Hi ———,

It sounds to me that you are learning in Lubavitch, so I can talk to you differently than someone looking from the outside in.

It may even be that your grandfather or his father was one of those shluchim sent to build a mikvah and a cheder and never returned. That your grandmother or her mother was one of those agunos of the Gulag, left to nurse and care for small children, refusing to accept support from the Bolsheviks, hiding them from the authorities so they would not end up in public school.

They lived in the shadow of uncertainty and constant danger, but they were confident, brave and wholehearted. Today we look back at them with such pride and admiration. They were zocheh to give their lives for our people, their souls are enshrined in the high places of the kedoshim beyond the greatest tzadikim. Would it be that we could merit even a glimmer of their honor.

As a child, you were told the stories of the Baal Shem Tov, beginning with the last words of his father, Rabbi Eliezer: “Yisroel, do not be afraid of any man of any thing, only of G_d alone. Love every Jew with all the innermost of your heart and with the flame of your soul, without exception, whoever he is and whatever may be.”

We are privileged to be the carriers of the Baal Shem Tov’s torch today. He carried it through the Carpathian hills and the fertile soil of the Ukraine. Our Rebbe has lifted us up with eagle’s wings to be emissaries of the Besht to every dark corner of Planet Earth. As the Besht’s torch was charged by those two dynamos of power, so with ours: Fear nothing; have only love.

We, chassidim of the Rebbe, are brave soldiers of light. As there are those who throw away their lives and the lives of others simply for the sake of terror and horror, so too, with even greater ardor and courage, we give up our lives simply for the sake of goodness and love. If we would fight with one iota of vigor less than our enemy, the entire edifice of Chabad, and therefore of the Jewish People, would be in serious danger. But it is not, because we are the fearless soldiers of light.

You must be proud, you must be strong. We and all the Jewish People of all the generations are relying on you to complete the dream. All their blood was shed for this time, all their tears and prayers were for this moment now. We are fighting the final battle between darkness and light. Our light will shine forever; their darkness will vanish as though it never was. Victory will soon be ours and Gaby and Rivky will come from their lofty heichal in the highest heights of Gan Eden to join us at the Rebbe’s farbrengen on the Har Habayis. The world will be filled with light as all the floodlamps we plugged in will switch on and shine, all the seeds we planted will burst forth in full blossom, the curtains will be drawn and the ruach hatumah will fall to oblivion. Then we shall sing, “Od’cha LaShem ki anafta bi,” for the true goodness behind all sorrow will be revealed.