Ears to Hear 7 | "The Time of Your Redemption Has Arrived"

00:00 Speaker 1 And Hashem has given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear.

00:08 Speaker 2 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the Temimim, from Ata Haolami.

00:15 Speaker 3 He said that in 5751 he decided to stop listening to the radio, because he suddenly noticed something. People asked him, “How do you live with Geulah?” He said, “I hear the radio saying one thing, and I hear the Rebbe saying something else. There’s only one reality. The radio must be seeing something external, while the Rebbe sees something internal. So I prefer to see, hear, and remember the inner meaning of the events taking place. That’s why I think the right thing is to hold on to the Rebbe’s words.” Shalom aleichem to all the Temimim in Chabad yeshivos throughout Eretz Yisroel and around the world. We’re now beginning the seventh program in the Ears to Hear audio series, a program steeped in a spirit of firm hiskashrus to the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach shlita, and to his central mission of bringing Moshiach. In the present situation, every chossid wants to hear and receive clear guidance from the Rebbe’s clear and far-reaching perspective on what is happening. So we’re taking a step back and trying to understand the clear foundations the Rebbe gave us for looking at a time of war. Of all of Israel’s wars, the last one during which we had the privilege of hearing a clear message from the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach shlita, was the Gulf War. There, the Rebbe made two main points that now serve as our guide: first, that Eretz Yisroel is the safest place; and second, and most important, “The time for your Geulah has arrived.” The Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, repeatedly quoted the well-known Midrash in Yalkut Shimoni about the year in which Moshiach is revealed and the moment when Moshiach comes: the whole world is in turmoil, and the Jewish people are alarmed and frightened. We need to remember one thing, and one thing only: the time for your Geulah has arrived. That point—that the time for Geulah has arrived—and the immediate relevance of the Rebbe’s announcement

02:16 Speaker 3 then, in the midst of war, through to the war in our own days, are what we want to discuss in this program: the right way to look at things. “The time for your Geulah has arrived”—the message and the announcement. “The time for Geulah has arrived,” with Rabbi Nechemia Greisman. We’re beginning the program now with Rabbi Greisman. Shalom aleichem to the Temimim. We’re beginning the seventh program in the Ears to Hear audio series with Rabbi Nechemia Greisman. Shalom aleichem, Rabbi Greisman. Aleichem shalom.

02:52 Speaker 2 Well, boruch Hashem, we’re sitting here at a time when some places in the country are still under rocket barrages, and we’re sitting and farbrenging.

03:00 Speaker 3 Yes.

03:01 Speaker 2 There’s nothing better.

03:03 Speaker 3 As the Rebbe said during the Yom Kippur War, one of the ways we can win this battle is to farbreng, strengthen ourselves, and lift our spirits. That’s one of the important ways we help bring the war to a successful conclusion. L’chaim.

03:19 Speaker 2 L’chaim, l’chaim, and blessings. The title of this program is “The time for your Geulah has arrived,” and we want to understand how to view the present reality, the present war. There are many angles to this. First of all, we want to know how the Rebbe views events like these—wars. Of all of Israel’s wars, the last one for which we had clear guidance from the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, was the Gulf War. There, the Rebbe gave us two clear main points. One was that Eretz Yisroel is the safest place, and the second was, “The time for your Geulah has arrived.” We want to focus on the second point. A war begins, there’s a great threat to the Jewish people, and the Rebbe takes that whole war and places it in the context of Geulah, of Moshiach. Not just a defensive war, with Eretz Yisroel as the safest place, but a move forward: “The time for your Geulah has arrived.” Before we get to the central questions in this program, we’d first like a brief overview of how the Rebbe turns war into Geulah—how a dark situation becomes “the time for your Geulah has arrived.”

04:33 Speaker 4 If we try to compare the current war with the Gulf War, we may not always find a perfect match between them in practical terms. Back then there were many threats, but actual damage on the ground was virtually nonexistent, minimal. Here, the reality is somewhat different. But as you emphasized, what’s more important for us to understand is the outlook, the spirit: how the Rebbe looks at reality. And this is explicit. In a sense, the Gulf War is a foundational point, a new way the Rebbe introduced for looking at tension involving Eretz Hakodesh and the situation of its residents. That’s what the Rebbe publicized then: the quotation from Yalkut Shimoni that in the year Moshiach is revealed, various events take place in the world involving the king of Persia and the king of Arabia. The Rebbe asked that the continuation be added: this is the moment when Moshiach comes and stands on the roof of the Beis Hamikdash with the announcement, the prophet’s message of Geulah: “The time for your Geulah has arrived.” So the Gulf War opened a new door for us. There’s tension involving Eretz Hakodesh, and the Rebbe says to chassidim and to Jews: Understand that something much deeper is happening here. And that deeper reality is that a process of Geulah is beginning.

