The Jewish Concept of Messiah, Explained

our subject today is actually probably i would say probably it is the most important subject except most of the time we're too busy with other things to realize what the main point is what's the most important thing and so the the subject which is you know the purpose of it all is every single thing that we do everything we profess to believe all the purpose and meaning that we're in pursuit of is actually for one purpose only one ultimate purpose and sometimes that purpose is obscured in our own eyes what do i mean by that that literally since the beginning of creation when we know god created heaven and earth the torah tells us the spirit of god hovered over the water that's like chapter one verse one in the beginning god created and the midrash tells us what does this mean it actually means that the ruach the spirit of mashiach was already hovering over the water at day one at the beginning of creation embedded in the story of creation was its ultimate purpose which was what that we all should realize a time when things don't look the way they always did the issue that we have is very often this subject for whatever reason and there's a lot of reasons scares people what do you mean some wizards gonna come down and like disrupt everything or change everything or save us from some big issue or problem and so throughout history when you say the word mashiach you usually get a very great range of variety of reactions unfortunately not all of those reactions are how they're meant to be meaning you have people that are concerned people that are worried people that are afraid or people that are just so bewildered by what it's going to look like that you know better what i know than the you know the fear of the unknown and the truth of the matter is that since the times of the altareba the concept of mashiach has radically been presented in a much more palatable way for all of us to understand and what is that in a nutshell that mashiach is not outside of us coming to save us from ourselves but rather the concept of mashiach is that embedded within nature within history within their entire survival as the people and within each and every one of us is this idea that light and goodness will ultimately prevail over darkness and it's not something that you need you know some wizard on a on a donkey or an eagle or a broom to take care of for you but that we each and every one of us individuals have the ability within ourselves to see the world through this light to be that light in this world and to actually bring the world to the place it was always meant to go so i'll share a um you know a i would say a parable an analogy um there's two brothers and they are born into a family that's very musically gifted the father's a composer the mother's an incredible musician and so from a very young age they're surrounded by music and they obviously are given lessons and training and they both um really advanced and are composing and performing music at a very young age and sadly around 18 years old they were both in a car accident and it it caused many many health traumas to these two uh brothers but the most lasting and impactful issue that they experienced was hearing loss they became deaf so they still had some like vibration sense but they couldn't hear and so as young 18 year old boys one of them was like i can't do music if i can't hear i can't compose i can't write i can't play and he pursued other arts whether it was sculpting or painting as well as his education and the other brother we'll call him david he was so passionate about music and he was so in invested in this creativity that he had and the ability that he had to not just write beautiful music but to compose and to and other people should enjoy it that he didn't give it up even though he his hearing was down to some vibrations he continued to write he continued to to um have symphonies performed from the pieces that he composed and about 15 years after this accident technology had advanced to such a degree that they there was this new um procedure where they could put a cochlear implant into someone's ear with the hope to bring back the hearing that had been lost and so obviously they signed up for this medical procedure and both of them thank god it was successful and this cochlear implant brought back the hearing to both of them so what do they do their first day back into the world where they could hear it's been you know a decade and a half since they had this beautiful gift and and privilege which we all kind of take for granted you hear because you have ears right the they decided to spend the evening going to a performance of the brother david who had never given up his music of the symphony that he had written when he couldn't even hear and so imagine the scene of these two brothers sitting in this room all the musicians are on stage they're they're you know sharing this incredible melody and imagine the experience of these two brothers one who had kind of moved on from his music but the other who despite severe restrictions and his inability to actually hear what he was doing to now be able to appreciate that so i don't know if the story ever happened you know it's like one of those stories that's more the illustration of you know what we're trying to bring out and that is that we're living in a time where the actions that we do the goodness that we're looking to perform acts of goodness and kindness living a life with purpose not always can we hear the music or the result the end result of what this symphony is actually accomplishing because very often we're bumping around in the dark we're literally you know it's like we're we we have an idea we have the talent we have something within us but the end result we're not hearing so imagine the difference between these two brothers experience of keep doing what you know you were created to do and what that result will look like in the end and really that's in a sense what all of us have been doing through through our history so i'll give you a personal story that's that's uh maybe drives us home and this one's true my both my parents grew up in um very secular wonderful warm but very secular homes where they knew they were jewish but they were you know everyone likes to what type are you reformed are you conservative are you alter this no no we're the leave us alone juice just leave us alone we're doing the american dream thing that was their their brand or their label and uh not to go into a whole other story but when they were both college students that was when they started to ask like some basic questions like okay i know i'm jewish but am i supposed to do anything about it is it supposed to inform any way you know