Parshas Vayigash

The let­ters that Pin­chas (R. Eliyahu Chaim’s son) had were dated Yud- Beis Tam­muz. One was a gen­eral let­ter for Anash: “On an oc­ca­sion like this one should write about Torah and avo­dah, but there is no time. ” And he thanked ev­ery­one - the fam­i­lies, as well - for recit­ing Tehillim and ask­ing G-d to help him.

The other let­ter was ad­dressed to R. Eliyahu Chaim Al­thoiz. I re­mem­ber the be­gin­ning quite well: “You were the first of those con­nected to my fa­ther, etc., whom I met when they took me, lo aleinu, to Sh­palerka; and you were the first to bless me with Mazel Tov when they no­ti­fied me that I was free. Di­vine Prov­i­dence, ac­cord­ing to Chas­sidus, is tan­gi­bly per­ceiv­ing G-dli­ness — and For­tu­nate is one who sets his path in life in ac­cord with G-d’s will...” I don’t re­mem­ber any more words, only the con­tent: one must know how to con­duct him­self.

I heard this story from the tomim R. Mordechai Perlov, who was in Lubav­itch when the Rebbe was sit­ting shiva for his brother, Rebbe Zal­man Aharon, and the mashpi’im Reb Mi­choel and Reb Groinem came to men­achem avel ( com­fort the mourner).

“What is the sig­nif­i­cance of com­fort­ing a mourner?” the Rebbe asked. “No pro­found in­sights are said to him; rather, the very fact of vis­it­ing him light­ens his load. ”

The Rebbe Ray­atz said a num­ber of times in Leningrad, “My fa­ther was a guter (kind man). ”