06:23 Speaker 2 Which wasn’t the case with earlier wars, even though we received certain assurances then too. What changed?

06:29 Speaker 4 At the most basic level, the world was created a certain number of years ago, and from generation to generation, from one period to the next, we draw closer and closer. Four hundred years ago, the Geulah had not yet begun to come, and then the Baal Shem Tov arrived. Gradually, from generation to generation, we’ve come closer. Certainly, in the seventh generation, the Rebbe laid the foundation right from the beginning of his leadership: our task is to bring the Geulah and continue bringing the Shechinah closer. But we can clearly see that as the years pass, the Geulah gets closer and closer, and the Rebbe speaks about it more and more explicitly. In 5751, things reached a peak. The Rebbe said, in effect, “This is it, everyone. A process has actually begun here.” A process of Geulah. It’s not just that we’re close, or even that we’re about to draw down the Geulah. The Geulah has actually begun to take shape. Processes of Geulah have already begun. As the Rebbe said that very year, the whole matter of “the nations rage, and the peoples plot”—the nations of the world talking about Eretz Hakodesh—is one of the signs of Geulah, part of the process of Geulah. So when we find ourselves in the current war, the Gulf War immediately comes to mind, without our trying to match up every physical detail.

07:45 Speaker 2 If you compare the physical details, it’s even more like the Yom Kippur War. But in spirit, it has the Geulah outlook of the Gulf War.

07:51 Speaker 4 Exactly, exactly. That’s just it. The war today brings these things to mind. Of course, the Yom Kippur War also comes to mind at a time like this—all sorts of things the Rebbe said then, starting in the month of Tishrei, and several other matters. But when it comes to the connection between war and Geulah, we have a war that the Rebbe connected to Geulah. He said that when the nations are talking about Eretz Hakodesh, that is part of a process of Geulah.

08:13 Speaker 2 It’s as though we’ve entered some kind of situation [unclear] with no way out. With every war in this series of wars, from then until now, we didn’t think it would last so long. It’s as though this has gone into the category of the wars of Geulah that precede the Geulah, with the promise of Geulah in the literal sense. We haven’t had the privilege of hearing the Rebbe speak about this, but that seems a fairly natural way to understand it, because we know the world is moving forward. The Rebbe spoke several times about a descent for the sake of an ascent. The Rebbe said explicitly that the world is constantly progressing, constantly ascending. The world doesn’t go backward. Even before we discuss the last thirty years, from the creation of the world onward, the world has not gone backward. Despite all the destruction and the various difficult periods for the Jewish people, we have always been moving forward. Certainly, we are at the very peak, right at the beginning of the Geulah. There is no doubt that we are in a process of Geulah that has already begun, and it does not go backward. But within that process, there are sometimes ascents and sometimes descents that prepare for further ascents and begin them. It’s just that when the descent is so great, it can be a little hard to recognize that it is actually part of the ascent. There are times when you can usually say, “Okay, this is part of an ascent,” and you can even see it with your own eyes. But in a situation like this, can you really take in the idea that this is part of the process of Geulah, as with the Gulf War?

09:46 Speaker 4 That’s a very big question, and a very valid one. Certainly, in the Gulf War we saw such great miracles: missiles barely caused anyone bodily harm. Now it’s certainly harder. But this question didn’t begin now. It goes back to the first Jew who believed—to Avraham Avinu, and to Moshe Rabbeinu after him. Jews of faith did not always see with their own eyes how things were good for them twenty-four seven. And yet, with their simple faith in hashgachah pratis, even after all their questions, they understood that things were moving toward light. The Akeidah is an example: Avraham Avinu saw with his own eyes something that seemed to be falling apart, but he did not question it. He understood that this was beyond any explanation he could give. And many times, usually afterward, it suddenly becomes possible to understand clearly what happened.

