Ears to Hear 38 | Getting to Know the Essence of Moshiach's Purpose

00:00 Speaker 1 And Hashem has not 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 the World Atah organization.

00:14 Speaker 3 Since we’re at [unclear], the Rebbe must be giving us the strength to reach the peak. Why? Because we’re preparing for the peak. If we’re preparing for the peak, then the strength we’re being given must be strength for the peak too.

00:39 Speaker 2 Shalom aleichem to all the Temimim in Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch yeshivos throughout the Holy Land and around the world. We’re now beginning a special program in the Ears to Hear audio series, a program permeated with a spirit of steadfast hiskashrus to the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach shlita, and particularly with the precious task of loving and actually welcoming Moshiach. We want to know how to understand and live with the central concern of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach: to live with Moshiach, to love with Moshiach, to welcome Moshiach. This time, our program deals with the essence of Moshiach’s purpose. We want to understand its deep, true meaning—a meaning that isn’t always put on the table, isn’t always emphasized, and isn’t always given the attention it deserves. We’ll speak about the very essence of Moshiach: what lies behind the concepts of “the unique Moshiach” and “the essence of the soul,” those extraordinary concepts the Rebbe explained in sichos, maamarim, and Dvar Malchus. We want to become familiar with this subject and understand what it means, and then, of course, understand how it applies to us in practice: how to live with Moshiach and welcome Moshiach in the truest way, as Temimim living in the seventh generation, on the eve of the Geulah, in the days of Moshiach. We’ll begin with Rabbi Dvorkin, head of the yeshiva ketanah at Tiras Sams[?] in Jerusalem, and discuss the essence of the matter. Shalom aleichem, Rabbi Dvorkin.

02:05 Speaker 3 Aleichem shalom.

02:07 Speaker 2 Well, boruch Hashem. We’re sitting down now for a special program, after a full day in yeshiva.

02:13 Speaker 3 Boruch Hashem.

02:15 Speaker 2 The yeshiva ketanah at Tiras Sams[?] has a whole story of its own, enough for an entire program, but we’ll leave that aside. Let’s talk about the essential nature of Moshiach. With all the attention the Temimim give to Moshiach, how much do we deal with the surface of the subject, and how much with its essence?

02:37 Speaker 3 Yes. To talk about that, perhaps we should begin with the well-known story the Rebbe tells in the early volumes of Likkutei Sichos. Reb Hillel of Paritch kept trying to meet the Alter Rebbe. Eventually, when he saw it wasn’t working out, he went ahead to a place where he knew the Alter Rebbe would arrive and hid under the bed. He had prepared a question on Arachin. When the Alter Rebbe came in, he said, “A young man who has prepared a question on Arachin—evaluations—must first evaluate himself.”

03:19 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

03:20 Speaker 3 When Reb Hillel heard that, he fainted. By the time he came to, the Alter Rebbe had already left. That was the one occasion on which he heard the Alter Rebbe. Usually, people tell this story to teach that everyone needs to take stock of where they stand and evaluate themselves. But we can also take it in the other direction: we need to appreciate ourselves, the great and tremendous strengths we have—particularly the strengths the Rebbe revealed to us and gave us, and revealed that we possess in this most recent period. How are we making use of them? How are we putting them into action? There’s another story about the Rebbe Rashab. From the stories, it seems that even as a young man, during the lifetime of the Tzemach Tzedek, he was regarded as someone exceptional. That’s how the Frierdiker Rebbe tells it—

04:18 Speaker 2 It really comes through in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s descriptions.

04:21 Speaker 3 Yes.

04:21 Speaker 2 You see that point several times.

04:23 Speaker 3 Yes. At one farbrengen where he was sitting with chassidim, one of them asked him, “Tell me, have you ever been wrong in your life?” On the face of it, he meant it as a little jab, as we’d call it today. The Rebbe Rashab answered, “Yes, of course I’ve been wrong.”

04:41 Speaker 2 “What were you wrong about?”

