THE COMING OF MOSHIACH DEPENDS ON EVERY ONE OF US

Rabbi Leibel Groner, the Rebbe’s personal secretary, held a small intimate discussion with a group of Chassidic young men and spoke about the special kochos that the Rebbe gives the Chassidim to bring the Geula. In the course of his talk he said that in 5730 he was asked about the belief that Chassidim have that the Rebbe is Moshiach and he said it is based on a Gemara. How did the Rebbe react to this? * Exclusive for Beis Moshiach

After the Rebbe said those loaded words on the eve of 28 Nisan 5751, “I did everything I can do, and now you do all that you can do,” many people wondered: What should we do? Is the Rebbe quitting? How can we carry out a task that we don’t know how to do? And a general question: Can we do more than the Rebbe?

But that was the reality. The Rebbe gave us the work.

Everything the Rebbe said has a source, in the written or oral Torah, in Kabbala or Chassidus. There was once a big talmid chacham in Eretz Yisroel who received the Likkutei Sichos and exclaimed to his followers excitedly: See, every word the Lubavitcher Rebbe says has a source.

So it is clear that the Rebbe giving us the work also has a source in Torah. We need to search for the source in order to understand things from a broader perspective.

IS AHARON POSSIBLY GREATER THAN MOSHE?

In Parshas Shmini it says that Hashem spoke to Moshe Rabbeinu and told him to guide his brother Aharon in how to bring the sacrifices on the eighth inaugural day. The Torah states that after they finished, “And Moshe and Aharon went to the Tent of Meeting and they went out and blessed the nation and the glory of G-d appeared to all the people.”

Rashi comments on the words, “and they blessed the nation” and says, “They said: May the pleasantness of Hashem, our G-d be upon us – may it be His will that the Sh’china dwell in the work of your hands. Because all seven of the inaugural days in which Moshe put up the Mishkan and served in it and then dismantled it each day the Sh’china did not dwell, and the Jewish people were ashamed and said to Moshe: Moshe Rabbeinu! All the efforts we made were for the Sh’china to dwell amongst us so we would know that we were forgiven for the sin of the calf! So he said to them: ‘This is the thing that Hashem commanded you should do and the glory of Hashem will appear to you,’ Aharon my brother is worthy and more important than me, for through his sacrifices and his service the Sh’china will dwell amongst you and you will know that G-d chose him.”

The question is: Moshe knew that he is the greatest created being, the one who received the Torah from Hashem. How could he say that his brother Aharon was greater than him?  

The explanation is based on the Zohar that there are two types of avoda, “The one who escorts the king and the one who escorts the queen [to their wedding].” At a wedding, there is the shliach of the king, the groom, who brings the groom to the bride, and the shliach of the queen, the bride, who brings her to the groom.

Moshe is the escort of the king and his job is to bring G-dliness down (which is why the Torah was given through him to the Jewish people). Aharon, the escort of the queen, has the job of elevating the Jewish people as it says, “When you raise up the neiros (lights/candles).” “The soul of man is the candle of G-d” (which is why it says about Aharon that he loved creatures and drew them toward Torah).

DIRA BA’TACHTONIM – GOING FROM DOWN UPWARD

Chazal say, “Hashem desired a dwelling down below,” and Chassidus explains this to mean, “through those who are below.” If Hashem wanted to, He could build a perfect world to dwell in, but He wants it to be constructed by the work done by us, who are down below.

This is what Moshe said to the Jewish people: You want the Sh’china to dwell among you? In this respect, Aharon my brother is more worthy than me. This is because Moshe, the king’s escort, could not, as it were, bring the Sh’china down in a way that Hashem wanted it done, through those below. Aharon is the queen’s escort, he is the shliach of the Jewish people here below, and he has the ability to bring the Sh’china down. 

From where does Aharon have the power to bring down the Sh’china? It comes from Moshe Rabbeinu. During the seven days that Moshe served in the Mishkan, he prepared the Mishkan for the dwelling of the Sh’china which would take place through Aharon’s avoda later on.

THE REBBE PREPARED THE GROUNDWORK AND WE BRING THE SH’CHINA DOWN

The Rebbe said that similarly, “I did all that I can do.” I prepared the groundwork for you, I gave you the kochos, but I cannot bring the Sh’china down since I am the king’s escort. “I give the matter over to you.” Just as it was with the Mishkan, that the Sh’china coming down was through Aharon, the queen’s escort, so too in our generation, the Sh’china can come down only through us, the queen’s escort.