10:52 Speaker 2 So, to some extent, that’s a separation of the mind from the emotions. Right now, we feel like this is exile within exile, in a situation like this, and we’re essentially being told, “Connect for a moment with the intellectual side of it.” Because right now—let’s speak in the spirit of our Torah—how can we really feel and sense that this is part of a process of Geulah? If it’s only a matter of sound reasoning, then it remains in the mind.

11:21 Speaker 4 Right, right. I wouldn’t call it separating the mind from the emotions. Perhaps it’s more a matter of the mind guiding and directing the emotions. The mind doesn’t negate the emotions, but it tries to guide how we experience these events emotionally.

11:35 Speaker 2 Control over the heart, you mean.

11:36 Speaker 4 Yes, yes, control over the heart. And there are two aspects to this. First, there may indeed be an abstract point of faith. Yes, I don’t understand, and I allow myself to ask questions without receiving answers. But I believe there is something above me—Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Divine wisdom is beyond what I’m capable of understanding, and I’m capable of believing that there is something here beyond me. But to offer a little explanation: Chassidus is full of explanations of how darkness is part of light. There is a particular maamar of the Rebbe Rashab in Hemshech Ayin Beis on “And there was evening and there was morning, one day”—a day is made up of evening and morning. In other words, for there to be a revelation, there must be an evening.

12:23 Speaker 2 For there to—it's an essential condition. It’s not just some unfortunate necessity.

12:26 Speaker 4 Yes, yes. And why? There is a very fundamental sicha of the Rebbe about the Frierdiker Rebbe’s imprisonment. The Frierdiker Rebbe was in prison and experienced concealment. What greater darkness could there be than the leader of the generation being in prison, humiliated and in danger of his life, unable to act from inside the prison? And suddenly he realizes: no, the darkness itself is bringing about matters of light here. In that sicha, the Rebbe makes several points that we can apply to our own time. One is that during that period, chassidim were stirred to a degree they would not have been without the imprisonment. The imprisonment brought about an awakening among chassidim that would not otherwise have happened.

13:03 Speaker 2 The olive that is crushed.

13:05 Speaker 4 Yes, yes, yes. When there is crushing, something awakens. And you can clearly see now that something has happened here—sadly, this war has had so many terrible consequences. It has claimed many lives, sadly. May Hashem avenge their blood, and may “those who dwell in the dust awaken and sing” immediately. But you can see the awakening that has taken place in the Jewish world, an awakening that the war brought about. The Rebbe, incidentally, also mentioned this regarding the Yom Kippur War: Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted to awaken the Jewish soul. So He caused non-Jews to fight in the Land in order to awaken the Jewish soul—both among the soldiers and among the residents of the Land and of the wider world. Suddenly there is this closeness between people that came about because of this war. If one may say so, this war has that merit too. We believe this war is part of hashgachah pratis; it’s not, G-d forbid, that Hamas managed to overcome hashgachah pratis. It is part of the hashgachah pratis through which Hakadosh Boruch Hu has brought about an increase in good, an awakening toward good, a strengthening of good. And that is certainly something we can learn from past events: evil can also give rise to light. That’s one point. A second point is something we don’t see yet, but Chassidus often explains that to create a new reality, you have to do away with the previous one. I’ll give an example. There are many highly successful people, major millionaires—how did they start making money? After a financial crisis. They went through some kind of financial crisis, and then they began to rethink their entire lives and started big, new ventures.

14:42 Speaker 2 A kind of descent for the sake of an ascent.

14:44 Speaker 4 Yes, yes. And when you look at it more deeply, the descent wasn’t merely necessary for the ascent; it was actually the beginning of the ascent. The previous reality had to be done away with to create a new one, as in the story of Nachum Ish Gamzu [?]: the jewels had to be taken away so that the earth could bring victory.

15:03 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

15:04 Speaker 4 So their money, and the way they had managed it before, had to be taken away for a new reality to begin. More deeply, it isn’t just a descent. It’s like someone who has a cup of water that isn’t clean: he pours out the dirty water so he can pour in fresh water. Pouring out the old water wasn’t a bad thing; it was a beginning. It made it possible for him to pour in fresh water.

15:26 Speaker 2 Wow, that’s really level two, 5639. To grow a fruit-bearing tree, you have to put a seed in the ground and let it decay. It’s just—

15:33 Speaker 4 Yes.