that i go about my life in the world and luckily for them there were some young who had come to campus as not permanent you know setting up the chabadas but they would come every so often and um being that my father was the president of the jewish fraternity which really opened his eyes that a lot of jews know a lot of things about judaism that he didn't he had the opportunity to start asking questions and getting real answers and my parents for the first time were invited to a shabbos meal and a seder and you want to know what happens on rosh hashanah come we'll show you etc and long story short we're fast forwarding a good number of years my parents both decided before they were got married they actually had a yeshides a meeting with the rebbe before their um wedding and they decided you know what we were raised you know as fine american upstanding you know citizens but we want to give our kids what we didn't have which is a really strong truthful jewish education i'm saying altar sakai their state my mother probably still can't pronounce that but like the real good old-fashioned way that we weren't privileged to have and so they sent us when i say us um my mother always said she always imagined she would have two daughters so she did but she also had eight sons it was pretty chaotic pretty hectic she's my parents sent us to haiter lobovich in morristown where my brothers learned yiddish the whole day i don't even believe english was an option in in those days so they went you know hook line and sinker as they say or they drank the kosher kool-aid whatever you know way you want to describe it but i remember this um incident very it's like i i it's something i think about or i go back too often my i have two brothers who are older than me six that are younger than me and my youngest baby sister who's married to a lovely guy from chicago his dad's here in the room and my brother who's right above me came home from school was in first grade and he um he needed help with his homework very normal typical thing except his homework was all in yiddish and there's no way my mother was going to be able to help him my mother's a college grad she's a valedictorian of her university in manhattan like highly educated woman but first grade yiddish questions was passed above her pay grade so my brother says my my brother says to my mother ma i need some help with you know whatever translating what the question is so my mother looked down at my brother's paper and a few tears were in her eyes because here she is she can help her son with his homework so my brother is very intuitive very sensitive to people's feelings and um he looked up at my mother and he realized right away he's like don't worry don't worry i'll call like don't be upset i'll call benjamin you know i'll call my friend in the class he'll help me like don't get upset so my mother turns to my brother and she says i'm not upset because i can't help you with your homework um these are tears of joy that i know when your child is going to come home from school and going to ask you to help them with your homework you're going to be able to without a problem i'm i'm happy and that concept of the fact that we go through a lot in life but if we're looking in the right direction and if we're focused on the future and what's to come and the positivity ahead of us the same exact scenario is either one for despair or you know feeling very frustrated feeling very upset or it's something that actually not only could i do something about this but in the future i'm going to see the light that's in there and what's so fascinating is very often we need people outside of our tribe to remind us what it is that we should know and we do know inside but we sometimes forget and so i want to read to you just a quote there's a very famous historian he spent many years studying jewish history he wrote a book the gift of the jews you probably um are familiar with him his last name is johnson typical it sounds like a generic but he wrote the gift of the jews paul johnson and he studied 4 000 years of jewish history you know where we came and went and all the stops and bumps along our roller coaster ride of history which we know has not been you know pretty and uh the the one sentence that i want to share with you only because again sometimes you need someone outside to remind you what does he say this was his conclusion after studying four thousand years of jewish history no people has ever insisted more firmly than the jews that history has a purpose and humanity has a destiny at a very early stage he says they had detected a divine scheme for human race they clung to it with heroic persistence in the face of savage suffering many of them believe it still meaning his conclusion from jewish history was there's a purpose there's a destiny and there's a direction that we're heading in it's not just random chaos that occurred and a bunch of you know horrors throughout history and we managed to survive here we are a little broken and a little bruised still here no no we're actually heading somewhere with intention with purpose and it's been embedded from the beginning along the way hopefully we don't lose the message and so as as i i mentioned very often in our history people assume that mashiach is you know someone who's going to come and save us a savior we're going to be in a rough spot and someone's going to you know kind of take us out and for some people that sounds very exciting and they're looking forward to that and for other people it's like no no life's okay i'm doing all right i have what i need please don't come and wreck anything up like it's okay but really the truth is and from the first chabad rabbit all the way till hour this concept of not someone outside of us coming to save us from ourselves has been embedded very very deeply into our psyche so an example is and this began at the beginning of uh the i would say about almost 300 years ago when the bashante of the founder of the hasidic movement introduced something to judaism that had always been there but buried he brought it to the fore what was that that hashem loves every single one of us equally and that no matter who you are and what you do and how you show up in the world you have unbelievable importance and value in hashem's eyes and for that we should celebrate and we should we should experience life in a joyful way but there were people who were very bent out of shape about this idea what do you mean if you're a scholar if you work hard if you do well then you have what to be proud of if you're just a shoemaker if you're just a water carrier if you just you know chop wood what's like you should feel so wonderful it's ridiculous and not only that they were very upset about