YOUNG SEEDLINGS
15 Shevat, 5736 (1976)
I was pleased to be informed of the arrangements for the forthcoming Convention, and send you prayerful wishes for success in every respect.
...The analogy between the cultivation of trees and the raising of children is well known from our sacred books of Mussar and Chasidut, based on the verse, “Man is like a tree.”
As even a little extra care given to a young seedling is greatly amplified and richly rewarded when the tree matures, and can make all the difference, so too is extra care in the chinuch of a young child. This, after all, is the crucial period in a child’s formative years, when the mother at home shares in the responsibility with the teacher at school.
To carry the analogy further, a tree attains fulfillment when it produces good fruit. Furthermore, good fruit...is not merely good in itself (as a food, or as an object of a mitzva such as an etrog, for example) -- but also contains the seeds to produce new trees and fruits after its kind, to the end of time.
Moreover, the new trees and fruits are of no direct benefit to the original tree, and may be far removed from it in time and place. Nevertheless, because they are the result of the original tree which behaved as it should, they are all credited to the original tree.
This is how every Jewish boy and girl should be raised and educated: Certainly to bring forth fruit, at the very least, but this is not enough, for their fruits -- their good influence -- must be ultimately felt to the end of the world and to the end of time.
Such an achievement seems rather a lot to expect of a limited human being. But actually it is well within reach, since a Jew operates with a Divine soul, a part of G-dliness Above, and operates with Torah and mitzvot given by G-d.
Furthermore, he does this in a world which, though grossly material, is precisely the place where G-d desires to have His abode. With such a combination of favorable factors, the results can and should be without limit.
It is hoped that the Convention will make use of the above points as guidelines for intensified activity in all its programs and objectives, always bearing in mind that the “essential thing is the deed.”
Again, wishing you success to carry out the above with Chasidic vitality and joy, and in happy personal circumstances, both materially and spiritually.
