Parshas Vayechi 5782 - Why did Yaakov Avinu want to reveal the end of days? Rabbi Asher Perkash

00:03 Rosh Hashanah 5700 came at the beginning of a very difficult year. It was the year in which World War II began. The Frierdiker Rebbe was then in Warsaw, Poland, and already on Rosh Hashanah it was clear that he was deeply troubled. It was clear that this would be a difficult and bitter year. Chassidim relate that on the first night of Rosh Hashanah, after Maariv, the Frierdiker Rebbe said, “This year we need abundant mercy,” and asked the chassidim to be there while he prayed. The Frierdiker Rebbe would spend several hours praying Maariv on the first night of Rosh Hashanah, and chassidim would stand and watch him pray. He asked everyone nearby while he prayed to take a Tehillim and recite Tehillim aloud. And so it was. A hundred chassidim stood reciting Tehillim aloud while the Frierdiker Rebbe prayed Maariv. The prayer lasted several hours. Chassidim say it lasted four or six hours, and throughout that time there was terrible weeping. That was on Rosh Hashanah. On Pesach, on the last day of Pesach, there is also the well-known teaching quoted in the name of the Baal Shem Tov that the last day of Pesach is a day on which Moshiach is revealed. The Frierdiker Rebbe then spoke with great emphasis about the end of the exile and the revelation of Moshiach. What he said was very forceful, and among his words

01:39 the Frierdiker Rebbe once said this: In the Torah, in Parshas Vayechi, we are told that Yaakov Avinu spoke to his sons about matters concerning the end of days. When he blessed Yehudah, from whom the kings of the House of David, culminating in Moshiach, would descend, he said, “Until Shiloh comes, and to him shall the peoples gather.” The Midrash says, as Rashi quotes, that “until Shiloh comes” refers to Moshiach, to whom the kingship belongs. So this is an allusion to Moshiach. The Baal Haturim notes that “Shiloh” has the same numerical value as “Moshe,” and more than that: “Shiloh” has the numerical value of “Moshe,” while “Shiloh comes” has the numerical value of “Moshiach.” In “until Shiloh comes,” “Shiloh” alludes to Moshe Rabbeinu. “Shiloh” equals 345, the numerical value of “Moshe.” But when you add “comes,” another thirteen, you reach 358, the numerical value of “Moshiach.” What is the meaning of this? The Frierdiker Rebbe explained: Moshe Rabbeinu knew that Hakadosh Boruch Hu had sent him to be the first redeemer. His task was to redeem the Jewish people and take them out of Egypt, bring them across the Red Sea, and bring them to receive the Torah. That was Moshe Rabbeinu’s task. But Moshe Rabbeinu knew that this was still only the first redemption, and that in the future there would be the true Geulah, brought about by Moshiach, the righteous redeemer, who would reveal

03:24 the inner dimension of the Torah, the Torah’s secrets. Moshiach will come and teach the Jewish people Torah—its secrets and its inner dimension. That is why it says “Shiloh” here. Moshe Rabbeinu was “Shiloh”: he took the Jewish people out of the first exile and brought them to receive the Torah. But that was still only “Shiloh.” The “comes”—when will the end arrive, when the Jewish people will go singing to our holy land, to Eretz Yisroel? That will happen only with the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu, with “Shiloh comes.” And the Frierdiker Rebbe hinted that the word “comes” contains a great allusion to the Geulah, to the way the Jewish people can bring Moshiach. The Hebrew word for “comes” has the same numerical value as “one”—thirteen. When the Jewish people are united, gather together, strengthen one another, and speak among themselves about faith—faith in the Geulah and faith in Moshiach—that itself is the “comes” that will bring “Shiloh.” It will bring “Shiloh comes,” whose numerical value is “Moshiach,” and may we merit the complete Geulah very soon, in our days. Parshas Vayechi is a parsha in which the theme of Geulah runs throughout. The Ramban writes at the beginning of the parsha that Parshas Vayechi alludes to the fourth exile: to what the Jewish people will go through in the final exile and how they will reach the complete Geulah. And when...

