The Secret Of Survival
7th of Adar, 5728 [1968]
To All Participants in the Opening in the New Lubavitch Community Centre in London,
Greeting and Blessing:
The opening of the new Lubavitch Centre and attending events taking place in the week of Purim, will surely be imbued with the sublime spirit of those auspicious days.
The essential aspect of Purim is the miraculous escape of the Jewish people from the decree which, as the Megila [Scroll of Esther] tells us, threatened the annihilation of the entire Jewish people, "young and old, infants and women, in one day."
According to our Sages of blessed memory, the decree was nullified when Mordechai gathered 22,000 Jewish children, and so inspired them, by word and education, that they were prepared to give up their very lives rather than depart from Yiddishkeit [Judaism].
The relevance of the Purim events to our day is pointedly emphasized by the Baal Shem Tov, whose disciple and successor [the Maggid of Mezerich] was the teacher of the Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya and (Rav's) Shulchan Aruch [Code of Jewish Law], and the father of the Chabad-Lubavitch system.
Referring to the Mishna (Megila 17a), the Baal Shem Tov declared that the words, "He who reads the Megila 'backward' does not fulfill his duty," allude also to "one who thinks that the miracle of Purim was 'back in those days,' but not now."
Thus we are reminded emphatically that all the events that took place on Purim are equally applicable today. And although no such decree, G-d forbid, now hangs over our people, and, on the contrary, Jews can, thank G-d, live in peace and even prosperity, the secret of Jewish survival remains the same: it is to be found in the kosher education of Jewish boys and girls to the degree of mesirat nefesh [self- sacrifice] for Yiddishkeit.
This precisely is the basic function of the Lubavitch Centre: to gather Jewish children - children in the plain sense of the word, as well as "children" in terms of knowledge of G-d, His Torah and mitzvot - in order to reveal their inner soul and true essence, that they should recognize that, "You are children of G-d, your G-d," and should continue to forge the golden chain of their ancestral tradition to the point of veritable self-sacrifice for the preservation of the Jewish way of life, the way of Torah and mitzvot.
Such mesirat nefesh includes, of course, also complete dedication to helping others, both spiritually and materially.
We have seen these features personified by my father-in-law of saintly memory, the leader of Chabad-Lubavitch of our generation, as they came to light in his eventful life, from his earliest youth. (Thus, for example, at the age of eleven he was arrested and imprisoned for coming to the aid of a Jew harassed by a Russian official.).
May G-d grant that the new edifice be filled to capacity with "our young and old, with our sons and with our daughters," who will follow in this path and in this spirit.
It is impossible to overstate the extraordinary zechut [merit] of all those who have lent a hand in the erection and the equipment of the new centre, and who have been and will continue to be its ardent supporters and participants in its activities. For every good deed by any of the youngsters who are educated within its walls and atmosphere will be attributable to the everlasting credit and zechut also of the builders and helpers of this great institution.
With esteem and blessing for much hatzlacha [success] and good tidings in all above, and for a joyous Purim
[signed]
