The Halachic Ruling: The Rebbe is Melech HaMoshiach - Rabbi Gedalyahu Axelrod shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to the “Lemaan Yishme’u” podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Today we’re discussing the halachic ruling issued in 5758. The heading says 5758–5760. Presumably, that was the period when most of the signatures were added to the ruling. This is a ruling that the Rebbe is a prophet and the Rebbe is Moshiach. Before we explain the ruling and discuss the implications it seeks to establish, let’s read it and then begin explaining it. This ruling was signed by more than three hundred rabbis—city rabbis, rebbes, dayanim, and, of course, many, many Chabad rabbis, who account for a substantial share of the signatures, as one would expect. Let’s begin reading: “His Holiness the Lubavitcher Rebbe, in his sicha on Parshas Shoftim, 5751, makes a practical halachic determination that our generation has a prophet and that we are obligated to heed him, as the Rambam rules in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah, chapter 7.” The Rebbe speaks in that sicha—it was Parshas Shoftim 5751—and announces that this generation has a prophet. It is known, after all, that prophecy ceased at the beginning of the Second Beis Hamikdash era. Here the Rebbe comes with an announcement we have not had since Chaggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: there is a prophet for the generation! Although the Tosafists are referred to in several places by the title “the prophet,” here the Rebbe calls him the prophet of the generation, a prophet for the generation. Seemingly, that is even broader than the prophets who prophesied primarily to the Jewish people. All the prophets we have prophesied to the Jewish people, apart from one isolated prophecy in which the prophet Yonah was sent to Nineveh, whose inhabitants were non-Jews and who listened. But all the prophets—think of the prophet Shmuel, think of all the books of the Prophets—they all spoke to the Jewish people. Here the Rebbe is no longer speaking only to the Jewish people; he is speaking of a prophet for the generation. I’ll continue reading. These are his holy words: “We must publicize to all the people of the generation that we have merited that Hakadosh Boruch Hu has chosen and appointed a person with free choice

03:27 Speaker 2 who, in his own right, is incomparably greater than the people of the generation, to be your judge, your counselor, and the prophet of the generation, who will give directives and advice concerning the service of all the Jewish people, culminating in the principal prophecy—the prophecy of ‘immediate Geulah, right now’; may it be right now, literally.” Those are his holy words in that sicha. In the sicha on Parshas Vayeira 5752—this was already after the sicha in which the Rebbe said that this generation has a prophet—the Rebbe says: “In these days, all obstacles and impediments have been removed, etc. Accordingly, there is not only the existence of Moshiach, but also the revelation of Moshiach. And now we must actually welcome Moshiach Tzidkeinu.” Those are his holy words. In the sicha on Parshas Mishpatim 5752, the Rebbe said: “And likewise, the halachic ruling of the rabbis and halachic authorities in Israel that the time of the Geulah has arrived: ‘A king will arise from the House of David,’ etc., ‘he is presumed to be Moshiach.’” He even added to that ruling the words, “to the point of a state in which he is certainly Moshiach.” In this sicha, the Rebbe clearly alluded to himself being Melech HaMoshiach. Up to this point, I’ve brought quotations from the Rebbe’s sichos. Now we’ll continue with the ruling: We hereby establish a halachic ruling in accordance with the law of our holy Torah, based on the Rambam in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah, chapter 7, halacha 1; chapter 9, halacha 2; and chapter 10, halacha 1: His Holiness the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, has the halachic status of a prophet, and his holy sichos explicitly allude to himself as a prophet. It is understood from his holy sichos that he is Melech HaMoshiach. He also encouraged the singing of “Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu VeRabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach LeOlam Vaed.” He has already spoken before all Israel and the entire world of things that would happen in the future, and his words were fulfilled in their entirety during the Six-Day War and the Gulf War, and on many other occasions. Therefore, we are obligated to heed what we hear from him, under the obligation

