My Life Is Functional, Why Should I Want Moshiach? || Rabbi YY & Berel Solomon

There is something that can happen in the world that will justify for us 2,000 years of torment? Is there even any great goodness that can happen in the world that will justify the death of one child? The death of one innocent person? The torture of one Jewish woman or man? I don't know of something like that. What? Endless money? Endless food? No shortage crisis? Tell me what exactly can happen in our world that you and I and anybody can look back and say, "Ah, that's why we went through this. That's why" And the answer is there's nothing. You know why? Cuz we completely don't even begin to grasp what Messiah is. >> The Yeshiva.net >> [sighs] >> Rabbi YOY Jacobson, thank you so much for taking the time. I really appreciate you being here with us today. >> My honor, my pleasure. Thank you for having me. This is one of my uh one of my dreams was to sit across from you and discuss Messiah. I've heard many of your classes and let's just jump right into it because I'm starving for your knowledge. As they say my circles, we want Messiah now. So, let's not delay. Let's let's get into it. So, it seems that whenever the idea of Messiah is brought up, it's almost like taboo. And I see people's eyes start to wander as soon as that subject comes up. Why is the idea of Messiah something that is not automatically accepted or even understood for that matter within the Jewish world? >> It's a great question. I think there's probably a few factors that I'm aware of. There may be more, of course. One issue is the trauma and length of the Jewish exile. The Jewish people have been expelled from Israel 2,000 years ago with the destruction of the second temple, scattered all over the world, and have suffered significantly and acutely for two millennia. And people are afraid of being disappointed. You talk about Messiah, we're going to be redeemed today, tomorrow, next week. Leave me alone. I'm trying to build my life. It's like somebody who's in a very difficult situation. They don't want to be let down again and again and again. So, let's just stick to our comfort zones. Even if it's not perfect, but it's predictable. We like the familiar. We don't like to talk things that we're talk about things we're not familiar with. That's number one. Number two, and this is part of our tragedy is what really makes trauma devastating is that you think it's normal. The great devastation of exile, of alienation is that we become accustomed to it. It's like when somebody internally, their heart is in jail, but they don't know of anything else. So, jail becomes the norm. And I'm here talking about emotionally, psychologically, spiritually. There's another component and that has been terrible events that we have experienced throughout the Jewish exile have been characters, charlatans, or other characters who have claimed that they were Messiahs, they were the Messiahs, and they created a massive hype, and then the letdown was enormous and catastrophic. One of the most famous ones is a character named Shabtai Zevi. He lived in the 17th century. Uh he died 1676 at the age of 50, and he lived in the time of 1648-49 Khmelnytsky pogroms, Bogdan Khmelnytsky murdered in Poland and Ukraine hundreds of thousands of Jews. What happened on October 7th in Israel was a little little mini picture of what happened 1648 and 49 and they used the same methods. The Cossacks did devastation on a physical level, on an emotional level was beyond. And here, just a little few years later, this fellow Shabbetai Zevi arose and he says, "I'm a Messiah." He had a great PR man, a spokesman, a guy Nathan from Gaza, from all places, Nathan from Gaza. He's a brilliant spokesman and it created such a hype. Now, Shabbetai Zevi was a talented fellow. He was brilliant. He was a mystic. He had a spiritual touch and there was a charisma about it. And enormous enormous amounts of Jews fell prey. And then ultimately, he converts to Islam in 1666. This new Messiah converts to Islam. He was given a choice by the Sultan, death or Islam. Can you imagine how Jews felt? You're dealing here even with rabbis who trusted him, sages who fell prey to his powerful powerful charisma. After that, [clears throat] many of the leading rabbis became suspicious of anybody or anything that just spoke about things that can trigger too much imagination, too many fantasies. They realized we can't afford another one of these events. Like let's go with what we know. Let's study the Torah, through the mitzvahs, follow Jewish law. So, there's a certain inertia that has set into the Jewish world and people start rolling their eyes, you know, "What's this guy about?" You know, "You want to talk about kugel? I'm fine. You want to tell me a good vort, a nice insight in Torah? I'm fine. When you're talking about global transformation, global change, creating a new paradigm in the Jewish world, creating a new universal consciousness, I mean, Messiah is the climax of history from a Jewish perspective. Those are big words. You know what I mean? Somebody sits down for a business deal. He says, "You know what? Invest with me and you know, you'll get $200,000." Okay. Somebody says, "No, you know, invest with me, you're going to get $300 billion by next Wednesday." It's like, you know, get this meshuggener out of this meeting. Like It's very grand. It's very grand. So, there's there's there's a suspicion here. There's a cynicism here. Like, not that again. I think those are some of the factors. >> So, you're saying that we don't want to be let down and it's something that just it's too grand for us