1. Hebrew letter from the days of selichot, 1971, by the Rebbe to Dr. Homah of London. In the letter, the Rebbe greets him with a blessing for a good inscription and sealing for the New Year and additional greetings for the upcoming New Year. Hand-signed by the Rebbe.
[1] leaf, typewritten on the Rebbe’s official stationery and hand-signed by pen in blue ink.
21.5 cm.
Very fine condition, 2 crosswise folds.
2. English/Hebrew letter from Elul 1975 to Dr. Homah by the Rebbe, in which the Rebbe writes that based on ‘the presumption that an emissary performs his tasks’ he has received the material (apparently a book he authored) which Dr. Homah had sent him connected to his community activities. In addition, he thanks Dr. Homah for allowing him to copy the document (not detailed precisely) which he had sent him.
Later, the Rebbe discusses with him a subject they had previously mentioned and which he wanted to examine and also mentions the “unfortunate ‘Who is a Jew?’ law” which caused uproar in the State at the time, and he writes firmly against it.
(Regarding the controversial ‘Who is a Jew?” law which was heatedly debated throughout the Jewish world at the time, the Rebbe’s position was that the Chaba”d Shluchim be involved only in their shlichut activity, and not become involved in the disputes regarding this issue. In order to clarify his position, several years later in 1989, the Rebbe gave an internal speech to his shluchim saying that “each and every Jew is an emissary of G-d “to build Him a home in this world,” and thereby there are some who by personal providence were chosen to be individual shluchim in the general shlichut … and there are some for whom this is their major occupation …”
“And given that ‘the presumption [is] that an emissary performs his tasks,’ surely each one of them is doing his best to perform his task properly, and since he was chosen to be a shaliach, he certainly has the talents required for it …”
[1] leaf, typewritten on copy paper of the Rebbe’s official stationery and hand-signed by pen in blue ink, 2 handwritten typing corrections.
28 cm.
Very fine condition, 2 crosswise folds, the upper left corner is slightly folded.
3. Letter from Tishrei 1975 by Dr. Homah to the Rebbe, in which he thanks him for his blessings in his letter from Elul 1975 and in which he writes that he agrees with everything the Rebbe had written in the previous letter. He also writes that he is considering resigning from the body of the council (possibly of the British Chief Rabbinate) since there is fear they might support acts that contradict halachah (apparently regarding the ‘Who is a Jew?’ controversy) and he does not want to take part in such a thing. Later, Dr. Homah writes additional details about the struggle to maintain Jewish ritual slaughter in England and asks the Rebbe to update him about the developments.
[1] leaf, typewritten on copy paper of the Rebbe’s official stationery and hand-signed by pen in blue ink, 3 handwritten typing corrections.
35 cm.
Very fine condition, 3 crosswise folds.
4. Letter from MarCheshvan 1975 by the Rebbe to Dr. Homah, in which the Rebbe writes that the most important thing is that the bottom line is that the Dr. agrees with him that it is preferable to influence from the inside without giving an official stamp to acts that contradict halachah. The Rebbe writes that he received the material that was sent to him by the doctor and it was brought to his attention apparently by one of his ‘British Lubavitchers.’ In any event, the Rebbe writes, you are the one in the field who sees things up close and all that remains is to repeat what has been said in the second letter, that more can be achieved when influencing from the inside, from within the community, than from the outside.
[1] leaf, typewritten on copy paper of the Rebbe’s official stationery and hand-signed by pen in blue ink.
28 cm.
Very fine condition, 2 crosswise folds, the upper left corner is slightly folded.
5. Letter by Dr. Homah from Kislev 1975 to the Rebbe, in which he writes that the material that the Rebbe had received was not sent by him but apparently by his ‘British Lubavitchers.’ Later he writes that the person who had sent the material that the Rebbe had received ‘in his name’ apparently did so to make the Rebbe pressure him to change his position on the matter.
[1] leaf, typewritten on both its sides and hand-signed by pen in blue ink.
22 cm.
Very fine condition, 2 crosswise folds.