Moshe prepared for the Sh’china the first time around. He was the seventh generation from Avrohom, and as the Rebbe explains in the first maamer of Yud Shevat 5711, that it was because he was in the seventh generation, and all sevenths are beloved, that he brought the Sh’china down below. The Rebbe is also the seventh generation, of the Chabad leaders, and his job is to complete the job of bringing down the Sh’china so that “the earth will be full of knowledge of G-d.”

In the first dwelling of the Sh’china, Moshe worked for seven days and prepared everything for the Sh’china to come down. But who did the final act? Aharon. So too, in our generation, the Rebbe prepared everything for us and now the work is ours to complete.

The Rebbe tells us explicitly that his job is not to bring the Sh’china down, it’s our job, the last generation of galus and the first of Geula. So we need to do what he can’t, as it were, do.

YOU DON’T NEED TO BREAK YOUR HEAD!

After Chaf-Ches Nissan the Rebbe asked me: What is happening with the sicha of Chaf-Ches Nissan?

I said that after the Rebbe left the beis midrash, everyone sat down together with the rabbanim and mashpiim and “broke their heads” to understand what we need to do in order to bring the Sh’china down.

The Rebbe smiled broadly and said, “Go downstairs and bang on the table and tell everyone that there is no need to break their heads. I said several times, you need to learn Torah, be punctilious in doing mitzvos and increase Ahavas Yisroel and tz’daka, and learn the subject of Moshiach and Geula.”

I dared to say: But we’ve been doing that for decades!

The Rebbe said: Apparently, all those areas are still lacking. The public is lacking in having set times for learning, there is a lack of punctiliousness in mitzvos, Ahavas Yisroel and tz’daka are lacking, and more needs to be learned on the subject of Moshiach and Geula.

MAKE A SPIRITUAL ACCOUNTING

The Rebbe told me to send a fax to R’ Chaim Gutnick in Australia who wrote a letter to the Rebbe (the Rebbe showed me the letter) saying, “Rebbe, have pity on us and tell us clearly what to do.” The Rebbe said to send him the last sicha that he said that Shabbos (Tazria-Metzora) in which he mentioned the aforementioned steps that need to be taken.

“I am surprised,” said the Rebbe, “why he is asking what to do when I said it clearly.”

Since we still haven’t merited the hisgalus of Moshiach, each of us needs to make a spiritual accounting: have I made enough set times for learning Torah? Am I mehader in mitzvos? How can I add in my Ahavas Yisroel and tz’daka? Do I learn inyanei Moshiach and Geula?

As long as Moshiach has not been revealed, we need to remember the feeling that we had that night of Chaf-Ches Nissan and the shock we felt. It should remind us to make good hachlatos in all these areas.

JUST THIS MUCH IS LEFT UNTIL MOSHIACH COMES

I have said all this before and I’ll mention it again now in connection to what was said earlier. The Rebbe once had a problem with his eye. I asked the Rebbe whether he agreed to my calling an eye doctor and he said yes. I called Dr. Hadad, a top doctor in the field and after examining the Rebbe’s eyes he said that in order to conduct a thorough exam he needed a machine that he had in his office. It was not possible to bring it to the Rebbe’s room so he recommended that the Rebbe visit his office.

The Rebbe agreed and we went to the doctor’s office. During the exam, the doctor put drops in the Rebbe’s eyes which dilated them. You need to wait a few minutes before continuing the exam. The doctor took the opportunity to ask whether he could ask the Rebbe a question. The Rebbe said yes.

He told the Rebbe that aside from his work as a doctor, he was president of an Iraqi Jewish organization. In this position, he visited many countries with Jewish communities who emigrated from Iraq. “So what’s the question,” asked the Rebbe.

“I see the amazing things the Rebbe does. There is Judaism all over the world. There is Shabbos and mikvaos and Jewish education, etc.”

“Nu, so what’s the question,” asked the Rebbe again.

“Why has Moshiach still not come?” he asked.

The Rebbe smiled broadly and said, “I have the same question! But since, at this moment, he still hasn’t come, that means there is still more to be done.”

The Rebbe put two of his fingers together to show a small amount and said, “This is all that remains until Moshiach comes and it depends on every one of us. Every good deed that we do hastens the Geula.”

