The Rebbe's Moshiach Campaign | Mivtza MOSHIACH

so this is a series on the mitzvah campaigns initiated by the la bachelorette there are 10 mitzvah campaigns and this isn't one of them the mashiach campaign is actually if you really understand the whole history this is the umbrella under which all of the campaigns exist so i want to give you a little history but what i'm going to do is instead of just giving you a history of how the rebels started initiating campaigns to talk about meshia i'm going to have to back up a little bit further i'm going to go back to the creation of the world as my favorite book begins in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth we're told that there was chaos and void before the world was created and the spirit of god hovered out over the waters obviously not physical waters the world hadn't been created yet and rashi who is the foremost commentary on homicide on the five books of moses the one who teaches us the simple meaning not the esoteric meaning not the the uh mystical meaning but the simple meaning of every verse tell us tells us that the spirit of god that was hovering at the time of creation was the spirit of the king meshiach in other words before the world was even created the concept of mashiach the spirit of mashiach was already present and uh in the words of the great poet saif myself the last indeed was the first in thought you know where we say that by the way we say we say it about shabbos shabbos is the last of the seven day cycle but it was the first in thought in other words we got we got we get to shabbos chronologically after all the days but the whole purpose of the six days was to get to the seventh day and in macrocosm we know that as king david writes in the psalms that every millennium is like a day in god's eyes so also we look at history in terms of seven millennia and that the seventh millennium is the yamchakula shabbos which we refer to by the way in benching right on shabbos when we say may the merciful one we say may he help us or to bring us to to inherit the day that is entirely sabbath-like what is that talking about today that's entirely sabbath like not talking about a 24-hour day it's talking about the era of meshiach so from the beginning of the world before creation this was the safe maison trailer this was the plan from the very beginning this was the purpose from the very beginning this is what it was all leading up to before the whole thing even started they were supposed to get to an era that is perfect and shabbos-like you know what shabbos means shabbos means pencils down that's it no more writing you're done you're done relax you're done and shabbos in the macrocosm in terms of the scope of history means that all the hard work and all the suffering and all the travails of the jewish people and of the entire world will have finally come to its culmination we're done and we can sit back and we can enjoy a perfect world where we have no trouble we have no distractions and we're all free to do nothing but to know god so having said that obviously the whole idea of mashiach isn't a surprise it's like it's not you know like someone wants to read a book and they haven't read it and they asked their friend who read the book like ah don't tell me the end right don't it's called a spoiler but this isn't a spoiler because i'm sure you're familiar with the concept of meshiach i'm sure you know this is this is the end of the story in fact not only the jews know about it it's it's pretty open it's pretty well known in fact maimonides writes in mishnah torah in a book of law it's interesting sometimes romanity's wax is philosophical and he gives us a little bit of the philosophy of the history of religion and over there he says that the purpose of christianity in islam and its popularity in the world was to acquaint uh much of the world's population with the concept of meshiach so the fact that mashiach is just like it's it's out there people know about it it's it's a concept it's not a surprise to anyone so we all know sooner or later it's going to happen but the way we relate to this concept of mashiach today is different than the way we've historically related to it and that's what we want to talk about tonight jews always knew mashiach was going to come eventually but it was something far off it was something fantastical like a dream like how can you even imagine it and today it's really not so far off the stage is set and really what's lacking is a shift in consciousness hence the purpose of this class because if we get together and and and we talk about the right ideas in the right way we can all make this mental shift and we can start to see like the rabbit said madoff you have to open the eyes you have to open the eyes and start to see how the stage is set how there's a certain messianic reality in the world already to the extent that let me let me make it i think this will this will frame it in the most accessible way if you would have talked to a jew two thousand years ago right after the destruction of the of the of the second base of dash or a jew a thousand years ago in the times of the crusades or or drew five six hundred years ago in times of of the inquisition or jew you know 200 years ago in in in the times of pogroms or or jew after the holocaust if you would if you would ask them do you believe in meshiach it's one of the 13 principles of faith okay can you picture this world the world that you were born in the world that you were raised in the world that you've lived in your whole life could you picture