this idea that we're living in such horrible times and you guys are dancing we're called you're singing you're dancing you're you know you're are you out of touch with what's going on we're we're poverty-stricken we don't have rights we don't have you know an ability to express ourselves and you're you're oblivious to reality so this one fella was very bent out of shape he came to the balsham and he said i don't understand you and your whole movement are you guys so out of touch with the world you're so not in tune with the the darkness of you know the the shtetl and the ghetto that you guys are are joyful and happy like you must be he didn't say smoking something but you just you just not not in touch with what's going on and he was bent out of shape about this he was upset he's like no if you if you wake up and you smell the hummus and you look around there's nothing to be so excited about it's it's rough life so what happens if bashantiv turns to him and like any god hasidic master he says i want to tell you a little story so he tells this this gruntled gentleman he's like this is a story there's a very incredibly talented musician and i'm specifically going to musician again who was never trained never learned anything but innately he could pick up an instrument and just play i don't know if anybody knows someone in their lives who just has that natural ability you give them you know you sit them in front of a piano you give them a guitar somehow they just know what to do music beautiful music comes out so this gentleman incredibly gifted and what would he do he would go into the marketplace and he would play on he his instrument was a violin he would play a little on the violin and people would gather around because they were drawn into this beautiful music so one tuesday afternoon he needs a few you know shillings kopecks whatever it was to pay for the next meal he opens his case he sits down on a little stump in the you know edge of the marketplace and he starts to play a nice melody and he's playing it's a slow melody and slowly the tempo is growing and it's getting you know faster and the harmony and the the music is building in in tempo and people start to gather around one person another sooner crowds gathering and what happens when you're surrounded by beautiful music i know you probably had it last night an experience where you weren't even in the mood you were tired you're stuffed you're exhausted but but the music draws you in there's something about music that that reaches into your soul and people all of a sudden one guy grabs another and enough the market places erupts into dancing people are dancing in circles and as the dance two people you grab a third you grab a fourth circles and circles around this musician and it looks like a huge celebration except it's a tuesday in the marketplace so what happens a deaf man at the end of the village comes to the market and he sees everyone's gone mad everybody's nuts what why's everyone it's a tuesday morning and everyone's dancing around there's no celebration there's no holiday there's no wedding what's going on here so the balchemtev turns to this gentleman and says what would you explain to this man who can't hear what he's looking at he's missing the music if he heard the music he wouldn't have any question why people are dancing he wouldn't have any question why there's a celebration he would hear the music and he would be innate to him that there's something to celebrate so in the context of this idea of jewish history being propelling us forward to a time when the light and the music of our souls of our connection to hashem is playing in such a way that we could hear it and see it we don't have that question why are we dancing because if yiddishkai and judaism is actually about bringing us to a time when the light and the beauty and the joy of being connected to hashem is what our perceived reality is we don't have a question what are you happy about yes we could look around the world and we could say there's all this chaos and crisis and trauma and awful things what is there to celebrate or we could look at the very same scenarios around us the very same you know cities and countries that we live in and find that in every single corner of the world the world is progressing like a steady drum beat of progress and when i say progress i mean that light of hashem brought down in the world through each of our souls and through the scenarios around us so you have if you look if you if you zoom out of you know history of our our world and for seven years i actually taught history like american history so it's a fascinating thing that you see the improvement of human beings on planet earth our ability to access education and and express ourselves and have the ability to be who we want to be that was something a hundred years ago a thousand years ago was so much more challenging to accomplish than what human beings experienced today and being on a college campus what always just blows my mind is that okay emory may be a little bit unique because it's a very privileged school in terms of the students who are there many of them are not working to put themselves through many of them are coming from you know more of a privileged background where education is just like a right you know you it's what it's what you get and and most of them are coming from very comfortable living um you know upbringings and what always is amazing to me is that just getting a job to just make money for your average student not someone who's spiritually in tuned or plugged in is not good enough your average student today in 2021 wants purpose wants meaning wants to do something for others wants to do something that counts wants to do something that makes a difference in the world it's not enough that i'm just gonna i'm not saying it's completely not a consideration but just doing well and paying the bills and living a comfortable life for your average student today isn't good enough if that's not a proof meaning go back 100 or 200 years old people's mindset was like could you put bread on the table could you you know could your kids have shoes it was a very survive and and see if you could make it to the next day i'm talking about humanity not just the jewish world today that's i'm not saying that's everywhere in the world i i prefaced it by saying it's a privileged um part of society but if you think about it the fact that the whole world today countries all around the world are concerned about feeding their citizens providing education for their citizens that people no matter their background have more of an ability to reach for whatever it is that they want than at any other time in history and yes there's a long way to go and yes