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

ב"ה,
3 Sivan, 5711,
Brooklyn, N.Y.

Greetings and blessings,

In anticipation of the approaching Shavuos holiday, the Season of the Giving of our Torah, I am sending you my blessing for a happy holiday and for the receiving of the Torah with inner feeling.

The Torah is the wisdom of the Creator.1 “Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.” 2 When the Holy One, blessed be He, gave it to us on Mount Sinai, He gave it according to the potential of every individual. Every individual grasps it according to the nature of his intellectual capacity.

There are some who will appreciate how the Torah enables one to “choose life”3 in the simplest sense, for its reward is great in this world and in the World to Come. For the Torah protects and saves one from both severe and light punishments.

There are those who have the sagacity to understand that the Torah serves as a guide, showing people — both individuals and the community at large — the path to follow and the actions to carry out. And “Its ways are pleasant ways and all its paths are peace.”4

These two approaches — which relate only to the revealed dimension of the Torah — do not represent the perfection of the Torah.

The teachings of Chabad focus on the inner dimension of the Torah and reveal the luminary within it 5 and its fundamen­tal purpose, [as reflected by] the Zohar’s statement:6 “Three levels are connected one with the other, Israel, the Torah, and the Holy One, blessed be He.” The Torah is the central bond that connects the creation to the Creator.

To explain the concept in the most succinct terms: Creation is brought into being yesh me’ayin (something from nothing) rather than in an ilah ve’alul (cause-and-effect) relationship (as explained at length in the teachings of Chabad). Therefore there is no comparison or connection between the yesh (the created existence) and the ayin (the transcendent source from which the yesh came). In this [inability to perceive their source], there is no difference between the lowest level of inanimate existence and the most elevated human being. For concerning all the entities in the inanimate, plant, animal, and human forms of existence — even the most perfect human — it can be said:7 “No thought can comprehend Him” at all. For even intellect is a creation and, as is well known, there is no comparison at all between limitation and that which is above limitation.8

Nevertheless, the Creator, Who is the ultimate of good, desired to give man, despite him being a created being, the potential to go beyond these boundaries and limitations and ascend to high peaks, not only those that are within the context of created beings, but even those above them, [enabling him] to bond with his Creator in a perfect connection. Therefore, in His generosity, He gave us “the Torah of truth”9 and “sanctified us with His mitzvos,”10 so that through them a person will be able to go beyond [the confines of] his limited world, become one with his Creator in perfect unity, and cleave to Him, as it is written:11 “You who cleave to G‑d your L‑rd are all alive today.”

With blessings for receiving the Torah with joy and inner feeling,