06:15 Speaker 2 to heed the words of a prophet. This includes that he is Melech HaMoshiach and will be revealed to us immediately, literally. Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu VeRabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach LeOlam Vaed. That is where the ruling ends. And the book I’m reading from lists all the hundreds of signatures. One thing to note when discussing the ruling is the Rebbe’s statement that this must be publicized to all the people of the generation. As far as I recall, in my humble opinion, this was the first time in history that Hakadosh Boruch Hu sent a prophet who addresses all the people of the generation. As I mentioned at the beginning, all the prophets were prophets to the Jewish people. We know that the Patriarchs were prophets, but there was not yet a people. There was Avraham Avinu, Yitzchak Avinu, and Yaakov Avinu. But once the Jewish people began, Moshe Rabbeinu, the greatest of the prophets, prophesied to the Jewish people. Moshe Rabbeinu brought the Torah to the Jewish people. We are talking about prophecies to the Jewish people. A prophet who prophesies to the entire world—that is a first since the world was created. We see another instance of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, addressing the entire world, and this too is a first in history: the matter of the Seven Noahide Laws. In Hilchos Melachim, the Rambam details the Noahide laws: the prohibitions against theft, forbidden relations, and murder, and the requirement to appoint judges. The Rambam does not write that there is a mitzvah to publicize to all the descendants of Noach, throughout the world, that they are obligated in the Seven Noahide Laws. The Rambam does not write that. Although the Gemara in Bava Kama cites “He saw and released the nations,” meaning that Hakadosh Boruch Hu took away the reward for the Seven Noahide Laws from the non-Jews because they did not keep them. Hakadosh Boruch Hu said: Even if you do keep the Seven Noahide Laws—and the Gemara says they remain obligated to keep them—you will no longer receive the reward for fulfilling them. You broke the rules; you lost that reward. In any

08:51 Speaker 2 case, the commentators say that although they no longer receive the reward for the Seven Noahide Laws because of their wrongdoing, they do receive the reward of someone who is not commanded but performs a mitzvah. Nevertheless, the Rebbe instructed chassidim, every Jew, and everyone who heeded him to publicize to every descendant of Noach—to everyone we call, in our usual terminology, non-Jews: You should know that you are obligated to observe the Seven Noahide Laws. We already mentioned that although Hakadosh Boruch Hu said they would not receive the reward of one who is commanded and performs a mitzvah, the commandments remained in force. And the Rambam rules that non-Jews are obligated in the Seven Noahide Laws. There is one mitzvah for which the Rambam says we are commanded: We are commanded to appoint judges for them so that the land is not ruined by theft and corruption. So wherever we have the power to do so, we are commanded to arrange for non-Jews to have judges who will adjudicate among them according to their laws. But as for the other commandments, the Rambam does not say that we have to take action. Who can speak to non-Jews, set them right, bring them—because someone who does not observe the Seven Noahide Laws does not have the status of a ger toshav at all. He does not have—he is not even in the category of a ben Noach. And so the Sanzer Rebbe, zecher tzaddik livrachah—a great man, the one who founded Kiryat Sanz—heard that the Rebbe was calling for people to go and teach non-Jews the Seven Noahide Laws. The Sanz-Klausenburger Rebbe said, “This is already a matter of Moshiach.” That settled it for him. The Sanzer Rebbe said plainly, without anyone asking him for his opinion, entirely on his own: Someone who addresses non-Jews, involves himself with them, and gives them guidance on how to conduct themselves—that can only be Moshiach. Moshiach is the one about whom it was prophesied that many nations will come to him, come to Jerusalem, and ask him to teach them how to conduct themselves. And here the Rebbe comes and tells the Jews: Teach the non-Jews. And we see that there is