05:04 [unclear], what the Torah tells us about how Yaakov Avinu came to Egypt following his sons, and how this unfolded from the sale of Yosef. The sale of Yosef stemmed from division between them, and afterward that division was repaired. In the end, what was foretold at the Covenant Between the Parts about their descent to Egypt came to pass: they thought they were coming for only a short time, but ultimately remained in Egypt throughout the exile. All these details, says the Ramban, allude to what would happen in the fourth exile as well. The same is true of the details of how the Jewish people entered the exile of Edom: because of the division among them, they turned to the Romans, and that appeal led to the destruction of the Second Beis Hamikdash and the long exile, during which they were scattered among the nations. The Ramban writes that after all these years, the Jewish people will soon leave exile. And when they do, there will be a Geulah resembling the Exodus from Egypt, as described later in the parsha: the nations will see the greatness and honor that the Jewish people will have, and this will bring about [unclear] for the Jewish people, and we will merit the complete Geulah. [unclear], writes the Ramban. Rabbeinu Bachya also writes that all the stories the Torah tells about Yaakov Avinu are

06:20 connected to the complete Geulah. But we find verses in the parsha that speak openly about the Geulah. One of them is the verse, “And Yaakov called to his sons.” As Yaakov Avinu approached his passing, “Yaakov called to his sons and said: Gather together, and I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days.” Gather together, and I will tell you what will happen at the end of days. Rashi quotes the Gemara and the Midrash, explaining that “I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days” means that Yaakov sought to reveal the end to his sons. Yaakov Avinu wanted to tell his children about the end, about the complete Geulah and Moshiach—when it would come at the end of days. But the Shechinah departed from him. Rashi also says at the beginning of the parsha: Why is Parshas Vayechi a closed parsha? In a Torah scroll there is a break between the parshiyos, but Parshas Vayechi follows Vayigash without a break, as though it were a continuation of the previous parsha; it is a closed parsha. Rashi says that Yaakov wanted to reveal the end, but it was concealed from him. The question is: What happened here? Why did Yaakov want to reveal the end? Clearly, Yaakov Avinu, as such a tzaddik and one of the Patriarchs, was a vehicle for the Divine, as the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya: “The Patriarchs

07:53 were the Divine chariot.” Everything he did was for the sake of Heaven, with a Divine purpose. What was Yaakov Avinu’s purpose in revealing the end? What did he hope to accomplish? Especially when we consider this: we are talking about the end, and as all the commentators seem to understand, this means the time of Moshiach’s arrival. When is that? As we can plainly see, hundreds, even thousands, of years have passed. What did Yaakov hope to accomplish by this? [unclear] If he had said it, what effect would it have had? [unclear]. So what was it that Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not want? After all, the Shechinah departed from him. And how could Yaakov have wanted something that Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not want? How could Yaakov have entertained such a thought in the first place? When he came to reveal it, the Shechinah departed from him. That much is clear. Other commentators say that if Yaakov Avinu had told everyone when the end would come, and each person saw that many years still remained, it would have caused Jews to grow accustomed to exile. If they knew that the Geulah was still many years away, they would settle into exile, remain there, and become one with it. [unclear]. They would become deeply immersed in life in exile and would not want to do anything. After all, there was still time—hundreds of years. What could they do? They could do things, learn, observe mitzvos. There was still time, plenty of time; they could stop. Human nature is such that when a person knows something will take many years, he does not worry about it. And so things remain as they are.

