This letter was addressed to R. Chanoch Hendel Havlin, one of the members of the Lubavitch community in Jerusalem.

B”H, 1 Menachem Av, 5707

Greetings and blessings,

In response to your letter of 12 Nissan: My letter was delayed because of my visit in Europe.

a) Thank you for your blessings regarding the arrival of my revered mother, Shlita. May the one who gives blessing be blessed himself1 with an increased benefit....2 Thank G‑d, the journey passed satisfactorily and she is well.

b) The deed of sale for the house and the inheritance in Chevron under the name of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe Shlita,3 was not found among the papers that you sent here previously. As of yet, we have not received the copy of this document that you promised to send in that letter. I hope that, at least now, you will send this document immediately to my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe Shlita.

c) The book agent says that he sent you [copies of] the Yalkut Shimoni and the Keren Orah.

d) Only one consignment from the letters of Rabbi Avraham of Kalisk4 was received for my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe Shlita, throughout this entire time. I did not receive anything at all.

e) The article printed in Mishor did not arrive as of yet.5

f) I already responded to R. Moshe Aryeh Leib Shapiro6 and R. David Shapiro7 (the author of B’nei Tziyon) on their letters involving Torah novellae. It is a wonder that they did not acknowledge receipt of my letter.

g) We received two packages of Kuntreis 58 and one package of the diary9 which were printed in Eretz Yisrael.

h) We published a biography of the Rebbe Maharash. We sent you a copy via a person traveling [to Eretz Yisrael].

i) With regard to the page missing in your copy of the Tzemach Tzedek: In your community, you can certainly find a complete copy [of the text] and duplicate [the missing material].

j) For my father’s yahrzeit on 20 Av, please give on my account from our fund: 10 shekel to Toras Emes, 10 shekel to Collel [Chabad], and 5 to the International Society for the Recitation of Tehillim.

At the farbrengen of Shabbos Mevarchim Menachem Av, I stated that the name of the month is Av, as is written in a get10 (see Kav Naki, sec. 51:4). In a kesubah11and when blessing the month, however, it is referred to as Menachem Av. Based on the interpretations in Chassidus, it is possible to explain that it is possible to see the great love of the father when he strikes his son. This refers to the era of exile when the Jews can be compared to a divorced woman (Yoma 86b). Therefore in a get, we refer to the month as Av ([alluding to our] Father[-child relationship with G‑d], as explained in the maamar entitled Nachamu, 5670). Our request, however, is that His love should be revealed. Therefore when blessing the month (and in a kesubah,which [was instituted] so that it not be easy [for a marriage to be dissolved],12 the opposite of a divorce), we use the term Menachem.

With the blessing “Immediately to Redemption,” and [blessings] for a double portion of comfort.

Rabbi Menachem Schneerson