there's a lot of things that are not the way it they're supposed to be but this is absolutely what yiddish guide has been infusing within us since the beginning of time that we're getting closer to a time think of think of the technology that we have if you would call your great grandmother and tell her i could see my grandkid or i could see my sister across the world instantaneously on the phone her her image they would think you're describing something messianic describe how you do your laundry i stick it in a a big box i push a button it comes out clean no going down to the river and scrubbing think of medicine think of modern medicine and the crazy technology that we have what do you mean there's a blockage in your heart i can go in and and fix it the lifespan of people if you just look at the physics the actual physical and material living that we experience today and describe it i'm not talking biblically a thousand two thousand three thousand years ago describe it to your great grandmother she wouldn't even believe what you're telling her what do you mean you can write a letter and hit a button and someone across the world will read it that moment what do you mean you know it's it's like that famous analogy of you know uh someone coming from a third world country and he gets uh some sort of he falls he bangs his head on a rock and he has an injury so they quickly wheeled him into a hospital room and any observer who's looking at what's going on and doesn't have an idea about modern technology it looks like the most horrific gruesome scene here's this guy he was injured and there's people in masks with lights all dressed up in green and blue and they're you know cutting and sewing and and pumping and syringing it looks like torture and abuse when everybody today knows it's called surgery they're repairing they're healing they're causing this this young person to now have you know a future with health etc so we take these things for granted in such a dramatic way and the rebbe from i believe in 1956 the rabbit wrote a letter to the then president of israel and the rebbe said from the moment that he was a young young child and hater he visualized and imagined a world where mashiach was the reality so the rabbit didn't describe i imagine the world where we were saved by you know someone who came to scoop us out of the problems no what the rabbit described as a world where meshiach is a reality meaning each and every one of us understand that we have an ability to live our lives with such a focus we have the ability to see not just ourselves but also others in this way and that bringing us to this place is not so foreign if you actually look at what's going on in the world so i wanna um see where i put it i wanted to share this two facts and then a story so what's interesting is that any single one of us who's ever opened a sitter whether it was to do grace after meal whether it was to do a shimona esre whether it was any any prayer that is you know something that you've done you probably don't even realize and i'll just pick the shmona esri because it's like a central prayer that said three times a day it's supposed to has 18 it was actually a 19th was added but it's still called shmona s ray the 18 benedictions in those prayers that we say three times a day if we're if we're davening three times a day or even if you go to shoal once a year you're still going to get this in god bless you a third six out of those prayers so we have one about the economy and one about health and one about you know all the different things we ask for six of them is us asking hashem we bring this time usher in this era bring this light it's not just embedded in our prayers it's also one of the 13 principles of faith that the rambam writes that one must believe in this concept or else everything they do in terms of learning torah and performing mitzvot is questionable if you don't realize that it's bringing you somewhere that it's for a purpose that all of these acts and this whole lifestyle is to actually get you to a different mind space and head space and so what's interesting is people sometimes ask you know wait so if like mashiach comes so you know you're saying we want mashiach now and every good deed will bring mashiach closer when mashiach comes like you're going to be out of business right because like your chabad house you have a chabad house people come and they they participate in shabbos miller in a class and they are able to ask questions and kind of tap into their jewish heritage and tradition wherever they're at whatever they they're interested in mashiach comes everything's going to be you're going to be out of business what are you going to do like retire and go drink pita coladas and a hammock and some you know i don't know beach resort like what are you going to do and it's a it's a funny question because it's missing what actually mashtiyach means it's not an end of the work it's a transformation of one thing and one thing only and what is that so the rebbe very often would explain that if you actually write down the word that we use for gullus gola where we where gullus is exile which we kind of find ourselves in what are we exiled from that the light of god is not readily apparent what's apparent the challenge the difficulty the darkness that i could see that you know that i got the light and the goodness that's an exile it's hidden it's it's removed from our immediate vision when we are redeemed what does that mean so the rebbe explained if you look at the hebrew letters of these two words they're exactly the same except for one letter and that is the letter aleph if you add the letter aleph you go for you get from galos gola to goula what's the aleph it's just an awareness it's just an awareness that what was lacking in our world was we didn't see the purpose we didn't see the godliness we didn't see that light that was what was concealed so is there a dramatic difference yes it's a dramatic difference kind of like if i shut the lights in this room there are no windows we would all see nothing nothing in this room would change everyone's in here with the clothing that they're wearing nothing's going to look any different but if the lights off our perception of who's in here and what's in here is completely different than if we flick the light on so what's goola the aleph is revealed that light is revealed inside each and every one of us and the world around us so you have this one letter difference that actually provides an incredible view that's different so when people say when she comes you're going to be out of business no not at all what's the difference now we're working in the dark the lights are off on darkness we're trying to repair brokenness and darkness