An inspiring farbrengen with the gaon the chassid the mashpia
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchock Ofen shlita
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We find ourselves in the most wonderful period in history. Now is the most opportune time for the true and complete Geula. In the earlier years the Rebbe King Moshiach often expressed himself that we have to bring the shechinah down “lower than ten tefachim”. In the later years we no longer heard this expression from the Rebbe . We could interpret that the Rebbe has already brought the shechinah down lower than ten tefachim.
Based on how the Rebbe expressed himself that “we already have the leviyoson and the shor habor” all we need is to do is “to open our eyes”, to see how the Geulah is actually unfolding in the world.
Seemingly, we need to understand: what does it mean “to open our eyes”? Of course we have boruch hashem, meat and wine, but obviously that this cannot be compared to the leviyoson and the shor habor … Therefore we need to understand what does it mean to open our eyes and see the Geula?
To understand, let's first add that the Rebbe King Moshiach is educating us that we have to constantly request and demand non-stop the coming of Moshiach. But that was not enough for the Rebbe that we scream Ad mosai because he asked us to.
The Rebbe wants that we should sincerely want Moshiach. Not only should we say it, we should mean it, it should come from the heart, we really want Moshiach because it’s our personal desire.
One may ask: Don't we all want Moshiach? We know it says that at the time of Geula the land of Israel will produce cookies, and silk kapotas will grow on trees… there will be abundance and all delicacies will be as available like sand …
“Hashem plans to invite all the tzadikim to a feast " this feast will include the best cuts of meat and chicken [Ziz shaday] and aged and expensive wine. Who would be the person that wouldn’t want this good life? Food and indulgences without the drudgery of parnassa? Everyone is looking forward to such a life in the not so far future. Not only the soul wants Moshiach, even the body and the nefesh habahamis can't wait for such a life..
Of course everyone wants Moshiach! So what does the Rebbe mean when he cries from the depth of his soul, that we don't sincerely want the Geula and we ask for it only because it was demanded of us?
I once heard a story at one time they asked the Alter Rebbe, what does it mean that "Moshiach will come when we least expect it?" Seemingly three times a day in the three daily prayers we demand the Geulah, so why does it mean he will come when we least expect him? The Alter Rebbe replied that the Moshiach that everyone is waiting for, will never come… a different Moshiach will come that no one expected…
At first glance this is a surprising story. Are we all waiting for a false Moshiach G-d forbid?
The point is very simple. The “world “ describes the Geula in in terms of materialistic abundance and peace and tranquility, world without wars and so on with all the details described earlier. Of course, this all will take place as predicted by the Torah; everything will unfold as described in the texts. But on a deeper level, is this all we are expecting from Moshiach? Is this Moshiach’s role? Materialistic abundance? About this chassidus explains is that “Moshiach” is about revealing the Ohr ein sof (unlimited light) in this material world” this is Moshiach.
And this is where the question arises: Are we honestly interested in revelation of G-dliness ? Of course we are all attracted to the physical promises. But the point is that we should sincerely desire that G-dliness should permeate the world, as will be explained.
The Rebbe shlita explains that the meaning of Geula (deliverance) in hebrew is spelled with the same letters as gola (which means exile) minus the letter aleph. The letter aleph in the word Geula (redemption) represents revealing ‘Alufo she olam” (the master of the world), in this world below. This is what the Rebbe demanded when he said that we should scream out "ad mosai?". To want meat and wine and materialistic wealth? This is a exile within exile! A person can have a full bank account, good meat and excellent wine but unfortunately this is the worst kind of poverty! Like it says “poverty is only in knowledge, and wealth is only in knowledge”.
Knowledge here means recognition, feeling and sensing G-dliness. That is why it’s written that at the time of Geula “ the earth will be full of knowledge” which means G-dliness will be revealed.
Chassidus is teaching us and helping us have a taste of Geula. Chassidus teaches us that everything is G-dliness. That doesn't mean there is no physical world. The world is not the fabric of our imagination, the imagination is that we think that the world is an independent and separate entity. But chassidus teaches and shows that the “words of hashem" “dvar Hashem" is the only reality in this world. This is Moshiach. This is what the Alter Rebbe says that Moshiach will come when we least expect him. Meaninig when we are still holding at the stage where satisfying our physical needs is our first priority and not our spiritual needs. Moshiach is when physicality is fused with G-dliness! In the time of the deliverance there will be revealed G-dliness, and automatically, no lack in anything physical. The posuk says “you will serve Hashem your G-d with joy while experiencing abundance in all”. This is what the Rebbe wants that we should want Moshiach sincerely and that Moshiach should mean G-dliness to us. Moshiach is the ability to see G-dliness in this seemingly physical world.
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‘Through learning and contemplating about Geulah and Moshiach and davaning with this, we can open our eyes to see Moshiach'
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If we only want materialism that is not Moshiach. Moshiach is to see G-dliness in everything, this is what we should pray for from the bottom of our heart, this is what we should be busy with.
The question is how do we get to that place where G-dliness is where our focus lies? How can we feel disturbed and unease because G-dliness is not the subject of the day and it is still not revealed sufficiently, yet materialism is real to our senses, it is tangible, it is attractive to us there is no struggle in dealing with it. Spirituality is less tangible and not obvious to our senses, how can we then want it, how can it be attractive to us?
As the Maggid of Mezritch questions the commandment “You should love Hashem your G-d” how can you command to love? Either we love or we don’t. The command is to meditate on the greatness of Hashem and other ideas that awaken the love to Hashem, and then there is a promise that the love would be follow.
