This letter was sent to the directorate of the Yeshivas Toras Emes, the Lubavitcher Yeshivah in Jerusalem.

B”H, 18 Menachem Av, 5710

Greetings and blessings,

I thankfully acknowledge receipt of your letter from 11 Menachem Av, [saying] that a beautiful esrog — one that is not a hybrid — was sent to me.1

There is a well-known adage of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, הכ"מ: “When saying: ‘and all the varieties of its produce for good’ [in Shemoneh Esreh],we should have in mind the wheat used for shemurah [matzah] and the four species for Sukkos.”2 It is clear that this is not a contradiction to the simple meaning of the blessing, which refers to all types of produce. Instead, [the intent is that] the Torah is the source and the channel for the entire creation and for all the influence in the world, as [our Sages] said:3 G‑d “looked into the Torah and created the world.” This [concept] applies every day, as we say:4 “In His goodness, He renews each day, continuously, the work of creation.” Therefore if all the matters involving the Torah and its mitzvos are as they should be, all of the material aspects of creation will also be as they should. See the Shelah’s introduction to Beis Acharon where he concludes that the reward for the [observance of] mitzvos is a natural consequence [of that observance].5

May it be G‑d’s will that, in the coming year, we all merit to fulfill the mitzvah of the four species in a beautiful and precise manner and, speedily, in our days, we merit the fulfillment of the prophecy:6 “And they shall all make one bond, to fulfill Your will with a full heart.”

With honor and with blessing,

Menachem Schneerson