Is the Geulah Already Here? The Surprising Discovery of the Tanya About Our Era

00:00 Many people speak about the Geulah and the coming of Moshiach as something in the future. A day will come, and Moshiach will arrive. Of course, we’re talking about Jews who are believers, the children of believers. We believe in the Thirteen Principles of Faith that the Rambam set out for us, and one of them is: “I believe in the coming of Moshiach; and though he may delay, I await his coming every day.” We’re waiting for the Geulah. Whenever he comes, he’ll come. But people look at the whole subject of the Geulah as something in the future—what the Gemara calls hilchesa l’Meshicha, laws pertaining to the days of Moshiach. These are laws connected with the future, not yet relevant to us today. A day will come when we’ll live in peace and tranquility, with no wars. In the Rambam’s words, there will be no war, famine, jealousy, hatred, or rivalry, and goodness will be abundant. We’ll no longer be subject to foreign rule; with Hashem’s help, there will be the ingathering of the exiles and the building of the Beis Hamikdash. But all these things are in the future. What do they have to do with us today, in the present—apart from believing that they’ll happen one day? That’s what we’re going to discuss today: understanding a Jew’s life in relation to the Geulah in a real, practical way, right now. What exactly is a Jew’s role today? We’ll learn this through the Tanya. In the Tanya, the Alter Rebbe gives us a path in serving Hashem. We all know the Tanya as a book about struggle, a book that explains how to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But not many people notice that in the Tanya, the Alter Rebbe gives us a deep, fundamental perspective on the purpose of creation. He helps us understand that our work today—the work of each and every one of us, and every deed, word, and thought of a Jew today, in their own particular life, on a particular day, at a particular moment—is connected to the larger picture, to the overarching goal of the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu. This understanding, seeing ourselves

02:27 as part of the whole puzzle, part of the entire process of the Geulah, and understanding how deeply and inwardly our actions today are connected to the Geulah, gives us a special vitality. It gives us a special energy: to know how to make use of our abilities, to understand just how important those abilities are, and how very, very significant our actions are. And it begins with the verse the Alter Rebbe teaches us in Tanya: “For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” This is the foundation of the Tanya. The Gemara says of this verse that it is a short verse that encompasses everything. Before his passing, Moshe Rabbeinu tells the Jewish people: “For the matter is very close to you.” Don’t think that what the Torah is telling you here is lofty and distant. “It is not across the sea”; “it is not in heaven.” On the contrary, he concludes, it is very close to each and every person: “in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” The Alter Rebbe places this verse on the title page of Tanya as its basis; the entire book is founded on it. The book explains how this can be so close to a Jew, because on the face of it, it doesn’t seem so close. To tell a Jew that they must fulfill “in your mouth and in your heart, to do it”—meaning, to observe all 613 mitzvos, to study Torah with your mouth, and especially to have it “in your heart,” so that it isn’t just an external, shallow, superficial act, but something done with heart, with feeling, with love, with joy, with an inner feeling of love and awe of Hashem—and to say that all this is close to you? What? How does that work? What exactly does it mean? The entire Tanya was written to address this. The Alter Rebbe explains that every person has two souls: a G-dly soul and an animal soul. There is a struggle between the souls, and

04:50 each person has the inner faculties Hashem gave them—their intellect and emotions. And there are what the Alter Rebbe calls the “garments”: thought, speech, and action. The Tanya goes on to explain exactly what kind of work belongs to each and every person. One of the wonderful things we see in the Tanya is that it gives each person their own direction. The Alter Rebbe calls the Tanya the “Book of Beinonim.” This means—and it’s one of the wonderful things we discover in the book—that it isn’t addressing all different kinds of people at once. Its direction is very clear, and it speaks specifically to someone who is not an especially lofty soul: a beinoni, an ordinary Jew. The Alter Rebbe comes and tells that person what their possibilities are, what they’re capable of, what they need to do, where they might need to reach, where the boundaries are, and where they’re not expected to reach. How much can be asked of each person? What should we strive for? But even if you don’t reach that point, there’s no need to despair. You can understand: What am I living for? What does Hakadosh Boruch Hu want from me? What nachas does Hakadosh Boruch Hu receive from every deed, every word, every thought, every action a Jew performs? This is the process that unfolds in the Tanya. But there is a fundamental, extremely important point here: understanding the purpose of creation. When we understand the purpose of creation, we understand the purpose of the world’s creation, the purpose of man’s creation, and the purpose of the G-dly soul’s descent from the loftiest heights to the deepest depths. From its exalted place—the soul hewn from beneath the Throne of Glory, the G-dly soul that is “literally a part of G-d Above”—it descends into this physical, coarse world. What is the purpose of all this? If we can grasp the depth of the matter, it will give us a perspective, an enthusiasm, a special connection