04:42 Speaker 3 “My qualities. I didn’t appreciate them properly.” Today, there’s a tendency—at least among some people, certainly not everyone—to say that not all the demands of earlier times apply now. Times have changed; we must take account of the complexity and difficulties of this generation, and adapt everything accordingly. Yet the Rebbe tells us to live Moshiach. It’s something of a contradiction to say that we must live Moshiach and rise so high, while also saying that we should reduce the demands according to our view of how low and limited this generation is.

05:27 Speaker 2 Because living with Moshiach is the highest possible demand—

05:30 Speaker 3 I think—

05:30 Speaker 2 In every area.

05:31 Speaker 3 Exactly. That’s the plain meaning. In the sicha of Chayei Sarah, the Rebbe says we must prepare the world to welcome Moshiach Tzidkeinu. A great deal has been written about what it means to prepare the world to welcome him. But one way to understand it is that there is a revelation of Moshiach Tzidkeinu’s presence, and our task is to receive it, to accept that revelation and what it means. Receiving isn’t passive: “Fine, someone will give it to me, and I’ll come take it.” Receiving takes work—

06:12 Speaker 2 Creating a vessel to receive it.

06:13 Speaker 3 Exactly: creating a vessel to welcome Moshiach Tzidkeinu. And there in the sicha, the Rebbe explicitly says how to do it: each person should explain the subject of Moshiach to himself and to those around him, in a way they can understand, as it is explained in writing and orally. In other words, we have to understand what Moshiach is about.

06:33 Speaker 2 In other words, when we approach the Rebbe’s demand to prepare the world to welcome Moshiach Tzidkeinu—which, of course, includes us—it begins with understanding what Moshiach is about.

06:43 Speaker 3 That’s—

06:43 Speaker 2 That’s the foundation.

06:44 Speaker 3 It’s written there in black and white.

06:47 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

06:47 Speaker 3 Once you know what Moshiach is about, you can then make yourself a vessel to welcome Moshiach Tzidkeinu. But how can you receive something if you don’t know what it is?

06:54 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm. So before we get into explaining what Moshiach is about, we’re starting from a basic premise: if we’re required to live Moshiach, that’s the highest possible demand. It calls for tremendous depth and for connecting to it with every faculty of the soul. That necessarily tells us we need to study the subject in depth. It isn’t a superficial demand. That’s our starting point. Now let’s explain what Moshiach is about.

07:19 Speaker 3 Yes. I don’t think anyone can even fool himself into saying that “living Moshiach” means being asked to do the bare minimum. Clearly, when the Rebbe expects us to live Moshiach, the demand is a very high one. But we need to know that if the Rebbe demands it, then it is—probably? No, certainly—within our reach.

07:44 Speaker 2 But what, really—this may be a very basic question, yet it’s still heard in yeshivos: who says so? Perhaps the Rebbe’s demand of us as the seventh generation, with [unclear], and all those expressions, means that the point is to bring Moshiach to Jews and to take practical action. We have to learn—fine, we’ll learn about the Geulah and Moshiach. We have to spread the message—we’ll spread the message of the Geulah and Moshiach. But what makes it necessary to devote every faculty of the soul to it?

08:22 Speaker 3 Yes. First, there’s the well-known sicha from Simchas Torah 5746, where the Rebbe says that shliach plus ten—that is, a shliach who uses all ten faculties of his soul—has the numerical value of Moshiach. On the most straightforward level, what is the Rebbe telling us? That we must carry out our shlichus fully, with all ten faculties of the soul. When a Jew does his work with all ten faculties, he reaches the level of Moshiach.

08:48 Speaker 2 To put it more sharply: without all ten faculties of the soul, it isn’t Moshiach.

08:52 Speaker 3 It’s—it isn’t [unclear].

08:54 Speaker 2 Yes, that’s what it says.

08:55 Speaker 3 That’s what it says in the sicha: through the shliach using all ten of his faculties, together they become the reality of Moshiach.

09:03 Speaker 2 So that’s the first point.

09:03 Speaker 3 That’s one. Second, how can I spread the message of Moshiach if I myself don’t know what Moshiach is? What am I spreading? I need to know what Moshiach is and what it means; once I know, I can pass it on. But if I myself don’t know what Moshiach is, how can I spread something I don’t have?

