3 Conquest by Stages
Personal growth in Yiddishkeit comes by stages, through steady progress; not pushing another too hard
Your letter reached me with some delay. In the meantime I was pleased to see your husband at the Farbrengen here.
As for the subject matter of your letter, you surely know that the Torah tells us that the conquest of the promised Holy Land was to take place by stages.⁵ The same applies, in a deeper sense, to the personal conquest of the self. In other words, when it comes to personal advancement in matters of Yiddishkeit, the best method is sometimes precisely in the way of a gradual conquest, step by step, and stage by stage, rather than by means of a drastic change. Of course there are certain situations and matters where a drastic change may be necessary, but by and large steady progress is usually steadier than progress by fits and starts.
In the light of the above, and in regard to the matter which you mentioned, it is possible that you may be pushing a little too hard. It is perhaps advisable that inasmuch as you have expressed your opinion, and it was not accepted, it is better to leave it alone until such time as the other party will himself come to the same conclusion.⁶ I trust that this will come to pass sooner than you anticipate…
M. Schneerson
Source: Photocopy of the original. Mrs. Sarah Rifka Rosenbloom (d. 5747) was the wife of Professor Paul (Pesach Betzalel) Rosenbloom, a prominent mathematician. The couple grew in Jewish observance through their friendship with Rabbi Moshe and Mindy Feller, the Rebbe’s emissaries in Minnesota. Mrs. Rosenbloom later helped found F.R.E.E. (Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe), which assisted Soviet Jewish immigrants. See “The Rebbe’s Man in Mathematics,” A Chassidisher Derher, Shevat 5781, pp. 43–55.
⁵ Shemos 23:30.
⁶ See English letter dated 21 Adar II, 5719 (available on the Rebbe Responsa app and website): “the way to ascend on the ladder of Avoidas Hashem is step by step, as was also the case in the conquest of the physical Eretz Yisroel, as it is written: "Little by little shall I expel him." So has to be the spiritual conquest, by a gradual ascent rather than by leaps and bounds. And if there is a slip, or if it seems to be a slow process, it is no cause for discouragement…”. See also English letter dated 20 Kislev 5719 (available on the Rebbe Responsa app and website): “One cannot expect a Jew who has drifted from the Jewish way of life to transform himself 100% suddenly, and it is necessary to bring him closer to G-d by stages, yet we have to present to him the true aspects of our Torah and Mitzvoth and not in any diluted form. It is only then that the Jew is responsive to the truth, as is the well-known saying of the Old Rebbe, the Founder of Chabad, that ‘No Jew wishes, nor can he, sever himself from G-d.’”