to to bet on. And we'd rather play safe. >> Play safe safe safe bets. >> Yeah. And study study study halacha. >> Study what's Jewish law, study Torah, raise your children with Judaism, have a nice Shabbos tables. >> Right. >> She can make some money and give charity, build communities, put up a new building, build a nice school. >> So, but where you have a >> a nice, you know, summer vacation. >> That we're in control of. >> At the end of the day. We think we're in control. >> They think we're in control. >> We think you know, I don't think we're in control of much, but we think we're in control. It's things that we can wrap our brains around. >> But what about other possible Messiahs? For example, Rabbi Akiva thought that his at the time it was Bar Kokhba who was battling in the Roman Empire. He thought that he could have been Messiah and he also got let down. So, how do we understand who is Messiah and who is not Messiah? >> Excellent question. You can't compare Bar Kokhba to Shabbetai Zevi. Rabbi Akiva, Maimonides makes this clear. Rabbi Akiva did not make a mistake. Rabbi Akiva was following Jewish law. And from the perspective of Jewish law, Rabbi Akiva had the full right and authority to assume Bar Kokhba would be the Messiah. Rabbi Akiva, it seems from Maimonides, was not just making a mistake. And the proof of that is Maimonides asks a question. Now I have to say Maimonides is considered the greatest codifier of Jewish law in our history. He lived in the 12th century. He was born in Spain, lived in Morocco, Israel, and finally in Egypt. And there he wrote his magnum opus called the Mishneh Torah, which was was considered and is considered the greatest work and compilation of Jewish law in the history of Judaism. He encompassed over there all the laws of the Torah. And one of the unique qualities of this book is that he gives you a sweeping review of law from the beginning of time all the way till Messiah, including the era of Messiah. The regular code of Jewish law is limited to laws that we practice today. Maimonides includes all the laws from the times of the temple, laws of sacrifices, ritual purity, and impurity, including the laws that are relevant to the future redemption through Messiah. So Maimonides asks a question. Will we know that Messiah is Messiah by the miracles he will perform? And Maimonides says no, he doesn't have to perform any miracles. He says I'll prove it to you. Bar Kokhba did not perform miracles. Bar Kokhba, of course, is the name of a man, Shimon bar Koziba, who lived after the destruction of the second temple and around 60 years after the decimation of the second temple by the Romans. He staged the revolt against Rome. For a few years it was extremely successful. This is around the year 132 after the common era. Approximately 6 decades after the destruction of the second temple in the year 70. And Rabbi Akiva, the Rambam says, "And the sages of the generation, not just Rabbi Akiva, most of the sages of the generation believed that he was Messiah. God has sent him to redeem the Jewish people, to bring them back to the holy land, to rebuild the third temple." And he didn't do miracles. He was extremely successful, extremely successful. Rome was defeated like never before. I did I believe two full legions of Rome were wiped out. And it was incredible victory. But then, he was killed. 500,000 Jews were slain in Betar, also on the 9th of Av. Bar Kokhba himself was executed by the Romans. And the Rambam says, "This meant that God did not destine that he should be the Mashiach in the time of the redemption." Meaning, it was not the time. It wasn't that he was a false Mashiach. He wasn't deceiving. It's not that Rabbi Akiva made a mistake. He had the potential to be Mashiach. And here Maimonides gives us a stunning perspective on how Jewish law views this. Maimonides gives us criteria. How do we know? And he says, "If a king, a Jewish leader arises, and he comes from the house of David, meaning he must be a descendant of King David and King Solomon, from the Davidic dynasty, because that's the family of monarchy in Judea. And Maimonides continues, a person who is immersed in the study of Torah, both the written and the oral Torah, and immersed in the observance of mitzvahs, like King David himself. And Maimonides continues, and he compels and influences the entire Jewish world to embrace Torah and mitzvahs and to strengthen it, and he fights the wars of God, Harei zeh b'chezkas sh'hu Mashiach. You can assume that he's Mashiach. These are his criteria. We don't know that he's Mashiach. Maybe the redemption is not going to come. >> Mhm. >> There's a difference between chezkas Mashiach, which means we can safely assume that if God wants the redemption to happen, he's the man. He's the candidate. He's the divine messenger. But this does not mean the redemption happened. It means that this person has the criteria, the credentials, and the qualifications. We could say that if Hashem wants Mashiach to actually come and be revealed, this is the person. Now we have to see, number one, is he successful in in winning these wars? Is he successful in influencing the entire Jewish world? Is he successful in rebuilding the third temple? Is he successful in bringing all the Jews back to our eternal homeland? If that happens, Maimonides says, "I raise a Mashiach bevatai." This is an absolute Mashiach. It may not. The Rambam says, "He may die. He may be killed." And then he says, "He may have been a tremendous Jewish leader." K'chol malchei beit David hayu achsharim. In other words, he may have been a righteous and incredible Jewish leader whom God