This letter was addressed to Mrs. C. Devorah Goldshmidt-Gurarie, one of the active women in the Lubavitch community in Eretz Yisrael .

B”H, 21 Kislev, 5710

Blessings and greetings,1

Your letter of 18 Kislev was gratefully received together with the information regarding the establishment of a Beis Rivkah [School for Girls] and the hope that a kindergarten will soon be opened.

I derived pleasure from hearing that attention is finally beginning to be paid to “guarding the vineyard” of our father’s house.2 Even while the Beis HaMikdash was standing and the Jews dwelled “every man under his vine and every man under his fig tree,”3 concern was already paid with regard to this, [as it is written:] “They made me a guardian of the vineyards.”4 And as a result, “I did not guard my vineyard.”5 How much more so does this apply in the present age when confusion is being sown in people’s minds in the most shocking manner. Darkness is being called light. [In such an age,] the concern about not guarding “my own vineyard” is much greater. In particular, this applies to those who are both capable of and involved in “guarding vineyards.”

With greetings to your husband, R. Nachum, and with wishes for all forms of everlasting good,

Rabbi Menachem Schneerson