This letter was addressed to R. Aharon Chayim HaLevi Zimmerman.

B”H, 11 Nissan, 5711,
Brooklyn

Greetings and blessings,

Your gift of the monthly publication that you publish, HaKerem, 1 was duly received. Thank you very much.

May it be G‑d’s will that your strength in the Torah increase [so that you can] make the Torah great, glorify it, and disseminate it.

In a monthly Torah journal like this, it would be very fitting to set aside a section devoted to the Giver of the Torah. True, our Sages say:2 “From the day the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, the Holy One, blessed be He, has nothing in this world other than the four cubits of Torah Law.” And furthermore, [they say]:3 “The Holy One, blessed be He, was willing to forego punishment for [the Jews’ violation of severe sins]… but did not forego punishment for [the people’s] loathing of the Torah…. [It was as if He said:] ‘Would it be that they forsook Me and kept My Torah, because the light in it will turn them to the good.’” Nevertheless, one cannot rely on the reader to find the light of the Torah [on his own] so that it will turn him to the good. Nor will he necessarily recognize that “the four cubits of Torah Law” are [where he can find] G‑d’s dwelling place. Instead, it is necessary to present the light of the Torah, i.e., pnimiyus haTorah, the Torah’s inner, mystic dimension, in an easily accessible manner. It is necessary to help the reader recognize in a definite and distinct manner that “the four cubits of Torah Law” are G‑d’s dwelling.4

There is a well-known statement of our Sages (Nedarim 81a) [that Eretz Yisrael was destroyed because the people] “forsook My Torah”5 which they interpret to mean: “they did not recite the blessings over Torah study beforehand.” Rabbeinu Nissim6 explains that:

Certainly they were continually involved in the study of the Torah… but they would not recite the blessings over Torah study beforehand, i.e., they did not view the Torah as important enough to recite a blessing before studying it, i.e., they did not study it with the proper intent…. [This is the intent of the phrase in the prooftext:] “They did not follow it,” i.e., [devote themselves] to it with the proper intent. These are the words of the pious master.7

See also the explanation of Rambam (in his Introduction to his Commentary to the Mishnah) of our Sages’ statement quoted previously: “The Holy One, blessed be He, has nothing in this world….” [Rambam states that] from Torah Law, we can learn wisdom and proper conduct “and the most venerated of all intellectual pursuits — the conception of the oneness of the Holy One, blessed be He, within one’s soul.”

With blessings for a kosher and happy Pesach holiday,

Enclosed is the kuntres for the Pesach holiday that was just published.