appointed, but not the one who facilitated the ultimate redemption in the world. So, there was a very very clear distinction and criteria in Jewish law how to distinguish an authentic Mashiach from a false Mashiach. But, in an authentic Mashiach itself, there's two stages. There's assuming that he is Mashiach if the redemption will unfold, he can be the person. He has the chazaka. We can assume he's Mashiach. And then the actual statement that he is Mashiach. And there's a very big difference. We have three categories. We have a false Mashiach. We have someone we can assume is Mashiach if God wants the redemption to happen in his time. And then we have the ultimate Mashiach when we know that he is Mashiach and he's indeed bringing the redemption. From the Maimonides, it's very clear. The moment that a fellow like Shabbatai Zevi or theoretically any Jewish leader, rabbi, sage, potential Messiah abnegates one mitzvah and says, for example, "This mitzvah I don't have to observe." Now, the moment this person deviates from Torah and mitzvahs, the written Torah and the oral Torah, this immediately disqualifies them as Mashiach. >> And his mistake was that he converted to Islam. So, Shabbatai Zevi, that was the climax. >> Uh you know, the Zevi already started to change mitzvahs earlier. In fact, he made a morning blessing In the morning, we say blessings of gratitude. One of the blessings we make is every morning It's very relevant today. Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Ha'olam Matir Asurim. Blessed are you God who who releases those who are captive. And it also refers to every individual because I'm sleeping at night, the fact that I can wake up and move around my bones. And I am mobile. And I'm flexible. There's a special blessing for this. He changed one syllable in the blessing. He's like, Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Ha'olam Matir Isurim. Blessed are you God who permits me to do prohibited things. >> Huh. >> Asurim became Isurim. >> Wow. >> So, for example, he abrogated the fast of Tisha B'Av. Why should you fast on the 9th of Av when I'm Mashiach? I'm here to redeem the world. Don't fast on the 9th of Av. He's eating on Tisha B'Av. Well, he's dancing. The moment somebody does that, before Mashiach Once Mashiach comes, nobody's going to eat on Tisha B'Av. I mean, nobody's going to fast on Tisha B'Av. We'll all eat and dance on Tisha B'Av. But, he does this does does does that before. He's already playing games with Jewish law. The moment he does that, this means that he doesn't understand what Mashiach is and is not a candidate for being Mashiach cuz the whole idea of Mashiach is somebody who will help all of humanity and the Jewish people implement the vision of Torah in this world. The vision of Sinai is going to be executed in the real time in real time in the real world. That is what Mashiach is. So, if I come and say, "By being Mashiach, you don't have to do this mitzvah. You can get rid of this law." By definition, I'm pulling the rug under my I'm pulling out the rug from under my feet. I am saying I'm not that person. I'm just another guy, you know, on my own ego trip. So, what's all the excitement about? From what I understand, Messiah comes, we're going to be free to enjoy learning Torah, learning the Bible all day, getting closer to God all day. And I'll be honest with you, for me personally, it's very exciting to go make a deal. I'm a businessman, okay? To go make a deal, to go make a a new project, a new this, a new that. That's exciting. And make a movie >> To make a movie >> about Messiah. >> Right. Who needs Messiah? We'll have movies about Messiah. >> I I also think, by the way, a lot of rabbis probably feel the same way. To make a building campaign, to to to build a build a new shul, a new synagogue. >> Right. >> But to sit and to learn Torah all day and to learn about God all day, I said it to one of my friends the other day that doesn't know so much about Messiah. I said, "That's what you're going to you should look forward to." And he was a little disappointed. So, what's all the excitement about? >> Right. It's a great question. I think it comes from a misconception of what Messiah means. So, people think, you know, it's like basically the era of the nerds or or the era, I should say, of the bookworms, you know? If I'm a bookworm, great. I could sit like a hermit all day 24/7 and not have to worry about a mortgage and not have to worry about tuition and not have to worry about where the food is coming from and who's paying my electric bills, solar energy, all is good. Um I think we need to um we need to graduate some of our our primitive our primitive conceptions. What does Messiah really mean? Messiah really means that the inner state of bliss that everyone is capable of and the world is capable of, but it's so dormant now, is going to be revealed. And I want to explain what that means. As successful as we are, as many business deals as we make. Fundamentally, the time of exile is a time of profound dysfunction in the most acute and profound way. And that is this entire universe is essentially pulsating and vibrating divine energy and consciousness. But as far as we're concerned, we don't feel we don't feel any of it. Which means we are completely alienated from ourselves. I'm not in touch with my own core. We are divorced from our own spiritual DNA. If the doors of perception were cleansed, if our hearts had no blockages, if our brains were truly open to reality, we would experience the truth that we are all derivatives of infinite consciousness. We are manifestations of divine light. And we are all living