this world as a world with meshiach no anima i believe i believe today we also believe but we can also start to see it and it makes sense because if we're getting closer then we're getting closer and and you can be a pessimist and you can you can be a cynic and you can try to prove that the world is worse than it's ever been but first of all it ain't true it's impossible because we're getting closer to the culmination to the punch line the world is better than it's ever been that's just axiomatically true we are closer to the good times than we've ever been but second of all open your eyes look around look around okay so one of the things that abham says these are these are the words of the prophet that when meshich comes the world will be full of the knowledge of god what does that mean the world will be full of the knowledge of god now you could read that metaphorically you know idiomatically it's poetry the world will be full of the knowledge of god like a lot of people will know a lot of stuff about god right but you know what today it's not poetry that's literal i i participated in a cmarabham you know the rabbi instituted the study of rambam every day to finish the entire mishna taita one study track is to do three chapters a day and just to finish the entire rambam every year there's another study track to learn one chapter a day and to finish the entire mishna toyota once every three years and then there's also the sephirah mitzvahs track so there was a cimarron we just had one actually a few weeks ago but not the one a few weeks ago the one before that and uh there was a global cmr album and they asked me if i would read you know if i would do the cm if i would read the last few words of mishna toyota i said sure where's the siemens they said everywhere i said well i can't show up everywhere just tell me where to show up they said well we would like you to uh to go to the aisle to the devil's resting place and there will be a uh a camera there there'll be a live hookup and you're going to be joining all the different speakers who are speaking at the cinema and they had speakers from europe from africa from uh the holy land from about three different cities in america and it would just go one to i mean we take it for granted i mean of course you know there's zoom right here right we take it for granted during the whole coven we took for granted how connected we were but i'm sitting there at this global sea which is literally global it's not global like that's the title it's literally one speaker after the next is on a different continent and they come to me and i'm reading the last few lines of of the rambam and that i'm saying hashem that the world will be full of the knowledge of god i said you know this event right here is the perfect illustration of that literally there are these unseen you know the wi-fi waves that are picking it up like there's no wires i'm i'm talking into some camera there's no wires anywhere and and and a speaker before me was in in south africa the speaker after me is in england and and somebody in china is watching all three of us i said this is literally hashem that the proliferation of torah knowledge is literally covering the globe and anywhere you go with a little device you can pick it up so it's not poetry anymore it's it's literal and if you would ask juice throughout history to imagine it they couldn't even i'll tell you something interesting just to give you a little i i recently uh got interested in um time travel novels not reading them but reading about the history of time travel novels and i found out that the first time travel novel was written in the early 1700s in 1733 and it was called memoirs from the 20th century yeah it was written in the english language was written by an irish author i remember his name but what was interesting about it is when you read a time travel novel and they go to the future you know like the time machine hd wells right okay whatever sci-fi fantasy read where they where they go to the future it's just everyone understands when you go to the future what do you find you know flying cars and stuff like that right there you find advanced technology you want to know something really weird in 1733 the first known time travel novel when they go to the future when they go to the 20th century there is no technological difference between the present and the future the only differences are political differences like different countries conquer different countries and have different kings but there's no technological difference why not because there was no such concept think about it that people living in the 1700s had basically the same technology as people a thousand years before them and 2000 years before them and the whole idea that there would that if you would imagine something a hundred years later technology would be radically different that didn't really start until the past 250 years with the industrial revolution so think about the fact that even being able to imagine this world in a totally different state than it's in right now even being able to imagine that is a new concept forget about the fact that we can start seeing bits and pieces of it being able to imagine it didn't exist until relatively relatively recently in history in early 1700s around the time of might i add the proliferation of the teachings of the students of the welsh empire just if you want to historically plot where you know what would be contemporaneous to that we live in a world today where the discussion of people living forever is not sci-fi