11:19 Speaker 2 That has an effect—in actual practice. There are thousands of non-Jews around the world who began observing the seven Noahide laws because of the Rebbe’s directive. I know personally, because I have relatives in Brazil: one of the shluchim there told me that hundreds, if not thousands, of Noahides come to him alone to learn the seven Noahide laws. He also teaches them Pirkei Avos, since that too is relevant to these laws—to how a person behaves toward the people around him, toward his community. So we see that it has an effect. Another point: we are speaking now about a halachic ruling. Everyone knows that a famous rabbi in Montreal spoke with the Rebbe—I can’t recall his name at the moment. He was one of the renowned rabbis, considered one of Lublin’s greatest Torah scholars, and he humbled himself before the Rebbe and said that the Rebbe’s genius was beyond the ordinary measure. There is also a well-known story from Warsaw that speaks to the Rebbe’s greatness. Rabbi Menachem Zemba, the great Torah scholar of Poland—may Hashem avenge his blood—came to visit the Rebbe. He came to visit the son-in-law of the famous Lubavitcher Rebbe, who had stood firm and fought the Communists with mesirus nefesh. He knew this son-in-law was a great man, so he came to visit him, even though Rabbi Menachem Zemba was, at the time, several decades older than the Rebbe. Afterward, he met the Rebbe at the wedding. He said, “[unclear]”[?]. Rabbi Zemba was beside himself at the Rebbe’s genius. That was in 5689. Everyone who met the Rebbe said that his genius encompassed the entire world. These are well-known things; everyone knows them. And anyone who so much as looks at the Rebbe’s sichos—the maamarim are a matter of Chassidus, but the sichos contain a great deal of the revealed parts of Torah. The Talmud and the works of the early and later authorities pour forth there.

13:42 Speaker 2 In a flood of “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem.” So that answers what the Rambam says about the signs of Moshiach: that he studies Torah, like David his ancestor. The entire Torah was at the Rebbe’s fingertips. What does the Rambam say next? “He will compel all of Israel.” What does “he will compel all of Israel” mean? That he will compel the Jewish people to observe the mitzvos. Where do we see him compelling the Jewish people to observe the mitzvos? Given the darkness of our generation, someone could certainly ask, and wonder, where did the Rebbe compel the Jewish people? To answer that, let me tell a story. Someone came to the Rebbe in a defiant way. After all, anyone could come to the Rebbe. You can even see in videos, rachmana litzlan, people who had converted to another religion passing before the Rebbe, and no one threw them out. The attendants, the gabbaim—let’s call them the Rebbe’s secretaries, whom the Rebbe called “my generals”—didn’t stop them. No. To the Rebbe, every person was an only child. I won’t tell other stories here, because our sole subject is the halachic ruling. So this defiant person passed by and told the Rebbe, “I will not do teshuvah.” He took the dollar, and he wasn’t going to do teshuvah. That was his encounter with the Rebbe. The Rebbe answered him, “Don’t you know we have a lasso?” I don’t know whether the Rebbe used the word “lasso”; perhaps there’s another word for it in Hebrew. A rope loop, maybe. The idea is that when you want to catch a horse, you have a loop of rope and throw it over the horse’s head, and that’s how you catch it. Now, there’s a well-known story about Shimon [unclear], who wore a fake beard and peyos and supervised all the Torah students in Vilna. He was secretly a Maskil, and, may Hashem protect us, he would send away the most outstanding children. He told their parents that because they excelled, they needed to

