Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk

Yesterday we began letter twenty-one.

One of the fundraising letters which the Alter Rebbe would write and send with his emissary as the emissary went around to collect funds for those who made Aliyah to Israel with the Alter Rebbe's friend and mentor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Horodok.

And the subject matter here is, is that the Alter Rebbe is saying, "Even though you have an annual pledge which you've pledged to support our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land, I beg you, don't wait until the end of the year to play-- to pay your obligation.

Please pay it, set it aside monthly, weekly.

All of this is a result of our mitzvahs.

Ki b'sarusa d'letata, because when we awaken the godly energy here by our activities here below, what can we do? What is a mitzvah? First and foremost, l'chayim, to give life, ruach, to the spirit of shfolim, of the fallen ones.

D'les lei migarmah klum, the Alter Rebbe's speaking about those who made aliyah with Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Horodok to Israel.

They have nothing.

Today's letter is once again one of those letters which the Alter Rebbe wrote.

Which he sent with his emissaries who would collect money for the Aliyah of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Horodok, who took a large group of Hasidim to Israel without any source of support.

And the Alter Rebbe undertook this Herculean task of raising money, sending it to Eretz Yisrael.

Needless to say, the Alter Rebbe had a large budget to support locally as well.

And Ambrose is referring to the tzaddikim who are there.

They're Mendel Vitebsk and Rabbi Rav Kolitzke, that he was raising money for them.

And he said they have precedence, A, because they're in tzisroel, and B, they are the biggest.

I'm sorry.

We're in the middle of chapter fourteen.

Chapter fourteen is once again one of those chapters that deal with the charity which the Alter Rebbe worked so hard for to send money to the Aliyah, which went with Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Horodok to Eretz Yisroel.

For the first time, a large group of Hasidim had made Aliyah without any source of support, and the Alter Rebbe took it upon him, himself to send support.

And as the years passed, this became more and more difficult.

It's dependent upon the deeds of those who are here and their merit, and their level of repentance, the ten days of repentance.

Which means it's enough for those who understand.

And of course, going back to the gist of this letter, and therefore, the Alter Rebbe says in the message of this letter, and therefore there's no better way to bring down this divine energy for the new year than by giving tzedakah and sacrificial tzedakah in general, especially to support this aliyah of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Horodok in Eretz Yisrael, which teaches us in general about the importance of the giving of tzedakah, sacrificially tzedakah in general, and tzedakas Eretz Yisrael in particular.

End of portion.

"Le'eider [clears throat] es ha'avoh ha'yeshono v'chibas artzeinu hakdesha" to awaken that old ancient love and the special endearment of the Holy Land.

This, of course, is one of those letters which the Alter Rebbe wrote to communities throughout Greater Russia, sending them with his emissaries, raising money for the Aliyah of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Horodok to Israel.

And it appears that years went by and the campaign got stale, and people started giving less, and times were tough.

So he says, to awaken the old love, the endearment of old, "liyes" to once again cause it to become, "be'eres" burning, "kirishbei esh" like flames and flashes of fire, "mikerev ish ve'lev amok" from the depth of the heart of man.

That's very, very nice.

Let's not forget the price of fish.

My father of blessed memory, Rabbi Sholom Gordon, used to tell this story and he would say, "What's the moral of the story?" The moral of the story is, is that the Rebbe Rashab instituted the city, the, the system of Tomchei Tmimim, of the Chabad yeshiva system, as we studied in the Hayom Yom today, to create candles who will illuminate the world.

Meaning that to quote these laypeople from my Zeide's shtetl, even a few yunge smarkatchen, even a few young whippersnappers, if they fill themselves with the wisdom taught in Lubavitch, they can transform the world to a more spiritual world, and that is the task of each and every one of us.