Just as a small scratch in a small seed can cripple it as a tree, a slight deflection from Torah-true education can have a crippling effect.
9 Teveth 5712
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mr. Mortimer Propp
524 Broadway
New York City.
Dear Mr. Propp:
This is to acknowledge receipt of your check through our very esteemed and devoted friend, Mr. Julius Stulman. Since the disposition of this check was left to my discretion, I divided it equally between the Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch and the Yeshivah, and receipts are enclosed herewith.
I heartily welcome your participation in our educational and Yeshivah work, which I trust will be enduring and growing. Such participation forms the channels through which the Almighty bestows His blessings, material and spiritual.
It is well to bear in mind that the education of our young is very much like the planting of a seed. A slight defect in the seed, the like of which in the grown tree may be of little or no consequence, assumes major proportions in respect of the whole growth that is to come from that seed, to the extent of crippling it.
Similarly, the greatest care must be taken to ensure the proper education and upbringing of our children. A slight deflection from Torah-true education may have a crippling effect, G-d forbid, upon the whole future of the child, and generations to come. The purpose of Jewish education is to place the child, boy or girl, on the right path of Torah-light and true happiness.
That is why we Jews attach so much importance to the right kind of education for our children. This is further underscored by the fact that in the prayer of Shema, one of the most important of our daily prayers (the importance of which can also be seen from its being included in the Mezuzah and Tefillin), we are enjoined to “teach them (the words of the Torah) diligently unto thy children.” This is even more important in the present day, and in this country in particular.
It is not surprising, therefore, that from the day of arrival in this country to his last day, my father-in-law of sainted memory, the late Lubavitcher Rabbi, bent every ounce of effort to the cause of education, for boys and girls, on a national and worldwide scale, a task which is continued to the utmost of our ability through the Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, Inc. and the Yeshivoth.
Assuring you of my appreciation, and with all good wishes,
Cordially yours,