15:33 Speaker 2 It’s not really decay; it’s part of the growth.

15:35 Speaker 4 Exactly, exactly. Like the Rebbe’s famous sicha about Rabbi Akiva, who saw the Beis Hamikdash in ruins. He said, “Zion shall be plowed like a field.” I see plowing here. A new place is beginning to be built. First comes the plowing, so that a process of renewed growth can take place. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted there to be a greater Beis Hamikdash, just as Herod demolished the Beis Hamikdash in order to build a more beautiful one. Similarly, here too, Hakadosh Boruch Hu destroyed the Second Beis Hamikdash in order to bring about a better reality. So when a Jew encounters darkness, he gives himself one of these two answers. Either the answer we gave earlier: surely the evil here has come to awaken powerful reserves of good and reveal how precious and strong the good is. Or—and this is not really separate from that—there is another possibility: surely a new good is beginning here, one that could not have existed before. Something here is preparing the way for a greater good.

16:35 Speaker 5 Maybe it’s also a matter of stages over time. I mean, when we first heard about the attack and how difficult things were—and everyone heard about it—thank G-d, the Temimim are in a good place, but they heard what happened. So maybe it’s a matter of stages. In the immediate aftermath of an attack, it’s very hard to explain that this is only the second stage, as you were saying, about the light it will ultimately bring. The first stage is simply: there’s darkness here, and the darkness will eventually lead to light. Now that we’re already a few weeks on, maybe we can approach the second stage: explaining that all of this is part of one process of Geulah, of Moshiach.

17:13 Speaker 4 Yes, you’re talking about it from an emotional standpoint.

17:15 Speaker 5 Yes.

17:16 Speaker 4 It’s harder to absorb, and on the first day it really was hard to absorb that there was a good process at work here. We told ourselves that; we believed it. But it was hard to say it and to feel it. I think it’s fair to say that, on a human and emotional level, the first stage is simple faith: I don’t understand anything. Then, little by little, you manage to explain to yourself more and more of the good things happening as a result of this darkness.

17:43 Speaker 5 Okay, that’s really interesting. Going back to the Gulf War, people received a sicha from the Rebbe saying, “The time for your Geulah has arrived.” I’m not talking about the first time the Rebbe quoted that, on Parshas Re’eh 5750. I mean after the war had already begun, from 2 Shvat 5751 onward, when the Scud missiles had started falling and the situation was getting worse. A chossid receives a sicha in which the Rebbe says, “The time for your Geulah has arrived,” while he’s sitting in his safe room, shut up in his home. How can he connect the situation in front of him—Scuds sixteen meters long and three meters wide falling near his home in central Israel—with the declaration that the time for Geulah has arrived, that Moshiach is here? Can he truly internalize, in his mind and heart, that this is about Geulah, about Moshiach?

18:40 Speaker 4 I think it was easier then, because they heard the Rebbe say it explicitly. A chossid is used to listening to the Rebbe, and he’s already used to not always fully understanding him. He understands that the Rebbe is a G-dly, exalted person. So I imagine it was easier for him simply to hold on to the words. There were, of course, major differences between chassidim, as we also see from the Rebbe’s responses in 5751. Some people found it more natural and easier to disregard the missiles, while others, or other groups, found it harder. But let’s speak generally for now. First of all, people heard the Rebbe speak. I would guess that their natural feelings still struggled, because, ultimately, believing the Rebbe takes work. It isn’t always easy or pleasant; it doesn’t always come naturally. Holding fast to the Rebbe’s words means knowing that my natural self is afraid because it hears noises that stir up fear. At the same time, I work to reflect on the Rebbe’s words with the simple outlook of a chossid. Since the founding of Chassidus, we’ve been accustomed to the idea that a chossid rises above the world’s concealment, darkness and limitations, and knows and holds on to points of faith beyond nature. I assume that was the approach in 5751: simply trying to listen more and more to what the Rebbe was saying, and less and less to what the world was saying. As we mentioned, this struggle between good and evil in the Gulf War was one example, a model of something the Jewish people have always gone through. The Jewish approach has always been to remember that there is an inner, good, elevated, essential reality that isn’t visible. The more we hold on to that inner good, the more it will be revealed. That’s what happened in 5751. I just want to mention one more point that Rabbi Elazar—

20:43 Speaker 4 Yes, [unclear] Avshalom[?] tells a story that’s very important in this context. He said that in 5751 he decided to stop listening to the radio, because he suddenly noticed something. When people asked him, “How do you live with Geulah?” he said, “I hear the Rebbe saying one thing, and I hear the radio saying something else. There’s only one reality. It must be that the radio sees something external, while the Rebbe sees something internal. So I’d rather see, hear and remember the inner meaning of the events taking place.” That’s why I think the right thing is to hold on to the Rebbe’s words and remember that we don’t always see the good immediately. Sometimes it takes time for the good to be revealed.