in divine infinite bliss. Now we're looking for substitutes. I go to the books, you go to your business deal, this one is doing his thing, we're all on our phones. Some good stuff we do. Some not such good stuff. We're all running around for substitutes to fundamental truth of human existence, the fundamental truth of existence is in jail in our minds and our hearts. The Messiah is the time when truth will emerge. And we won't live in blockages anymore. Not physical, not spiritual, not emotional, not social, not psychological, not existential. And those, you know, people who have suffered terrible abuse, and they live for 20, 30, 40, 50 years with incessant pain. Their emotions are blocked, they're disassociated. They're coping, They're dealing with anxiety. They know the feeling of letting go of self-consciousness. The death of the ego for them is ecstasy because they experience so much pain. They'll call that my personal redemptive moment, my personal Messiah. But all of us, even those of us who were lucky to grow up in functional homes and more or less live functional lives, relative to our own truth, there is so so so many blockages we're all experiencing. So Messiah has nothing to do with stifling creativity. When you're open, when your heart is open, when you're experiencing your true energy, you don't become less creative, you become your most creative version of yourself. Because what does creative mean? Creative means you're connected to creativity, to creator. When I'm plugged in to the creator, when I'm a channel for the creator, my creativity is infinite. So everything we all dream of. I want to be the best version of myself. I want to be successful. I want to be alive. I want to be full of love and bliss and delight and ecstasy instead of looking for distractions. It's it's right here. It's inside of me. It's inside of you. And that's why the greatest spiritual masters taught Messiah is here. Redemption is here. The Baal Shem Tov used to say exile and redemption is a shift of consciousness. It's a shift of consciousness. Now, in Judaism, Messiah is not just about consciousness. It's not just a mindset. Consciousness, we know today in physics, affects matter. So in Judaism, Messiah is a shift of consciousness, but it's such a real shift of consciousness that it's going to affect everything. It's going to affect politics and it's going to affect economics and it's going to affect the social fabric of society and it's going to affect education. It's going to affect romance and marriage and relationships and intimacy and morality. The The whole The whole structure of our society and civilization will be affected, but it's a shift of consciousness. And that absolute transformation of consciousness is one that will allow each person to be who they truly truly are. >> I guess I've been looking at it the wrong way this whole time. Whereas usually when do people want Messiah? A tragedy strikes. A holocaust, a a war, an October 7th. I want Messiah. We need Messiah. When somebody gets sick, God forbid, we need Messiah. So Messiah almost becomes this crutch that saves you from your immediate predicament. What you're saying is Messiah is not here to act as a crutch. Messiah is a complete expansion of everything that's good in your life and help you to achieve and reach levels that you never even thought possible. >> Right. In fact, one of the reasons people are allergic to Messiah is because they're sick and tired of Tylenols. It almost sounds like Right. You know, Karl Marx said religion is the opium for the masses. >> Right. >> Right. Man in the job of giving people opiate. >> Right. >> Ah, so now we have a new drug. We have a new opiate. >> Right. >> We have a new miracle drug, Tylenol. It's called Messiah. Leave me alone. Figure things out on your own. >> Right. >> Go to therapy. Go to therapy. Get a personal trainer. >> root of the problem and >> Lose weight and be a man. >> Right. >> And stop blaming everybody for your problems and stop running to Messiah. >> Right. >> almost this escape route. Oh, Messiah. Messiah must be coming. He should have come. It always comes with a sigh. Oh, I need Messiah. Messiah. Messiah should come. It's like the Messiah is associated with this long Jewish sigh. What our grandmothers would call a krechts. Leave me alone. I want I don't I don't I have enough with my sawing. I have enough. I want to celebrate life. I'm doing well. Right. Guy is young and handsome. He's making money. He has a great Amazon business. Whatever, he's in real estate. He's doing well. I grew up by the Lubavitcher Rebbe he would often talk about Jews who say, "Stop bothering me." The Rebbe would always talk about Messiah. "Stop bothering me. I have a very nice life in exile. Okay, I have a couple of headaches. I have a couple of headaches. Fine." That's why we have a good doctor. I have a good doctor, too. So, we say, "No, but look at this tragedy. Look at that tragedy. Look at that tragedy." It's true, people suffer a lot. But, we're still not getting to the core. Because we're basically saying if you got your life together, you don't have so many tragedies, you don't want Messiah jump into the Hudson River. You don't need Messiah at that point. We're missing the whole point. It's exactly the other way around. Exile is the epitome of dysfunction. Messiah is aligning the universe with its true, true identity. Messiah is removing all the veils, all the cover-ups, all the blockages. And those blockages are so deep, most of them are unconscious. But, we know they exist. Every human being is a channel the light of God in this world 24/7. In other words, the