07:16 to the service of Hashem that is incumbent upon us: to doing mitzvos, to the struggle with the animal soul and with our yetzer hara in everyday life. The Alter Rebbe explains that in the days of Moshiach and at the Resurrection of the Dead, there will be an extraordinary revelation of G-dliness. The days of Moshiach and the Resurrection of the Dead are when, so to speak, Hakadosh Boruch Hu will be revealed here, in this physical world, in the fullest and most complete way. The light of the Ein Sof will shine; the oneness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu will shine in the most complete and absolute way, right here in this physical, lowly, coarse world, which is full of what the Tanya calls kelipos and sitra achra—a dirty place full of impurity. This place will be transformed. In the words of the Zohar, “darkness will be transformed into light.” This darkness will turn into light, and precisely in this physical world, the true light of the Ein Sof will be revealed. The essence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu will be revealed down here without any concealment. That is the purpose of creation. At the Giving of the Torah, the Alter Rebbe says, we had a taste of it. “You were shown to know that Hashem is G-d; there is nothing besides Him.” At the Giving of the Torah there was an initial revelation, a taste of the light of the Geulah. There was a total revelation. As the Midrashim describe it, at the Giving of the Torah, the oneness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu shone throughout all creation. There was silence in the world. That silence wasn’t merely external: it meant that all creation was utterly nullified. Everything created—the inanimate, the plants, the animals, human beings—the entire world stood silent and completely nullified because absolute G-dly oneness was shining. Even the nations of the world, as our Sages say, felt that light at that moment. How much more so the Jewish people, who stood before Mount Sinai and saw it: “And all the people saw the sounds.” They openly and unmistakably perceived the infinite oneness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, a foretaste of what will be when Moshiach comes. It lasted only a moment. It was

09:57 Only for that moment of Matan Torah. But from Matan Torah until the coming of Moshiach, it is through our work—“our deeds and our efforts during the time of exile,” in the words of Tanya—that all the wondrous, great revelations of the days of Moshiach and the Resurrection of the Dead will come about: the great, infinite light of Hakadosh Boruch Hu will shine throughout the world completely, and the whole world will become a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Hashem will be King over all the earth; on that day Hashem will be one and His name one.” “Every being will know that You made it; reveal the splendor of Your majestic might to all the inhabitants of Your world.” All the verses and the things we say in our prayers about the light of the Geulah depend on our deeds and our efforts during the time of exile. And in the words of Tanya, “For this it was created from the beginning.” The days of Moshiach are not something separate from our work now. This is the very goal we are working toward all the time. It is really the depth, the inner meaning, of everything we do. In other words, when we do a mitzvah—let’s take the simplest thing, an ordinary mitzvah a Jew does every day. Say, the mitzvah of tefillin. A Jew gets up in the morning, takes his tefillin, puts them on, and says, “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is one.” A Jew eats kosher food and says a blessing before it and a blessing afterward. Even with things that are not necessarily mitzvos, let’s take the simplest example. A Jew takes a glass of water and says a blessing over it: “Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, by Whose word everything came to be.” In this simple act, he said a blessing over the water. Through that simple act, a Jew proclaims Hakadosh Boruch Hu King over the world and reveals that “everything came to be by His word.” These waters, as they appear, are just a simple glass of water. But they are waters that Hakadosh Boruch Hu creates, brings into being, gives life to, and sustains at every single moment, as Tanya explains at length. Those waters could have served all kinds of purposes. The waters

12:38 could have gone toward all kinds of things, and the same is true of food. A person can eat these things for pleasure, to satisfy a craving. But when a Jew says the blessing before and after, and especially when he also intends to eat for the sake of Heaven, to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu through that food or drink, then those waters, that piece of meat, that bread become a vessel, a place where the Shechinah rests. And through the deeds and efforts of the Jewish people throughout the time of exile—every Jew, everywhere in the world, at every moment—these small actions add up to something immense. Through them, we transform the entire world and make it a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So the coming of Moshiach grows out of our deeds. A Jew needs to know that the light of the Geulah is being built through his every action, word, and thought. And when a Jew knows this, he understands how all of existence is part of a process leading toward the Geulah. He understands how every act, everything he does, illuminates and refines the world, elevates the sparks of holiness within it, and transforms the world into a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Then we do our work with extraordinary vitality. And so the Alter Rebbe says: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not asking you to be a tzaddik. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not asking you to be a holy person, to be Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, to be Avraham Avinu, to be the Baal Shem Tov. Hakadosh Boruch Hu asks us to act—to do it. Action is the purpose of creation: to do a mitzvah, to carry out a practice prescribed in Shulchan Aruch, with this perspective, understanding just how much our deeds are what will transform the world and make it a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. They are what turn darkness into light, and this is what gives Hakadosh Boruch Hu the greatest pleasure. There is no greater pleasure