16:16 Speaker 2 go study in yeshivos. Instead of sending them to yeshivos, he sent them to universities and led them off the path. That is what they did throughout Russia and Poland, Hungary and Lithuania—wherever they could—and they led millions of Jews to abandon Judaism, rachmana litzlan. Those were the Maskilim. This Shimon the heretic came to visit the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe recognized him immediately; in Vilna they hadn’t recognized him. He was the chief supervisor of Vilna’s Torah students, because he knew the material well and they had tested him thoroughly there. The Alter Rebbe saw through him at once. I think the story also says that he had a lit candle on the table. He lifted the candle, brought it close to Shimon the heretic’s face, and asked him, “Tell me, how do you explain the verse, ‘And Yitzchak trembled with a very great trembling’?” This Shimon the heretic said, “There are two explanations in Rashi. One explanation I tell the children, and one I don’t”—because he had presented himself to the Alter Rebbe as a teacher. “One explanation is that Yitzchak trembled because he had been deceived. He had wanted to give the blessings to Esav, and suddenly it turned out that Yaakov had come and taken them. That is ‘he trembled.’ It’s the plain meaning, and I tell the children that explanation. The second explanation, that he saw Gehinnom open beneath his feet, I don’t tell the children. Why confuse them with Gehinnom? Those are abstract things.” Here the Rebbe saw that he was voicing heresy even in front of him, calling Gehinnom an abstract matter. He was a heretic. So he told him that a heretic was posing as a religious man and leading children to abandon Judaism, and that Gehinnom was open beneath his feet. He had him expelled from Liozna immediately. We see—why didn’t the Alter Rebbe bring him back to teshuvah? The Alter Rebbe, the greatest of the great—why didn’t he bring him back to teshuvah? There’s a story about Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, who once sat with

18:22 Speaker 2 two Maskilim. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov lived in the days of the Alter Rebbe. He sat with two Maskilim for two hours and tried to show them that they needed to be observant Jews. He didn’t succeed. After they left, he said, “What can we do? We cannot take away another person’s free choice. They chose evil, even though I spoke with them for two hours.” We’re talking about Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, a holy man. He didn’t succeed. Because they had free choice and had chosen evil, he could not turn them away from it. But the Rebbe said something different. The Rebbe told the man who said, “I will not do teshuvah,” that we have a device that will catch you by the neck and bring you to us. And what happened next? The Rebbe’s eyes did not leave him. He couldn’t break away from the Rebbe’s gaze, and it pursued him and pursued him until he did teshuvah. So here we see what it means to compel Israel. The Rebbe has a power that had not existed until this generation, until the Rebbe, because the Rebbe is Melech HaMoshiach. And the process of Moshiach began back in the time of the Baal Shem Tov. He brought the Samech-Mem down, and the Samech-Mem cried out to him, “You’ve brought me down here? I was down here only twice: once at the sin of the Golden Calf and a second time at the destruction of the First Beis Hamikdash. Why did you bring me down? I do all my work through my agents.” The Baal Shem Tov told him, “I want the key to Chassidus from you.” When the Baal Shem Tov descended to this world, it was on condition that he would draw Moshiach down here. They told him, “But the key to Moshiach is held captive by the Samech-Mem.” So he brought the Samech-Mem down, seized him by force, and took the key to Chassidus from him.

20:27 Speaker 2 So relates Reb Polak Cohen, a"h, the father of Rabbi Yair Cohen, may he live a long and good life, in his book Shemos Vesipurim. The first or second story is about how the Baal Shem Tov took the key to Chassidus out of the kelipah. What does it mean that he took the key out of the kelipah? It is the key to the revelation of Moshiach. And that is how the Baal Shem Tov began. In Toras Shalom, where the Rebbe Rashab speaks about matters of Geulah, he says: After all, we are descended from Dovid, and the Maggid of Mezritch was also descended from Dovid, as was the Baal Shem Tov. The Rebbe Rashab means to say that we, Chabad, are descended from Dovid. His mission is to bring Moshiach into open revelation down here. And the Rebbe spoke about this in connection with the Holocaust, [unclear] at every level. He said that the Holocaust burned through the walls of exile, and the Rebbe said that Moshiach is already here. That was in Parshas Shoftim. And later, in Parshas Vayigash, the Rebbe says that not only is Moshiach in the world, but Moshiach is already openly revealed. The Rebbe is everywhere. It is written about Rabbeinu Hakadosh that he would come every Friday night, make Kiddush in his Shabbos clothes, and fulfill the obligation for the members of his household. And in the Chida’s Shem Hagedolim, under the entry Raavan, he brings a story in the name of the Rosh’s grandson, that his father, who was a brother of the Baal Haturim, made an agreement with a friend: whichever of them left this world first would come to the other and tell him what was happening with him. So the father—the father of the—meaning the son of the Rosh—passed away first, and suddenly he came. The Chida writes that he found this in a private manuscript of the Rosh’s grandson. Rabbi Yehudah son of the Rosh—perhaps a brother of the Tur. Perhaps, perhaps even a brother of the Tur. What did he find in that manuscript? The story of how they had decided,