natural state of a human being is bliss, confidence, empowerment, infinite goodness, infinite love. We are all manifestations of divine light, and that's why we're all one. Just like God is not made up of 7 billion pieces. There's 7 billion of us. It's just the way it's manifested in the physical world, but we're really one. And the fact that we're not, we have so much internal strife, so much internal anxiety is because we are so detached from ourselves. And I'm talking about the successful ones among us, right? Actually, the ones who live in shrama in many ways are lucky. Because they know about their jails, or at least many of them know, not everybody. The worst form of trauma is you're living an active trauma and you think you're healthy. And that's what galus really is. We're living an active trauma and we're making believe we're healthy. And those of us who are more successful get to deceive ourselves better. Look, I have a nice watch. I have a nice house. I have a second house in Jerusalem. I even fly privately. It's cathartic. I really get to deceive myself. And we walk around, you know, with that with that sense, I'm in control of the world, I'm in control of life. But you speak to people 10 minutes, our ego is killing us, and our stupidity is killing us. Our lack of inner truth, authenticity is killing us. Our inability to be truly vulnerable, to really connect, is so much pain. There's so much inner anguish and [clears throat] suffering. We are so stuck, all of us, all of us. And some of us who call ourselves very religious, and we may be very religious, often use religion to be even more stuck in the name of God. So really mashiach is it's really restoring the ultimate health to each of us individually, to the Jewish people collectively, and as a result to our entire planet, and as a result of the entire universe. It's almost like going back to the original dream of God when he conceived the idea of the universe. You know, if you have barrel, if you conceive of a new business, I don't know, every Monday and Thursday you conceive of a new business. You know, there's that spark, that epiphany, what you want that business to look like. But to get to that may take a very long time between the problems and the challenges. When God conceived of the universe, there was a dream, there was a vision. What did he see in this universe? That's Mashiach. Mashiach is that original vision of what humanity is, what the plan really is. Basically, infinite light being manifested in our consciousness. That's what Mashiach is actually going to bring to our world. >> Infinite light being manifested in our consciousness. So, God's infinite light >> right down here. >> So, we're not bringing it. We are >> We're removing the blockages that are causing us to look for substitutes in order to fulfill us, to numb our pain, to run away from our anxiety. Everyone in our own way. And some people Some of us more effective than others, but there's this search and so many distractions. Mashiach is the bliss. Maimonides puts it in one line. He puts it in one line. He says, "During that time there will be no hunger, no war, bloodshed, and violence, no jealousy, no toxic competitiveness. The entire world, Jews and non-Jews, by the way, the entire world will be immersed in divine consciousness." Divine consciousness does not mean that everybody's going to be reading the same book. That book that you're worried about, you got to go make your deal. Divine consciousness means Divine consciousness doesn't have a certain picture or a certain color. Doesn't mean I'm sitting with a cup of coffee in my synagogue by a particular book. It can mean that, too. Divine consciousness is a state that is transformative. It's when my ego is gone, the death of ego. The death of ego, suddenly my consciousness is a manifestation of divine consciousness. I am a channel of infinite light, of infinite oneness. That's where all healing comes from. That's where all truth comes from. That's where all peace comes from. The deepest souls yearn for Messiah 24 hours a day, 7 days a week because they yearn for love. They yearn for truth. They're not yearning for crutches. They look at a world so alienated from itself. They look at humanity so stuck in its stereotypes and misconceptions. They look at themselves so many of our most precious parts locked up in a jail. And they yearn for revelation. They yearn for authenticity. >> You seem like you live with Messiah already in a certain sense. Is that a crazy statement? I grew up at the feet of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. And uh I had the privilege, I think, of absorbing that innocent, pure, authentic understanding and yearning for Messiah divorced from superstition politics, folly immaturity, escapism, insecurity but coming from the innermost space of a soul that's simply in touch with reality. That that that goes to sleep at night hurting that we are in jail, that so many parts of us are locked up individually and collectively. Individually, every person and collectively as a people and collectively as as as humanity. Every act of violence in the world, all the bloodshed we see, all the atrocities, the horrors, they are all symptoms. They're symptoms of a universe that is wounded. They're symptoms of a humanity that has lost its course. They're it's all symptoms of that. And the Jewish people who are considered the the spiritual the the philosophers, you know, the Kabbalists say that the Jewish people are the heart of the universe. The heart feels it. The heart feels it acutely. It's why anti-Semitism exists in such a powerful way. What is