in the dark so it's a lot of fumbling it's pretty messy it doesn't look so good because it's working in the dark on dark stuff what happens when mashiach comes so the light goes on again not the electrical light switch but the aleph is revealed we still had a lot of work to do but we're working in the light on the light so the work doesn't change meaning on a shama's connection to its creator and god's revelation in this world and appreciating that we have a purpose we still have a lot of work to do i during corona we would say you know we were every time anything happens in jewish history that customers say you know right now right here today tomorrow before the state or before elio navi comes because that is part of the 13 principles don't just believe in it believe that it's going to happen now which is not so simple it's a big to be it's a tall order so we do that very naturally that any event that occurs any calamity we're always like uh uh mashiach's coming any second any moment so we were kind of joking that corona you know everyone's door is shut for a certain time that it's like a breather because when mashiach comes there's going to be lines around the block of people who want to know tell me what's this light about what am i supposed to do with it what are we supposed to be how are we supposed to be living it's kind of like a breather for that moment when the light goes on an analogy that i heard is that throughout our history all of our ancestors have done incredible heroic acts of kindness and goodness and where are we we're still here we're still in this place where it's it's dark no matter how much light we shine it's still it's still a struggle and the analogy that i heard is if you've ever i don't know it's a jewish crowd so the answer may be no but if you've ever gone camping or lit a bonfire usually you need some uh you know i see two very you're almost embarrassed like it's not you shouldn't be caught camping i understand but if you ever lit a bonfire even if you haven't the concept is you need little twigs and little pieces then you have bigger sticks and then you add the logs if you just put big logs they're not catching you have to start with the small that you know it's very easy for you hear me describing this you could tell i don't do this every day you you you build and from the small little pieces that catch something bigger catches but if you just throw a bunch of logs and throw a match the match goes out it doesn't catch so what's this idea that really and for sure if you were if you have ever gone camping there's no jew who goes to light a mom fire without lighter fluid because we gonna use all the help we could get so forget the collecting of the twigs and building it in the right way you put some lighter fluid over it why because it's highly flammable and then when you throw your match it goes up into a blaze now whether it catches or not we'll see we'll see about your you know wilderness skills we should have good wilderness skills we've been in the wilderness for a long time but uh the analogy is that every mitzvah throughout history that our ancestors have done was like a sprinkling of lighter fluid but not on a bonfire on the entire world on the entire globe so a kind act act of generosity an act of care an act of selflessness it's lighter fluid on this big bomb fire but bonfire in a godly explosion of divine energy not just you know warming for s'mores around the fire and that mashiach coming means that that light or that flame or that match lights all this goodness into a roaring flame of warmth of clarity of light and all the positive connotations that a flame you know kind of depicts before us and so this idea that every single action is adding to that ultimate you know catch of the world going up into a blaze of light the crazy thing is it's not something that's foreign if you think about how much progress humanity has made in improving human beings life on earth not just how long we live but how comfortably we live and all the abilities that we have even with the hardships and even with the struggles and challenges that we could see the light peeking through you know sometimes you'll you have those like i don't know if the hotel has here blinds or blackout curtains and when the sun comes up unless it's extremely well covered top and bottom the light starts to break in or the cracks come you know i wouldn't say the cracks but where the curtain ends or the blinds and light squeezes through right and i'm saying squeeze it's the wrong word because it doesn't have to squeeze it's there and it just comes through and you're you're almost woken up by the light even if you were trying to block it out so i wanted to give a a practical example because very often you hear like an idea and it's so fantastical and it's so foreign and it's like for thousands of years it's almost exhausting to talk about this idea that for our whole history we're waiting for and we're yearning for and we're praying for and you know we have certain things that we do like washing for bread that not to get into the whole halachic analysis we do it because when meshiach comes the you know the a lot of these activities that we do it's for the future it's not just for the past it's when mashiach comes and we're bringing you know carbonate and people are going to have to wash their hands so we should already be accustomed which is like what kind of people live for thousands of years behaving not just praying not just you know we the direction that we pray and not in every part of our life is infused with like the purpose of it all the the where we're heading and what the end goal is but i wanted to give a practical example because very often we think listen i'm going to live my life i'm going to do my business and this is obviously god's department because we're doing the best we can it's up to hashem when this is actually you know when this match is going to be lit so what could i do practically besides being you know uh trying my best to observe the the way hashem wants human beings to live and be a kind thoughtful you know person how does how does this actually make a difference in my life and how does this concept of living in this purposeful way that there's a purpose to bring machia how is it relevant so i wanted to give a practical example that i think of often because it really matters i'll give you the two-minute background to this and that is um obviously prior to corona but for many years on campus we had this program where i would do it was called challah on the row and every single sorority house on the row i would bake chala each month of the year a different sorority house not going into how this works interesting infrastructure if you know you know but