Chassidic Teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe,
Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson and the preceding Rebbeim of Chabad
on the Future Redemption and the Coming of Mashiach
Published and Copyright (c) 1996 by
Kehot Publication Society
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ISBN 0-8266-0486-2
At the
farbrengen of
Shabbos Tazria-Metzora, 5751 [1991], the Rebbe said:
"Mashiach is about to come imminently, but has not yet come in fact. This calls for a final effort on the part of every single Jew to bring
Mashiach...by studying subjects involving the King
Mashiach and the Ultimate Redemption in both the Written and the Oral Torah, and also (indeed, especially) in the inner, mystical dimension of the Torah, beginning with the
Zohar, and particularly in
Chassidus - in the teachings of our Rebbeim, especially in the teachings of the
Nasi of our generation."
The present work is a masterly translation by Uri Kaploun of a skillfully constructed work that was compiled in Hebrew by Rabbi Alter Eliyahu Friedman in response to the above call. The expanded edition of the complete work comprises six parts: I. Exile; II. On the Way to the Redemption; III. On the Threshold of the Redemption; IV. Yearning for the Redemption; V. The Redemption; VI. Studies of Scriptural and Rabbinic Sources. Each part includes several chapters, and the passages they furnish on their particular subjects are either quotations or slight adaptations of the sources indicated. The first volume covered Parts I-IV; Parts V and VI are translated in the present volume. A detailed Table of Contents in each volume enables the reader to quickly locate any particular favorite passage which he may wish to reread. In addition, each volume is equipped with a comprehensive Glossary.
The manuscript was closely read and prepared for the press by Rabbi Yonah Avtzon, Director of Sichos In English. The book owes its user-friendly layout and typography to the meticulous efforts of Yosef Yitzchok Turner, and Sichos In English is gratified once again to have secured the services of Avrohom Weg for the cover design.
Exile is likened to pregnancy, and the Redemption is likened to birth.[1] At this time in our history, we sometimes feel like an infant in the cramped darkness of his mother's womb, subjected to cataclysmic pressures, but not yet able to see the light of the big world whose beautiful reality is waiting to be enjoyed. Our people's delivery is going through a prolonged and stressful labor. But there will be no despair - for as the birthpangs intensify, we have the Rebbe's words ringing clearly in our ears. In this moment of cosmic crisis, his voice is the reassuring voice of the midwife, who can see how soon the birth is coming, and begs for a final intensive effort.
It is the hope of the publisher that the translation of this outstanding compilation, which was actively encouraged by the Rebbe, will enable ever-widening circles of people to join in the historic "final effort" of which the Rebbe speaks. Then, in the very near future, we will together be able to behold the light of the big world of Divine revelation whose beautiful reality is waiting to be enjoyed.
Lag BaOmer, 5756 [1996]
Notes:
- (Back to text) The Alter Rebbe, Torah Or, Va'eira, p. 55a, quoted and discussed on p. 5 of Vol. I of the present work.
The reader is also referred to the Introduction to this work - written by Rabbi Alter Eliyahu Friedman and entitled "Exile and Redemption in the Light of the Teachings of Chabad Chassidus" - in Vol. I, p. xv.