it's not sci-fi it's it's a it's a real discussion prolonging the lifespan of human beings to to numbers that we would think of as being like biblical numbers just unfathomable numbers these are real discussions the the ease of travel how this world is it has become really one world and you can get anywhere you want in the entire world come on in the fact that science today and don't ask the scientists if they believe in god or not because as i've found like leviathan said to the atheist you said young man the same god you don't believe in i also don't believe in a lot of times when people reject belief they're rejecting a version of belief but then when you probe deeper you find out what they're saying is pretty in line with what we know to be the truth so science today again don't ask the scientists if they believe but ask scientists today if it is generally expected that if we keep searching if we keep looking at this world ultimately we will find oneness that it's all one that i mean einstein was in search of the unified field theory some people called the unifying the unifying theory of everything did anyone find it yet they didn't find it yet but the general understanding is that if we keep examining the physical world we will discover that it's all one i mean the theory of relativity is that matter and energy are one but ultimately they that it's all one that that hashem to use the theological term hebrew term the oneness of god is is expected it's just that's reality that's expected by people not because they read it in the torah or in any religious book but because they looked at the world and they came to these conclusions logically furthermore look at the change sociologically look at the change as far as the way societies operate the way cultures operate look at the fact that people are so much more civilized today we take that for granted we take that for granted do you take for granted the fact that slavery was practiced in every country in every society every culture in the world until relatively relatively recently and that even though today unfortunately there are still holdouts who practice slavery it's generally regarded as as loathsome and and repugnant the idea of of inflicting violence upon your enemies that used to be a normal thing any society had to do that in order to survive today it's considered immoral you have to justify an act of violence today that you didn't have to justify it once upon a time the strong you know might makes right the strong conquer the weak and that's the way it goes so the fact that even just collectively there's a sense of of gentleness and kindness and and sympathy that's a relatively new development in human history even anti-semitism yes people will say to you well anti-semitism is worse today it got worse it slowed down a little bit now it's sped up i want to tell you something i want to tell you something i am not minimizing any acts of anti-semitism it is repugnant and needs to be stamped out and every act of anti-semitism is a threat and it is not a joke it's regarded seriously okay it's 100 true at the same time i just want to help us frame how different the world is today that when there's an act of anti-semitism today if there's anti-semitic graffiti let's say in in anywhere in the world it could be europe it could be america could it it it could be in in china if you're a jewish person if you're hooked into the news you will know that it happened today now i want to tell you something there was not it was not so long ago that acts of anti-semitic vandalism and and assault were daily occurrences daily occurrences today if again not to minimize it or justify it god forbid but if if somebody is verbally assaulted in new york city and they're they're referred to by an anti-semitic explorer that will be in the news 50 years ago every single kid getting off the bus to go to yeshiva was was was attacked every single day and not just with antimatter anti-semitic slurs but he had to learn how to fight because the anti-semites would would come beat him that was not in the news today it's in the news so again it's not that it's okay but i'm just saying we have barak hashem very high standards today as we should because our standards should be zero anti-semitism zero intolerance and that's where we're heading toward we're heading toward what is it what was the campaign in new york city about the about the no more uh traffic uh accidents what zero vision zero vision well that's what it's called zero vision yeah they had they had bus bench ads and everything about zero vision yeah the division vision zero vision zero that that our goal is there should be how many uh how many uh pedestrian fatalities in new york city zero right okay so our goal with the anti-semitism is zero there should be zero but think about the fact that once upon a time jewish blood was cheap go find out your family tree find out how many people were murdered just because of being jews and there was absolutely no due process there was no law and order there was absolutely no protection under the law there was no way to there wasn't there were there was there was absolutely no way for for any recourse for a jew so not that it's uh that we take it lightly even even the even the smallest act of anti-semitism but i'm saying thank god our standards our standards are wonderfully wonderfully high today so that's how we can see that the world of meshiach isn't science fiction anymore it's very very close it's very similar to the world that we see the world that we know furthermore there's