Yenny/El Ateneo, Argentina’s oldest and largest bookstore chain, publishes weekly charts of the top 10 bestselling books in their retail stores across the country. The Spanish edition of Letters for Life, a new book on the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Torah-based advice for emotional wellbeing, surprised the country’s publishing wizards and emerged as #5 on the list. As a result, the book is now being sold in airports and malls across Argentina.
The book’s popularity follows the increased interest in the Lubavitcher Rebbe caused by Argentina’s philo-Semite president Javier Milei. Milei has visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Ohel several times on his trips to New York and speaks of the impact the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s teachings have had on his life.
Seeing the book’s international success, BBC journalist Talat-Farooq Awan contacted the author, Levi Shmotkin, to discuss the reasons for the book’s wide appeal. The interview played on the BBC’s nationally syndicated Sunday morning radio program.
Prompted by Awan, Shmotkin opened up about how the book came about:
“I was a regular teenager, studying and trying to focus on my academic roles, but my inner world was distracting me. I’d be sitting there with my textbooks, but my brain and my heart weren’t there."
“I found myself gravitating toward the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s letters. He was a great Jewish sage who counseled thousands of people through personal correspondence about their emotional and mental lives. As I read letter after letter, the guidance rooted in Jewish wisdom felt like it was coming off the page and speaking directly to me."
The conversation continued with questions from Awan:
“The Rebbe’s guidance came decades before today’s widespread mental health awareness. What makes his wisdom so relevant for the modern world and the modern Jewish community?"
In response, Shmotkin explained that “Its relevance comes precisely from where it differs from popular culture. While there’s a strong focus today on emotional health, The Rebbe consistently emphasized that true emotional wellbeing requires expanding beyond self-absorption and self-obsession."
Alongside its reach in the secular world, the book has found resonance in the orthodox Jewish community through prominent voices including Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox, Director of Trauma Response for Chai Lifeline and dayan on the Rabbinical Courts of Jerusalem. Rabbi Dr. Fox shared that “Letters for Life is an extremely well-researched compendium of profound insights and clear guidance. It allows the reader to be immersed in the perceptive wisdom of Toras HaNefesh through the lens of Chabad Chassidus. The volume includes much pure, pragmatic instruction for improving one’s personal and interpersonal functioning, as well as boosting one’s Avodas HaShem. I found Letters for Life inspiring and illuminating."
Similarly, Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hirsch Weinreb, Executive Vice President Emeritus of the Orthodox Union, Editor-in-Chief of the Koren Talmud Bavli and renowned expert in psychology, shared the following: “We live in troubled times, and we all feel the need for guidance in many aspects of our daily lives. To whom can we turn for guidance-wise guidance, practical guidance, effective guidance? Letters for Life enables us to consult an immensely valuable source of the guidance we seek. He presents us with the sage advice and helpful encouragement of someone who understood the modern world and had phenomenal insight into the soul and psyche of humanity."
The full BBC interview can be listened to here