09:29 Speaker 2 So that’s the premise we’re starting with. A question in parentheses. And from here we come to the heart of the matter: trying to understand the inner meaning of Moshiach, the essential point of Moshiach, and from that to understand what Moshiach is and what our avodah is. So how can we sum up such a profound subject in one program?

09:48 Speaker 3 We really can’t. We really can’t. But we can touch on it, at least. Incidentally, I remember seeing in one of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s sichos—I think it was on Simchas Torah—that he spoke about teshuvah, about higher teshuvah, and said: If only we could do lower teshuvah throughout the year as easily as we can do higher teshuvah today. So today—

10:17 Speaker 2 In day-to-day life.

10:18 Speaker 3 Huh?

10:18 Speaker 2 In day-to-day life.

10:19 Speaker 3 Yes. You could explain that he meant that particular day, Simchas Torah or something like that: because of the day itself, it’s so easy to reach higher teshuvah that one wishes it were that easy to reach lower teshuvah all year. But by the same token, we’re in a time of preparation. Again, these aren’t our words; they’re the Rebbe’s words. So this time certainly gives us strengths we wouldn’t dream we had, judging by how we see ourselves. But when you look at the sichos, since we’re in a time of preparation, the Rebbe must be giving us the strength to prepare for the peak. Why? Because that’s what we’re preparing for. And if we’re preparing for the peak, then the strengths being given to us must also be strengths of that magnitude. As you mentioned regarding Moshiach, there are two expressions of the Rebbe’s that I remember. In the kuntres on the essential point of Moshiach, the Rebbe seeks to explain the essence of Chassidus. He explains that we can know its essence from its reward. And since the reward for Chassidus, for spreading the wellsprings outward, is “the Master”—Moshiach—coming, we can understand the essence of Chassidus from the essence of Moshiach. So the Rebbe says there—and everyone knows this—that although many new things will come about with Moshiach’s arrival, the essential point of Moshiach is yechidah.

11:47 Speaker 2 Could we describe that kuntres on the essential point of Moshiach as the foundation for this whole discussion of defining yechidah as the essential point of Moshiach?

11:57 Speaker 3 On the face of it, that’s where it’s explained at the greatest length and in the most detail. And everyone also knows the Rebbe’s sicha from Parshas Toldos 5752, where the Rebbe likewise uses the expression “the essence and essential point of Moshiach.” There the Rebbe said that something should be added and clarified: although we generally say that Moshiach’s coming means revealing the individual spark of Moshiach within each person, as well as, of course, Moshiach for the Jewish people as a whole, and we usually explain this as yechidah, we must add and clarify that the main intent of “his essence and essential point” is the essence of the soul. The essence of the soul must be revealed and brought into its revealed faculties. That is the essence and essential point of Moshiach—I think that’s approximately how it’s worded there. The Rebbe also says there that this is the essential point of Moshiach’s coming.

12:47 Speaker 4 Put simply, without getting into too many fine distinctions in the sources, the kuntres on the essential point of Moshiach and the sicha from Toldos 5752 offer parallel explanations.

12:56 Speaker 3 Yes, they overlap completely. So when we try to explain what it means that yechidah, the essence of the soul, is the essential point of Moshiach, in other words, the Rebbe is asking us to live these ideas. To look at everything from the perspective of yechidah: first at ourselves, then at another Jew, and at the world. To look at everything through the lens of yechidah. There’s also a maamar of the Rebbe’s, [unclear], where the Rebbe asks about the verse, “He redeemed my soul in peace from the battle against me.” If it was in peace, how was there a battle? And if there was a battle, how was it in peace? The Rebbe explains that this can refer even to someone who is still on a low level, who still needs to fight, whose two souls are battling each other—“battle” also suggesting closeness, as they grapple with one another. Yet there can be redemption in peace. How? If he awakens within himself [unclear]. If he awakens the matter of yechidah—he thinks about what yechidah is, contemplates it, and resolves to conduct himself in thought, speech, and action in accordance with yechidah—then “He redeemed my soul in peace.” Even though he’s in a state of “battle against me,” if he thinks about yechidah and resolves to act accordingly, that is redemption in peace. In other words, in his revealed state he may truly be in a battle, still needing to fight hard because the two souls are struggling with each other. But today we’re given the strength to awaken the yechidah, so that at least his actual conduct can accord with it.