21:19 Speaker 6 Is it right to reach a point where you’re so disconnected from what’s happening in the world? I mean, according to the Rebbe’s approach, can we as Temimim—not members of Anash, who really need to stay informed about everything for their families—reach a point where we don’t want to know what’s happening right now? Is that the approach we should take?

21:39 Speaker 4 I wouldn’t call it being disconnected. I don’t think even Anash need to hear about every threat coming from the Arabs, may their names be erased. Ultimately, that isn’t real information; it’s just threats and talk that only frighten people. So I don’t think Anash should hear too much of it either. The Temimim certainly shouldn’t—not just for religious reasons or because of a particular outlook, but because of what’s true, because of a sound grasp of reality. It simply isn’t information that’s especially relevant. What may be relevant, though, is security instructions.

22:18 Speaker 6 I understand.

22:18 Speaker 4 So presumably, the people responsible for running their families or their institutions need to know the actual, practical security instructions.

22:27 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

22:27 Speaker 4 And that isn’t about being disconnected, right? As we see, you don’t disconnect from the practical conduct that’s required. Even in 5751, when some people wanted not to go to the distributions of gas masks, the Rebbe said there was no need to poke people in the eye, no need to separate yourself from the community. So in our hearts, what’s happening here is ultimately good: things that are openly bad, but also good things being brought about through the process of Geulah. At the same time, just as we’re instructed to listen to a doctor and take medicine while believing that Hashem is the One who heals, we must follow security instructions while trusting in Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s protection and knowing that trust in Hashem is what truly protects us.

23:12 Speaker 6 That’s a point worth dwelling on. If we want to reach the right, Geulah-oriented way of looking at the present situation—the understanding that the time for Geulah has arrived now—there are really two parts. One is “turn away from evil”: not listening too much, and not becoming too involved in or caught up with what the world produces and says through the radio and the news. The other is “do good”: listening to the Rebbe’s words, believing them and connecting to them fully. We’ve spoken about turning away from evil. How can we, in practical terms, strengthen our faith in the Rebbe’s words? Does it mean reviewing the message of the Geulah? Listening to the Rebbe’s sichos over the phone or something like that? How can we strengthen the “do good” side and reach the point where our whole way of looking at the present situation is: the time for Geulah has arrived now?

24:06 Speaker 4 Listen, you’re opening up a whole world here, because you suddenly realize that holding fast to the Rebbe isn’t something you accomplish with a five-minute class on the message of the Geulah.

24:15 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

24:16 Speaker 4 It’s an essential kind of work that encompasses the whole day. It means my day should be guided by the Rebbe’s words; they should determine what’s right for that day. The more I get used to holding on to the fact that I have someone in charge—and perhaps we’ll get into a few more details in a moment—someone here whose word is final, and the less I listen to the news, even apart from the war, and occupy myself with what the falsehood of the world is saying, the easier it will be to hold on to the Rebbe’s words. But perhaps we should develop that point a little more. They tell a story about Reb Moshe Alterovitch[?], who was a very great chossid—a beinoni, people said of him. People used to explain why he merited to be such a great chossid. They said that everyone would be in Lubavitch, where they heard words of emunah. Then they would leave Lubavitch and start hearing the world, and that would blur what they had heard in Lubavitch. Reb Moshe Alterovitch[?] didn’t hear well, so they said that in Lubavitch he heard about G-dliness, and when he left Lubavitch, he stopped hearing. That’s why he remained with the emunah of Lubavitch. For our purposes, that means trying to hold on to our connection with the Rebbe. I think there are two or three aspects to this. The first is to instill in ourselves that the Rebbe is true through stories of miracles. Even when you read a story about a miracle the Rebbe performed in [unclear][?], it strengthens your awareness that here is someone whom nature does not limit. Someone who sees things from above nature and acts beyond nature. You get used to understanding that this person is not ordinary. He isn’t—

