By the Grace of G-d
Rosh Chodesh Nissan, 5739
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Dr. M. B. Bacaner, M.D.
Minneapolis, Minn.
Greeting and Blessing:
I was pleased to receive your regards through our mutual friend, Rabbi M. Feller, together with the reprints of your scientific papers in The American Journal of Cardiology.
Inasmuch as everything is by Divine Providence, and your valuable research work has come to my attention, though entirely out of my field, I am impelled to make a general remark, being confident that you will not take it amiss.
It is human nature to be highly impressed by persons achieving distinction in various fields, particularly in medical science, and especially in cardiology, since physical health is everybody's primary concern. Thus, people tend to be influenced by the personal life and views of the people they admire or feel indebted to, far beyond the immediate area in which they excel. This imposes a moral obligation on the latter to use their influence for the benefit of the many, in terms of promoting the higher values in life for a better and nobler society.
All the more so in the case of Jews and the Jewish people. Being a tiny minority in a hostile world, Jews have always had to work for their very survival, and this task has become even more urgent after the Holocaust which has decimated our people both physically and spiritually. Unfortunately, the attitude of the world towards us has not changed much, if at all, for the heirs and followers of the Nazis and their ilk are still rampant. Hence the greater obligation and urgency for every Jew, particularly Jews of prominence, to do all one can for the preservation of our people through fostering Jewish identity and commitment, in an active form, in the everyday life; for, as our Sages emphasize, “the essential thing is the deed,” or, to put it in another way, the test of a theory is in its practical application - a principle which is “not foreign” to a scientist.
I therefore wish to express my confident hope that you are endeavoring to be a source of ever-growing inspiration to your fellow-Jews by example and precept, and may G-d bless you with hatzlacha in this and in all your endeavors.
With esteem and blessing and best wishes for a kosher and inspiring Pesach,
M. Schneerson
