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“Doctors, or trust in G-d?” — a correspondent asks the Rebbe to choose, and he refuses the choice: both, strongly. Make a natural vessel through the best medical care, and hold firm trust in the Healer of all flesh. His standing counsel is to follow expert doctors and to guard against sadness — despair itself, he writes, is contrary to the Torah.
The 1950s dominate (654 of 1,041) — a flood of letters from people and families still recovering, in body and spirit, from the war years. The baseline counsel is steady: consult expert doctors, and do as they say.
The recurring counsel, by how often it appears across the 1,041 letters.
Following the doctors leads — but he casts it as making a natural vessel, held together with trust and a guarded, hopeful spirit.
Follow the doctors (102) is the steady baseline, 1950s-heavy — and always the expert doctors (מומחים), consulted as a natural vessel for the blessing of healing.
A striking late turn: "a doctor who is a friend" (18) is almost entirely a 1970s theme (16) — choose a physician who knows you personally, to steady the spirit as well as the body.
Guard against sadness (52) runs alongside — poor spirits are treated as harmful to health itself, and despair as "contrary to the Torah" (§04).
Asked point-blank whether to keep consulting doctors or to trust in G-d, he refuses the either/or: be strong in trust in the Healer of all flesh, and make a natural vessel by following the expert doctors. Consult specialists, not just any physician; add the spiritual "leg" of tzedakah and faith; and never let despair in — it is "contrary to the Torah." Here that counsel, verbatim.