26:10 Speaker 4 He isn’t comparable at all to all sorts of other things people talk about. So that’s the first thing: it’s very, very important to read stories. Read stories of the Rebbe’s miracles, listen to stories of miracles, and reflect on the fact that here is someone who saw what was going to happen, who sees what is going to happen, and who is not bound by nature. The more you take notice of that, the easier it suddenly becomes to hear the Rebbe say during the Gulf War, “The time of your Geulah has arrived,” and say: Okay, we already have experience with the Rebbe. His words lift us up and rise above the world. That’s the first thing. The second, as I said earlier, is to reflect—simply to reflect on the Rebbe, on the reality of the Rebbe: that the Rebbe is alive, that the Rebbe is present, that the Rebbe is with the chassidim, that the Rebbe is with the Jewish people. Yes, the reality of the Rebbe’s enduring presence in the world strengthens us, but it requires reflection. Like everything in serving Hashem, and certainly matters of emunah, it takes a great deal of practice, a great deal of exercise. And the third point is to read a lot of the Rebbe’s words, both about the war and about other things.

27:26 Speaker 6 Like—

27:27 Speaker 4 Besoras HaGeulah.

27:28 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

27:28 Speaker 4 Things the Rebbe said during the Gulf War, things the Rebbe said during the Yom Kippur War. The Rebbe’s words. Of course, things that relate to our time are more important, but in general, get used to having the Rebbe speak in my life. I study the Rebbe’s words; I read the Rebbe’s letters. That strengthens the Rebbe’s presence in my day. So I think there are three things: stories of miracles, reflecting on my present connection with the Rebbe, and developing that connection further through learning. And of course, as I said at the beginning, Rambam and Chitas throughout my day. Building a meaningful connection of my own with the Rebbe automatically brings the Rebbe into my daily routine, and the world is automatically pushed into a corner—especially when, with Hashem’s help, I try to listen less to what the world is saying.

28:17 Speaker 6 So when I listen to the Rebbe saying that the time of the Geulah has arrived now, I understand that this is the true reality, even though I see something different in the world.

28:25 Speaker 4 Right, right.

28:26 Speaker 6 But I think there’s a deeper point here too. There’s another difficulty that can enter a Tomim’s heart: the Rebbe did say these things, but they were said thirty-two years ago. How do I take things said in the past and make them present as though they were new every morning, as though the Rebbe had said today that the present situation is one of Geulah, as you mentioned earlier? Back then it was much easier to believe, because we heard it from the Rebbe. How can we now read Besoras HaGeulah, see everything as part of a process of Geulah, and feel that now—the time of the Geulah has arrived now?

29:07 Speaker 4 That really is work. As I said earlier, it doesn’t happen automatically. I want to say that I shouldn’t despair if I don’t experience it, but I also can’t fool myself and act as though I can believe at the push of a button. It’s something I really need to reflect on and study. But I think there are two points here. First, the past teaches us about the future. Take the Exodus from Egypt, first and foremost. As we say, and as the Rebbe also mentions, immediately after Moshe Rabbeinu told the Jews, “I have surely remembered you”—that the Geulah was coming—the harshness of their enslavement began. The Jews left Egypt for a good and spacious land, and then they were stuck in the desert for forty years. They had heard Moshe Rabbeinu say, forty years earlier, “I will bring you up to a land flowing with milk and honey.” Where is that land? Forty years go by. History teaches us that sometimes things take time. Even when I’ve heard good news, the world may need time to become ready to receive that good. The Jews at the Exodus must have felt tremendous excitement. And I assume there were also—we don’t have records from their time in the desert, but I believe there were Jews with doubts, some of which are indeed mentioned in the Torah. Maybe we won’t go up to the Land? Maybe, after forty years... And then we see that yes, it took forty years, but in the end it happened. The same is true of so many other promises of good things to come.

30:43 Speaker 6 We don’t want to just offer excuses here for forty years. Chas veshalom.

