By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives
Hundreds of letters from across the globe were delivered to the Rebbe on a daily basis. Some asked advice about health issues or financial troubles, engaged couples discussed their upcoming weddings, Torah scholars presented difficult questions in Jewish law and philosophy, and Chabad representatives around the world asked for blessings and guidance.
In 1966, in the midst of the High Holidays, a heart-wrenching letter arrived on the Rebbe’s desk. A man in Israel was about to lose his job, for reasons the letter did not divulge. The man’s family had written to his Swedish employer, describing the devastating effect the loss would have on the extended family the man supported. But they had not received a response.
As a last resort, the man’s brother wrote to the Rebbe and asked him to intervene with the employer. Neither he nor his brother had ever met or corresponded with the Rebbe. The family hoped that the Swedish Jew would take a request from the Rebbe seriously.
With great pain, the man’s brother pleaded with the Rebbe to help. “Have mercy on us,” he wrote. “If he loses his job, he will not have food to place on his table, please do something about the situation.”
The Rebbe had no connection with the Swedish businessman. Yet, contrary to his long-standing custom to not give advice unless someone approached him, the Rebbe wrote to him.
“This request may be seen as meddling into your private issues,” the Rebbe wrote. “However, since this has to do with the good of a fellow Jew, I am going out of my normal boundaries, with the hope that you will judge me favorably and grant my request.”
The Rebbe wrote that as a Jew to a Jew, “although we never met face to face, surely you will do all that you can to keep the man… in his employment that gives him his [only] livelihood.”
The Rebbe promised that in the merit of sustaining another family, G-d would surely bless him in abundance.
“Please forgive me for meddling into your business matters without your asking,” the Rebbe concluded. “With honor and blessings to be sealed to have a sweet new year.”
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