15:08 than when a Jew does something that turns darkness into light, says Tanya. What’s more, the Alter Rebbe says in chapter 33: the very fact that a Jew is here in this physical, material world, in the darkness of exile, and believes in Hakadosh Boruch Hu—that in his mind he thinks about the oneness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he contemplates that oneness wherever he is, even in the most distant and darkest place—means something extraordinary. The moment a Jew here in this world contemplates the oneness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he brings the Shechinah to rest there. He brings Hakadosh Boruch Hu in; he opens the door, so to speak, for Hakadosh Boruch Hu to enter and stay with him in his home. Imagine, says the Alter Rebbe, the tremendous joy a person would have at the privilege of opening his home to a great king. Someone—one of the most important people in our lives, a truly important figure—comes to your home to stay with you, to be your guest. How joyful that person would be! Tanya says that this joy is available at every single moment. The moment you contemplate the oneness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, you open the door and bring Hakadosh Boruch Hu into your mind, your heart, your thoughts. You are, so to speak, giving Him a place to stay; you are hosting Him, opening the door for Hakadosh Boruch Hu to come and be with you in your home. There is no greater joy. This is the purpose of creation. And it means that the process of Geulah is already present within the darkness of exile, because in every moment and through every action we bring redemption. Geulah is not only something that will happen in the future. Geulah is an ongoing act: a Jew redeems himself, his soul, the spark, the holiness hidden within everything in the world. He redeems

17:26 himself, he redeems the world, he opens the world toward the light—the Geulah, the radiance of the complete revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When all of us have completed all our work, the Geulah will come. But we need to understand this point: every action, word, and thought of ours is part of the process leading toward the Geulah. We are preparing the light of the Geulah, and everything that will happen in the time to come will simply be the revelation of what we are doing today. This is what gives a Jew the strength, the energy, the vitality, the enthusiasm to understand where we are headed. We are not just living here in the world and doing things without a purpose, waiting for some day to come. Rather, your action itself is what draws down, brings about, makes, and builds this dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu; we are building the light of the Geulah. When the time comes, we will open our eyes and see it. In the weekly parsha, Parshas Vayechi, the Torah tells us that Yaakov Avinu wanted to reveal the secret of the Geulah to his sons. Yaakov sought to reveal the end of days, but the Shechinah departed from him. He wanted to reveal the end, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not allow him to. The Shechinah departed from him. The Gemara in Pesachim tells us what happened afterward. In practice, we know from the weekly parsha—Rashi brings it in Chumash as well—that Hashem did not allow him to reveal this secret. What exactly did Yaakov Avinu want to reveal? And why exactly did Hakadosh Boruch Hu not allow him to? Listen to a wonderful explanation that the Rebbe once gave. What was Yaakov Avinu’s idea? Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu not accept it? The commentators discuss this. The commentators on the Midrash and the Gemara ask: What did Yaakov really want? Imagine if

19:37 If Yaakov Avinu had told his sons the day of the Geulah, its date, more than three thousand five hundred years ago, it would have caused them total despair. So what exactly was he trying to accomplish? What happened here? What did Yaakov ask for, and what was Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s answer? What benefit is there in telling us this story? The Rebbe gave a wonderful explanation that connects to the theme of Tanya: why a Jew lives in this world knowing that his actions are leading toward the Geulah. As we said, a Jew needs to understand that through our actions, words, and thoughts, we bring about the light of the Geulah. Every action, word, and thought brings the Geulah closer, illuminates the world more, and brings more of its light into the world. And that raises a simple question: Why don’t I see it? Why don’t we see the world advancing toward the Geulah? It’s a simple question that many people ask. If it’s true, as the great sages of Israel have said—especially in the last generation—that we are already in the generation of the Geulah, that our generation is the generation of the Geulah, that we’re almost there, that Moshiach is about to come, why doesn’t the world show it? Why do we see the world becoming, in certain respects, darker and darker, more complicated, more difficult? “Darkness will cover the earth”—both materially and spiritually. There are more hardships, more tests, from every direction and in every form. Where do we see the light of the Geulah approaching? If we explain that we are constantly making the world more refined, more pure, why don’t we see it? This, in fact, is what Yaakov Avinu asked for. Yaakov Avinu sought to reveal the end. He sought

