Tzemach Tzedek answers (in the maamar beginning "V'Hashem Holech") that this follows the saying of our Sages at the end of the eighth chapter of Bava Kamma, "When we were small, etc.," and Devarim Rabbah, Shoftim, ch. 7, "כי נער ישראל ואהבהו" ("For Israel is a lad and I love him"): in a small child there is more self-nullification than in a sage.

With blessing for a good Shabbos.

Notes

Beginning of siman 171 (רסקע"א): And one does not throw bread, because of the disgrace to food.

Publisher's notes

R. Avraham Sender (מוה"ר אברהם סענדער): Nemtzov. Further letters to him: above, 2984, and the references in the notes there.

In the maamar beginning "V'Hashem Holech" (בד"ה וה' הולך): Ohr HaTorah, Beshallach, beginning of p. 383.