30:45 Speaker 4 Chas veshalom, chas veshalom. Because the Rebbe said it was the year in which Melech HaMoshiach is revealed. And thirty-three years is certainly a long time. But just to give some perspective: even with various promises and blessings the Rebbe gave chassidim for shidduchim, children, and health, sometimes it took time for them to materialize. There were people who received a blessing for a child and only had one nineteen years later, against all odds. Things took time. I think that’s one point: we need to remember that the past teaches us about the future. Things take time; in this world there are processes. The second point is to read the Rebbe’s words with bittul. And as I mentioned earlier, stories of miracles remind you that here is someone above nature, who sees reality as truly as it can be seen. So despite all the questions that may arise, a little light dispels a great deal of darkness. Simply focus on believing the Rebbe’s words, little by little. It really is a process of work. I hope we won’t have to work on it much longer, because the Rebbe will be revealed and we’ll be spared this work, with Hashem’s help. But for the moments that remain until the Geulah, we need to remember that this is work. It doesn’t happen on its own. We need to reflect and learn, and little by little the world suddenly takes up less space. Suddenly you can recognize not only events of golus, but sparks of Geulah.

32:17 Speaker 6 Wow. As you’re speaking, I’m reminded of an exchange at dollars. A journalist passed before the Rebbe and asked whom the Rebbe wanted as prime minister. At the time there were several possibilities, and people didn’t know where the Rebbe was heading. So the Rebbe said, “And another main thing: I hope our prime minister will be Moshiach Tzidkeinu.” So every chossid who wants to taste Geulah can already take that sentence of the Rebbe’s and apply it to our situation: “And another main thing: our prime minister should be Moshiach Tzidkeinu.” In other words, our prime minister, the... government—

32:46 Speaker 4 He is already Moshiach Tzidkeinu.

32:48 Speaker 6 Yes. The Rebbe is the—

32:49 Speaker 4 Yes.

32:49 Speaker 6 One who is running things here, and his words are the—

32:53 Speaker 4 Exactly, exactly.

32:54 Speaker 6 The most correct guidance.

32:55 Speaker 4 Completely, completely, completely. And I want to add another point: very often, reality isn’t something clear-cut. Two people can be in the same situation, and one experiences it as bad while the other experiences it as good. Like the famous analogy the Rebbe gives of an operation: one person can see it as something bad, while another sees it as something good. The more you hold on to the Rebbe’s words, the more good you recognize in the world today. The media is always occupied with the bad parts of reality, but a chossid who is occupied with the Rebbe’s words sees how many people want good, how much good is being spread in the world, how many Jews are awakening, and how much abundance there is in the world today. Suddenly you begin to see the sparks of Geulah with your own eyes. And this connects to a subject we may not have spent much time on: trust in Hashem, “Tracht gut, vet zain gut”—think good and it will be good. The more a person thinks about the good things, the more he begins to see them. It doesn’t remain just a thought detached from reality; suddenly the thought begins to show him the good, and even to create it.

33:58 Speaker 6 Thought creates reality.

33:59 Speaker 4 Yes. Think good and it will be good. Your thoughts of Geulah begin to create it. They have a real effect on the world.

34:06 Speaker 6 That’s an interesting point, because everyone is now quoting the Rebbe’s sicha about trust, in volume 32[?]. But here, Rabbi, you’re applying it to Geulah: when you think Geulah, you create Geulah.

34:18 Speaker 4 If I’m not mistaken, the Rebbe also mentions that at the end of the sicha.

34:20 Speaker 6 At the end, yes.

34:21 Speaker 4 That as a reward for our anticipation and as a reward for the trust we’ve attained—

34:24 Speaker 6 Attained.

34:24 Speaker 4 So it creates, it creates Geulah.

34:27 Speaker 6 So, Rabbi, from what we’re discussing here, it seems there are several stages to this whole special program. There’s the stage of understanding that a descent is not—darkness isn’t only darkness. Rather, it leads to light, and this whole situation is one of Geulah. That’s how I take the situation as it stands—a situation of darkness, a situation of war—and explain to myself, and even to the world, that it belongs to Geulah. But to some extent I might feel disconnected. I could still be in a state where I’m continuing to live—

34:58 Speaker 4 Within the darkness.

34:59 Speaker 6 Within the darkness, with a mindset and patterns of speech and action that belong to exile. And I’m only—because I’m the Rebbe’s soldier—pointing to the situation and identifying it as one of Geulah. Is there a chance that I, too, can enter that space?