anti-Semitism? Anti-Semitism is also a distorted cry. It's a distorted outcry. Why is anti-Semite so obsessed with the Jewish people? We don't constitute more than 0.2% of humanity, for God's sake. It would be like you're watching a football game and you zoom in on a match in a football field. Israel is like a match in a football field and the Jewish people are smaller than the match. Somebody once said the number of Jews is smaller than a statistical error on a Chinese census. What what is that about? It's a distorted cry for the Jewish people to assume their true identity to be moral and spiritual leaders of the world. But we ourselves are so wounded. We ourselves are so confused. We ourselves in many ways don't know what hit us. We ourselves are so alienated from our true music, our true voice. So, I have seen I have seen the Rebbe's cries. I've seen the Rebbe's union almost every every single Shabbos. I have to say as a child I didn't really understand all of it. Uh cuz I would wonder, you know, the Rebbe was surrounded by 10,000 followers. You have all the glory in the world, all the honor in the world. If you want money, you can have money. Everyone admires. You know, what what why you the Rebbe would cry very often about Messiah, about exile? What's the issue? What's bothering you? There was nice parades, there was uh Praise, you're a successful man. People call you the most influential and sole Jewish leader of the century. Nobody built as many Jewish centers maybe in history as you. And maybe Sacks said that since the destruction of the second temple, there was no leader who had an influence on every single Jewish community on the planet like the Rebbe. >> Right. >> Sit back and say >> Realize nachas. >> That's nachas. Instead, I once heard the Rebbe stand up and say everything I have done my entire life was in vain. I still remember him using the words la hevel valarik, it was all in vain because redemption is not here. I was a teenager at the time, I'm 19 at 18, 19, and I was I was shocked. Everything was in vain. This is an 89-year-old man talk. It's not a 20-year-old man who's, you know >> doesn't know the value of his words. >> I'm almost a 90-year-old man >> Right. >> who's who's changed the face of of the Jewish people after the Holocaust who has created a revival in Jewish consciousness rejuvenated the Jewish world, who's [snorts] who inspired The success of the Rebbe wasn't Chabad. Chabad is part of it. The success of the Rebbe was that his vision inspired hundreds of other Jewish groups, demographics, and denominations from the far right to the far left to be bold, to be courageous, to be creative, not to be embarrassed, not to stay in their steeples, to build. That that was the success of the Rebbe. The success of the Rebbe is Chabad is part of his success. A nice success, but that his success was much bigger than Chabad. What are you complaining so much? Jews have never had so much comfort, so much money, so many nice buildings. Come on. But I knew that it all ultimately meant nothing to Not that it meant nothing to him. He was doing God's work, of course it meant to him. But he said, "Everything I have tried to do was in vain." You ever heard an 89-year-old man with such influence say this? But this gave me a glimpse number one, who the Rebbe was, and number two, what Mashiach is. That everything he was building, there was not an element of ego there. Nothing. Hm. And that's why he could say it was all in vain. Because what I really want is I want the unity of the creator and the creation. And that hasn't been accomplished. It's It's here, but it's not manifested. I want to be able to see the world for the garden it truly is. We are all channels of infinite consciousness. The true human soul is basically infinite consciousness having a finite experience. The moment we realize that not in our brains viscerally, when we live it, when we breathe it, when we relate to our spouses and children in that way. When we relate to each other that way, when that consciousness fills the world that's Mashiach, and that means the bliss will be infinite. We're all looking for pleasure all day. >> [laughter] >> With the All of us, we're all looking for comfort, for pleasure. For some of us it's more meaningful, it's less meaningful. This one is running to a donut, and this one is running to a different type of donut. We're looking for bliss. But it's so dis- It's filled with so much distractions. And the real bliss There's only one source of bliss in the world. And that is when we realize that we are channels, when we experience ourselves as channels for the source of all bliss. And that's what redemptive consciousness looks like. >> So, I understand my Jews in New York, where we're sitting right now might want Moshiach so badly. It's cold. It's difficult. It's liberal. But what about Jews who live in Miami? It's nice. It's warm. They have Torah. Everybody seems to be very happy there. You think even the Jews in Miami also want Moshiach just as badly? >> I can't speak for any particular person, but I could speak for the soul in each person. And the soul in each person knows how dysfunctional we are. >> I'm going to have to go to Miami to see if they feel the same way. >> And I'll tell you this. This is not about trying to say, "Oh, they're really miserable. They're going to therapy. They talk to their therapist. They look happy. Moshiach is not a crutch. So, even though you look happy, but deep down your marriage is falling apart, and Moshiach is going to fix your marriage." We have to go to a deeper place. The misery we experience is not necessarily because we're