MOSHIACH & GEULA
 
   

"Wild Talk" About Moshiach

Shluchim active in Mivtza Moshiach share original ideas * Excerpts from roundtable discussion at a "Yom Sh’Kulo Moshiach" * PART 2 OF 2

 

PARTICIPANTS:

 

Moderator: Rabbi Shlomo

 

Zalman Lepkivker

Member of the hanhala of Yeshivas Chabad – Tzfas

 

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Friedman

Director of Chabad House in Ohr Yehuda

 

Rabbi Nechemia Shmerling

Director of Chabad House in Kfar Yona

 

Rabbi Elozor Kenig

Active in hafatzas besuras ha’Geula

 

Rabbi Avrohom Shmuel Bukiet

Shliach in Eretz Yisroel

 

R’ Friedman: I want to bring up an important topic: that of drashos. When the average Lubavitcher appears at some event, he is asked to say a few words. After hearing from the Rebbe that shlichus (as we knew it up until then) is over, and the sole remaining shlichus is preparing the world to greet Moshiach, we have the obligation to use every opportunity of public speaking to talk about preparing for Moshiach.

I remember how as bachurim in yeshiva before going on mivtzaim on Friday afternoon, we would prepare an interesting dvar Torah. Today, when the only shlichus left to do is that of preparing the world to greet Moshiach, every Chassid has to sit down on Sunday and prepare an interesting drasha on the weekly sidra connected to the besuras ha’Geula, so that if the opportunity arises he will be able to fulfill this shlichus.

Today there are many books with ready-made drashos that include stories and meshalim people enjoy hearing. We must remember that we have a job, and even if it’s difficult to extract a simple message from the most recent sichos, the sichos of 5751-2, we must make the effort.

Another thing: what sort of gifts do we give our mekuravim? When one of their children becomes bar mitzva, or whatever the occasion, we bring a gift. We were always particular about bringing a gift with a Jewish message like a Jewish book. Today, nine years after the Rebbe’s sicha about the sole remaining shlichus, we must give gifts with a Geula message. So many products have been produced in recent years that are connected in some way to Geula, and we should use them! I am sure that if all shluchim would buy these products, this would spur the producers to make even more products related to Moshiach and Geula.

R’ Lepkivker: Another aspect of preparing the world for Geula is chinuch. The Rebbe stresses that the education of a baby begins even before it is born. During the pregnancy, the fetus listens to what is going on and is influenced by what it hears! In one sicha, the Rebbe stressed that in recent years research was done in this field, and even gentile scientists have come to this conclusion.

So every word heard in the house makes an impact. Everything we talk about at home should be connected to Geula, so that even an unborn baby will "live" with inyanei Moshiach and Geula.

We have to live with the besuras ha’Geula all the time. It’s like oxygen for the soul. The Rebbe meant it when he said that when a Jew gets up in the morning he has to breathe the air of Moshiach. Adults should make sure that children also live with Geula 24 hours a day.

Speaking of children, I don’t mean only little kids, but I am also referring to those adults who are neophytes when it comes to Jewish concepts. You know how the Rebbe said that the passport is not what establishes who is young and old.

R’ Kenig: If we want children to live with Moshiach, the house has to shout it from all sides. This is especially true for those shluchim who don’t live in Lubavitcher neighborhoods. When the front door is adorned with Moshiach stickers and every corner of the house has something associated with Geula, anybody who enters the house is influenced before you even say one word!

To illustrate this, I’ll tell you what happened at my house recently. One Shabbos as I made Kiddush, I heard the neighbors upstairs celebrating a birthday party with lots of friends. They finished as we were in the middle of our meal, and when I heard them coming down the steps, I opened the door and invited them in.

I showed them a special chair designated for Melech HaMoshiach in a corner of the living room, and I explained that we wait for Moshiach and are sure he will come visit every Jewish home.

They understood the stickers, and I explained a bit about the tambourines. In short, after ten minutes in my house they were informed of the imminence of Moshiach, and understood that they had to prepare for Moshiach’s coming with additional mitzvos. Presumably they began looking forward to his arrival. When they left the building and saw the illuminated "Baruch HaBa Melech HaMoshiach" sign, they began dancing and singing, "Moshiach, Moshiach..."

About the sign, I often see people stop near the house and read the sign. Some neighbors regularly stop near the door and kiss the mezuza and the Rebbe’s picture. There’s no question that when you’re surrounded by objects that broadcast the besuras ha’Geula every minute, even when not talking or doing anything about it, you are anticipating the Geula.

People who come to us to write a letter to the Rebbe and receive an answer through the Igros Kodesh say that in the ten minutes they spent in our house they felt the Yemos HaMoshiach. It’s not surprising because there is hardly anything in the house which is not connected to Moshiach. Wherever you look you see Moshiach and Geula.

From my experience, this hashpaa, which is in a way of makif, is sometimes more powerful than anything you can say, because when a person sees that you really live with the besuras ha’Geula, he begins to think that this must really be serious and something worth preparing for.

R’ Bukiet: If we want to know what "living with Moshiach" means, we have to learn the sicha (Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 28) about the Rambam’s Hilchos Para Aduma, which says that the tenth para aduma will be made by Moshiach. The Rambam writes, "May he be speedily revealed, amen kein yehi ratzon."

The Rebbe explains that the Rambam wrote this wish specifically in the halachos regarding the para aduma, and not in Hilchos Melachim, which discusses Moshiach at length, in order to stress that ideas of Geula and Moshiach have to penetrate everything and everywhere.

