Kabbalah of Moshiach Video Blogs

BS”D

This section of the blog includes video insights (I hope) regarding Moshiach and Geulah (redemption) as it is illuminated by the writings of Kabbalah and Chassidus.

Needless to say – these are only my opinions, and as such they are limited to my own understanding (or sometimes lack there of) of the subject matter.

Enjoy

Transcript of the above:

I figured we should speak about the topic of ‘When is Moshaich Coming’?  A lot of people have been asking that question, and a lot more people have been asking this question recently..especially since The Rebbe made such a big deal about it in the 1980s and 1990s.  Since then, it has split Chabad into the Meshichist and non-Meshichist camps.  Any concept of camp and Kedusha is not the idea stage of Tikkun.  Both sides have merits and are valid, and it’s really the union of both.. that is how kedusah is.  As it states, Rabbi Akiva was the only one that was able to enter ‘The Pardes’, or the mystical realm.  He entered in peace and came out in peace.  It also states in Torah Ohr, Parshas Vayishlach that Rabbi Akiva merited to enter and leave in peace because he was able to reconcile opposites.

We’re in the year 5769.  We’re after Pesach, Sefirat Ha’Omer and Shavuos already.. and we’re approaching the year 5770.  Everyone is saying that Moshiach is supposed to come this year.  This Erev Pesach, we had a special blessing that occurs once every 28 years, called ‘Bircas Hachamah’, or the blessing of the sun.

I would like to put a few things out there to everyone, which are only my opinion.  If you have any thoughts or comments on what I say, feel free to leave a response.  I’d like to hear about what other people think on what I’m discussing.

Regarding the topic of ‘when is the geula(redemption)’ we are waiting for this mystical moment where this guy come down from Heaven and says “Game’s over!  Come with me to Jerusalem!”

There is an aspect of that, where Moshiach can come any day. But, what does that mean?

In Judaism, we have halacha.  Just like anything else in creation, we have a physical and spiritual aspects.  The spiritual aspects are NOT bound by time and place.  With the spiritual aspects, you can have some crazy stuff going on.  On the physical side of things, we have a law:

That there are a bunch of different ways that Jewish life could be led in alignment with G-d s will.. and over the generations, we have had sages who have ‘duked it out’ so to speak intellectually to decide what is the halacah.. what is the practical way that certain mitzvos should be.. and there a lot of different customs, depending on where people lived, because different locals had different sages who had different interpretations of the law.  All of this is bound on some basis that can’t be destroyed or ripped.  It can however be interpreted by different people on different levels with different customs.

In the area of Moshiach, we actually have Halachic rulings from the Rambam on certain aspects of Moshiach and Geula will come about.  The Rambam(Maimonides—a great philosopher from the middle ages..the 1200s) was the first to codify the Jewish Law from the entire vast talmud to the a very orderly rulings on Halacha.  Everything else came AFTER the Rambam..the Shulchan Aruch, the Beis Yosef, the Tur, etc. He states that he pashut<simply> doesn’t know when Moshiach and the Geula will come, and that no on else either knows.  However, there are basic guidelines within halacha about this.  Halahca gives us the framework on how this thing will pan out, so we will know how to embrace it and how to be part of it.

The Rambam has stages in the revelation of Moshiach: Chezkas Moshiach<someone who we think is Moshiach> and Moshiach Vadai<who we know is Moshiach>.  That person will come from the house of David, be frum, follow Torah and Mitzvos, etc.  There will also be signs.. such as forcing the Jewish people to go in the ways of Hashem.  This does not mean forcing by sword, rather by mouth..in other words, convincing.  He will also fight the ‘wars of G-d’.  An example of a ‘war of G-d’ is the

global attack on a spiritual and verbal level on the land of Israel.

This is one of the wars that Moshiach will fight.  There will be a ‘leader’ who will be the antithesis of Moshiach, who will be revealed at around the same time.. and he will LEAD some of the ‘wars on G-d’. (An example of such a person is Gary Bauer.  He is a Christian and is interested in helping the Jewish people and help protect the land of Israel.  however, this is all Midrashim.. not halacha.)

The biggest difference between Chezkas Moshaich and Moshaich Mamash is whether he rebuilds  the third temple and the in gathering of the Jews from all across the globe to the land of Israel.  Before he does those things, he only has the title of ‘Chezkas Moshiach’.

It’s very interesting that Moshiach is a person.. a human being.  He has to be a complete tzaddik  He first rebuilds the third temple and only then does he gather the exiles..which means that there will be Jews living in diaspora, watching the third temple being built…and sacrifices being brought to the temple as in the time of King Solomon.

They’ll be sitting there in Connecticut and saying ‘ Hey!  this is pretty neat!’, as they watch it on CNN.  Then Moshiach will say “NO!

YOU!  Come now to Jerusalem!”.  This is the sequence of how things will play out, according to the Rambam.

Now WE have the Lubavicher Rebbe, Melelch HaMoshiach(King Moshiach).  It is a whole lengthy discussion on how the Rebbe is Moshiach.  There is a ton of material out there on this subject, and anyone who wants to be intellectually objective and honest with himself will clearly see that The Rebbe was a descendant of Dovid Hamelech <King David> and was the Nassi HaDor <Leader of the generation>.  The Rebbe is also a human being.  If he wasn’t, he couldn’t be Moshiach.  Human beings are born and they die<at least their bodies do>.  However the body of a tzaddik doesn’t die.  The body is secondary.  By us, the body is primary.  We are drawn to the physical and to pleasures. we like what tastes good, etc.  Enjoyment is fine.. we’re supposed to enjoy things.

