By the Grace of G‑d
5 Teves, 5719 [1958]
Brooklyn

Blessings and Greetings!114

[...] Nor1 was it my intention to tell anyone that he should live frugally, because that, too, is not my function at all — especially in view of the well-known teaching that the world would not have been worthy of using gold if not for the necessity of using it in the construction of the Beis HaMikdash.2 For a similar principle applies to the homes of Jews at large. Of them it is written,3 “They shall build Me a Sanctuary and I will dwell among them,” and the latter phrase implies, “within every individual Jew.”4 Prosperity exists in the world only by virtue of the fact that it is appropriate in every Jewish home. At the same time, it goes without saying that there must be no pursuit after materiality or material prosperity. The principle, however, remains — in the spirit of the words of Rambam at the end of Hilchos Teshuvah and at the end of Hilchos Melachim, when speaking of how people will relate to materiality in the Days of Mashiach.

What I did intend to do was to encourage [you] to become involved in the Chabad institution in your locality.5 It is my unequivocal opinion that this involvement is also the conduit through which the local members of the chassidic brotherhood will receive their material livelihood. At the same time, such endeavors will be [effective] in the necessary function of lessening your anxiety about your livelihood. Though one obviously has to make efforts in this direction, this must be done without worrying. Indeed, the efforts should be made in a firm spirit of trust in G‑d, “Who, in His goodness, provides sustenance for the entire world with grace, with kindness and with mercy.”168 If this is the case, the efforts will be more active and more successful. Moreover, they will bring an improvement in the body’s health, and in its response to the situation in which it finds itself, particularly with regard to the endeavors invested in making a living. These results are very different when there is anxiety about one’s livelihood, in a manner that etc.6

May it be G‑d’s Will that from now, at least, things will be done in the spirit taught to us by the recent days of Chanukah, whose lights increase from day to day.7 May this be the case with both your communal and your private affairs, and may your news be good — of the kind of good that is visible and manifest.

With blessings for glad tidings in all the above matters,

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