i would do a challa bake at each fraternity at each sorority house and then at the end of the semester i would do an achabad for anyone who missed you know when their sorority their friend club had a uh chalabake and so this way you'd have an opportunity even if you weren't in greek life or you missed it you can still learn how to bake kala it's very important if you're getting a degree that costs a quarter of a million dollars you should at least graduate knowing how to make khala right so um i send out an email and it says nothing except this sentence do the challah twist tonight and i leave the time and the place so whoever wants can come and usually i'm not sure why but no one responds to these emails they either show up if they want to make hollow or they don't show up if they don't and i have like i have to like guess and imagine you know how many people are coming should i make you know five batches one batch and we figure it out from there so i send this email out and i just want to put a disclaimer out there that even though i'm a very proud schlocher emissary of the rebbe for 20 years and i try to live my life imbuing the things that the rabbit taught into my daily living what is the fundamental teaching that i try to live my life by that every human being no matter who you encounter isn't a shama is a part of god is good is positive is radiating light in this world even if you can't always see it even if that's not what they're presenting to you and this idea of avas israel we're the same meaning our externals are different we look different we may know different things we may believe different things we may practice different things but at our core where it really matters the essence of who we are me and you are exactly the same we're both pieces parts sparks of hashem could i always say i live that way not with my own kids not with myself not with my spouse not with students but that's what i try that's my that's my uh my focus some days you know you wake up on the right side of the bed and it's just easier the sun's shining or it's not you just you're in the mode you're in the groove and some days it's more of a struggle so my disclaimer is i don't always wake up on the right side of the bed i don't always see everything the way i should see it but some days it happens so this was one of those days i wake up yes there was two and a half hours of traffic going to three different schools in carpool and yes you know the repairman didn't show up and there wasn't gas in the tank and all the normal things that happened but i come back from carpool and i open my email and i see oh someone responded to the someone responded to the chala bake you know very nice and because we're a holy group of assembled tribes and i'm going to beep out the less than holy words i'll also kind of let you know that the majority of our students are from the tri-state area so sometimes that's like uh there's a little more aggressive i would say like you know the sabres i know there's a lot of new yorkers here so i'll tread lightly but that idea i'll say about israelis where you're a sabra it's like prickly on the outside it's not reflective of what's inside i'm just trying to excuse this email but you'll hear it i'll i'll read it too so this is in response to please come bake challah right so this is what it says i am not part of blank blank emery khabad your organization is disgusting and you are all pathetic take me off of your mother blank blank blank mailing list brother's a fine it's kosher word you are racist offensive heathen blank blank blank you have a nice day michelle so i'm like okay i'm reading this and i'm thinking like for hala like this is very this is a lot for like uh come back like if i said come to my son's circumcision and you were very upset and i'm a heathen i had to google heathen i wasn't sure exactly what the insult was but i if i said come to yom kippur we're going to fast and pray for 25 hours and someone didn't like what i was offering okay everyone likes kala i have girls you know from all different types of ethnic ethnicities and backgrounds baking challah happily gluten free sesame free we cater to everything vegan no eggs whatever you want we can make your cola work for you very very you know this is a lot for for a holla bake but as i told you i woke up on the right side of the bed what's the right side the rep is teaching that anyone and everyone to try to look at another person with love and and that we're all good right so i figured obviously i don't want anyone to be worried that i want to keep michelle on my email list i don't she's going off but i figure it's not going to hurt if i send a response so i write dear michelle i admire your deep passion which clearly comes through in your email i will respect your wishes and remove you from the mailing list obviously right but i figured i'm going to write another sentence because it's not going to cost anything to our relationship here so i write having never met me you make some broad and sweeping statements as for me i think you're probably a great person just having a rough day wishing you inner peace and happiness always miriam lipsker now i'm about to hit send and then delete her but i figured i'm going to add a ps so i write ps if you ever want to have coffee with a racist offensive heathen heathen blank blank i made some squirrels and squiggles and things give me a call i leave her my cell phone i hit send i delete michelle from the email never gonna be hearing from michelle again and guess what that was on the 15th on the 17th i get this email dear miriam i read your email the day i received it and i apologize for the delay in my response check out her manners right yes right so nice i am indeed passionate blunt kind-hearted and as you knew it having a very rough day i laughed and smiled in the morning when i read your response thank you i think i may like to take you up on your offer and meet with you smiles michelle so now you're all waiting for me to tell you michelle there's a maya sharim with 15 children that's not the end of the story the end of the story is it doesn't have an ending why because we made up to meet and michelle i i'm i'm waiting and i get a text that my kid you know is at school sick and she threw up i need to come pick her up right now so i text michelle i'm so sorry we have to reschedule we reschedule i get another message my professor is keeping me late i'm so sorry you know we're we're review session and and we have to reschedule this happens a lot i don't know the next semester michelle is abroad for the semester she graduates i did facebook stalker i know where she is i will meet up with her when i'm in that state the next time but we haven't yet met so what am i