A Unique Bar Mitzvah Letter Written by the Rebbe

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America through the Mindel Archives. Today is a week after Yud Beis Tammuz. As we spoke about the last couple of weeks, Yud Beis Tammuz is also the birthday of the Frierdiker Rebbe. And today is Yud Tes Tammuz, the Bris of the Frierdiker Rebbe. So since we are now in the week of the Bris, and the mitzvah of the bris, I wanted to share with you a letter — a Bar Mitzvah letter — that I found, that our Rebbe wrote to somebody.

Now, you know that the Rebbe had standard letters — Bar Mitzvah letters, letters to a chosson and kallah, letters to people who moved — these were standard letters that the Rebbe looked over and the Rebbe signed, all the same. But this letter that I found — I don't know if people know about it, maybe some do — but to me this is something new, that the Rebbe wrote a Bar Mitzvah letter to someone, and maybe whenever the Rebbe writes a letter, maybe he has this in mind — what I'm going to share with you soon. I want to read this letter soon, but before I share it with you I want to say two things.

Excuse me — in the Rebbe's early years, the nusach of the Bar Mitzvah letter was the same nusach as the Frierdiker Rebbe's, meaning that the Frierdiker Rebbe's letter was [a certain nusach — "and you should grow up to be a..."], and the Rebbe also wrote with the same nusach. After — I think it was [year unclear] — I'm not sure of the year — the Rebbe changed, and the Rebbe's standard letter nusach is: first [the bracha], then [the date], and then "London" [as heard]. We once mentioned why [the bracha] is first and then "London" — not because it sounds like a [word unclear, possibly "soldier"] — "London," that's not the reason. It so happened that way, but there is a reason why the Rebbe changed, which I have no time to go into now — maybe another time. There was also a standard nusach — then it was different. So that's one change that [the Rebbe] made.

Another thing I want to mention to you — maybe many people know, or maybe they don't know, but this I heard from Rabbi Mindel, and he wrote it down, so it's one hundred percent accurate — that all the letters, the Bar Mitzvah letters, the standard letters, that came out after the Rebbe had the stroke, most of them were signed by a secretary in the name of the Rebbe. So people think that there was a directive from the Rebbe that a particular secretary should sign those letters, and as a matter of fact, I remember that after the stroke, people, before they got married, didn't know what to do, because the secretary who signed the letters was not available, so they had to wait for him. There was no reason for that — any secretary could have signed the letter. There was no directive from the Rebbe that one secretary should sign the letter in the Rebbe's name — any secretary could have signed the letter. And as a matter of fact, I have letters that another secretary signed. So it didn't have to be that particular secretary who always signed. It's good to know there was no directive from the Rebbe about this. Now, why did that secretary sign ninety-nine percent of the Bar Mitzvah letters and other letters? Because he typed the letters — he sat down and typed those letters, so he already signed them — but not because there was a directive from the Rebbe. This is something that people wanted to know, so I thought I would mention it, because that's very important.

Now I want to read to you, since it's within the week of the Bris of the Frierdiker Rebbe, the letter that I found — a Bar Mitzvah letter which I never saw before. This letter is in Hebrew, and then the Rebbe wrote it in English as well. This letter is signed [in the standard way] — this is the way the Rebbe wrote in Hebrew. Now, the Rebbe wrote in English, so in other words the Rebbe is saying that the letter I'm going to write to you is written in English so you can show it to your friends — every good thing you show, especially in [this matter, unclear] that has to do with [unclear]. Now continuing this Bar Mitzvah letter, in English:

"At first glance it is strange that the day of Bar Mitzvah — which is so important that the Zohar declares that for the Bar Mitzvah boy it is almost like the day of Matan Torah, when the Jewish people first received the Torah — yet as far as Tachanun is concerned, which is omitted even on the so-called minor holidays if it does not occur on Shabbos or Yom Tov, it is said on it as on any ordinary weekday.