The Rebbe added, “I tell the Chassidim: As much as I esteem their good work (this was the first time I heard the Rebbe say he esteemed our work), since Moshiach still did not come at this moment, that indicates that we need to do more and so I do not let my Chassidim sleep.”

This is what the Rebbe told us on Chaf-Ches Nissan. The Rebbe gave each one of us the privilege and responsibility to finish the holy work. Each of us needs to make a spiritual accounting about what he should do and where he can add in order to bring Moshiach.

SEE TO IT THAT ANOTHER JEW WANTS AND ASKS FOR MOSHIACH

The Rebbe said in the sicha: “What else can I do so that all the Jewish people will make a commotion and cry out sincerely?”

These words were actually said by the Rebbe Rayatz in Poland on Simchas Torah 5699/1938, before the outbreak of World War II: “Truly, when all Jews unite as one without differences between great and small and cry out: Father, have pity, enough already, save us, send us Moshiach already, obviously Moshiach would have come already.”

The Rebbe says in the sicha of Chaf-Ches Nissan 5751 that if all the Jewish people would cry out sincerely, they would bring Moshiach.

Chassidim were once sitting in Gan Eden HaTachton and were discussing how Moshiach would come. The Rebbe suddenly came out of his room and said: This is how Moshiach will come, Moshiach will come b’hesech ha’daas.

MOSHIACH CAN COME AT ANY MOMENT

I was once in Los Angeles at a huge office complex where thousands of Jews work, including a group of Lubavitchers. Every Wednesday, they try to gather as many Jews as they can and they daven Mincha together, serve lunch for free and someone says a d’var Torah for fifteen or twenty minutes. They asked me to come.

After the meeting was over, three people came over to me, two young men and a woman, Litvishe people who grew up in Boro Park. Their question was, “How do you say, ‘and he will redeem us,’ implying that the Lubavitcher Rebbe is Moshiach?”

I said, “Let’s take a step back and let me ask you a question. Do you believe that Moshiach can come right now, as we are standing here?”

They remained silent. I pressed them, “Yes or no?” They were silent. 

“There is a big difference between us,” I said. “I believe Moshiach can come at any moment. We first have to clarify this point. The Maharal says that Moshiach is a person who lives now in this physical world, who at the moment Hashem tells him that he needs to go and redeem us will carry out this mission. You ask why we believe this. We believe that Moshiach can come at any moment and we believe it is him. 

“If we believe that Moshiach can come at any moment, there must be someone in this physical world who is Moshiach. We believe it’s the Rebbe. I’m not telling you to believe it’s the Rebbe. If you want to believe that a certain rosh yeshiva is Moshiach, that’s fine with me.”

“Really?” They asked. “Even if it’s not the Rebbe?”

I said, “If you believe he’s Moshiach, that means that we agree that Moshiach can come at any moment and I have accomplished something already.”

THE SOURCE IN THE GEMARA FOR CHASSIDIM SAYING THE REBBE IS MOSHIACH

My father passed away in 5730/1970 and since he wanted to be buried on Har HaZeisim, we went to Eretz Yisroel. R’ Yehoshua Hutner came to console us and asked me to visit him after the Shiva so he could give the Rebbe regards from the offices of the Encyclopedia Talmudis.

He showed me their offices, eighteen rooms in which talmidei chachomim sat and each worked on a manuscript from a Rishon or an Acharon. Then he invited them to the anteroom and asked me to say a d’var Torah from the Rebbe. I repeated a sicha in Nigleh. 

When I finished, one of the rabbis said to me: What is this about you saying that the Rebbe is Moshiach?

I said: There is an explicit Gemara that a talmid can say that about his rebbi. 

The man declared: There is no such Gemara.

I told him, “I am standing in a building where you think you have a monopoly on all of Shas and you don’t know this Gemara? I am telling you there is such a Gemara.”

After he persisted in arguing and maintaining there is no such Gemara, I asked him for a Gemara Sanhedrin and showed him daf 98 where it says, “What is his name? The School of R’ Shila said: His name is Shiloh, for it is written, ‘until Shiloh will come.’ The School of R’ Yanai said: His name is Yinon, for it is written, ‘May His name endure forever, before the sun Yinon shmo.’ The School of R’ Chanina maintained: His name is Chanina, as it is written, ‘Where I shall not grant you Chanina (clemency).’ Others say: His name is Menachem the son of Chizkiya, for it is written, ‘Because Menachem [the comforter], that would relieve my soul, is far.’” Rashi comments on the words, “Yinon shmo” – “similar to Yanai, each of them would interpret the verse after his name.”