sharing this email exchange the reason i'm sharing it is because the concept of meshiach the concept of light in this world and positivity in this world and goodness in this world is not something that someone's going to swoop down and do to us or for us it's a perception it's a mind concept that if i look at others meaning i'm using the word mashiach really it's nishama really it's the soul if i see you as a positive light if i see the goodness if you if i see when i say the mashiach in you the part of you that's radiating positivity and godliness then what you're saying and what you're writing i don't need to give as much response to as your essence of who you really are so what's this this email exchange taught me and teaches me all the time is that when we live in a reality where the positivity and the light is what matters first or primarily or instead of the things that a person chooses to say or do which again isn't always easy i don't always do it i fail at it more than i succeed at it but this brings that mind set that i'm living in a world where the purpose is the purpose of everything i do here and everything i am here is to reveal that light within me and to find and point out or to highlight it within you and when we do that our entire world changes because the world gets filled with that light that the real reality of our souls and of our connection to hashem is what we actually live with as opposed to what you did what you said what you wore what you ate all the externals now we're human beings so we most of the time are struggling with fighting about the externals you didn't tell me you should have told me half of our lives are spent arguing or maneuvering or navigating the details but really if from the beginning of creation embedded in the entire track of human history is coming closer to a time where the light that's hidden is what's revealed and what's obvious not just to me and you but to everyone on planet earth because mashiach's coming is not just a jewish experience and it's not an apocalyptic armageddon you know oh my gosh woe to you no the entire world and and our prophets have said it in many many ways this is isaiah but you could have daniel you're jeremiah they've all been saying the same thing if we just listen the whole world will be filled with light kamayam the whole entire world will be radiating god's life just like the water covers the ocean meaning a physical easy to perceive reality will become what the average human being experiences what purpose i'm here for what meaning i meant to derive will become something that each and every one of us won't have to struggle and fight and dig for but it'll be so obvious like the sun shining from the sky like music to our ears like water over the ocean and that's really what jewish history has been moving us towards since day one yes through very bumpy terrain and through very difficult and dark times but finding that light and finding that spark and igniting it within ourselves and with others has really been the purpose from say day one but we're talking 5700 you know it's a long long time ago um up until today and my my blessing or my wish for each and every one of us and it's not just a wish and a blessing because the rebbe said we are the generation that's going to usher in and what is meshiach the light that we've all been digging for and finding little tiny glimmers of and little slices of will blaze into a great colossal spiritual bonfire that everyone could be warmed by everyone could see the clarity of and everybody could feel that goodness so lakayam that we not just talk about it or struggle to find it and see it but we actually are the people standing at the front row saying you know what from our entire history we're privileged and it's interesting that rizal actually says that um in the times of egypt the jewish women were the kind of the vehicle that the jewish people merited to leave egypt because of a few things that are you know described what the jewish women held on to and uh rizal says that those women who were in the times of egypt who didn't give up who had faith who believed that they would get out and who did actionable tasks to actually get them from slavery to redemption that rizal says those exact same women the souls of those women will be in the human beings in the women of the time of mashiach they'll be kind of a reincarnation which is a jewish idea just like messiah as a jewish idea um in that time and so each and every one of us not just the jewish women the jewish men also are like the the the wild in like a concept of history is that you have things repeating but each time it's not the same thing it's like a spiral staircase we're moving we're not just going around in a circle we're moving up higher and higher and this idea that every one of us has within us the souls of people who already experienced this in some way so when we hear about it when we learn about it when we live it it's not foreign to us it feels right it feels natural and so like i am that not just we should be the ones to usher in meshiach but we have it within us and every day that we wake up and we remind ourselves what it is we're doing here and how we're supposed to radiate that light it should be um my blessing is that it should be not a struggle anymore because it should be so obvious and and clear to everyone so lachaim we should merit the the light from inside and outside should be won and um the entire world should benefit from uh what what we've all been pl placed here which is to reveal godliness in our world and live it and work in the light on the light instead of what we've been doing till now which is you know fumbling in the darkness to try to repair the dark so like i am and i know we have like three more minutes so if anyone has a question comment alternate speech opinion want to throw some rocks whatever whatever you however you like to express yourself go for it yes yeah i'll repeat the question i've been talking about a concept and an idea but what about the capital m the the person meshiach and so i specifically veered away from that because i don't want anyone to get uncomfortable the bottom line is whoever mashiach is and yes according to the rambam and according to all jewish you know uh teachings in the it's an actual person a human being not a not an angel not a seraph not a an actual human being really when mashiach comes whoever hashem chose that human being to be the the beauty of it will be that everyone no matter what yamaka or what you know tickle or what your you know matzo ball recipe is or whatever your ideology is everyone will be cool with hashem's choice so it's less about the who but what's interesting is that the rev insisted that if we're the people