Letter & Spirit: The Role of a Shliach

In this week’s edition of Letter & Spirit, we present a letter from the Rebbe in which he clarifies what is – and is not – the role of a Shliach. 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 weekly feature is made possible by a collaboration between CrownHeights.info and Nissan Mindel Publications. Once a week we publish a unique letter of the Rebbe that was written originally in the English language, as dictated by the Rebbe to Rabbi Mindel.

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                                                                                                                                 By the Grace of G-d

12 Shevat, 5744

Brooklyn, N.Y.

Mr.

Greeting and Blessing:

Your Special Delivery Certified letter was duly received. In it you pose a number of questions, beginning with one that is connected with a complex halachic problem. As is well known, it is not within the sphere of my functions to “pasken shaalos.” I can only suggest that you address this question to an authoritative Rabbinic body, such as the Agudas Horabbonim.

Aside from that, I am surprised at the tone of your letter, especially as I do not recall ever having received a letter from you before.

It is rather presumptuous of you, to say the least, to demand to know why Lubavitch Shlichim are not doing anything, or enough, in regard to a problem about which you seem to be greatly concerned. Not only does your letter lack in taste, but also in logic, for your questions are no more logical than if you asked a physician why he is not active in a matter which belongs in the realm of an engineer.

You should know that the Lubavitch Shlichim have a specific shlichut, which is to spread Yiddishkeit in the communities to which they have been assigned. Congressional resolutions and the like are not part of their programmed activities. Besides, there is very little, if anything, they could accomplish in the area that seems to interest you the most. Hence, to divert their attention, energy and time to anything that is extraneous to their shlichut would not only be wasteful in itself, but would also be at the sacrifice of their complete dedication to their shlichut, wherein they are doing an excellent job.

Equally unreasonable are your contentions about offering scholarships and other “projects” you mention in your letter, all of which do not fit at all within the programs and activities of Lubavitch institutions or shlichim.

The impression one receives from our letter is that you are apparently not familiar with the ways and means of helping the cause you are so anxious to help.

In light of the above, and since you begin your letter with “B.H.” – it is quite in order to ask you at least a couple of pertinent questions in return:

1. Bearing in mind the rule of Torah that “the poor of your city come first” – have all the Jews in your city been adequately provided with all their needs as Jews? If not, why not?
2. What have you done, and are you doing all in your power, to influence fellow Jews to do everything they can, to induce and encourage all the Jews in your community – men, women and children, to live as truly committed Jews, committed to the way of the Torah and mitzvos in their everyday life and conduct? If not, why not?

There is, of course, a cardinal difference between my questions and yours, in that action on behalf of the Jews in your community (in addition to having priority) can be carried on independently of the help of the US Congress and without approval of any foreign government, etc. Moreover, such action is certain to be successful. It only depends on you and your own will and determination. As for the urgency of such action- there is surely no need to explain to you the situation in the USA, including your city and your state, that so many Jews, men, women and children are being swept away by the tide of assimilation and other environmental influences, leading to intermarriage, etc. and so many of them are lost to our people day after day. Even one Jewish soul is a whole world, declare our Sages. Yet so many of our brethren could be saved.

Needless to say, the purpose of my answering you letter is not polemics not preachment, especially as I do not know you. But since I received your letter in the midst of many others, and yours does not at all fit in with the rest, it occurred to me that perhaps it is by hashgacha pratit   that I should call your attention to the fact that apparently has escaped you, namely – that many Jews in your immediate vicinity are in vital need of a reach-out effort to save them, and that they have a first claim on local Jews like yourself.

May Hashem grant that you should have a satisfactory answer to my questions – satisfactory not only in the sense of personal satisfaction to me, but satisfactory from the viewpoint of our fellow Jews, especially the young generation in your city, where you have presumably been a resident for some years, if not indeed native to it.

With respect due,

For the Lubavitcher Rebbe shlita,

By (secretary)

P.S. In parting, I would like to ask you a further pertinent question: In what way will it help the cause about which you are so worked up, whether or not you will know what I am doing, or not doing, in behalf of it?

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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.