09:34 He would [unclear] take bricks and make them. But there is still time. And then the Shechinah departed from him. Other commentators say the Jews would have fallen into despair and sadness: G-d forbid, so many years still to go! Surely that would have brought the Jews even more despair and sadness, when what they wanted was to come closer to G-dliness through it. So the question becomes much stronger: Why did Yaakov Avinu seek to reveal the end? What did he want to accomplish? Why did he want to tell his children when the Geulah would come? There are many explanations. Let’s give the explanation the Rebbe of Lubavitch gives on this subject. What does it mean that “Yaakov sought to reveal the end”? The Rebbe says that first we need to know which end he wanted to reveal. Rashi says later that “had they merited,” the Geulah from Egypt would have been the complete Geulah. In other words, “revealing the end” means that Yaakov Avinu wanted to tell them when the Geulah from Egypt would come. And from the outset, the Geulah from Egypt was meant to be the complete Geulah, as Rashi explains on the verse, “You will bring them and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance, the place You have made for Your dwelling, Hashem.” Moshe Rabbeinu stood with the Jews at the Splitting of the Sea and said, “You will bring them and plant them.” Moshe Rabbeinu would have led the Jews straight into Eretz Yisroel and built the Beis Hamikdash. Had they merited, that would have been the complete Geulah. For if Moshe Rabbeinu had entered Eretz Yisroel with the Jews and built the Beis Hamikdash, it would have been an eternal Geulah, with no exile after it. Seemingly, that is the Geulah Yaakov Avinu wanted to tell the Jews about. Is this a matter of our own times? After all, we are not talking about such a long time; this is the Geulah from Egypt. But that is not the end of the story. First of all, the Jews already knew about the Geulah from Egypt. Avraham Avinu had already been told it would be four hundred years. They knew how long it would take. So what did Yaakov need to reveal? Second, what is the question? If Yaakov Avinu told the Jews

11:55 Even the Geulah from Egypt was still supposed to be nearly two hundred years away. Why two hundred years? How old was Yaakov Avinu? That is well known. From Yaakov Avinu’s time until the Geulah, about two hundred years were supposed to pass. Although that is not two thousand years, like the long exile we are in now, it is still two hundred years. For the Jews living then, in Yaakov’s time, even the youngest among them knew that two hundred years was beyond a human lifespan. Knowing that the Geulah would come only in another two hundred years would not have removed the hardship, or the [unclear], from their hearts at all. How would it have helped the Jews if he had told them when the Geulah would be? Besides, if the Geulah from Egypt was supposed to be the complete Geulah, the Jews already knew that the Geulah from Egypt would take place after a certain number of years. One explanation of this—and really, the main explanation here—is that Yaakov Avinu was saying to the Jews, “Had they merited.” In other words, the Geulah from Egypt—had they merited, if the Jews would be worthy. What does “merited” mean? That the Jews would do good deeds, take themselves in hand, work and draw closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and do mitzvos and good deeds, as was always required. Had they merited, the Geulah from Egypt would be an eternal Geulah. That is what “the end” means. What was the end Yaakov wanted to reveal to his sons? Yaakov Avinu wanted to reveal to his sons that the Geulah from Egypt could be the complete Geulah. It could be that kind of Geulah. If, G-d forbid, they did not merit it, the Geulah from Egypt would still be a Geulah, but not the complete Geulah; it would not be the end. It would be the beginning of the Geulah, and afterward we would go through hundreds more years, with one exile after another, because they had not merited it. Yaakov wanted to reveal to his sons that if they merited it, if

13:55 the Jews took action and worked and became worthy, they would merit the Geulah from Egypt being, with certainty, an eternal Geulah, with no exile after it. More than that: Once the Jews knew it was a matter of “had they merited”—that through mitzvos they could bring about an eternal Geulah from Egypt—they would understand that if they strengthened themselves in becoming worthy, they could accomplish even more: the Geulah could come before the four hundred years were up. Who says they had to wait four hundred years for the Geulah? Just as, through mitzvos, “had they merited,” they could make the Geulah from Egypt with certainty an eternal Geulah, the complete Geulah, the end of all exiles, so too, by becoming worthy, they could bring about a Geulah without having to wait four hundred years at all. They could bring the Geulah earlier. More than that: The Jews had just seen the matter of the famine with their own eyes. There had been a dream, and Yosef’s interpretation of the dream was that there would be seven years of famine. Yet we see that when Yaakov Avinu descended to Egypt, Rashi says there was no longer a famine. There was no famine. The commentators and Midrashim disagree about these words of Rashi. But Rashi says that when Yaakov descended to Egypt, the famine ended in Yaakov’s merit. It lasted only two years instead of seven. So the Jews saw that if they merited it, even when seven years had initially been decreed, mitzvos could bring the end forward and cancel the rest. In other words, bad things do not necessarily have to happen in full. That is clear, through faith and mitzvos. The Rambam also writes in the laws of prophecy that a prophecy of misfortune can be annulled. So the Jews wanted to hear from Yaakov Avinu that by becoming worthy, they could bring about a complete Geulah from Egypt. And by becoming worthy, perhaps the Geulah would not have to wait four hundred years either; that, too, could be changed. And what actually happened?

