The name of the recipient of this letter was not released.

B”H, 4 Iyar, 5710

Greetings and blessings,

..It was my assessment that you might possibly think that the challenge would be too great, because who knows what you would lose by fulfilling my suggestion and request.1 Therefore when I was at the gravesite of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, הכ"מ, I recalled your [name] with a request that you find the power within your soul — or that you be granted the powers — to withstand what appears to you as a challenge and that very soon you will see that there was nothing to it, as explained in Chassidus2with regard to the concept of challenges.

Since I do not know you personally, I do not know the appropriate words to use to explain my outlook regarding this matter so that it will be well accepted and so that you will not suspect me [of implying] something that I did not intend. I will try to offer a simple explanation, for certainly, the more simple a matter is, the better.3

In general, every person, at all times and in every activity in which he is involved, is standing at a crossroads (at least with regard to his individual path) whether to turn to the right or to the left. This applies in particular at a time of general shock and to a person [charged with] a general responsibility and an activity of general [scope].

The meaning of the word histalkus [generallyunderstood as “passing,”] is elevation to a higher spiritual plane. “The body is drawn after the head,”4 for they are bound together. [This also applies in a spiritual sense.] All of us who are bound to my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, הכ"מ, “the head of the thousands of the Jewish people,”5are also obligated to ascend to a higher spiritual level and thus perform activities that were not relevant to them until the present time....