14:42 Speaker 4 This is essentially the continuation in those maamarim of 10 Kislev, 19 Kislev, and Chanukah. They do, so to speak, follow the sicha of Shabbos Parshas Toldos 5752, which was said on Rosh Chodesh Kislev.

14:54 Speaker 3 At that time, yes.

14:55 Speaker 4 And that brings us a little closer to seeing how the Rebbe—I don’t know how to put it; you can tell us—how much the Rebbe directs us toward the essence of the soul and yechidah before 7 Adar.

15:06 Speaker 3 Constantly.

15:07 Speaker 4 What? What’s going on behind the scenes?

15:10 Speaker 3 I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. I don’t know.

15:12 Speaker 4 In front of the scenes.

15:13 Speaker 3 What’s written is what the Rebbe said: this is the essential point of Moshiach. This is the true meaning of Moshiach and the true meaning of Moshiach’s coming. The true meaning of Moshiach’s coming is that a Jew must reveal the essence of his soul.

15:27 Speaker 4 I’m trying for a moment to understand—to explain to myself a little better—what’s new about saying that the essential point of Moshiach is yechidah. Perhaps we can understand what it does mean by considering what it doesn’t mean. Suppose we hadn’t been told that Moshiach is yechidah, but that he is nefesh, or ruach, or another level. How would we picture Moshiach? What’s new about yechidah, the essence of the soul?

15:51 Speaker 3 We’re close to completing the Rambam, after all. When we look at how the Rambam explains Moshiach, he describes major changes in the world. Torah and mitzvos will be observed in their entirety, including those that aren’t really possible to observe during the exile. There will be no jealousy, hatred, competition, hunger, or war. Delicacies will be as plentiful as dust, and the whole world’s occupation will be solely to know Hashem. Clearly, all of that is wonderful. It’s a perfect world—the fullest realization of what we can only dream the world could be. That’s what will happen when Moshiach comes. And certainly these are among the things that will happen then; they’re important, central, all-encompassing things. But when we want to focus on the point itself—what is the point of Moshiach? It’s that in every person, yechidah, the essence of the soul, will be revealed. And that finds expression in many details. For example, how a Jew looks at himself, as we said. There’s that story everyone knows, which the Rebbe tells in Likkutei Dibburim, about [unclear], who asked for something more in the blessing. The Rebbe asks there: How could it be that the Alter Rebbe—

17:18 Speaker 5 You can tell the story.

17:20 Speaker 3 The Alter Rebbe wanted to bless him with long life. At first he wanted to bless him with wealth, but he didn’t want that at all. No—he wanted to bless him with long life. So he said, “All right, but they shouldn’t be peasant years.” And the Rebbe asks there: How can that be? Someone is about to be blessed with long life, and he—

17:37 Speaker 5 Sets a limit.

17:38 Speaker 3 And has conditions. He says, “I’m willing to accept that blessing, but only on condition—with something added.” How could there be such a thing? The Rebbe explains, in short, that he wasn’t asking for an addition. He wasn’t asking for a blessing of long life plus seeing G-dliness and hearing G-dliness. No. To him, life without seeing G-dliness and hearing G-dliness wasn’t life.

18:06 Speaker 5 A transient life.

18:07 Speaker 3 A transient life isn’t life.

18:08 Speaker 5 Mm-hm.

18:09 Speaker 3 It isn’t a transient life. A transient life isn’t life.

18:11 Speaker 5 Mm-hm.

18:11 Speaker 3 Now the Rebbe gives an extreme example there: they took a king’s son and put him in a cattle shed. For him, that isn’t life. He would be sick of living, because a king’s son knows that his whole life is his connection with his father, the king. That is his life. He knows no other option, no other possibility. There is nothing else. In other words, from the perspective of yechidah, that is truly what matters to him. For him, life without seeing G-dliness and hearing G-dliness is not life. So he wasn’t asking for something extra. He was asking for life.

