This letter was written as an introduction to the kuntres published in honor of the Pesach holiday.1

B”H,

As is well known, with our ancestors’ exodus from Egypt, they began to emerge — or emerged completely2 — from the category of “the sons of Noach,”3 in order to receive the Torah and encounter the Divine Presence.4 That is why the Sages derive the laws governing conversion from that Exodus. This [comparison] also points to their spiritual status, “the evil in the [animal] souls of Israel was still strong in the left part of the heart […], yet their aim and desire was that their Divine soul leave the exile within the sitra achra5 — the impurity of Egypt — and cleave to G‑d.”6

The same applies every single day, for “every day a person is obligated to regard himself as if he had come out of Egypt that day.”7 (This was discussed in the maamar that appears in the recently published kuntres. [The maamar of the Rebbe Rayatz, published at the time in a booklet, was later included in Sefer HaMaamarim 5711, p. 220ff.] ) It applies in particular during the days of Pesach, for the spiritual message of every festival is aroused anew every year in its season,8 as is well known.9

At this time, therefore, every individual — especially those who have not yet risen beyond the level of Beinonim, “which is attainable by every man and to which every man should strive”10 — should endeavor to extricate and elevate his Divine soul from its exile in the body and animal soul. Moreover, he should raise the Divine soul far higher than the body and animal soul, causing it to cleave to G‑d by studying His Torah and observing His commandments.

All the days of Pesach — and how much more so, the first night of Pesach — enjoy a unique superiority11 over all the other days of the year, and even over the other festivals, for at that time Jews are nourished by eating matzah, whose spiritual properties are akin to the loftiest level of Supernal Wisdom, gadlus Abba,12 a rung of inherent G‑dliness. This means that the vitality of one’s Divine soul bonds with his physical body and animates it, physically [as well], by virtue of food (i.e., matzah) that is akin to the above level of Divinity. This food thus affects not only one’s Divine soul, but also his “animal soul, which is his Evil Inclination,”13 so that it will not tempt [him] as much, and will indeed begin to become refined, ultimately allowing the Divine soul to believe with perfect faith even matters that his mind does not grasp.

And, to quote the words of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe [Rayatz], in the talk that appears in the above-mentioned kuntres:14 “The hours are precious!”15

Menachem Schneerson

11 Nissan, 5711
Brooklyn, N.Y.