The Rebbe is a tzaddik  His body doesn’t dictate his life.  His soul dictates his life.  Since the soul never dies, the tzaddik never dies.

By the Lubavicher Rebbe, there was a Levaya<funeral>..there has to be according to Halacha.  What’s interesting about Judaism, and please pardon me for saying this, is that there are ‘Checks and Balances’ that won’t let you go off and create your own fictional religions and other kinds of mishigas.  In Judaism, the same code of law which leads to multiple interpretation.. there is some basic framework if you don’t break away from it.. and one of those is the passing of a person. and clearly The Rebbe is alive in many ways, and anyone who has written the Igeres HaKodesh sees this.  It’s a very practical thing to do to write into the Rebbe.  You write a letter to the Rebbe and randomly take one of the volumes of letters that the Rebbe wrote and open to a page (You can try it in English by going to Igrot.com) and you’ll see answers.

I heard a story once that some Israeli radio personality who was not very fond of religious people wanted to mock the concept of writing into the Igeret Hakodesh.  What he did was dial into a hotline that would write in for you. He said if it works, he would put on Tefillin.  He got a letter back saying that since you are involved  in public media and broadcasting, you should use your talents to force people to follow and

strengthen their keeping of Torah and Mitzvot.    I assume he was blown

away by this.  I’m not sure where the story ends.  I’ve done this many

many times and have lots of stories myself.   From this we can clearly

see the Rebbe is there. In the Rebbe’s Minyan 3 times a day, the ‘soldiers of the Rebbe’.. the Bachurim in 770 with their Yechi pins and Yechi Kippas.. they are very true to The Rebbe.  To them, the Rebbe is there…in a body.  For them there is no Levaya.. there is no concept of The Rebbe dying.  You know what? WE NEED THAT!  We need people to remind us that The Rebbe IS here and is running the show.  People balk and say that G-d is running the show, not The Rebbe.  G-d can run the show any way he wants to, and he chose to put tzaddikim in this world, like Moshe Rabeinu, which is like ‘the commander in chief’.. the guy who runs the army.  Obviously, he’s completely nullified to the king.  However, the

king chose that there should be officers, commanders, etc.   In regards

to spiritual matters, there are certain souls that are responsible for other souls.  One soul can be responsible for all the souls of that generation.  We’ve had 7 generations since the Alter Rebbe, 9 generations since The Ba’al ShemTov, and the Rebbe is still the leader of this generation.  We are all under his ‘envelope’, so to speak, and under his umbrella of soul protection.  As you can see, it is challenging to speak about spiritual terms clearly.

There is another aspect of this.. that The Rebbe is not here. I’ve never seen him in my life.  I’m a ba’al teshuvah, I moved to Crown Heights, come to 770 every day, and I really want to see The Rebbe.  I have feeling that when we will see The Rebbe again, it will be by Techiyas Hameisim (resurrection of the dead).  Tzaddikim are resurrected immediately, and others have to wait until a later stage of the redemption or in the time of Moshiach.  The Rebbe is still here, and he is the leader of our generation.  This applies to Jews as well as Non-Jews.  More than likely, we will see him at the resurrection of the dead.  There will be someone else who will be bringing this about.

There are those Rabbanim that say that chabad should elect a new Rebbe.

What they don’t under stand is that Chabad cannot elect a new Rebbe.

It’s not a public office.  You need a tzaddik Gamur(a complete tzaddik).

The Ba’al Shemtov talks about the concept of ‘The 8th Rebbe’ in the year Tav Shin Lamed Zayin, parshat Shmini.  Maybe i’ll do another video on this another time.. the concept of how 8 and 7 work together.  There is a story that explains this well.  I think it was the Rebbe Rashab…for 10 years, he didn’t want to take the leadership..he was the 5th Rebbe.

when his father, the Rebbe Maharash, passed away, the Rebbe Rashab, or one of the chassidim, were supposed to take office.  He went to pray and meditate on the graves of his forefathers(The Maharash and the Tzemach Tzedek, both Rabbeim from Lubavich).  He then saw a chossid who split off from the first Rebbe.. the Alter Rebbe.  He came to the Rashab and said “Young man, you need a Rebbe!”  It was two Tzaddim speaking to one another.  The Rebbe Rashab answered him “Go find me a Rebbe!”

We would love to see someone who could be the Nasi Hador.. of chabad for sure.. for the entire Jewish people, for the entire world.  The Nasi Hador of the 8th generation is going to be someone who The Rebbe is working through, just like the Rebbe said about himself, that he is ‘Memalei Makom’ of the Rebbe Rayatz.  Memale Makom means fills the entire space, which means that The Rebbe IS the Rebbe Rayatz, together with the other generations of Rebbes.  The Rebbe Rayatz was the Rebbe Rashab, together with the other Rabbeim he was bringing to the table.

So whoever is the 8th Rebbe, will be The Rebbe, along with the other Rabbeim.

Hope you enjoyed this video.  Please let me know what you think.

Thanks.