18:42 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

18:42 Speaker 3 He was asking for life, and for him, life meant only seeing G-dliness and hearing G-dliness. In other words, from the perspective of yechidah, how does a Jew see himself—what does it mean for him to be alive? What does it mean for him to be alive? That he is with his father, the king. That he sees G-dliness, hears G-dliness. He lives G-dliness. He lives his connection with his father, the king. Without that, it isn’t life. It doesn’t even fall under the definition of life. This way of seeing things can come only from yechidah. And the Rebbe is telling us, in effect, that every person can reach this special state, where this is his life; G-dliness is not something added on to him.

19:20 Speaker 5 As it would be on the levels of ruach and nefesh and neshamah.

19:23 Speaker 3 Exactly, yes. So it isn’t that I’m a Jew and I also keep Torah and mitzvos. I’m a Jew and I also learn Chassidus. I’m a Jew and I also have a profession. There’s me, and then I do a whole range of other things. No—this is the only reality there is. The only reality is G-dliness. And it’s the same with the Rebbe’s way of looking at the world: from the perspective of yechidah, the world is, from the outset, truly nothing, and its entire existence is renewed every moment. Now, for that to be a matter of faith—yes, anyone can learn that yechidah is faith, and everyone can think they understand it.

20:04 Speaker 5 Yes.

20:04 Speaker 3 But as the Rebbe says, to recognize it and feel it that way—for a Jew to truly feel that G-dliness is self-evident and real—that can only come from the yechidah of the soul. So, in short, the same applies to the 613 mitzvos. The Rebbe explains how you can look at them through the lens of nefesh, ruach, neshamah and chayah, or you can look at them the way yechidah does.

20:38 Speaker 6 So if I use the opposite case to understand what is meant: if I were living with Moshiach on the level of nefesh, it could be that all my actions would remain just actions. I would study subjects about Moshiach, spread teachings about Moshiach, do practical things—and my inner life could be somewhere else entirely. When you’re asked to live with Moshiach on the level of the essence of the soul, which is the central point of Moshiach, you’re being asked to be involved in it with your entire being.

21:04 Speaker 3 And automatically.

21:05 Speaker 6 Automatically.

21:05 Speaker 3 If yechidah truly shines in me, then everything in my life naturally becomes part of it. It isn’t something extra. It can’t be, from the perspective of yechidah. There’s no room for anything else. Take the way the Rebbe explains the category of mishpatim, with the prohibition against stealing. Well, what of it? You can see it as the most rational thing imaginable: if we don’t want the world to descend into chaos, then people mustn’t steal. But if you look at it from the perspective of G-dliness, it’s Hashem’s will. Why don’t I steal? Because that is Hashem’s will. And through the lens of yechidah, it goes even further: the very fact that I understand why stealing is forbidden is itself because Hashem willed it that way. The fact that my mind understands it—

21:52 Speaker 6 That’s really the deeper explanation in that sicha.

21:54 Speaker 3 Yes, yes. So a Jew can grasp that my understanding that stealing is forbidden isn’t just because, obviously, it’s unacceptable and unthinkable—otherwise the world would be a chaotic jungle. No. Why not steal? Why not steal? Because Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded it. And the very fact that the mind understands that stealing is forbidden, that it’s unthinkable for a person to steal—that itself comes from Sinai, because it is Hashem’s will. So naturally it permeates the intellect too.

22:22 Speaker 6 You mentioned “Do not steal.” This connects, though it’s not exactly the same explanation: in the series of maamarim for Yud Shvat 5745, in a sicha from 5745, the Rebbe cites a maamar pointing out what was seen in practice. Those who held that the Ten Commandments should be observed only on the basis of reason and logic did uphold “Do not steal” and “Do not murder.” But because “I am Hashem your G-d”—the essential point—wasn’t at the forefront of their minds, we see how even those commandments gradually fell away.

22:53 Speaker 3 So even the things that seem self-evident to the intellect—

22:56 Speaker 6 Even those, in the end.