miserable, unsuccessful people. I'm talking about those of us who are successful. We're talking about here the angst, the pain that's coming from the fact that the deepest truth of the universe, the DNA of the soul is concealed. And none of us none of us, even those of us who work hard are liberated from that state of exile. But the truth is that Moshiach is all about consciousness. The author of the Tanya writes Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. He says something beautiful, stunning. He says there is collective redemptiveness, and there's individual redemptiveness. And he says prayer was designed to create a shift in individual consciousness that you become an ambassador for redemption. And he says literally it's the opportunity each day to open up the lock and let your soul and heart out of jail. That's how he saw prayer. There is an incredible story about one of the great Hasidic masters. His name was Reb Menachem Mendel of Horodok. He moved to Israel. He went from Russia. He moved from Ukraine. He moved to Israel and he lived in Tiberias, Tiberia. And rumor had it that some fellow ran up to the Mount of Olives and started to blow the shofar, the ram's horn. So people said it must be Elijah the prophet heralding the coming of Messiah. It's before the days of WhatsApp, but the rumor traveled to Tiberias. And they came to this great Hasidic master, Reb Mendele. And they told him, "Elijah the prophet is on the Mount of Olives. He's blowing the ram's horn. Messiah is coming." He went over to the window of his home. He opened the window. He stuck out his head. He sniffed the air. And he said, "Not yet." So Hasidim say, "Why did he have to smell the air outside of his house? Why not inside of his house?" They said cuz inside his home there was always the atmosphere of Messiah. He had to go outside to smell. Messiah is that the whole world experiences it. This is a very, very powerful idea. And the great spiritual masters understood this very, very well. In fact, one of the great the Alter Rebbe, the author of Tanya, writes that there were souls for whom you could say the temple was never destroyed. And he gives an example of Shimon bar Yochai who was in a cave for 13 years hiding from the Romans. But for him there was no exile. Why not? Because in his consciousness, the temple is not a physical building. It's also a physical building. It's the interlacing link between heaven and earth. We imagine they'll build us their temple, we're going to be schlepping rams and sheep and goats to be able to slaughter a lot of meat and have big big meat parties and feasts, meat boards. Again, we are projecting our exile trauma on Mashiach. When we talk about Mashiach, we're just projecting what life looks like from my traumatic perspective. >> [laughter] >> So, I hear Mashiach. It reminds It reminds me I grew up in 770. That's the center of Chabad. And there was a beggar there, very very nice guy. I think he died already. His name was Teddy. Teddy Teddy was the sweetest guy. He would go around like this. You know, some schnorrers, some people who collect, they're really in your face. You know, if you don't give them the $5 they want, they curse you and your family for eternity. But he was a really nice person. He would go around and then he you know, he would collect. So, a friend of mine told me he met him in a grocery store in Crown Heights and he saw him buy a little lottery ticket. So, he said, "Teddy, what are you going to do with 150 million bucks?" And Teddy said, "The first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to hire bodyguards and put them at all the doors of 770 so that no other beggars are allowed in. I would be the only one collecting money." That's how we talk about Mashiach. Well, our conception of wealth is we're going to have bodyguards so I'm the only one making all the deals. Imagine, nobody else would make deals. So, now my bank account will have liquid $900 million, not assets, liquid liquid. That's Mashiach. >> [laughter] >> This is how we project our distractions of bliss onto Mashiach. >> [snorts] >> But we're talking about the consciousness of the human being experiencing his infinity. You know what that looks like? Even death doesn't destroy that. Death destroys my finiteness, not my infinity. So, that's the place that transcends death. >> You asked me why I was doing this film now. There's a famous story about Ben-Gurion that really hit me as a kid. I grew up in a secular school. So, our you know, our Rebbe was Ben-Gurion. That's who we looked up to. And there's a scene where he's in front of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Yidden and they're waiting to get back to wherever they were going to. And they were begging him for papers to get to Palestine. And he opens up his pockets and he says, "I don't have anything for you. They're empty, my pockets." And you couldn't even give them that hope. So, Right. >> Messiah gives you even that hope. You open your pocket and there's something there. There's something there for the Yidden. >> And right now we're going through a very hard time. >> Right, that's true. >> So, it seems like in the hardest points of history, Messiah has always been that thing that the Jews have turned towards. Why is it that is what gives us hope out of all things? Messiah is a man. Why that? >> Yeah. Excellent question here, too. There's a misconception. Some people thought it'd give people hope because, you know, it's like atheists will often make fun of religious masters who promise people the rewards in heaven. You know, it's great. Show me the rewards on Earth. Oh, you got nothing