Meaning of the traditional condolence blessing - a personal tragedy is a national one, and offers true consolation by equation to restoration of Zion and Jerusalem
By the Grace of G-d
28th of Iyar, 5733
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mr. Pinchas Kalms
45 Sheldon Avenue
London, N. 6
I was profoundly saddened to hear of the passing of your father, Yaakov, peace to him. I extend to you and to all the bereaved family heartfelt condolences and the traditional blessing:
ם י לשו ר י ו ן ו י צ י לבא ראש ך ו תב םכתא םח נ י ם ו קמה
May the Almighty comfort you in the midst of the mourners for Zion and Jerusalem.
Needless to say, all our sacred texts are precise and meaningful, and so is the above blessing of condolence. The fact that it relates the personal sorrow of a Jew on the loss of a near and dear one to the loss of ancient Zion and Jerusalem, is doubly meaningful: Firstly, it conveys the profound concept comforting thought that the personal sorrow of an individual Jew is the collective sorrow of the Jewish people, and, indeed, equates it with a national calamity. Secondly, it offers true consolation, for just as surely as G-d will fulfill His promise to rebuild and restore the ancient glory of Zion and Jerusalem, and even surpass it, so will eventually come the time when "those who sleep in the dust will rise to everlasting life" at the time of the Resurrection.
I hope and pray that you will find true comfort also, and especially, in your noble activities to spread the Torah, called Toras Chayim, being the source of eternal life, and the Mitzvoth by which Jews live ("vo-chay bo-hem"), the merit of which will stand you and yours in good stead for long life and good health, unmarred by sorrow henceforth, but filled only with goodness and benevolence, the kind of good that is revealed and evident,
With blessing,
M. Schneerson
Vayikra 18:5.