16:03 The Geulah came after 210 years. The four hundred years were counted not only from their stay in Egypt itself, but from an earlier time. So the promise did not set a fixed end. That is, through merit—as the Gemara says regarding the Geulah of Moshiach, there is an “I will hasten it,” meaning, “If they merit it, I will hasten it”—the Geulah can be brought earlier. Accordingly, we can understand what Yaakov Avinu wanted. Yaakov Avinu wanted to reveal the end to the Jews and tell them the secret: If they merited it, the exile in Egypt might end in a particular year, and that end would be a complete end, a complete Geulah. And when the Jews knew that it depended on their becoming worthy, they would understand that they could hasten it even further. They would do everything in their power and bring the end closer through good deeds, by doing their work in the best possible way and educating their children in the best possible way. On the contrary, this would bring the Geulah much sooner. That is what it means that “Yaakov sought to reveal the end.” But this raises a question: If that was within Yaakov’s power, what did Hakadosh Boruch Hu want? Why did the Shechinah depart from him? Why was this not accepted, and why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu not let him reveal the end? The answer is:

17:36 Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted the Jews to merit the Geulah through their own work. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted the Geulah to come to the Jews precisely when things were not revealed, when things were not illuminated, when Jews had to toil and labor and prepare themselves for the Geulah through their own efforts. If the Geulah had come because Yaakov revealed the end—that is, through Yaakov Avinu’s revelation, which would have stirred the Jews to act, work and do what was needed—the Geulah would have come through what Yaakov Avinu had brought about within them. That would not have been work done through their own efforts. One of the foundations of Chabad Chassidus is that the work must be done through one’s own efforts. In other words, Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants a Jew to have to toil. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants things to come through effort. And the Gemara says in Bava Metzia, in the chapter Hamafkid: “A person prefers one kav of his own to nine kavim belonging to someone else.” A person prefers a little—one kav he worked for—to nine kavim he received from someone else. And the same applies to the Geulah: If the Geulah had come

19:27 If Yaakov had revealed the time of the end, and that had stirred the Jews to do everything in their power to bring the Geulah closer, then the Geulah would have come through a revelation from Above. By revealing the time of the end to them, Yaakov our forefather would have given them someone else’s nine measures, while their own one measure would have been missing. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted the Jews to go through exile and toil through it without knowing the time of the end, without knowing when it would be over. Indeed, there are periods and situations when the darkness of exile is so intense that one cannot see the end at all, or even [unclear]. Yet a Jew stands firm in faith and trust, saying, “I believe he will come each day,” and says in the daily prayers, “Speedily cause the offspring of David Your servant to flourish.” He waits for the Geulah to come each and every day. It is precisely this toil, this work, and the faith he cultivates himself that bring the true Geulah. It comes through toil of their own, through their own work. This was the issue between Yaakov our forefather and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Yaakov our forefather, as the father of the Jewish people, wants the Jews not to have to go through so much. Why should the Jews suffer so much pain and wait more years? He wants the Geulah to come as quickly as possible. That is what Yaakov our forefather wants. Therefore, “Yaakov sought to reveal the time of the end.”

