This letter was sent to R. Menachem Mendel Margolis, a shochet from Mass.

B”H, Tuesday, 2 Shvat, 5705, Brooklyn

Greetings and blessings,

I received your second letter at the appropriate time. I did not answer your questions from the first letter immediately, because of the many pressing matters that arose.

The two checks which you sent with your first letter were given to the secretary of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe Shlita. He told me that he already sent receipts for them according to the instructions in your letter.

I will also1 be happy to look into any questions you have in the future according to the limits of my understanding. But please do not press me for an immediate reply, for the work here with the concerns of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, Machne Yisrael, and Kehotis great. (It is surprising that you have not taken part in these efforts.)

I directed that the Kovetz Lubavitch which was published recently be sent to you. As apparent from your letter, several of the forums in this Kovetz will certainly interest you.

With regard to the statements in the margin of your letter concerning haste: In Chassidus, it is explained that there is at times an advantage to that quality, as in the exodus from Egypt, concerning which it is said:2 “And the people fled.” (See Tanya, ch. 31, Shaloh, Maseches Pesachim, the third discourse.) As explained in the series of maamarim entitled VeKachah, 5637, at length, as long as the task of refining [the world] has not been completed, [there is an advantage to haste]. Therefore, in the Ultimate Future,3 there will be an advantage [in the opposite movement,] as it is written:4 “You shall not proceed in haste.” See also the discussion in Sichos Chag HaPesach, 5703, sec. 2.

Extending the concepts slightly, it is possible to say that the advantage of lacking haste is also applicable in the present era with regard to everything relevant to Kabbalah and Chassidus. For they are called “the Tree of Life,” for they [relate to Divine service that] transcends the refinement [of our worldly environment]. (See Tanya, Iggeres HaKodesh, Epistle 26; the introduction to Biurei HaZohar; the Rebbe Rashab’s Kuntreis Etz HaChayim, et al.)

A slight question can be raised from the fact that at the Giving of the Torah, the Jews were praised as being “a rash people” (Shabbos 88a, Ravvaalso agrees with that description) although at that time, [the Jews were] “freed from the evil inclination.”

With the blessing “Immediately to teshuvah; immediately to Redemption,”

Rabbi Menachem Schneerson
Executive Director