22:56 Speaker 2 he and his friend, that they would come to one another. Whoever left first would tell the other what happened to him there. I’m skipping the whole story and giving just the point. One day the friend was sitting and learning in the beis midrash. Suddenly he saw his friend, who was either the Rosh’s son or the Rosh’s grandson. One has to check Shem Hagedolim, under the entry Raavan[?]. I’m not at home now; I’m away from home, so I don’t have Shem Hagedolim here. Suddenly he saw him sitting beside him. His friend who had passed away was sitting beside him. He asked him, “How are you here, appearing like a living person?” He told him, “I can leave my grave whenever I want. I can come as a living person because I am alive. I can come like this. It’s just that I don’t reveal myself, so people won’t say I’m more righteous than other tzaddikim. But if I want to, I can come whenever I want.” The same is true of the Rebbe. Rabbeinu Hakadosh would come to make Kiddush until the neighbors found out, and then he stopped coming. Something similar is related about Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Shimon in the Gemara in Bava Metzia. One has to look in the chapter Hasocher Es Hapoalim: he lay in the attic for eighteen years. The Gemara says eighteen or twenty-two years after he passed away. He told his wife, “Don’t tell people here that I’ve passed away,” for reasons I won’t go into now—I need to keep this short. So what is the story the Gemara tells? He lay in the attic, and people didn’t know he had passed away. He was concerned that the sages, who had disagreed with him and opposed his way, would not treat him with proper respect at his funeral. So he said, “Don’t bring me to burial. Lay me in the attic, and people can come and ask

24:49 Speaker 2 me questions.” So people came and asked questions, and from the attic they heard Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Shimon’s voice saying, “This is the ruling here, this is the ruling there, this is the ruling there.” The Maharsha discusses how Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Shimon could tell his wife not to bury him and to leave him in the attic. After all, there is a prohibition against leaving the dead unburied overnight, and there is a positive commandment to bury them. So how could they transgress a positive commandment and a prohibition for eighteen or twenty-two years? What happened next was that, after all those years, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai came to his friends—or to the sages who lived there. I think it was Achbara, the village of Achbara. “Why do you have my dove? My dove is with you, and you aren’t bringing it to me?” In other words, “My son is lying there with you. Why aren’t you bringing him to me in Meron?” After all, Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Shimon’s grave is in Meron, beside Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Then, one erev Yom Kippur, the residents of Achbara didn’t want to let them bury him, because throughout the time he had lain there in the attic, nobody had died. They didn’t want him taken away. In the end, on erev Yom Kippur, while they were busy, several sages came themselves, took him, and brought him to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. In any case, why am I bringing this up? The Maharsha asks: How, how could they transgress the positive commandment and the prohibition concerning burial? How could Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Shimon do that? The Maharsha gives an answer based on the Gemara’s discussion in Sanhedrin: Why is burial necessary? Is it for atonement, or is it to prevent disgrace, since a person was created in the image of G-d? To see him decay—that is not respectful to the image of G-d, so he must be buried. Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Shimon