21:03 So that the Jews would know when the end would come, and would know that they could thereby make its arrival easier. Revealing the time of the end would kindle a fire within them, and they would do all the good they could. It would come through Yaakov, who is a tzaddik, but he wants the Geulah to come as quickly as possible. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to Yaakov our forefather: No, I want the Jews to reach the Geulah through their own work. I want the Jews to have a part in the Geulah, and for all the revelations, all the greatest things that will be given as a reward in the future, to come from what the Jews have toiled for. From the fact that the Jews worked without seeing, amid darkness, when it was dark and times were hard, when it seemed the Geulah was not coming and things were truly bitter—and even then the Jews stood with complete trust: “I will wait for him every day to come.” We Jews believe: “I believe.” That brought the real thing into being, and it will bring the true revelation. As the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya, all the revelations of the future depend on our deeds and our work during exile. It is precisely when a Jew is in exile and sees no revelations, sees no light, and does not know when the end will come—indeed, when the darkness seems to be growing ever deeper instead of there being more and more light—that even then he stands with complete faith

22:27 and absolute trust. This itself arouses the Geulah, and this itself will bring the greatest revelations of the future. There is a story about the Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, who was a great kabbalist. Toward the end of his life, [unclear], as is known, he was in Russia, and because he spread Yiddishkeit with mesirus nefesh, he was arrested. He spent several years in prison and was then forced to live in exile. He went through five years like that, which severely weakened his health. He was among non-Jews and had nothing to eat; those were very bitter years. He remained in exile until the last month of his life. On 20 Menachem Av 5704, during the war years, he was in Kazakhstan, in a remote place in Russia. It is said that in his very last moments, people heard him speaking to himself. Jews came closer to hear what he was saying, and heard him say the words: “And Your footsteps were not known; Your footsteps—the footsteps of Moshiach.” He said, “Ay, ay, the footsteps of Moshiach are not known.” We cannot see the end of this exile. Those were his last words, and then he passed away. And this is what the Torah tells us here: “Yaakov sought to reveal the time of the end, and the Shechinah departed from him.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted the revelation of the time of the end to come not through

24:16 Yaakov our forefather, but through the Jews going through it with their faith and trust. Precisely in this way, the Geulah would be the true Geulah, the complete Geulah, [unclear]. But here comes the great “but” from the other side. After all, Yaakov asked, and when a Jew asks—and certainly when a tzaddik asks—he accomplishes something. It cannot be that a tzaddik asked for something and his request went unfulfilled. So we must say that Yaakov’s request to reveal the time of the end certainly accomplished something. We find a similar example with Moshe Rabbeinu. The Alter Rebbe explains in Likkutei Torah that Moshe Rabbeinu, the first redeemer, wanted to enter the Land of Israel, as the commentators say. Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to bring about “The place for Your dwelling that You have made, Hashem; the Sanctuary, Hashem, that Your hands have established.” He wanted to enter the Land of Israel so that the Beis Hamikdash would be built, and the Geulah and its construction would be everlasting. In practice, that did not happen. The Torah says, “Va’eschanan”: Moshe Rabbeinu prayed 515 prayers—the numerical value of “Va’eschanan,” and of “tefillah.” He prayed 515 prayers to bring about his entry into the Land of Israel. But in fact, he did not enter the Land of Israel. That is not what happened. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says, “Enough for you; do not continue.” But what does the Alter Rebbe tell us in Likkutei Torah? Why did Moshe Rabbeinu so desperately want to enter the Land of Israel? “Did he need to eat of its fruit?” That is the wording of the Gemara.

25:56 In Sotah. What was Moshe Rabbeinu asking for when he sought to enter the Land of Israel? The Alter Rebbe says: “Let me cross over, please, and see.” Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to bring about sight for the Jews—a way of serving Hashem that is like seeing. Had Moshe Rabbeinu entered the Land of Israel, the Jews’ service of Hashem would have been like seeing. What does that mean? When a person sees something, it is clear to him; he has no doubts. He sees it plainly. For Moshe Rabbeinu, G-dliness truly shone. [unclear] Moshe Rabbeinu saw G-dliness openly; for him, G-dliness shone. Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to bring about a way of serving Hashem for the Jews that would be like seeing. The Jews would have light and clarity; in the Land of Israel, G-dliness would be more revealed, and their service of Hashem would be illuminated. But in practice, since he did not enter the Land of Israel, it says, “And now, Israel, listen.” “Listen, Israel” appears later in the parsha, in Parshas Va’eschanan. “Listen, Israel”—he brought about a way of hearing, not a way of seeing. Hearing is from a distance; it is a different way of serving Hashem. Nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe says, when a tzaddik asks, he accomplishes something. Moshe Rabbeinu brought about a way of seeing as well. Among a select few, there is a way of serving Hashem that is like seeing, because for great tzaddikim it is as though they see: G-dliness is more revealed to them; for them, G-dliness is something they see