21:38 not merely to tell them the exact day Moshiach would come. Of course, that is the plain meaning too, but there is a deeper meaning here. He wanted to reveal the end—to make it visible, so that we could see how much our actions change things. When a Jew serves Hashem, refining himself and refining the world, he wanted the end to be revealed, so people would feel: Look, we’re accomplishing something. Yaakov Avinu wanted the Jewish people to have energy, even though they were going to enter a long and difficult exile. He wanted them to know that their actions make a difference. So Yaakov Avinu was asking: Why not reveal the end? In other words, why shouldn’t we see how our actions and deeds bring about the end, bring about the Geulah, move the process forward—how the world is advancing? And there is also the principle, as the Gemara says, “If they merit it, I will hasten it”: if the Jewish people refine themselves and do more, the Geulah will come before its appointed time. Surely, seeing this would spur the Jewish people to do more and more to bring the Geulah closer. But then the Shechinah departed from him. That means Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not want the Geulah to come as a gift from Above—because the end had been revealed to you from Above and you had been shown how much your actions illuminate and accomplish. For then something would be missing: the strength and effort of a person who worked and labored with his own powers. Even though he does not see the results on the ground, he works on himself. Precisely because he knows without seeing—because he believes—he awakens deeper strengths. That is what will bring the light of the Geulah in its fullest form: not as a gift from Above, but through human effort. That is the meaning of “the Shechinah departed from him.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not want the end to be revealed. Hakadosh Boruch Hu

23:54 wanted what we see: even though “darkness will cover the earth and thick clouds the nations,” and even though people look at the world and see confusion everywhere, with no end in sight, a Jew nevertheless stands firm in his faith. “I believe.” A Jew serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, stands up to the tests he faces, and knows at every moment that his actions are what will bring the Geulah. As explained in Chassidus, the power of mesirus nefesh is revealed specifically out of the darkness. We see this throughout Jewish history: in the hardest moments, a Jew’s burning faith is awakened. And it is precisely this service, arising from the darkness, that will bring the complete Geulah. That is what will make the Geulah real and everlasting. Things that come as a gift from Above come and go; they do not reveal the inner truth of the matter. It is precisely when things emerge from the darkness, when darkness is transformed into light—when a Jew is in a place where he cannot see the end and nevertheless serves Hashem—that he is given the power to shine the light of the Geulah. We must know that all the lofty and wondrous revelations of the time of the Geulah depend on our deeds and our service during the exile. And yet the Torah tells us that Yaakov sought to reveal the end, and a tzaddik’s request is fulfilled. The Gemara says that when a tzaddik asks for something, even conditionally, he brings it about in some way. We are told this about Moshe Rabbeinu: although he did not merit to enter the Land, his pleading—“Va’eschanan”—accomplished something. Hakadosh Boruch Hu told him to go up and see the Land from afar, and this too had a certain effect on the Jewish people during the exile. The same is true of Yaakov Avinu. The fact that Yaakov sought to reveal

25:59 the end accomplished something, even though the Shechinah departed from him. To a certain extent, a Jew today has the power to overcome the darkness of exile. Even while living amid exile, he can be free of all that darkness deep within himself. That comes from the blessing in Yaakov’s desire to reveal the end. In other words, Yaakov did accomplish this: today, at least at certain moments, a Jew can rise above it all, feel free in spirit from everything around him, and feel connected. When a Jew learns, when a Jew davens—“There is no free person except one who engages in Torah”—there are moments when a Jew can already live with the end revealed. Especially as the Rebbe spoke about this repeatedly in recent times, urging each and every one of us to set aside time to study the teachings of our Sages, Midrashim, passages of Tanach, and Chassidus—particularly the inner dimension of Torah that speaks about the Geulah and Moshiach. This learning brings us into that atmosphere. Then, even though the Geulah cannot yet be seen in actuality, a Jew can already live with the end revealed. This is what Yaakov Avinu accomplished: even now, in certain moments and certain ways, we can have a taste of the light of the Geulah, especially through learning Chassidus. As is well known, the revelation of Chassidus is explained as a kind of foretaste. Just as halachah says to taste the Shabbos foods before Shabbos, so too, before the revelation of Moshiach, we can already have a taste through studying Chassidus, the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. We already have a taste of the light of the Geulah, and it gives us the strength to rise above the darkness of exile and serve Hashem in an atmosphere of Geulah. Even though we still cannot see it around us with our physical eyes, this itself hastens it all the more and brings about “We have hoped for Your salvation all day long” and “May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy.” May we merit this—especially now that we are in Teves, when

28:17 the destruction that led to exile began, on 10 Teves—that the darkness be transformed into light. May we merit to see the light of the complete Geulah with the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu, and may the verses “until Shiloh comes” be fulfilled. This refers to Moshiach the King, as the Baal HaTurim wrote: “Yavo Shiloh” has the same numerical value as “Moshiach.” May we merit to see him with our physical eyes, on this very day.