26:37 Speaker 2 did not need atonement, so there was no need to bury him for that reason. Nor did he decay. The Gemara relates that he conducted an experiment with his own fat. He was a heavy man, and he wanted to see whether his flesh would decay after he left this world. So he took out pieces of fat and left them in the sun for several days. They neither smelled nor decayed, and he said, “Rejoice, my innards, rejoice! Rejoice, my innards, rejoice!” So, says the Maharsha, there was no need to bury him: not for atonement, and not to prevent disgrace. But the simpler answer is this: Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Shimon had not passed away. The proof is that he answered everyone who came to ask him a question. He answered their questions. Ah, so why did Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai say to bring him over? Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai had not passed away either, but he wanted his son beside him, that’s all. Perhaps he wanted to continue learning Torah with him there, so he said, “Bring him over; bring my son to me.” And during the trial over the sefarim, the official argument was that the sefarim of Agudas Chassidei Chabad had not belonged to the Frierdiker Rebbe, but to Agudas Chassidei Chabad. Therefore, those who claimed to be heirs were not entitled to a share of the sefarim as an inheritance. They were not heirs to them, because the sefarim did not belong to the Frierdiker Rebbe. If they had belonged to the Frierdiker Rebbe, they could have been passed on as an inheritance, but they belonged to Agudas Chassidei Chabad. That was the argument before the judge. But to the chassidim the Rebbe said something different. The Rebbe said, “Why are we talking about inheritance? ‘He lives and grows healthier from minute to minute.’” The Previous Rebbe, the Frierdiker Rebbe,

28:23 Speaker 2 is alive, and from moment to moment he grows healthier and healthier. In other words, the Rebbe said that the Frierdiker Rebbe is alive today as well. And the Chida discusses there the statement that the wicked, even in their lifetimes, are called dead, while tzaddikim, even after their passing, are called alive. They are not merely called alive; they are truly alive. The Gemara relates that Eliyahu Hanavi raises the Avos every day and has them stand to daven Shemoneh Esrei. And Achiya Hashiloni came in a physical body to teach the Baal Shem Tov for ten years. Day after day, Achiya Hashiloni came to teach the Baal Shem Tov. How did he come? It is related that Eliyahu Hanavi came a distance of four hundred parsaos to save one of the sages of the Gemara. The sage was about to jump from a great height to escape a temptation to sin, so Eliyahu came, caught him in midair, and saved him. Eliyahu Hanavi told him, “You made me travel four hundred parsaos.” So they explain: Eliyahu Hanavi is present at every bris, and there can be brissim at opposite ends of the world. How can he be in several places at the same time? They explain that a spark of Eliyahu Hanavi can be present at every bris at the same time. But to save that sage of the Gemara, he had to come in a body, and with a body it is different. He cannot be in two places at once in the same body. The Rebbe is present. The Rebbe said this about the Frierdiker Rebbe, but what he said about the Frierdiker Rebbe he meant about himself as well. Just as Rabbeinu Hakadosh came on Friday night to make Kiddush and fulfill his household’s obligation, the Frierdiker Rebbe, zy”a, is not only at the place of his resting. He is with each and every chossid and helps them.

30:22 Speaker 2 Every single person. And surely the Rebbe also meant that he is with every Jew, and that every Jew belongs to the Rebbe, because the leader of the generation is the heart of the Jewish people. The same is true of the Rebbe. The Rebbe is with every Chabad chossid and every Jew. May Hashem help us and open our hearts so that we begin to take things seriously. May we begin to take things seriously and merit to bring the air of Moshiach into our homes. As is told about Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, when he was in Tzfas, apparently, someone blew a shofar. People came to tell Reb Mendel, “Moshiach has arrived!” They could hear shofar blasts in the street. So he stuck his head out the window and said, “Moshiach hasn’t arrived. Moshiach hasn’t come.” So people ask: “Why did he need to stick his head out the window to see that Moshiach hadn’t come? Couldn’t he sense whether Moshiach had come without sticking his head out the window?” The answer is that inside his room, he felt Moshiach all the time, so he couldn’t tell whether Moshiach had come. For him, Moshiach was there. But to know whether Moshiach had come into the world, he stuck his head out the window, and then he saw that Moshiach had not yet come. The Rebbe asks us to—take his words seriously. The Rebbe pleads with us; the Rebbe gives us the strength.