a practical side of this as well the practical side of this is that a hundred years ago even if a jew was able to envision this and surely there were jews who could envision it you know who they're called i mean remember the prophets the ones who told us about moshiach right so hey you hear me oh right they they they told us about meshia so they could envision it right and i'm sure i'm sure i mean we we we don't necessarily know in detail but throughout the generations there there were tadikyum there were who had uh if it wasn't navoor call it rocha kaidish called what you want but they could see it so if they could see it how come they weren't out campaigning about it how come they weren't out going and telling everybody i mean they would speak about it in generalities about the you know we believe in meshiach but how come they weren't going around telling people what they saw and telling people that let's let's go spread the word let's go make a pr campaign let's get let's let's get non-jews involved how come that didn't happen very practical answer to that question imagine what would have happened there's a practical answer why weren't they going around telling the the world that meshiach is coming is crazy if they're lucky they didn't have the reach but even more than that you see worse but thank god we are so our lives are so good we can't even understand we can't even imagine it just like probably none of us have ever had to uh watch our children go to bed without having eaten today or for two days or for three days which i know that my great-grandparents did they went to bed that way i mean that wasn't so long ago we're so no i'm gonna i'm gonna tell you historically if jews would have gone around publicly uh putting up billboards and saying let's welcome meshiach with acts of goodness and kindness not that they would be taken for crazy they would be met with the opposite of goodness and kindness they'll be murdered in the streets it wasn't possible it wasn't possible to go around and talk about our hope and our vision so even if we had had it we could we dare not speak about it it's a great story great story about you know i heard from your schwe i'm sure you know the story but you know i probably couldn't even figure out where i'm heading 1991 kindest of schlokem in europe european see there's the kinesthetic the big kind of shlokum and there's the regional quinosum regional uh conference conventions so uh the european conference in 1991. so if you remember 1991 perestroika things are a little bit thawing out a little bit so uh beryl lazar was there already in russia so he asked robert kullarsky let's maybe make the european uh kinesthetic in in moscow now you gotta understand like you know how many emissaries representatives of this laboratory and and his and his father-in-law were were taken to prison interrogated tortured murdered in russia and it's specifically in moscow so kinase look him european kisses in moscow that's that's i mean that's crazier than someone walking on mars that's becoming not crazy right now you just have a few billion dollars you can go to mars right so they asked that ebb if they could do it that ebba said if the shlokan can all get visas it could be done it should be done if they can all get the visas so they would they were able to get visas and they made the they made the uh kinase in moscow and there's a big fancy hotel there i forget the name of it but it's near the the big school is marina rochester which was a historical show and then there's a big fancy hotel there in moscow that's where they stay and uh so shabbos morning um but kotlarsky is in his room he hadn't left his room yet his early shot this morning and there's pounding at the door and he answers the door and one of the local guys i guess maybe who worked for the hotel i'm not sure who it was but somebody who was like responsible for for the group he said they're coming to kill you he says who he says the old men the old men are coming to kill you [Applause] he looks and he sees that there's three old shlokhim now who are these i'm not going to say their names i know their names every single one of them had been arrested tortured beaten had family members and friends murdered by the communists in fact one of them when he was arrested and sent to siberia he was arrested from the steps of marine russia of the very shore where they were supposed to go walk so the last time he was on the steps of that show he was arrested and sent to siberia so these three old see them they were marching down to robert kellerski's office to confront him he looks he says what's what's what's the problem they said you got us all killed you did it and you have to understand you know these were people who had friends who were killed in those streets so they told her about colombia you got us killed so nobody's getting killed here they said look out the window he looks out the window and there's a bunch of soldiers a whole formation of soldiers standing in front of the hotel well there it is that's it all the shlokam are going to be rounded up god forbid i mean that was their experience that was their reality joey kolarski says to these older gentlemen they're not coming to harm us they said then why are there a troop of soldiers standing out in front of the hotel he said it's an honor guard they're here to escort us they said there's no such thing he said it is there is such a thing they said no there's not he said if i go out and i talk to them will you believe me they said yeah you go so they watched him from the