By the Grace of G‑d
16th of Shevat, 5723 [February 10, 1963]
Brooklyn, N.Y.

New England Convention of N'shei u'Bnois Chabad
Boston, Mass.

Blessing and Greeting:

I trust that all of you — delegates and members of the various branches convening today — come imbued with a goodly measure of inspiration drawn from the two very recent auspicious days of this month, the Yahrzeit-Hilulo of my father-in-law, the Rebbe, of saintly memory — on the 10th, and of the New Year for Trees — yesterday.

Among the topics discussed at the Farbrengens on both these occasions, occurring within one week, was the affinity between these two notable days, and how their instructive messages are related.

The Torah likens a human being to a tree, and the Tzaddik to a flourishing date palm. In a remarkable statement in the Talmud our Sages declare, moreover, that a Tzaddik lives on forever, "for just as his seed is alive, so is he alive." It is noteworthy that the word "seed" is used here, rather than "descendants" or "children," or "disciples," though all these are included in the word "seed." In choosing the word "seed" in this connection, our Sages conveyed to us the specific images and ideas which this word brings to our minds:

The wonderful process of growth, which transforms a tiny seed into a multiple reproduction of the same, be it an earful of grains or, in the case of a fruit seed, a fruit-bearing tree; the care which the growth process requires, and how a little extra care at an early stage is multiplied in the final product; the fact that the more advanced and more highly developed the fruit, the longer it takes to grow and ripen, so that grain, for example, takes but a few months to reproduce itself, while it takes a fruit-bearing many years to mature, etc.

All these principles apply in a very practical way in the performance of our daily service to G‑d, which, of course, embraces our whole daily life, since it is our duty to serve G‑d in all our ways.

The New England Convention of the N'shei u'Bnois Chabad will surely give full expression to the spirit of the Yahrzeit-Hilulo of the Rebbe and to the feeling that it is a branch of his planting. I hope and pray that each and every one of you will endeavor to emulate his dedicated work, and to live up to the high esteem and great expectations which he so often and so earnestly expressed in regard to the Jewish woman in general, and the Chabad woman in particular.

Wishing you the utmost success,