27:31 themselves. And for every Jew, too, in days of Geulah, at certain times, there is light, there is clarity in faith, clarity about G-dliness, to the point that he sees Hakadosh Boruch Hu; for him, it is like seeing. Things are clear to him, as though he sees them. This, at least, is what Moshe accomplished: that Jews could have simple faith. For when a Jew has simple faith, there are no doubts or questions, and he does not need to investigate matters of faith. He therefore lives with it warmly and with light. And this is what Moshe Rabbeinu accomplished by asking, “Let me cross over, please, and see.” The Rebbe says it was the same with Yaakov our forefather: “Yaakov sought to reveal the time of the end.” Yaakov our forefather wanted to reveal the time of the end. What does it mean to reveal the time of the end? It does not mean only what the plain reading suggests, that there is a set time for the end. So “to reveal the time of the end”—what did he want to reveal within the Jews? The end. That a Jew could live in a way of Geulah. That a Jew could be in exile but not live the exile. [unclear] The essence of Torah study is freedom. Freedom from exile. Freedom from every form of subjugation. Yaakov our forefather wanted to bring this about among the Jews—“to reveal the time of the end”—so that for them, the end of exile would already have arrived. So that a Jew, even when he is

29:20 In the darkness of galus, all the darkness of galus will not harm him. This means preparing for the Geulah deep within the soul. That is what it means “to reveal the end.” And who brings this about? [unclear] from the Alter Rebbe. [unclear] “the end of all flesh.” What is “the end”? “To reveal the end” means an end in the sense of “the end of all flesh”—an end to flesh, to physicality and materialism. “Yaakov wished to reveal the end”—to reveal among Jews [unclear] “the end of all flesh”: that a Jew should not live with the scent of physicality and materialism. A Jew should not look at the world, at the flesh; he should see Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and that should be his reality of the world. That is what it means “to reveal the end.” “But the Shechinah departed from him”—meaning that he could not reveal [unclear]. What did Yaakov want? [unclear] “The righteous person shall live by his faith.” [unclear] A person must attain this through his own efforts, [unclear] not through Yaakov Avinu. Nevertheless, because a tzaddik asks for something, he brings it about. Yaakov Avinu made it possible for Jews to reach this, at least in an encompassing way. He brought about among Jews what Yaakov Avinu brought about among Jews

31:05 —the end, in an encompassing way. In every generation one must study Torah, and in this generation one must study the inner dimension of Torah. This is the Torah revealed by the Baal Shem Tov and by our Rebbeim: the inner dimension of Torah. Today we can understand it through studying about Moshiach and through the Torah that Moshiach will teach us, the inner dimension of Torah. This is the Baal Shem Tov, this is the Torah, and this is the new light that will be revealed through Moshiach. Already today, one can emerge a little from galus, from the end, place oneself in a state of Geulah, and live the Geulah, the wing. Now, it says, “And I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days,” and there is something the holy Ruzhiner said about this. As is known, the holy Ruzhiner spoke a great deal about the end of days and about Moshiach, about how there would be difficult times. He spoke often about how, before the Geulah, there would be difficult times, very difficult times, tests of faith and tests in Yiddishkeit. There is a story we heard back in Russia from older chassidim, who passed it down from one person to another: Once, one of the great chassidim came to the holy Ruzhiner and asked him for some advice in serving Hashem. The holy Ruzhiner told him: “You should know that before Moshiach comes, Jews will face very difficult times. There will be especially great tests of faith, great tests in matters of Yiddishkeit. And the only way they will be able to strengthen themselves in those times is for Jews to come