window robert kotlarski went out and he was an interpreter i assume and he spoke to their honor guard yeah we're going to be walking from the hotel down to the shul yeah it's this this is how far it is yeah you and that's how it was and they are an honor guard escorted them marched them down to the shul with pomp and circumstance with great fanfare they went there they davened they had a hole davening and then afterwards they were marched back to the hotel where they were able to comfortably sit back and fabreng and to meet and talk about expanding judaism where what was the name of the room in the hotel was called the lenin communist party room fanciest room in the hotel the lenin communist party room and that's where they sat the schlochem and they planned how they're going to expand jewish activity so we're talking about changed so rapid that in people's lifetimes in people's lifetimes they remembered reality one way and in their own lifetime reality had become a completely different way meaning the change is so rapid today the change is so rapid think about how rapid change is think about what your cell phone looked like 20 years ago if you had one i was trying to think i've been married i think 20 maybe 21 years i gotta ask my wife but i remember my first cell phone i got was when i was dating my wife so i've had a cell phone about 20 years and i think about the cell phone that i had 20 years ago and the cell phone i have today i remember before i got married when i saw in one of the stores on kingston i was learning at 770 and i was blown away they had at one of the stores in kingston they had a cd rom which had the entire new york city telephone book i was blown away the entire new york city telephone book on a little disc on a cd-rom i said that's amazing how do they do that so the world is changing so rapidly the world didn't change the world was static for for centuries for millennia and now all of a sudden as we're getting to the end it's changing so rapidly and the changes are good now you want to tell me no it's not all good okay well here's the thing there's something called human nature and until mashiach comes there is a yatzahara we still do have a tzahara yeah a little bit left and we have free choice and people can mis they can misuse things so the fact that we have the technology to cover the entire world in nothing but the knowledge of god doesn't mean that's the only thing that people use the internet for people still have the free will to use the internet for other things the fact that we create we produce today enough food to feed seven billion people that's a miracle by the way there was something called the population bomb in the late 60s it was the cover of time magazine that once the world population hits 2 billion you will not be able to feed it it's impossible there's not enough arable land and there was some scientist in dallas forget his name he invented some type of genetic engineering that changed the way that wheat grows and boom all of a sudden now we feed 2 billion we can feed 7 billion now you're going to say but people still starve you know the only reason people starve is because food distribution not that there's not not enough food you know how much food we throw away in america we make enough food in america to feed the entire world that's a miracle the only reason people starve is because of food distribution and why is there poor food distribution because of human greed so the fact is that we're not perfect yet we're not perfect yet humans still make bad decisions but the point is just like there are people who misuse the internet and use it for other things things other than torah and just like there's enough food but not everyone gets it because people are greedy the point is though that the stage is set everything we need for world peace is here everything we need for everyone to be comfortable and safe and healthy we have it we haven't i shouldn't say everything they haven't cured cancer yet yet but it's on the horizon it's not science fiction anymore they'll cure all the diseases they will of course they will so 99 of the things that used to kill everybody throughout history we basically have the ability to avail every one of those services the only thing is okay so not everybody is enlightened yet so it doesn't work out that way but see that's the that's my whole point at this juncture in history it's no longer it's no the problem is no longer about having the resources or the technology or or the hardware the problem is a human issue we have the technology and the resources and the hardware to ensure safety and prosperity and good health for every human being the only thing we need to work on the last frontier is the human aspect of it which means what do we got to do we got to educate the world that's the last frontier we just gotta as i as i began i said you know it's just about consciousness it's just about teaching it's just about flipping that switch so we have to go around we start it by the way i hate to break it to you but now that we live in such a free world we jews have a responsibility to do what our great grandparents dared not do but we not only can do it we must do it and that means we as a light unto the nations have to go around and start telling everybody guys it's not it's not science fiction anymore what our prophets imagined or they didn't imagine it but they they saw it and it was seemed imaginary it's very very plausible now and the only thing we need to do is get together as a society as a global village which that itself is