The Previous Rebbe related that when the Alter Rebbe first returned from Mezritch, he was adorned with the Crown of Might and Beauty that was given to the Rebbe who would erect the pillar of the Torah of Chabad Chassidus.
One of the first Torah lessons that the Alter Rebbe shared was a teaching that the Baal Shem Tov heard from Moshiach in the Palace of Moshiach. He added that he was publicizing it in the name of Moshiach and the Baal Shem Tov, so that the blessing it contained would be revealed in the innermost reaches of every Jewish heart.
The lesson from the Baal Shem Tov was a Chassidic explanation of the first verse in the Torah. “In the beginning Elokim created the heaven and the earth.” Berashis [In the beginning] indicates the beginning of our service to Hashem. And Bara [created] means that a person’s task in serving Hashem is “to make known” that the name Elokim is, really, Hashem as manifest through the name Havayeh-- higher than nature.1
This means that our service is to reveal that Elokim is Havayeh, as we proclaim at the end of Yom Kippur, ”Havayeh is Elokim,” Hashem, higher than nature is L-rd (G-d within nature).”
Our Rebbe asks, “How is it appropriate for a Jew to change the order of Creation by working to uncover the four-letter name of Hashem that is hidden by the G-dly name Elokim?”
The Baal Shem Tov addresses this question. The start of the Torah tells us that while the Name Elokim hides G-d’s essence, the intention is not that it should remain hidden. Rather, the G-dly intention in hiding through the name Elokim, is that a Jew should reveal that, in truth, it is really the infinite power of Hashem [as manifest through the name Havayeh] that creates and enlivens every facet of nature.
Our Rebbe goes on to explain an even deeper and more practical dimension to the story. He says that the coming of Moshiach is the whole purpose and point of G-dly service. The future time will be the perfection of G-dly service, the Mitzvahs will be done perfectly, exactly as Hashem desires. And the superiority of that perfect service in the world to come is dependent on our service of revealing G-dliness through our service of Torah and Mitzvahs during the exile.
He develops that thought further by citing Rashi’s commentary on the same first verse of the Torah. “He gives to his people the inheritance of the non-Jewish nations.” And Rashi continues, ”Why does the Torah start with history, “In the beginning?” The function of the Torah is to teach law and ethics, so it should really have started with the first mitzvah not a history of the world.
The reason the Torah starts with the creation, explains Rashi, is so that when non-Jews complain that we stole their land, we answer them that the world is created and owned by Hashem. He can give it to whom he desires, and He gave the Children of Israel the land of Israel.
But what are we saying? That the Torah, the very beginning of the Torah, is a vehicle to explain G-d’s intentions to the non-Jews!? But, really, through explaining Hashem’s intention to the non-Jew and answering his plaint, we acquire the spark of good hidden in nature--the Land of Israel.
This explanation is also manifest in our personal service. As our Rebbe points out, each one of us has his own personal non-Jew, the animal soul. And that is the inner meaning of “He gives his people the inheritance of the non-Jews”. The purification [of our personal non-Jew] the animal soul.
This is the general point of the time of exile that the service of prayer and learning Torah doesn’t accomplish bringing the final redemption as much as doing the physical mitzvahs through which we acquire the sparks of good.
The Alter Rebbe said that the main service in exile is the bending of the animal soul to make it conform to the will of Hashem, like the metaphor of a seed that through its rotting in the ground causes much growth.
And particularly through what we accomplish now in the deep darkness of the exile, we choose and acquire for ourselves the inheritance of the nations, we reveal that nature is just a covering for G-dliness and finally reach the revelation of King Moshiach.
So, this is the Torah the Baal Shem Tov received from the Palace of Moshiach, that we need to reveal--the inner intention of the name Elokim [the name which conceals the Holy One Blessed Be He]. And that service of revelation is the true intention of Hashem in hiding Himself. Through our service we will reach the revelation of Hashem’s actual essence and being when Moshiach comes.
1 The first letter of each of the Hebrew words for heaven and earth “es hashamayim v’es haaratez” indicate a very high version of the name Havayeh, [alef hay vav hay].