Chassidus explains that everything is G-dliness. Physicality without G-dliness is death and evil. We can see clearly that the body of the person without a soul has no value. It becomes inanimate and it's not alive. The world without it's 'soul' – the “word of Hashem” that keeps alive is not a real entity. The reality of everything is G-dliness. The Alter Rebbe devoted his life that the animal soul should understand this. The neshama, the soul knows the truth. The point is that even the “animal” in us should understand. that’s why it’s so necessary to learn chassidus. In the study of chassidus there are explanations and intellectual proofs that everything is G-dliness. This is what the Rebbe demands to “open up our eyes” to open our intellectual eyes, to understand the truth.
There is a story that is told about a jew that cried and mourned the destruction of the bais hamikdash. When he was asked why it pained him so much? He answered that he is a kohen and in the bais hamikdash he would have been privileged to eat quality meat and now he is not, they continued asking why do you need the bais hamikdash for that? You can buy any kind of meat you desire right now …. the fellow said that it is written in the our books that from the day of the destruction of the bais hamikdash the flavor of the meat moved away from the meat itself to the bones of the meat, and I don’t have strong teeth so I cannot eat bones.
We are exactly like this fellow! The reason we want Moshiach is that we should have a good life, the same way this man cried that he no longer can taste the “flavor of the meat”… the study of chassidus helps to open the eyes of the chossid that he knows the truth. That gashmiyus and materialism is false and represents death. Like I said before, this does not mean that the world is our imagination. As the chossid that studied a maamar explaining the concept that the world is submissive to Hashem and non-existent. Later on in the day as he walked, he bumped his head into a pole he asked himself how could it be that the world is non existent? Didn’t he feel the pain on his skin? After thinking about it he reached the conclusion that really there is no world except for his forehead and the pole… the truth is that chassidus teaches that G-dliness is created in the physical word, and therefore it is a true reality. But to see the world as a separate entity, this is a falsehood.
That is why the Rebbe demands of us to learn chassidus, to meditate and contemplate chassidus ideas and to take our time when we daven, to realize and a explain to ourselves that there is only G-dliness.
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‘There were those that claimed to Rabbi Shlomo Chaim AH Kesselman about certain people that daven at length, that they are just external, and not real. The mashpia said: better to be an external jew then a sincere (pnimiyusdike) goy’..
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This the meaning of “opening our eyes”, right now our eyes are closed, meaning we only want materialism. We must think chassidus, and daven b'avoda, b'arichus, this is the way to live Geula and Moshiach. When we do this, we will slowly begin to feel that what we really care about is G-dliness, therefore we are disturbed that G-dliness is hidden and not sufficiently apparent in this world, automatically our request for the Geula will be more sincere. Chassidus explains that we can achieve daas and feeling G-dliness through the work prayer requires.
The story goes that the chossid and a ‘oived’ Reb Zalman Moshe Hayitchaki זצ"ל once saw in a big city high and fancy buildings. His first reaction was that this is the "shmorei ofanim" – the waste of the angels from above… Not only he was not fazed by the buildings he ridiculed them! He was only able to do that because he studied Chassidus on a regular basis and davened for hours. “Ein od milvado” was internalized by him, he lived it. The Rebbe wants from us that right now we should live Moshiach, the tools for that are: learning chassidus on a regular basis and and taking time to daven with proper intention. This is the urgent matter that the Rebbe is pleading from us.
We have to know all our physical pleasures are illusions. It’s as if a person worked all his life and at the end of his life he realized that the whole time he worked to receive fake counterfeit bills.
He would be so upset he would pull his hair from frustration and anger that he wasted his time for nothing. The same applies to worldly pleasures. To have pleasure from something authentic, you need to daven! Some people think davening is hard work and too spiritual, it’s not for everyone. In reality davening is the highest pleasure we can experience on earth. We just have to progress slowly, you begin by making blessings on the food slowly and intentionally,with kavana, to study chassidus before davening, to focus on one paragraph in the davening and so on… to visualize that we are speaking to the creator of the world. We have to convince ourselves of “the oneness” that everything is G-dliness, and G-dliness is everything. This is what we call being mekushar to the Rebbe shlita. To be totally devoted to the will of the Rebbe, we should want Moshiach, we should want G-dliness.
If someone claims to be living Moshiach, yet he still craves materialism , he is conflicting himself. Without realising it, he is craving the very thing that conceals Moshiach. This is what the Rebbe is telling us all the time: Everything is already here. The shchinah is lower than ten tefachim. It is very close to you. Our thoughts are supposed to be about chassidus and our davening should be the davening of a chossid. That’s how we live Moshiach. That is the way to bring about the revelation in clear sight to all.
We have to know that everything the Rebbe says is the truth. Hashem speaks through the Rebbe's mouth. Moshiach is on the way. We cannot lose hope! We have to learn all there is to learn about Geulah and Moshiach and meditate on it during davening. Then we will leave our internal personal exile and experience the complete Geulah, then all the inhabitants of the world will recognize and know: “there is no place devoid of him” and will proclaim the holy declaration that is the tool for us to connect to our king:
Yechi Adonainu moreinu v'rabeinu melech ahmoshiach l'olom voed!
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The story is well known about the baal hageulah (the Mitler Rebbe) that when he was davening there was no movement in his body at all, yet because of the depth of his concentration he was sweating and drops were falling from his shtreimel.. This shows how hard one needs to work on our davening. It should be with so much effort until his body will produce sweat.
Sicha of the Rebbe King Moshiach, yud kislev ה'תשמ"ח (1988)
