The Rebbe’s Rule: Translation Must Come Alive, Not Word-for-Word

The Rebbe insisted that translating his Torah teachings should make the message come alive in the reader’s language, not be a literal word-for-word replica. In 1962, he told his editor to translate rather than provide a strict word-for-word rendering, guiding the open letters, Igrot Melech, and the Bitaon Chabad project through meticulous revisions to preserve meaning, tone, and audience. This philosophy shaped later work on Rashi’s Principles, which eventually expanded to 620 interpretive rules in 2018, underscoring fidelity of content over exact wording.