What did the Alter Rebbe mean when he said “Oy the Moshiach that is coming, nobody is waiting for! and the Moshiach people are waiting for, isn’t coming!?”
By zevi770 · August 10, 2014
Every single person who has any idea of Moshiach, all have the wrong idea!
For fundamentally, we misconceive God.
Of course, we all would agree, Moshiach is a time when God’s presence becomes the predominant all-encompassing reality; in the words of the Rambam, when the sole occupation of the world will be to know God better; and to the extent humanly possible, “the wisdom of God will flood the earth as the oceanbed is covered by waters” – that’s a lot of water covering the ocean floor.
In other words, what we do see is a time of great revelation.
But what if it is exactly the opposite?
What if we are currently in the messianic process!?
What if, it is not a time of great miracles? what if, there is no individual Moshiach? what if, you don’t see anything extraordinary? in the words of the Rambam “the only difference between the messianic era and exile – a difference we crossed when the Rebbe said “Moshiach came” (in 1991) is, freedom to be a religious Jew.”
So if that is the case, what is the messianic era?!
The answer – as we had occasion to mention – there are in fact two messianic processes.
The first is personal, the second is global.
The real messianic process is the personal.
And it is, as our sages teach, God will marry the Jewish (and all good) people.
As opposed to an engagement (Matan Torah, the giving of the Torah and the era till the time of Moshiach) where two distinct people exist – connected but disconnected – associated but not one – marriage – at least ideally, is where two become a sum, greater than its parts.
As the Rebbe speaks, of this unique oneness, of God and the Jew merging into a single being!
And this is why it is not the Moshiach people are expecting (in fact, far greater!) for we live (or lived) in a paradigm, where the greater personality dominates the lesser – so we could only imagine an era in which we would forgo ourselves for God’s overwhelming presence – but what if like in a marriage, both people are setting themselves aside, in order to form a new individual?