“My blessing to him and all that is his, a blessing to be inscribed and sealed for a good, sweet year, materially and spiritually…”.
A letter full of wonderful blessings for a good and sweet year, signed by the Admo”r Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of Lubavitch. Brooklyn, New York, the Days of Slichot, [1961].
Instead of writing the date as was customary in all the Rebbe’s letters, the Rebbe made an exception in this letter, writing: “The Days of Selichot” – the days of mercy during which ‘the King is in the field’ and prayers and blessings are probable to be fulfilled (to quote the Alter Rebbe). The Rebbe adds and emphasizes that this year is the “two hundredth year since the passing of the Ba’al Shem Tov”, which is a unique year of Segulah (as the Rebbe himself said in Mikdash Melech volume a, p. 37) “The two hundredth year since the passing-Yahrtzeit of our teacher the Besh”t … the entire year is a Segulah year”. And in an additional letter by the Rebbe (to the philanthropist Mr. Yosef Shmutkin; Heichal Menachem volume a p. 185), the Rebbe writes similar things.
These unique times intensify the Rebbe’s wonderful blessings which appear later in the letter: “Towards the New Year soon upon us and the entire Jewish people for good and blessing, I hereby express my blessing to him and all that is his, a blessing to be inscribed and sealed for a good, sweet year, materially and spiritually. Kind regards M. Schneerson. A carefull reading of the Rebbe’s words reveals that the Rebbe included in his few words all the required blessings, materially and spiritually, to the one he blesses and his family, since what is better or sweeter than “a good, sweet year, materially and spiritually”.
Already in his lifetime the Rebbe was known as a famed wonder-worker, which is common among many of the true Gedolei Yisrael of all generations and circles. The novelty of the Lubavitcher Rebbe is that even after his passing – so the Chaba”d Chassidim recall – his printed writings, and all the more so his manuscripts, continue to work wonders, no less and even more than in his lifetime, as the saying of our Sages (Chulin, 7b): “Great are Tzaddikim in their passing more than in their lives”!
[1] official stationery, 21 cm. The letter is typewritten, with an addition handwritten by the Rebbe and with his signature at the end.
Fine condition: some stains on the upper part of the letter. Filing perforations. Fold marks.