By the Grace of G-d
7th of Adar, 5728
Brooklyn, N.Y.
To the Participants in the Annual Celebration of Lubavitcher Yeshiva "Achei Tmimim", Roxbury, Mass.
G-d Bless You All —
Greeting and Blessing:
This year’s annual event, taking place on the 24th of Adar, will surely be inspired by the spirit of Purim which highlights this auspicious month.
Our Sages of blessed memory have given us some insights into the events which culminated in the wonderful festival of Purim. They tell us that the decree which threatened the total annihilation of the Jewish people in those days had been brought about by a breakdown of the Torah-way of life, under the impact of the non-Jewish environment. Furthermore: that the decree was nullified when Mordechai gathered 20,000 Jewish children and inspired them, by word and education, with such a degree of Mesiras-Nefesh for Torah and Mitzvoth, that they were prepared to give up their very lives rather than depart from Yiddishkeit.
The relevance of the Purim events to us here and now is clear:
To be sure, Divine Providence has been kind to us in that we live in no such imminent danger, G-d forbid, as threatened our people in those days. However, the future of large segments of our Jewish youth does give us ample cause for serious apprehension.
Lacking the faith, security and moral strength which only Torah-true education can provide, as a shield against the ills and frustrations besetting the younger generation of our day — ever increasing numbers of our children and youths are being swept by the undertow of the environment, where delinquency, rebellion, hippie-cults, etc., have reached unprecedented proportions and continue to rise. At the bottom of these ills is the lack of inner harmony between the heart and the mind, emotion and intellect; the inability, often the absence of motivation and will, to curb the drive for all sorts of indulgence with reckless abandon.
This is why Yeshiva education is nowadays even more vital than ever. Here the emphasis is not on the acquisition of knowledge alone, but knowledge that is coupled with, and based on, the eternal values of our eternal Torah and Torah-way of life.
The distinguished Lubavitch Yeshiva of Boston, like all Lubavitch Yeshivoth, places special emphasis on the essential aspect of Chinuch, which is to bring the mind and heart into harmony, based on the principle that “the mind has a natural supremacy over the heart” — one of the basic foundations of the Chabad-Lubavitch system expounded by the Alter Rebbe, its founder, and author of the Tanya and Shulchan Aruch.
This Chinuch, which begins at the earliest age of the child, continues consistently throughout the child’s education and into maturity. It has the element of Mesiras Nefesh (Nefesh = Rotzon, “desire”), in that it trains the child to control, and “surrender” to Kedusha, the desire to indulge and overindulge, thus cultivating true inner harmony — the mainspring of a wholesome and meaningful life.
May the forthcoming annual event accomplish and exceed all expectations, and may the merit of it be a source of generous Divine blessings to each and all of the participants, friends and supporters of the Boston Lubavitcher Yeshiva, in all needs, material and spiritual.
With esteem, and with blessing for Hatzlocho, and for a joyous Purim,
