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The following is a free adaptation of an excerpt
from a letter by the Rebbe dated Shevat 14, 5714 (January
18, 1954), [Igrot Kodesh, Vol VIII, p 168]
...May the Almighty grant that from this small
seed shall grow great and wondrous things.
When I say “small” I am not speaking of quantity:
even in the material world we observe that it is not so much
the quantity of a thing that matters but its quality. This
is one of the lessons to be derived from the recent discoveries
regarding atomic power: if a minute particle can destroy an
entire city, how much more so is this true in the positive
realm, since “good is many times more potent than...’’[1] Certainly, one cannot fathom even the physical potential
contained in a single human being, infinitely more so, the
potential in an iota of spirituality; who, then, can speak
of the potential in the iota of G-dliness in every Jewish
soul.
In the above analogy, a “jolt” is needed to manifest
the potential energy implicit in the atom. The same is true
regarding the divine essence that is hidden in the world—hidden
in order that man should seek it out...
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[1] It is written that G-d “remembers the sins
of the fathers for four generations” (Exodus 34:7);
on the other hand, He “retains kindness for two thousand
[generations]” (ibid.). Thus our sages have said that
“Good is five-hundred times more potent than misfortune.”
(Rashi on Exodus, ibid.).
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