32:57 together in the beis midrash, to draw strength from one another, to farbreng together and strengthen themselves in matters of faith and faith in tzaddikim. They should tell stories of tzaddikim, strengthen their faith in tzaddikim, and through this we will bring the Geulah.” He told him, “You should know that this was the secret Yaakov Avinu revealed to his sons,” and he explained it. This is the version quoted in the name of the great chossid Reb Mottel Kozliner, who was a distinguished dayan and who heard it back in Russia from the earlier chassidim. He explained it this way: Yaakov Avinu told his sons, “Gather together”—come together. That is the advice: Gather together, come together, be together, come together and farbreng together. He interpreted “and I will tell you”—“agidah”—as an expression of sweetness, related to “megad,” as in “the precious produce of the sun.” This will bring sweetness; it will sweeten “what will happen to you at the end of days.” He interpreted “yikreh,” “will happen,” as an expression of coldness. Before Moshiach comes, at the end of days, there will be a period of great coldness. There will be coldness in faith, coldness in trust, coldness in Yiddishkeit, coldness in faith in Moshiach. And the only way to warm that coldness and sweeten the period of the end of days, the bitter days of the end of days, is through “gather together.” Jews must come together and unite, and the “gather together” is the “and I will tell you”—it will sweeten “what will happen to you at the end of days.” Interestingly, in 5744, there came—he was

34:52 with the Rebbe—the Sadigura Rebbe came for a visit; he was [unclear]. The Sadigura Rebbe once visited the Rebbe and went in for yechidus. He is a grandson of the holy Ruzhiner. He told the Rebbe—this was during those days, that same week in 5744, when he was visiting the Lubavitcher Rebbe—when he went in for yechidus, he repeated a Torah teaching to the Rebbe about “gather together” and spoke about the verse in Parshas Vayechi. He told the Rebbe that his grandfather, the holy Ruzhiner, had offered a Torah teaching on “Gather together, and I will tell you.” He put it differently, but spoke about the same point: When chassidim are united, then “I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days”—this will draw down the Geulah. He interpreted “agidah” as an expression of drawing down, of telling—yes, in any case. The Rebbe told him that the idea also appears later in the parsha. Besides what is said here, “Gather together, and I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days,” we also find it later in the parsha. The Rebbe said that at the end of the parsha, Yaakov Avinu speaks to his sons and gives each one a distinct blessing, a distinct role, a distinct mission and a distinct form of service. When Yaakov Avinu finishes speaking to all his sons, he sums it up at the end and says, “He blessed each of them according to his blessing.” Rashi says that after

36:30 blessing each one separately, he said: Now I bless all of them with all the blessings. He blessed them all to be both lions and snakes and deer, and that “his bread shall be rich” should be fulfilled in all of them. He gave all the blessings to all of them together. The question is: Which is it? If he is giving the blessings to all of them together, let him give them to all of them together. Why does he give each one a separate blessing? And if each one has his own mission, what is the point of giving all the blessings to everyone together? Rather, this teaches us that when we speak of the unity of the Jewish people, on the one hand every Jew has his own mission. There are twelve tribes, and each tribe has its own service, its own role and its own mission. And that is true. Every Jew must know that he has his own mission in the world and must fulfill it in his lifetime. There are those who sit in the tents of Torah study, there are businesspeople, there are teachers of Torah, teachers of Yiddishkeit and teachers of prayer. Every Jew has his own service, and every tribe has its own mission. But at the same time, we must know that if we want to bring about the complete Geulah, it must be a matter of “One will help the other, and say to his brother, ‘Be strong.’” There must be mutual inclusion, a coming together. All Jews must come together, and every Jew must also influence another Jew through his own service. Through this mutual inclusion, even though every Jew has his own personal mission, there must also be [unclear] Torah study and [unclear] good deeds. And every Jew will contain within himself something of all the tribes.

37:53 And through this [unclear]. This is “And I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days”: Jews will be together, gather together and strengthen one another in faith in tzaddikim, faith in the sages and faith in the Geulah. As we discussed regarding the words of the Frierdiker Rebbe, Jews should gather together and speak among themselves about Moshiach, and speak about faith and trust in the Geulah. And this will certainly bring about that, immediately and very soon, we will merit the complete Geulah through our righteous Moshiach, speedily in our days.