35:12 Speaker 4 I think so.

35:14 Speaker 6 Is this an opportunity, then? Or...

35:16 Speaker 4 I think it’s a call to awaken. In Tanya, the Alter Rebbe speaks about a Jew who contemplates how the entire world is nullified. Then the Alter Rebbe says that a person should not exclude himself from this: his body, nefesh, ruach and neshama are also nullified. In other words, this whole idea of exile versus Geulah begins within us, and exists within us as well. After all, “He has placed the world in their hearts.” Everything that happens in the world happens inside me. Inside me, too, there are wars, and sometimes casualties; there is also an awakening to teshuvah, and there is victory, and so on. Certainly, when the Rebbe speaks about “The time of your redemption has arrived,” the Rebbe speaks explicitly about what happens inside Jews—about inner exile and inner Geulah, and about opening our eyes. In other words, if I take what you said and expand on it a little: what did you say? We’re here in a world of exile, speaking about the processes of Geulah within the world’s exile, and we’re creating Geulah there. What we now need to say alongside that, perhaps even more emphatically, is that there is exile within me. I need to remember that within me are the essence of my soul, my connection with the Rebbe, and an element of Geulah. I need to strengthen myself in a state and feeling of inner Geulah. Inner Geulah means that the conduct of the Jewish people is a foretaste of the conduct of the days of Moshiach. I try to live in my world and strengthen the Geulah within me over the exile within me, the faith within me over the questions I have, and strengthen my connection with the Rebbe and with the Rebbe’s teachings about faith. I try, quite explicitly, to make my day—as the Rebbe says in the Dvar Malchus of Pinchas—a day of Geulah. That means I study the daily study portions the Rebbe instituted and learn Torah

37:03 Speaker 4 as in the Geulah. In other words, when I learn Torah, I try to do so without limitations during the time I set aside to sit and learn. And I try to relate to another Jew as I would in the days of Moshiach, and to relate to the world by seeing Divine Providence. That’s stated explicitly, exactly like that. When I bring about a state of Geulah within myself, that’s the first thing. And the great news is that when I do that within myself, it affects the world.

37:31 Speaker 7 “He has also placed the world in their hearts.”

37:33 Speaker 4 Exactly, exactly. There are stories about the Rebbe speaking with people, and about how strengthening their observance of Torah and mitzvos brought protection to another Jew. He told of a mother whom the Rebbe encouraged to keep Shabbos, and how that protected her son in the war. More broadly, there are the Rebbe’s maamarim about the month of Kislev and the teaching, “Hakadosh Boruch Hu did a kindness for the Jewish people by scattering them among the nations.” Jews are dispersed, and a Jew in one place carries out his shlichus and brings strength to the entire Jewish people. When a Jew, in his own place, brings about Geulah, uplift and a connection with the Rebbe, it brings uplift to the entire Jewish people.

38:13 Speaker 7 Dvar Malchus Pinchas.

38:14 Speaker 4 Yes, yes, the same idea.

38:16 Speaker 7 My own place illuminates the entire world.

38:17 Speaker 4 Completely, completely. Exactly so.

38:19 Speaker 7 So we started with a specific discussion about the Gulf War and our war, and we’ve reached the fundamental point underlying all of pages one and two, all the foundations of the Dvar Malchus: living Moshiach, living Geulah.

38:30 Speaker 4 “Turn it over and turn it over, for everything is in it.” All the details are really parts of the same overarching principle.

38:35 Speaker 7 Yasher koach, Rabbi Greisman [?], for your passionate words. We’ve gone from one stage to the next and risen higher.

38:41 Speaker 4 L’chaim.

38:41 Speaker 7 L’chaim, l’chaim, and blessings. We started from somewhat shaky ground, thinking about the situation, and now we’ve reached a place where we’re not only interpreting the situation as one of Geulah; we ourselves are rising to a place of Geulah.

38:57 Speaker 4 With Hashem’s help, immediately, right now.

38:59 Speaker 7 I believe it. Yasher koach, Rabbi Greisman [?]. Thank you very much.

39:01 Speaker 4 L’chaim.

39:02 Speaker 7 L’chaim and blessings. Long live our master, teacher and Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever.

39:07 Speaker 8 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the students of Tomchei Temimim from Ata Haolami. For more programs, dial *6358. Long live our master, teacher and Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever.