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

ב"ה,
22 Sivan, 5711,
Brooklyn, N.Y.

Blessings and greetings,1

I received the telegram and your letter relating that you arrived in peace. I was happy that, thank G‑d, the journey was satisfactory and that you found everything at your [destination] to be satisfactory. However, I was pained by the fact that, as apparent from your letter, you feel broken-spirited, something that is not appropriate at this time or situation.

It is superfluous to elaborate that the intent of the verse:2 “The sacrifices G‑d [desires] are a broken spirit” is not that a person should feel broken-spirited and broken-hearted. This is injurious to one’s health and has a [harmful] effect on one’s nerves. Moreover, when one feels broken-spirited, one takes everything that happens more acutely and harder than they actually are. My revered father-in-law, the Rebbeזצוקללה"ה, נבג"ם, זי"ע related that his father, the Rebbe Rashab, once told him: “See how precious a Jewish body is! For its sake, there was such a great outpouring of the Torah and its mitzvos.” Now, when a person is given something as precious as the body, one must exert himself, trying in a serious manner, for the body to be healthy so that it can fulfill what [G‑d] desires from it. As Rambam writes (Hilchos Deos 4:1: “For [maintain­ing] a healthy and sound body is amongthe ways of G‑d.” And in a letter (printed in HaTamim)3 of the Maggid of Mezritch to his son, [R. Avraham,] the holy angel,4 he writes: “A small hole in the body makes a large hole in the soul.” I am not writing [this] merely for the sake of sermonizing, but in the hope that [these words] will raise your [spirits], and through you, those of your husband. (Although the Zohar states:5 “The strength of the soul is the weakness of the body,” the intent is that the desires of the body are weakened, but not, Heaven forbid, that the health of the body is weakened. As we see in actual fact, when the body is healthy, it is possible to have a greater [positive] effect in all matters, and in particular, re­garding one’s love of G‑d, the love of the Torah and the love of one’s fellow Jew.)

I hope to hear good tidings from you regarding your health and the health of your husband. May G‑d enable us all to merit to share only good tidings between a person and his friend, both in material matters and spiritual ones….

With blessings for proper health, [and] that you derive nachas — Yiddishe nachas and chassidishe nachas from all your descendants and all the members of your household.

M. Schneerson