22:57 Speaker 3 The same applies if we take the maamar Ve’atah Tetzaveh. There too, it’s stressed very strongly: the Rebbe speaks about how a Jew needs to awaken the essence within himself in this way. But the point is that a Jew needs to know, recognize and truly appreciate who he is, and not look at himself otherwise. A Jew needs to know what the Rashbatz said: we mustn’t be mistaken about our own qualities. We have been given the ability to live and look at things in accordance with their true reality. Because every Jew has the essence of the soul—meaning that he is one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and his entire concern is his connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu—he can, and must, look at everything from the perspective of yechidah. Then, naturally, all his thought, speech and action must accord with yechidah. Here’s another example, one we can bring down to something even more everyday: simple Ahavas Yisroel. If someone hurt him, then from the perspective of nefesh, ruach and neshamah, let’s say, he must certainly, according to Torah, overlook the offense and repay the person with kindness. On a still higher level, one could say: who hurt me in the first place? There is no offender and no injured party; there is nothing besides Him. There is no independent reality of an injury at all. And that is true, of course. But you can also look at it as it says in Tanya: everything is by Divine providence. So if someone said this or did that, then, yes—

24:33 Speaker 7 Hashem’s patience is well known.

24:35 Speaker 3 Exactly. So what happened to me had already been decreed. That person was simply Hashem’s messenger. In other words, I needed to hear it; I needed to receive it.

24:42 Speaker 7 Why is that a yechidah perspective? Because from the outset, all I see here is the reality of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—

24:46 Speaker 3 It’s all G-dliness. Exactly. I don’t look at it as something centered on me—as though someone hurt me and now I need to forgive him. Well, if I don’t forgive, then whom am I not forgiving?

24:52 Speaker 7 All of reality is G-dliness.

24:53 Speaker 3 From the outset.

24:54 Speaker 7 It brings to mind that sicha of the Frierdiker Rebbe, where he asks: what’s the difference between “everything is G-dliness” and “G-dliness is everything”? The question is: what is your starting point? Is everything G-dliness, or is G-dliness everything? If you say “everything is G-dliness,” you begin with the reality of “everything”: all that you see before your eyes, all that you regard as real from your point of view—and ultimately, that too is G-dliness. When you say “G-dliness is everything,” G-dliness is the existing reality, and everything is included within it. All the details are included in the essence from the outset. Maybe you could describe that as G-dliness being inherently self-evident.

25:27 Speaker 3 G-dliness as the self-evident reality.

25:28 Speaker 7 Mm-hmm.

25:29 Speaker 3 So, yes, again, it’s true that we look at ourselves and think we don’t belong to such levels, such things. But at least to some small extent, in our own lives—at least in thought, speech or action, at least in the soul’s garments—a Jew certainly can and must get used to this kind of—

25:46 Speaker 7 Orientation.

25:46 Speaker 3 To this kind of way of being. Yes.

25:48 Speaker 7 So how, in practice, do we begin? If I’ve understood the last quarter of an hour, we’ve defined the central point of Moshiach as yechidah, the essence of the soul. Where do I start if I really want to change direction in how I live with Moshiach, in my belief in Moshiach? Do I start by studying the Rebbe’s sichos about Moshiach, by trying to daven, or by contemplating my own essence and the essence of Moshiach? Where do I start? What can guide me, little by little or very quickly? What’s the right path to reach a place where I live on the level of yechidah, the essence of the soul?

26:24 Speaker 3 So, as we said, to live with yechidah, I need to know what yechidah is. I simply need to take the Rebbe’s sichos and maamarim that discuss it at length and in depth, and learn what it means and how it expresses itself. It’s true that you can’t say even half a word about the essence itself, as in the well-known story—certainly not. But how does it express itself?

26:44 Speaker 7 That we can talk about.

26:45 Speaker 3 Huh?

26:45 Speaker 7 We can talk about how it expresses itself.

26:46 Speaker 3 Of course we can, and we must. In fact, that’s the main part of the kuntres on this subject: the Rebbe speaks there explicitly about how yechidah expresses itself in every detail.

26:55 Speaker 7 Mm-hmm.

