Public-private letter (an identical letter sent to several individuals) from Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Brooklyn, New York, Chanukah 1950.
Copy of a typewritten letter on the official stationery of the Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch (the educational organization responsible for spreading Chabad Judaism in the United States, directed by the Rebbe from its founding in 1941), with a copy of the Rebbe's signature, with several lines added by hand at the edge.
Written approx. ten months after the passing of the Rebbe Rayatz and about a month and a half before the Rebbe's accession to leadership of the Chabad movement – addressed to the shochet R. Avraham Sender Nemtzov.
The letter originally accompanied a booklet for Chanukah (with the discourse Baruch SheAsah Nisim by the Tzemach Tzedek, discourses and selected customs). In it the Rebbe stresses the need to illuminate the environment with the light of the Torah and Chassidic teachings, adding that the Rebbe Rayatz "here too taught the way for each and every one of us, for throughout every day of his life in this world, he would continuously light the candles of Jewish men and women… He would add a candle to his illumination from time to time and from year to year. This illumination of his was at the doorway of his home (but) the outer doorway, for the candles to illuminate the marketplace, a place of deep darkness for the sun had set…".
The Rebbe concludes "with a Chanukah blessing, for the light to increase in brightness until morning, that is the day of redemption", adding several references and sources in the margins.
On the margins of the leaf is a lengthy addition (over 40 words) handwritten by the Rebbe: "Possibly the virtue of the eight (days of Chanukah) is that it also rectifies the eight general types of terefot…". He references several sources that discuss the significance of the number eight (Berachot 4b, Likutei Torah and Siftei Kohen on the Torah). To the best of our knowledge, this addition has never before been printed.
[1] leaf. 28 cm. Good condition. Folding marks and light creases.
The main text of the letter is printed in Igrot Kodesh (IV, 845), without the handwritten addition.
