Letter & Spirit: Complaints Against G-d
In this week’s edition of Letter & Spirit, we present a letter of the Rebbe in which he responds to someone who had several complaints against G-d. The letter was written through the Rebbe’s trusted secretary Rabbi Nissan Mindel, and was made available by his son-in-law Rabbi Sholom Ber Shapiro.
This new weekly feature is made possible by a collaboration between CrownHeights.info and Nissan Mindel Publications. Once a week we will be publishing unique letters of the Rebbe that were written originally in the English language, as dictated by the Rebbe to Rabbi Mindel.
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By the Grace of G-d
10th of Menachem Av, 5741
Brooklyn, N.Y.
L.G.
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Blessing Greeting:
I am in receipt of your letter in which you write many complaints against Hashem.
Considering that your letter was written in the midst of the Nine Days, just three days before Tisha B’Av, it is surprising that there is no mention of the biggest complaint, that it is almost 2,000 years since the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed andour Jewish people was exiledand, yet we have not been redeemed, and are still in golus, etc.
At the conclusion of your letter you stated that you need an answer to your questions. But surely you know that such questions as “Why must an innocent person suffer?” and the like, have been asked and also answered a long time ago and indeed, there is a whole book, the Book of Iyov (Job) that deals with all such questions and in greater depth. If you will study that book, especially with the commentary, you will find the answers, and in a much better way than can be given in a letter.
Inasmuch as everything is by Divine Providence and you have written to me in a matter you could more easily discuss with any knowledgeable Jew, and certainly with a Rabbi in your vicinity, I want to make use of this opportunity to call your attention to a matter which should also be self evident, but because of its importance and timeliness, deserves to be mentioned here. Now that we are coming from the period of the Three Weeks and the Nine Days, connected with the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and the golus, every Jew is expected to make a special effort in matters of Torah and mitzvos. In order to rectify the cause of the present golus which is, as we say in our prayers, “Because of our sins we have been exiled from our land.” And when everyone will do his and her share in the direction of removing the cause, as mentioned above, the Divine Promise of the ge’ulo will be immediately fulfilled and the present days of sadness will be transformed into days of gladness and rejoicing.
If anyone should ask himself or herself what can I personally do to contribute toward this end, and how can an action of mine be of any significance, etc., one need only remember the teaching of our Sages, which the Rambam, the Guide to the Perplexed in his time and in all subsequent generations, incorporated in his Code as a point of halachah to the effect: A person should consider himself and the whole world, as equi-balanced. Therefore, by doing one more mitzvah or good deed, one tips the scale in favor of the positive, both for himself as well as for the world at large. (Hil. Teshuvo3:4). Thus it is clear that when a person has the opportunity to say a good word, think a good thought and do a good deed, it should not be treated lightly, for it might change the whole complex of the individual, the community and our whole Jewish people.
I trust you will be able to convey the above thought to the young people whom you and your organization are working with, to bring them closer to Torah Yiddishkeit in the everyday life and experience.
With blessing,
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The above letter is from the archives of Rabbi Dr. Nissan Mindel, a personal secretary to the Previous Rebbe and The Rebbe, whose responsibilities included the Rebbe’s correspondence in English.
Many of the letters are now being published in The Letter and the Sprit, a series of volumes by Nissan Mindel Publications.
We thank Rabbi Sholom Ber Shapiro, director of Nissan Mindel Publications and the one entrusted by Rabbi Mindel, his father-in-law, with his archives, for making these letters available to the wider public. May the merit of the many stand him in good stead.