"In other words, even though the day is like Matan Torah, Tachanun is said, whereas on other minor holidays Tachanun is not said, but on this day it is.

"One of the explanations is as follows: when one considers that human capacities are limited in general, especially the capacities of a boy at the start of his fourteenth year, yet he must assume all the duties and responsibilities of a full-fledged Jew, and moreover fulfill them with joy, in keeping with the rule 'serve God with joy' — the question begs itself: how is he going to carry out all that is expected of him, especially being a member of a people which is a small minority amongst the nations of the world, and even in this country, where one has every opportunity to carry out all religious duties, most people are more interested and engaged in the material aspects of life?

"The answer is that the mitzvos have been given by God, the Creator of the world and of man, and He knows all the difficulties that a Jew may encounter. God has surely provided every Jew with the necessary strength to overcome any and all difficulties, to live up to God's will — for God would not expect someone to do something which is beyond his capacity. If, however, there should be a moment of weakness, when carrying out God's will is not in the fullest measure of perfection, God, in His infinite goodness, makes it possible to do teshuva. Indeed, as the Alter Rebbe explains, teshuva is basically for a lack of perfection.

"Therefore, on the first day of becoming a full-fledged Jew, after fulfilling the very first mitzvah — namely Krias Shema, because the mitzvah day begins from the night before — Shema, by which a Jew declares his total commitment to God and obedience to all His commandments — the following morning and afternoon, for the essence of Tachanun, there is the assurance that nothing stands in the way of teshuva.

"This knowledge will moreover also stand him in good stead when he will involve himself in the great mitzvah of bringing those alienated closer to Yiddishkeit, for, remembering the rule that nothing stands in the way of teshuva, he will eagerly and compassionately apply this to them, especially as, in most cases, the failure to observe fully Torah and mitzvos has extenuating circumstances.

"With all the above in mind, and being fortunate in growing up in a family where Yiddishkeit is a living experience in everyday life, you will start out on your way of life as a full-fledged Jew with confidence, and will proceed from strength to strength, and be a source of true pride and joy to your dear parents and family, and to all our Jewish people."

This is the letter that I found — a Bar Mitzvah letter. I guess when people read the regular letter, this should be added — or maybe, I don't know, not added, but at least have that in mind — about [why Tachanun is or isn't said, unclear]. Now, this is mentioned over here.

We all know that when [he] became Bar Mitzvah, [his father] said to him, "My son, today is your Bar Mitzvah — ask me whatever you want and I will give it to you." Do you know that he could have asked for anything — imagine the deepest, the deepest [secrets of Torah] — and his father would have answered him. He told him what he asked, what bothered him, when he was thirteen years old: why do we say [a certain prayer, unclear] before davening? Why don't we say it in the middle of davening, if this is a bakasha — if we're asking [something] — this is what bothered him. It bothered another person as well — this is mentioned [in a sefer/sicha, unclear] — I guess I mentioned it also for [an earlier occasion, unclear].

So his father answered him, and the answer was: when a child needs something from his father, and his father doesn't want to give it to him, the child wants to please his father, so by doing something to please his father, his father will give him whatever he wants. The same thing also here: you say — since if he'll say that he loves every Jew, and God loves every Jew, that will make it so that all the requests that he's asking — everything is going to be listened to. This is what his father answered him.

But we see from here that we learn — a couple of days ago, I just wanted to read a few lines about this — it says here the love for a fellow Jew was beyond imagination. The Maggid said, "If only we could kiss a Sefer Torah with the same love that my master kissed the children" — meaning the Baal Shem Tov, when he took them to cheder as a melamed's assistant — the Baal Shem Tov was a melamed's assistant. So we should have this kind of ahavas Yisroel — so we see how important it is that we can learn this from this story.

So, therefore, I chose today's program, since I found this letter, and this is in the week of the Bris of the Frierdiker Rebbe, so I thought I would share this with you today. Next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.