Weekly Letter: What It Means and What It Should Be
Having just begun our “summer vacation” – it would serve us well to remember and internalize the Rebbe’s clear message to students about their summer vacation: what it means and what it should be.
VACATION MESSAGE FROM THE LUBAVITCHER RABBI, RABBI MENACHEM MENDEL SCHNEERSON SH’LITA
To Jewish students and School Children Everywhere, G-d bless you all!
Shalom u’Brocho:
Vacation time is approaching, to release youths and boys and girls from Yeshivos, Talmud Torahs, Day Schools, etc., for a long summer recess.
The importance of a restful vacation is obvious. However, certain aspects of vacation time should be examined carefully. Is vacation time a stoppage of study, or is it a transition from one form of activity to another?
In all living forms, there is no such thing as a stoppage of life, followed by a completely new start, for a stoppage of life is death and cannot serve as a temporary rest period. There can be, however, a transition from one form of activity to another, but not a cessation or stoppage.
For example: The two most vital organs in our body are the heart and the brain. The heart is the principal seat of “physical” life; the brain is the principal seat of “intellectual” life. Because the heart and the brain have the supreme control of the body, they are termed “the sovereigns of the body.” Now, these organs not only not cease to operate in the living body, but they do not even undergo a radical change in their form of activity. ………………………
though they may seem to be in a state of inactivity, as in the case of sleep, they do not in reality stop working.
…………………….we find that during sleep breathing is slowed down considerably. But it is not stopped, for the “breath of life” must always be there.
Similarly in the case of students, boys and girls, studying our Torah, Toras Chayim – “the Law of Life” restful vacation does not mean interruption and stoppage of Torah and mitzvos, G-d forbid. It means only just another way of furthering their course of study, a period during which they renew their mental abilities and increase their capacities for more intensive study later on.
Therefore,
Let not a day pass without the “breath of life” provided by the “Torah of Life.” Let everyone have appointed times for the study of Chumash, Mishnah, Gemoro, and so on, each one according to his or her standard of Torah education.
At his time, I wish everyone who is resolved to use his or her vacation in this productive “living” way – much success, both during their vacation, as well as on returning to normal activity of their studies thereafter.
With blessing,