26:56 Speaker 3 So when we learn what yechidah is, we can begin to translate it into the small change of thought, speech, and action, so that every single detail truly fits and corresponds to yechidah. But if we don’t think about the subject at all, if we don’t know it—if all we know is that there’s such a concept called yechidah, but we don’t know how it expresses itself or what it means—then it’s very hard to live with Moshiach. It’s hard to live with the central point of Moshiach.

27:21 Speaker 7 I remember that when we were students in yeshivah ketanah, we tried to understand yechidah and couldn’t, because a student in yeshivah ketanah can’t always grasp it. Maybe students in yeshivah gedolah are already at that point [unclear]. We didn’t really understand what yechidah, the essence of the soul, was. But we saw that in section 13 the Rebbe says it must express itself in Ahavas Yisroel between people, in material matters. I remember that at lunch that day, one student bought sweet drinks for all the students at the table. [unclear] It was as if he wanted to emphasize: “I don’t know what the essence of the soul and yechidah are, but I know how they express themselves. This is how they express themselves.” But I think that’s a little shallow. I mean, we need to get from the essence to the details, not from the details to the essence. So if I really ask, as a student in yeshivah ketanah or yeshivah gedolah, for guidance: What should I learn to at least begin to understand yechidah? What’s the initial list of sichos on the subject?

28:30 Speaker 8 The kuntres on this subject is the foundation. And of course, besides that kuntres, where it’s discussed at length, there’s the Rebbe’s maamar of 10 Kislev in Likkutei Dibburim, Chanukah. It’s presented there in great depth and detail.

28:45 Speaker 7 Mm-hmm.

28:47 Speaker 8 There the Rebbe may use more concepts from Kabbalah and pnimiyus, like Atika D’lo Ityada, but that’s what he means and what he’s getting at. So when you learn these subjects—and when I say “learn,” I don’t mean what people sometimes think learning means: “Fine, I went through it once or twice. I can even repeat a little of what it says.” It’s well known that the Rebbe would say in his father’s name that it’s better to learn one maamar thirty times than to learn thirty maamarim.

29:20 Speaker 7 Mm-hmm.

29:21 Speaker 8 That isn’t an exaggeration. When you hear or learn someone explaining one subject again and again, only then can you reach the threshold. Knowing superficially that “this sicha discusses it, and that maamar discusses it” is very good, very important, and necessary; it has all those virtues. But if we’re talking about living with a particular idea, you can’t live with it before learning it many, many times and farbrenging about it among ourselves, in thought and in speech. Only then can you begin to enter into it.

30:01 Speaker 7 Mm-hmm.

30:01 Speaker 8 When you learn it—that’s why the Rebbe says in that maamar in Likkutei Dibburim that a Jew should think and contemplate yechidah. He should think about it. Again, only as far as our limited understanding can reach. But we have to use what we’ve been given. So when you learn it over and over and try to internalize it a little, to let it permeate you, then the fire below brings down the fire above as well.

30:27 Speaker 7 So those are the details we’ll begin to learn. Every student who really wants to progress in this subject can gradually confront it. But how can I test myself to see whether I’m really living with it while doing these things, while learning, while—

30:45 Speaker 8 If you look at your friend and see “a part of G-d above”—what does that mean? It’s a way of looking at another Jew and knowing that this is the essence of who he is. His very essence is literally a part of G-d above. That’s who he is. Everything else you see is real enough; it isn’t imaginary. But those are secondary things, things that have become attached to him and need to be dealt with. When you see another Jew—and not just some Jew on the street [unclear], but the friend you live with all the time, whom you know inside and out, and whose actions and thoughts you know so well—you know that his essential being is something of which it is said, “He and His life-forces and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are one.” And that’s how you look at him, and how you look at yourself. Then we know we’ve begun, at least a little—

31:34 Speaker 7 To touch it.

31:35 Speaker 8 Barely. Barely, I—

31:36 Speaker 7 According to what you’re saying, Rabbi, the real test is how we look at another Jew. So it follows that the sicha of Vayakhel 5752, our last sicha, [unclear] Melech HaMoshiach, is really the test: Have you grasped the essence of the soul? Can we say that? I see you’re wary of definitions, Rabbi.