is a total novelty the fact that there's such a thing as you know the ability to unite the world to get one message out to an entire planet that that the ability didn't even exist before and now the ability exists so that's that's the only thing that's lacking is we got to go we the jewish people that's our job that's what we that's what we were chosen for that's what we were chosen for so and we don't have an excuse anymore we're no longer allowed to say look i'm going to have my shabbos my conscious i might fill in and my kids will go to jewish school and i'm a good jew yes you are a good jew but you know what it's not enough it's not enough judaism means and it always meant we just couldn't do it judaism means world peace peace safety prosperity for the entire world which is interesting because you know a lot of religions their uh their end goal is really only for their own club which is one of their you know uh one one of the arguments they make when they want you to join their religion is that don't you want to be part of the you know the winning team and our goal is it's not us and them it's it's all of us there's no us in them we we want what we want is good for all humanity think about that and and we don't even tell people they have to become jewish to benefit from it what we want is good for all humanity and that is judaism is in some side point some footnote is safe from the beginning of the creation of the world this was the plan and just for a long time it was too fantastical it was too crazy it was impractical and now as we're getting close to it it's totally doable and we have to get it done so let me just suggest some practical actionable items here in addition to whatever torah study that we're already engaged in we should specifically study subjects pertaining to mashiach and redemption because knowing about it puts us on that wavelength mentally to be aware of it to see more of it it's all around there are messianic things happening all around but when we're you know when we're reading the newspaper sometimes we get their narrative we pick up on the way they spin it but if we're learning about meshiach then when we uh hear about what's going on in the world we see it from the proper perspective that's one thing another thing is being proud jews being proud jews in this free society that we live in in america today it's not just we have the right to do it no we actually have an obligation to do it and we make this country and the whole world safer and better for everyone when we do things like public menorah lightings when we uh we go on with this the whole class here is about them if tell you about the mitzvah campaigns like so i'm sure people understand the idea of going out with your tv on the street corner and saying excuse me sir are you jewish right so once upon a time we'll be like hey don't make any trouble don't draw attention today no no specifically it's good you want to combat anti-semitism stand on a street corner in manhattan with a perfect villain and ask excuse me sir are you jewish and put on phone with a jew on a street corner it's good for the world it's good for world peace being openly jewish and proudly jewish don't ever hide it not just because you have nothing to hide but because you're holding out on the world the world is healed by mitzvahs the world is healed by jewish activity and the third thing i would say i'm there there are many more things but i'll just suggest this is start living in a meshiah way which means it's it's very hard to describe this but it's an attitude the attitude is instead of seeing life as hard instead of seeing life as full of problems look at life as basically good look at the world as basically 99 refined 99 sorted already you know just that little bit left to tip the scales and there's no resistance anymore so what does that mean in very practical terms i know nobody here is like like i don't think anyone here is involved in like geopolitics so i'm not going to tell you don't go to war with other countries let me tell you something that's like closer to home you don't have to fight with your spouse you don't have to fight with your kids you don't have to you don't have to fight with anybody everybody's good everyone wants to do good everything's smooth today there's no more resistance yesterday i was up in the country i was talking to a bunch of mothers 200 jewish mothers about parenting and it was interesting to see the lights go on when i would tell them things like no you actually don't have to um threaten your kids to get them to do the right thing now actually you can just deepen your bond with them and they'll naturally want to do the right thing now some of them were saying no that's not how our parents did it well maybe that's true maybe historically there was too much of a clipper too much of a shell you know that's what we call it kabbalistically too much of a covering and there was resistance and had to be broken and that's why people were harsher and that's why education was done in a more harsh way but today the shell is broken nobody needs harshness to the contrary today everyone needs sweetness everyone wants to be good everyone wants to do the right thing so that's it we gotta start living in the new reality and we don't know which mitzvah is going to be like maimonides says you got to see the world like a perfectly even balanced scale and one tiny little good deed can be the one that tips the scales for the entire world we don't know what it's going to be but it doesn't have to be a big thing it should be now