When learning Hilchos Melachim you mention Moshiach. The chochma is to find a connection to Geula when discussing something else entirely, like hilchos para aduma.

Every shliach has special classes on Moshiach. The chochma is in how to bring Geula and Moshiach into the Chumash, Gemara, and Shulchan Aruch class! It’s not always easy, but you have to find the right way to do it.

Lecturers used to conclude with the words "u’va l’Tziyon go’eil." Some people would jokingly say that if the long lecture could come to an end the exile could certainly end... Today every lecture has to be about Geula, not just the ending.

The Rebbe brings an example of how to instill the yearning for Moshiach in something which seemingly has no connection to Geula. In the past, when Jews gathered in shul and wanted to know if there was a minyan, they wouldn’t count with numbers but they would use any verse of ten words associated with t’filla.

More recently, says the Rebbe, the yearning for Moshiach has intensified, and Bnei Yisroel began counting with the pasuk "Hoshia es amecha," which has ten words and also expresses the yearning for Geula.

Based on this sicha, and considering that the Rebbe strongly encouraged the singing of "Yechi," a proclamation expressing emuna and bitachon along with anticipation for Geula, you can count for a minyan using "Yechi" and then add, "Yechi HaMelech" or "chai v’kayam." In this way, you can take a simple everyday experience that doesn’t have any connection to Geula and turn it into an act that expresses faith and anticipation for the revelation of the Rebbe MH"M.

In another sicha, the Rebbe spoke about the importance of educating children from the youngest ages. They used to sing "Torah iz di beste s’chora" (Torah is the best merchandise) to babies in the cradle. Today we can sing "Yechi." In this way we can educate children to be like the Rebbe, who from the day he went to school (and even before that) began imagining what the future Geula would be like.

R’ Shmerling: When you invest in children, you reap the harvest from the adults too, because the children are terrific ambassadors. In our house we wake the children up with Geula songs from the radio. In this way, they live with Moshiach from the moment they wake up. They convey this chayus in the most amazing ways.

When I didn’t take the children to shul in Kfar Yona one Shabbos, some people came over to me and said, "We come here to hear your children! Why didn’t you bring them?"

Sometimes I’m amazed by the tmimus with which the children accept things. About a year ago I took my children to Crown Heights for a family simcha. I was very nervous about the moment we would arrive at 770 and the children would ask me why they don’t see the Rebbe.

We went there at 3:15 and the Rebbe’s chair and shtender were set up for Mincha, and as I expected, my son asked, "Vu iz der Rebbe?" (Where is the Rebbe?).

We went there at 3:15 and the Rebbe’s chair and shtender were set up for Mincha, and as I expected, my son asked, "Vu iz der Rebbe?" (Where is the Rebbe?).

I told him that apparently the Rebbe had not yet come down from his room. He thought a moment and then asked, "Er iz farnumen?" (Is he busy?) I said he was, and he stopped asking questions.

When we returned to Eretz Yisroel and told everybody about his trip to 770, when people asked him if he saw the Rebbe he answered: "The Rebbe is busy." When a three-year-old says that, you can’t remain apathetic. Many hearts opened up upon hearing this answer.

If we want to fulfill the Rebbe’s directive to live with Moshiach, you simply have to bring Moshiach into your daily lives. I got into the habit of answering with something connected with Moshiach on all occasions. When the cashier in the grocery asks me, "Anything else?" I answer, "Moshiach." If I am asked, "Can I help you with something?" I answer, "Yes, to bring Moshiach."

Sometimes people respond by saying, "Oh, if I could...," and then I tell them about the tremendous powers within every Jew, who with a small act can hasten Moshiach’s arrival.

After the withdrawal from Lebanon last summer (2000), I was called up on emergency to the Artillery Corps. It turned out that because of the withdrawal, the artillery could not reach the necessary range, and it was decided that they would go back to an older long-range version. Since I had been familiar with the older version, they called on me to try and make the old weaponry work.

I got there, the only religious guy among dozens of kibbutznikim, and suddenly I heard them shouting: "Moshiach ba’derech!" (Moshiach’s on his way!) I asked them what made them suddenly reach this conclusion, and they said that if the old artillery would begin to work that would be t’chiyas ha’meisim and a sign that Moshiach was on his way...

I went on to the next group and they also said: "If these artillery weapons begin to shoot, Moshiach’s coming..."

At the farbrengen I made at the Chabad House after I got back from the army, I said: "Five or six years ago, who would imagine that a kibbutznik would know what t’chiyas ha’meisim is, and that he would connect it to Moshiach? There’s no question that this comes from taamula sh’eina chozeres reikam (effort is not wasted)!"

R’ Lepkivker: Let us conclude this discussion with the hope and anticipation and resolution that we want to see the hisgalus of the Rebbe MH"M b’gashmius right away!

   
 

Even if it’s difficult to extract a simple message from the most recent sichos, the sichos of 5751-2, we must make the effort.

—Rabbi Menachem Mendel Friedman

 

 

 
   
 

The chochma is in how to bring Geula and Moshiach into the Chumash, Gemara, and Shulchan Aruch class!

—Rabbi Elozor Kenig

 

 

 
   
 

Everything we talk about should be connected to Geula, so that even an unborn baby will "live" with inyanei Moshiach and Geula.

—Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Lepkivker

 

YECHI ADONEINU MOREINU V'RABBEINU MELECH HA'MOSHIACH L'OLAM VA'ED!

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