6552 —מנהג משפחה בימי ההריון, ועסקנות בחינוך ופעולה במקום אנחה

B"H, 12th of Marcheshvan, 5719

Brooklyn.

Shalom u'Vrachah!

We acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 3rd of Cheshvan. As to your question about the custom in your wife's family, may she live long, that after entering the ninth month she immerses in a mikveh: although I have not heard of this custom among Chabad Chassidim, on the other hand, since your wife's family practices it, it is understood that she should not be prevented from doing so, with the doctor's permission, of course.

And I repeat my blessing that G‑d, blessed be He, grant that the days of her pregnancy be completed properly and easily, and that she give birth to a living and enduring child in its proper time, properly and easily.

With blessing for good news,

M. Schneerson

P.S.

It is alarming, what you write, that no one is willing to take upon himself the guidance of the evening yeshivah... and so you were compelled to take it back, etc. Is it really so that after all the campaigning, the many letters, etc., even this cannot be accomplished? And a further wonder: it was written long ago that the married men studying in Yeshivas Toras Emes should try to devote part of their time to Chabad communal work, and especially to the field of teaching and education, for a number of reasons.

And apparently from your letter, in this too there has been no movement. And if you were to say that the emphasis is on spreading the wellsprings outward, יפוצו מעינותיך חוצה "your wellsprings shall spread outward" (Mishlei 5:16), I have already written in a number of letters that it is stated explicitly in Chassidus that "outward" begins with Z'eir Anpin, which in a person's service is the realm of הנגלות לנו ולבנינו "the revealed things are for us and for our children" (Devarim 29:28) of the G‑dly soul. All the more so, then, that this includes the intellect and emotions of the animal soul and a person's thought, speech and action in general. And the conclusion from this is surely understood.

As to your mention that people do not attend meetings, one may judge them favorably: this comes from the failure that nothing came to fruition at the earlier meetings. The practice in such a case is that a small committee writes to those who were invited, proposing that they undertake such-and-such an activity, etc., and when the recipient responds with discussion of this and with other proposals, this is a good substitute for a meeting, and this is easy to understand.

From the above, what to say about the close of your letter, "that the first thoughts and the last merge into one sigh, etc.," is understood. The answer is underscored by the well-known saying of our Rebbeim, "one action is better than a thousand sighs," and it is obvious that many actions are better than one sigh. And our fellow Chassidim are ready for these activities, only that with them it is in a state of sleep, and as the concept of sleep is explained in Chassidus: a sleeping person is whole in all his faculties and limbs, and only the actual activity is lacking. Fortunate is the portion of the one who comes and awakens them from their sleep and slumber, and the content and nature of this awakening is explained in the well-known words of the Rambam, quoted many times in Chassidus: עורו ישנים משינתכם ונרדמים הקיצו מתרדמתכם וחפשו במעשיכם וחזרו בתשובה וזכרו בוראכם, אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן "Wake up, you sleepers, from your sleep; you who slumber, arise from your slumber; examine your deeds, return in teshuvah and remember your Creator, you who forget the truth in the vanities of the time," etc., see there (Rambam, Hilchos Teshuvah 3:4; quoted in brief and in a different order). For whoever evades the kinds of service mentioned above, even if he deludes himself that it is because he is busy with important matters, etc., and he has no time and no ability, etc., the true reason is as said above: he forgets the truth, the words of the Mishnah, אני נבראתי לשמש את קוני "I was created to serve my Maker" (Kiddushin 82a), and the ruling that with a mitzvah that cannot be done by others, doing the mitzvah takes precedence, and one interrupts Torah study for it, even study of the most elevated kind (see Moed Katan 9b, Tosafos, s.v. Kan). Moreover, the forgetting of the truth is not because by nature he is eager for intellectual pursuits, as is the nature of an intellectual, but, in the words of the Rambam, because of the vanities of the time.

One could elaborate on all the above, but the guidance of Chassidus is well known: to elaborate not on the line of סור מרע "turn away from evil," but on the line of ועשה טוב "and do good" (Tehillim 34:15), as expressed in the words of our Sages and of our Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek: אנן פועלי דיממא אנן "we are day-laborers" (Eruvin 65a), [our task is] to make light.

With blessing for good news.

Publisher's notes

Part of this letter was printed in Likkutei Sichos vol. 12, p. 178, part in vol. 23, p. 454, part ibid. p. 457, and it was completed according to a photocopy of the letter.

The well-known saying (בפתגם הידוע): See also above, vol. 16, letters 5812, 5834; vol. 17, 6329, and in many places.

We are day-laborers (אנן פועלי דיממא אנן): See also above, vol. 17, letters 6408, 6472; further on, 6686, and in many places.

Summary

This letter allows the recipient's wife to follow her family's custom during pregnancy with medical approval and blesses her with an easy birth. Its postscript urges married yeshivah students to take part in Chabad education, teaching that one action is better than a thousand sighs and that the task is to awaken those who are "asleep" and to add light rather than dwell on the darkness.