to say, you know? So, you always say, "Don't worry. In heaven, you're going to get everything." Nobody came back yet from heaven to tell us. So, people always make fun of it like, "Jews, they have nothing. They're wretched. They're being massacred. They're persecuted. Mashiach I mean Mashiach Mashiach you should go with your Mashiach. You know, maybe you take control of your own life and fight back. This was one of the ways in which many secular Jews denigrated the religious establishment. Like, you know, be the dreamer. Continue dreaming about somebody coming down from the clouds on a donkey to redeem you. Instead of taking responsibility. >> Now that you put it like that, I I get it. It's it does sound funny. >> Sounds funny, right? And and and and they felt it was divorced from reality. It was divorced from responsibility. And I should say frankly even today some religious Jews they have like like that feeling. Like stop like Yeah, we finish our sermons and we finish our our speeches and our classes, you know, we will all see and God will God should bring Mashiach. Amen. But but deep down, you know, I got to run to the bank. You know, deep down am I really relying on it? We have to elevate our consciousness here. And I'm going to mention two things. Number one, >> [clears throat] >> the suffering in this world, needless to say, is very very intense. Individually, collectively, the tragedies that Jewish people have endured, especially recently, is devastating and unfathomable. For the Jewish people, Mashiach represents a time and an era when we'll be able to look back and say, "Ah, that's why it all happened." Now, think about that. What I just said does not make sense. In fact, it sounds cruel and ridiculous and absurd and ludicrous and stupid. Tell me, there is something that can happen in the world that will justify for us 2,000 years of torment? Is there even any great goodness that can happen in the world that will justify the death of one child? The death of one innocent person? The torture of one Jewish woman or man? I don't know of something like that. What? Endless money? Endless food? No shortage crisis? Tell me what exactly can happen in our world that you and I and anybody can look back and say, "Ah, that's why we went through this. That's why" And the answer is there's nothing. You know why? Cuz we completely don't even begin to grasp what Messiah We're looking at Messiah as more money, more housing, more space, more comfort. It's a transformation of consciousness that our present egoic brains can't wrap their head around. It's a shift of such profound consciousness that all of history is going to be redefined in our visceral conception. Number one. Number two. When Jews believed in Messiah >> [snorts] >> it's something much, much deeper than talking about something that's going to happen tomorrow. They were talking about something that's happening today. Mhm. They were looking at a dark universe. They were looking at evil. They were looking at atrocities. And you know what they were saying? They were saying, "We will not fall prey to the horrors. We still believe in love. We still believe in light. We still believe in life." Clinging to Messiah meant clinging to the fact that hatred is dysfunctional. That cruelty is contrary to who we are. That psychological and emotional alienation and trauma is not the truth of the human spirit. Some of the most moving things I've heard from people, people who went through terrible, terrible abuse, was how they learned that their soul was present but not affected by it. They could emerge unscathed because their soul remained unscathed. That's what Messiah meant collectively and individually to the Jewish people. It meant that as much pain and horrors as we saw, our core is unscathed. Belief in Messiah means the world may be dysfunctional. We may be alienated from ourselves. Humanity needs a lot of healing and the Jewish people need a lot of healing. But it's healing to come back to who we truly are. Messiah was not just about the future. It was describing which reality I'm going to live in today. Which state of consciousness I'm going to choose to be in today. Which part of myself am I going to bring forth to me and to my children and to my loved ones and to the world? Who's going to show up? A sick self or a liberated, emancipated, infinite self? That's what belief in Messiah meant for the Jewish people. >> Rabbi YY Jacobson, thank you for your time. This has been mind-blowing. There's one thing that I took from today, it was that Messiah is not a crutch. Messiah is the expansion of who we are and who we're supposed to be and what the world is supposed to be and who we can be. Who we can be. So, thank you for that. Thank you for being here with me and I appreciate all the work that you continually do and thank you. May God continue to bless you in all the great, great work. Thank you. Same to you. Thank you. Thank you. I do have one last question for you if I may. In New York, I can understand why people want Messiah. It's a little bit of a rough environment. It's cold outside today. Funny policies, crazy people running around in the streets. But Miami, such a nice place, warm place, friendly to the Jewish people, expanding Jewish communities, palm trees. Do you think they want Mashiach as badly as the New Yorkers do? >> So, I've had the privilege of visiting Miami and Florida many, many times. And my gut tells me that there, too, they want Mashiach. >> This class is brought to you by the yeshiva.net. Please help us continue the classes. >> [music] >> Make even a small contribution at www.theyeshiva.net/donate.