For the refuah of Chaim Yonatan Mordechai ben Pesha Elka.
I came across an interesting letter sent by the Lubavitcher Rebbe ztz"l to an editor of a Torah journal. The editor, a huge gaon and talmid chochom, had sent the Rebbe a copy of the journal for his perusal. The Rebbe answered back very cordially and thankfully for what he had sent and asked for more in the future. He added that there must be a section of the journal that includes articles that deal with pnimiyus hatorah [i.e. kabbala] and explained why it was so important.
I went to check later editions of this journal to see if this Rov followed the Rebbe's directive.
He hadn't.
There is another letter of the Rebbe to a well known chossid of his thanking him for a book of Chasidic stories. The Rebbe thanked him but added that it would be better if in future editions of the sefer, he quotes the sources for the stories in order to add to their credibility.
He didn't do so and later editions were basically the same as the first edition.
Two morals to the story:
1] Always give good advice when possible. It is actually a mitzvah from the Torah. There is a prohibition against giving bad advice [לפני עור לא תתן מכשול] and the other side of the coin is that there is a mitzvah to give good advice [make sure that there is a possibility that the advice will be followed. People often don't appreciate advice].
2] Don't expect people to follow it. In general - people do what they want. Your opinion is probably not going to sway them. I can't imagine how many people were given advice by the Rebbe which wasn't followed. So is life and so are people. Your spouse, your children, your friends etc. etc. will often do as they please and not follow your well meant advice. Don't be upset or offended.