31:56 Speaker 8 I don’t want to say that the Rebbe presented it as a test, but for me it’s clear—

32:00 Speaker 7 In our lives.

32:01 Speaker 8 For me, it’s clearly a test. If I know that I’m one half and the other Jew is the other half, and only together can we be a holy shekel, that’s the first measure of whether I’m really looking at things properly—at least in how I see them. I’m not even talking now about—if we see things that way and act that way, we know we’re at least heading in the right direction.

32:27 Speaker 7 Before we finish the program, I want to return with you, Rabbi, to the point you opened with: what today we might call feelings of inferiority, that attitude of “Who am I?” You spoke very strongly about how everyone needs to recognize their own qualities, to recognize who they are, and that the highest recognition of who I am is my essence, the essence of my soul. How do I deal with situations that everyone encounters, when I ask, “Who am I, and what am I?” The Rebbe himself mentions this in the first maamar. “Who am I? Where did I come from? How many qualities do I really have?” How do we deal with these so-called feelings of inferiority, set them aside, and put my essence—my truth—at the center? How do we do that?

33:14 Speaker 8 In the sicha of Toldos 5752, there’s a very interesting expression. The Rebbe says there that even before a person awakens his yechidah within himself—meaning his bittul, his devotion, and his acknowledgment of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—the very fact that he knows he has the essence of the soul, that knowledge itself—right?

33:32 Speaker 7 Yes, the knowledge itself.

33:33 Speaker 8 The knowledge itself—

33:33 Speaker 7 That’s the great thing.

33:34 Speaker 8 It will later bring him to do everything he needs to do, with the essence of the soul revealed. In other words, we need to instill that knowledge in ourselves, but to know it deeply. A Jew needs to know that from the moment he awakens from sleep, before he’s even involved in anything. And not only physically, when he wakes from sleep—

33:54 Speaker 7 He sleeps with both souls.

33:55 Speaker 8 Exactly. [unclear] But the moment he comes to himself, the moment he wakes up, he knows: “I’m a Jew.” What does that mean? “I am one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” Once he puts that on the table, puts it before his eyes, everything else melts away like wax before a fire.

34:16 Speaker 7 So the main work is really knowing—keeping this in our awareness all the time. That takes work: placing it before ourselves again and again, reminding ourselves again and again. But that’s the main point. In that light, perhaps we can apply the wording “to know and recognize”: knowing and recognizing that we stand on the threshold of the Geulah includes knowing and recognizing that we’re living in the time of the essence of the soul, of yechidah. And that, generally, brings along all the details.

34:42 Speaker 8 Again, this is Moshiach. We need to understand that this isn’t something—

34:45 Speaker 7 It isn’t a detail.

34:45 Speaker 8 It’s not a detail, and it’s not a general principle. It’s the essence of the matter. That’s the main point. It isn’t just one more thing—when Moshiach comes, we’ll have this and that and that, and also a revelation of the essence. No. It isn’t something additional; it’s the very essence of the matter. Just the opposite: everything else is additional. Everything else is a result of it, but this is the essence. That’s the point.

35:06 Speaker 7 Thank you very much, Rabbi Bruskin[unclear]. This program really focused us and took us from a shallow, superficial view of Moshiach to a deeper place. It also gave us practical tools—what to learn, where to start learning, and how to remind ourselves of this knowledge again and again. So, with Hashem’s help, may we merit the revelation of the soul’s essence, the yechidah, and the complete revelation of the Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach.

35:32 Speaker 8 Amen. Immediately, right now.

35:34 Speaker 7 Amen. Thank you very much.

35:36 Speaker 8 Long live our master, our teacher, and our Rebbe, the King Moshiach, forever and ever.

35:40 Speaker 7 Thank you very much, Rabbi Bruskin[unclear].

35:43 Speaker 9 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the students of the Temimim from Ata Haolami, and additional programs. Dial star six three five eight. Long live our master, our teacher, and our Rebbe, the King Moshiach, forever and ever.