living in the times of mashiach we should know about it and the rebel actually printed up all the very last section of the rambam which was a very halachic work um the mishnah torah but the very last section the rambam goes through in detail the different phases of as you said the coming of the conceptual idea what about the resurrection when are people coming who is this person how do we know it's the right person how is this person coming what are the signs that it is the right person because we've had some issues in the past where you know there was some drama etc and so the rev encouraged each and every one of us to learn the rambam and know these facts and know these details so that knowledge is power and yes um there's as with everything in yiddishkai and judaism there's different opinions so rambam and then ramban and a lot of the foremost commentators have details that vary like will people return to their bodies 40 years after the coming of meshiach or right at the time or will they come all together from this location or will they roll there will they fly there will they get a ride on a will it be an eagle a donkey a tesla there's a lot of discussion um and really the answer is we'll see how it unfolds when it unfolds but that doesn't absolve us from learning what the our our great you know teachers throughout history have have taught and um yes the the the actual capital m is part of this process but it's it's mistaken to think that a human's gonna come and wave a magic wand and then we will have an awareness and we will have a perception of godliness because of a magical so to speak uh you know superimposed top-down sort of activity the way that yiddish kite describes this is it's a collective awareness which yes we need a leader to guide we've always had leaders from avraham to moshe to you know you you go throughout history the jewish people have leaders and there's a purpose and a and a reason why hashem created a system where we're not just a flock without a shepherd so yes meshiach is the ultimate shepherd the ultimate shepherding and heralding in of this new reality and so it's not right to leave it out of the equation but i deliberately in like 45 minutes i figured let's focus on the concept and uh definitely pick up your local rambam or um it's actually the reba printed it up in a um it's called the everything that the rambam says along with commentaries about yamosama you know well can these grow on trees or will the bank account you know like people want to know the nitty-gritty and as long as it doesn't scare you off from you know this idea of a hakula waiting for mashiach because it's something positive and good universally for every human being then then your learning is good the minute you start getting concerned like no no everything's comfortable now like you know save machia for another time that means your learning's taking you you know not in the direction that it needs to yes so from the way i understand it and i'm sure there's a lot of room for discussion when the rebbe said and the frida karere the rubber you know the previous rubber that mashiach's here we just need to open our eyes what does that mean mashiach meaning capital m we you know the it's interesting i'll tell you a little little story that mendel vitepsker from he was a memento duck in i think 1777 or something he moved to from europe to um tiberius and eretz israel and he was a person who lived mashiach meaning this godly reality was his reality he was a very very spiritual person and he lived a life where the revelation of hashem was revealed within him and one day word got to him in in tiberius that there's some person who kind of lost his marbles and was blowing the chauffeur on the hahabias like up by the temple mount and people were like is it mashiach is it not the chauffeur is being blown on this location they came and told red mendel you know the chauffeur is blowing and ramendel lifted up the window in his little house his little you know i say house whatever it was and he kind of gave a little like smell out the window he closed the window and he said no mashiach's not here that's it's whatever's going on with the chauffeurs it's not meshiach what a strange exchange you know someone reports that there's a chauffeur blowing maybe machias here you open your window and then you determine you make a weather forecast you know meteorologist reports no it's inaccurate what's going on so what was explained was that in mendel's room the smell the energy the light of meshiach was there when he opened the window it wasn't outside yet and so when he opened the window he didn't there was a there was a dissonance with what was going on inside his personal space and out there he said no mashiach not out there yet meaning it was in there this is a very unique mystic and very spiritually refined person but i think it underscores what you ask which is there's there's both components of mashiach there's there's living in a way where i'm saying mashiach dick like a a mindset that the light needs to be on in me and i need to look at my surroundings my circumstances the people and situations in my life in uh through these glasses of godliness and light but that's not enough so that's meaning that you you said it very well in your question it's like so that's that's that's where the lights all over the world the rays are shining but where's the blaze meaning where's that match that's meshiach meaning when mashiach the capital and mashiach will take all the lights or i would say the kerosene the the warmth that we each radiate because we're doing internal work to repair the brokenness and the darkness within each and every one of us so the gullos in me i'm working on the gaola but the collective redemption needs that flame that one match to bring everything together so that the entire world experiences it not just personally and individually but collectively and globally and so that's where you have the both both are necessary inside out and then outside in and and i think that's where both your questions you know really connect is like yeah we need an actual leader machia to do that collective bringing together of all that light but that doesn't absolve every one of us from cultivating and bringing out that light within each and every one of our hearts and souls so lakayam we could do it inside and outside [Applause] if you liked that video hit the subscribe button and notification bell below for hours of the best jewish content online [Music]

Channel: Jewish Learning Institute

Views: 63,180

Keywords: jli, Jewish Learning Institute, messiah, future, jewish, learnng, 2nd coming

Id: dgV1v5CsMis

Length: 54min 57sec (3297 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 19 2021