By the Grace of G-d
Beginning of Menachem Av, 5746. Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mr. Reuven Dovid Kimball
1537 Main Street
Springfield, Ma. 01103
Greeting and Blessing:
This is to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 18th of Tammuz, and previous correspondence, with the enclosures.
As requested, I will again remember you in prayer for the fulfillment of your heart's desires for good in accordance with the contents of your letters.
May the Zechus of your Tzedoko, for which receipt is enclosed, bring you and yours, especially your daughter, Chaya bas Tzivia Devorah, additional blessings from Hashem, the Source of all blessings.
Having entered the month of Av, which is called Menachem Av from its first day on, and certainly for the major part of it, from after Tisha b’Av, including the auspicious day of the 15th of Av–
May HaShem speedily send us the true Nechama (Consolation).
On our part, every one of us must do his and her share to speed the end of the Golus, to usher in the Geulo Shleimo by minimizing, and eventually eliminating entirely, the cause of the Destruction and Golus.
Inasmuch as the cause is, as we declare in our prayer, ינפמו וניאטח ונילג ונצראמ — “Because of our sins we have been exiled from our land” — the way to achieve the removal of the cause is through strengthening commitment to the Torah and Mitzvoth in the everyday life and conduct, and helping fellow Jews do likewise.
Therefore, every additional Mitzvo a Jew performs counts and is very important. Thus, our Great Teacher, the Rambam, reminds us and emphasizes to consider oneself as being equibalanced in terms of achievements in Yiddishkeit, and to consider also our Jewish people as a whole, and the world at large, as equibalanced in terms of the good and not-so-good, so that one more Mitzvo makes all the difference in tipping the scale in favor of oneself, our whole Jewish people and the world at large.
And through the concerted efforts of each and all of our brethren in the same direction, we will speed the fulfillment of our ardent three-times-daily prayer, “May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy,” when Tisha b’Av and all the other fast days connected with the Destruction and Exile, will be transformed into days of gladness and rejoicing. May it be so speedily in our own days.
With blessing,
M. Schneerson
Source: Photocopy of the original.
Mr. Jeffrey (Reuven Dovid) Kimball was a lawyer and active supporter of Lubavitch in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he held several administrative roles.