I said to them: It says in the Gemara that although there were many prophecies, what is written is only that which is necessary for generations to come. So too with the Gemara, not everything that was said in the beis midrash is quoted in the Gemara by Rav Ashi; just that which is necessary for generations to come. So we can learn from Rashi that in every generation, a talmid can say that his rebbi is Moshiach. So what are you complaining about? If you lived in the time of R’ Yanai you would be yelling at his talmidim.

When I returned from Eretz Yisroel, the Rebbe wanted a detailed report about every day of my trip. I recounted everything, including the episode that occurred in the offices of the Encyclopedia Talmudis.

The following Shabbos there was a farbrengen. After the first two sichos, the Rebbe mentioned that there is a Jew, a talmid chacham, who sits there and didn’t think about Moshiach for fifty years until a young man came along and brought up the subject and it confused him. I was happy that the Rebbe was pleased that I had inspired someone about the topic of Moshiach.

L’CHAIM OVER THE REBBE AGREEING TO THE PUBLICITY OF HIS BEING MOSHIACH

One morning, in the middle of 5751, after Shacharis, I went to the Rebbe’s room. The Rebbe took the t’fillin off his head and asked me: What is this they are saying about me, that I am Moshiach? 

I said that the Rambam writes all the criteria for Moshiach and the Rebbe fits everything the Rambam says and so according to the Rambam, the Rebbe is Moshiach.

The Rebbe smiled, raised his hands upward and said: But they still didn’t tell me that I’m Moshiach.

When the Rebbe told me that they still hadn’t told him he’s Moshiach, I was reminded of a reshima from the Rebbe Rayatz which says that he once sat with his father and asked: When Eliyahu HaNavi comes, how will we know he is Eliyahu HaNavi?

The Rebbe Rashab replied: Eliyahu is ready to come and the moment Hashem tells him to come, the entire world will know that he is Eliyahu HaNavi. 

The Rebbe Rayatz asked: And what about Moshiach? How will we know he is Moshiach?

The Rebbe Rashab said: In every generation there is a Jew who is the one that Hashem will choose to be Moshiach, but until the last moment, when he has to appear, he himself won’t know he is Moshiach. When the moment comes, he will know and the entire world will accept it.

Another story in the same vein – one afternoon, R’ Zalman Gurary called me and said: Leibel, go to the liquor store on Kingston, buy some bottles of mashke, drink them all and say l’chaim!

I said: R’ Zalman, it’s a great idea, but why now?

He said: Lately, people are talking about the Rebbe being Moshiach. Today I attended a meeting of the Agudas HaRabbanim and since I am a member, some rabbis yelled at me saying, how do Chabad Chassidim declare that the Rebbe is Moshiach?

I called R’ Chadakov and repeated what they asked, and said I think they’re right. R’ Chadakov said he also thinks I’m right but then he paused and said, wait a minute. After a few minutes, he came back to the phone and completely changed his tune. He said firmly: Why does it bother you that they say that the Rebbe is Moshiach? Why are you impressed by Misnagdim? 

The Rebbe had apparently heard the conversation and motioned to Chadakov to mute the line and told him his holy opinion and that is why Chadakov changed his view 180 degrees. 

R’ Zalman told me all this excitedly and then said: You hear? The fact that the Rebbe agreed that he is Moshiach is something over which we need to say many l’chaims!

***

I repeat that everyone needs to make a spiritual accounting in the following: how much Torah he learns, which mitzvos can be improved upon, that his Ahavas Yisroel is more genuine and not merely superficial, to give more tz’daka and learn inyanei Moshiach and Geula. 

When the Rebbe tells us to add, certainly each of us has what to add, and when each of us does his avoda and helps one another and each makes a hachlata, and as the Rebbe says that the moment a person makes a hachlata Hashem gives him kochos to do it, we will see the Rebbe now.

I want to add a vort in the name of the Ohev Yisroel of Apt. “And the king said to Esther the queen at the feast of wine, what is your request and it will be given to you.” When sitting at a feast, at a Chassidishe farbrengen, the King-Hashem says to every Jew: What is your request and it will be given to you. So everyone say l’chaim and we will tell Hashem that our request is that we see the Rebbe and he will redeem us and lead us upright to our land, immediately, now.