Living the Redemption
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
This Shabbos Mevarchim the 28th of Nissan is the 30th Anniversary of the Rebbe’s iconic statement: “I have done all that I can; now it’s up to you to do all that you can to bring Moshiach (the geula).”
The Rebbe explained this statement later in more detail that this means to learn Inyanei Geula and Moshiach in the Torah (Rambam, Medrash, Chassidus etc). By learning, internalizing and integrating those Torah sources we will come to live with the geula and Moshiach and as a result add in learning the Torah and doing mitzvos.
When we learn in the Rambam and in Chassidus about the changes that the Moshiach will bring this brings changes in the way that we live now. But how do we practically apply this in our lives?
This mandate to bring the geula began at the very onset of the Rebbe’s Nesius on Yud Shevat 5711-1951 when the Rebbe explained that our (the seventh generation’s) purpose is to make a dwelling place for Hashem in this physical world. Over the years the campaign intensified until on the 28th of Nissan 5751-1981 the Rebbe brought this mandate to the stage of living with Moshiach.
So what have we accomplished over the last thirty years? Some treat the Rebbe’s mandate like a check off list. We check off davening, tzedaka, Chitas, Rambam, some Chassidus, some learning with the children, an hour of Mivtzoyim and an inyan in Inyanei Geula and Moshiach to top it off. Then we ask, what else haven’t we done?
Whatever a person focuses on, he or she will feel. By focusing our efforts on LIVING with Moshiach we understand that the goal is all about change not only action. There is also a mindset and a feeling that goes along with it.
Living with Moshiach as an actual part of our lives as real and immediate was seen many times in the Rebbe’s pronouncements about the geula. The Rebbe would say that Moshiach should be here even before we daven Mincha or Maariv or before the end of the Fabrengen. How was this possible? Because the Rebbe could see Moshiach in the doorway waiting to enter. Our eyes weren’t open enough to see so the Rebbe advised us to learn and thereby come also to see that we are in the era of Moshiach and to act accordingly.
There is a story about the talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov who would wait for the Baal Shem Tov to finish davening. On one particular day the Baal Shem Tov’s ascension into the higher worlds was extended and the talmidim became hungry. They decided to venture off for a few minutes to taste something and quickly return. A short while later when they returned they were surprised to see that the Baal Shem Tov had completed davening and was already folding His tallis.
When the talmidim asked what happened the Baal Shem Tov answered using the analogy of a bird nest that was high on top of a wall. A person wanted to capture the beautiful bird in the nest and asked to stack one person on top of the other so that he could climb on the top to reach the nest. Meanwhile the people on the bottom grew tired and bored so they left and the entire stack of people came tumbling to the ground. The same thing said the Baal Shem Tov happened when you left during davening. It was only because of your zechusim that my tefillah was able to ascend on high. Once you left I could not reach the level that I was seeking.
This was also the Rebbe’s message on the 28th of Nissan. The Rebbe was telling us that everything that can be done to bring Moshiach depends on what we do.
A person might say that they can follow instructions and do the things required to bring the geula but not necessarily live or feel him or herself personally going out of galus in the present moment. For this there are two responses, the first is an analogy. What would be like if the homeless were shown a way to get out of a tent city but instead of leaving, because they were so used to their way of life and didn’t they didn’t ‘feel’ like leaving it was real, they didn’t want to leave. They decided instead to improve the tent city or petition the government for increased spending on tent cities and more safe needles for their drug habits. The same applies for our situation in galus. Hashem has no home and we have no home as long as we are in galus, as it says “Woe is to the Father who drove his children away from His table (home), and woe is to the children who were driven from their Father’s table.
By the Rebbe statement we understand that we are without a home as long as the galus continues and it depends on us to not be comfortable in this homeless state but to do everything we can bring to bring the geula. By learning about the geula from a Torah perspective we can see what we are missing and it creates the desire to do whatever is required to get out of the galus.Then we do every positive act in every moment available to materialize the geula and Moshiach.
How do we get ourselves to feel and live the geula? By being all in with our entire will. It says that the Korban Pesach was roasted entirely, it’s head intestines and feet. So too for real changes to occur we need to become ’fully roasted’ with love for Hashem, the Torah and every Jew. It’s not enough to understand intellectually alone or act without enthusiasm, it's an entire package that includes everything; our will, our intellect, our emotions and our actions. As soon as we reveal the aleph of Hashem Echod in the world through our actions, we transform the world from gola (galus, spelled without an aleph) to geula (spelled with an aleph).
By acting this way, by doing all we can may we merit the fulfillment of the complete and final geula with the arrival of Moshiach today!
A Good Shabbos A Good Chodesh