The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s letter of Condolence Letter to Ariel Sharon on the loss of his son Gur  (Dated 13 Tishrei, 5728 [October 17, 1967])

I extend to you, and to all the bereaved family, my sincere sympathy and the traditional blessing of condolence – .המקום ינחם אתכם בתוך שאר אבלי ציון וירושלים

May you not know of any sorrow in the future, but only goodness and benevolence be with you always.

………………………….An element of solace - indeed, more than just an element - is expressed in the ritual blessing, hallowed by scores of generations of Torah and tradition among our people:

"May the Omnipresent comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem."

At first glance, the connection between the mourner to whom this blessing is directed and the mourners of Jerusalem's destruction appears to be quite puzzling. In truth, however, they are connected. For the main consolation embodied by this phrase is in its inner content, namely, that just as the grief over Zion and Jerusalem is common to all the sons and daughters of our people, Israel, wherever they may be (although it is more palpable to those who dwell in Jerusalem and actually see the Western Wall and the ruins of our Holy Temple, than to those who are far away from it, nonetheless, even those who are far, experience great pain and grief over the destruction) so is the grief of a single individual Jew or Jewish family shared by the entire nation. For, as the Sages have taught, all of the Jewish people comprise one integral organism.

Another point and principle, expressing double consolation, is that just as G‑d will most certainly rebuild the ruins of Zion and Jerusalem and gather the dispersed of Israel from the ends of the earth through our righteous Moshiach, so will He, without a doubt, remove the grief of the individual, fulfilling the promise embodied by the verse, "Awaken and sing, you who repose in the dust." Great will be the joy, the true joy, when all will be rejoined at the time of the Resurrection of the Dead.

There is yet a third point: Just as in regard to Zion and Jerusalem, the Romans - and before them, the Babylonians - were given dominion only over the wood and stone, silver and gold of the Temple's physical manifestation but not over its inner, spiritual essence, contained within the heart of each and every Jew - for the nations have no dominion over this and it stands eternally - so too regarding the mourning of the individual, death dominates only the physical body and concerns of the deceased person. The soul, however, is eternal; it has merely ascended to the World of Truth. That is why any good deed [performed by the mourner] that accords with the will of the Giver of life, G‑d, blessed be He, adds to the soul's delight and merit, and to its general good.

May it be G‑d's will that henceforth you and your family should know no hurt and pain, and that in your actions in defense of our Holy Land, "the land which G‑d's eyes are upon from the beginning of the year to the end of the year………………

 With esteem and blessing.