Connected To Every Individual

From a talk of the Tolna Rebbe Shlita on the yahrtzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe ztz"l [coming up again next week!].

A woman, a professor, once wrote to the Rebbe, trying to understand how G‑d could have let the Holocaust happen. As always, the Rebbe responded brilliantly; however, I was most touched by what the Rebbe wrote to the professor towards the end of the letter "I noticed that you signed now using your secular name. I remember that ten years ago I received an invitation to your son's wedding and there you signed with your Jewish name..."

Yes, it is amazing that the Rebbe remembered. Ten years passed since the wedding – a wedding he did not attend – and this was only one among tens of thousands of wedding invitations that he received over those years. However, the fact that this letter attests to the Rebbe's phenomenal memory is not what makes this letter remarkable.

The Rebbe continues in his letter: "You write that you cannot believe in G‑d after what happened during the Holocaust. Your letter demonstrates the great hatred you harbor towards the Germans for their barbaric acts... As a daughter of the Jewish nation I now ask you, why do you use your secular name that's rooted in the German language?"

The Rebbe concludes, "Perhaps you will do me a favor, and from today on start using your Jewish name."

Of course the Rebbe responded to her question about the Holocaust. However, in his great love for every individual, he did not satisfy himself with doing just that. The Rebbe considered what Jewish act the professor could incorporate into her life—an act that she herself would want to do, for in her mind it would equate with doing something that would make a personal stand against the barbaric Nazis.

This is the way the Rebbe saw things; for every individual there is a unique way of encouraging them in their Jewish growth.

[The full article here]