Letter from Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Brooklyn, New York, 27th Av 1952.

Typewritten on the Rebbe’s official stationery, with his signature – "M.Schneerson"; with handwritten additions.

The letter is addressed to a Chabad Chassid "of Sephardic ancestry". After his marriage, he had sought a rabbinic position, and was evidently compelled to shave his beard off to garner the approval of the leaders of certain American communities. The Rebbe attempts at length to dissuade him from this course of action, supporting him with words of faith, conviction, fear of G-d and Chassidic teachings. The Rebbe begins by noting that the secretary R. Chaim Mordechai Aizik Hodakov had presumably offered him a position in the Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, and promises to mention him and his family in his prayers "when I will be at the gravesite" (i.e. in the gravesite of his father-in-law, the Rebbe Rayatz).

The Rebbe goes on to express his deep grief over what he had done, explaining – based on the Zohar and Chassidic teachings – that the beard is man's image of G-d, corresponding to the Attributes of Mercy and serving as a conduit for material livelihood: "…How dismayed I was to see you at the Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch office trying to force your divine soul to remove the image of G-d from your face, G-d forbid, and to shave off and remove the thirteen Tikunei Dikna that correspond to the thirteen Attributes of Mercy, which are the very conduits of livelihood, as explained in the Zohar and Chassidic thought in a number of places. And elaboration is superfluous, especially for one of Sephardic ancestry, those who always cleaved to study of the Zohar unopposed…".

The Rebbe also attempts to give a favorable explanation of the deed, as possibly meant to facilitate the attainment of a rabbinic position: "…Now perhaps your intent in doing this was, seeing that you saw and considered what the Rabbis said, that providing a person with a livelihood is as difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea, you thought that perhaps you should make G-d's job easier… by imitating the external features of the non-Jews, whereby you would be more easily granted a rabbinic position… But it is easy for anyone to see that it is the contrary of simple faith to say that by relaxing observance of the mitzvot, which is to distance oneself from the Source, you would thereby attain great bounty…".

The Rebbe goes on to mention his studies in the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva under the Rebbe Rayatz: "May the power invested in you by my teacher and father-in-law the Rebbe… as his student and Chassid, assist you in abandoning the above erroneous thoughts… This behavior contradicts not only divine intellect but also human intellect, since every Jew believes that it is specifically G-d Who is the master even in this physical and material world, and only He is the one who determines the sustenance of each person and his family…".

The Rebbe concludes with a blessing for "success, spiritually and physically, which go hand in hand for Jewish man and woman".

In the margins of the letter – in a later addition and in different ink – the Rebbe added six handwritten lines with references about shaving the beard to books of the Tzemach Tzedek: Responsa Yoreh Deah 93; novellae on Makot chapter 3; Piskei Dinim, Yoreh Deah 181-182; Derech Mitzvotecha II, 221; and Amudei Arazim by R. Yeshayah Asher Zelig Margaliot (Jerusalem, 1932).

[1[ leaf. 28 cm. Good condition. Folding marks. Minor stains. Minor tears to margins and folds (tear slightly affecting text at center of leaf).

The present letter is printed, with variants and omissions, in Igrot Kodesh (VII, 1791).