When is the night at its darkest? — Just before dawn. This is the case too with the teaching of our Sages, that “with the advent of the footsteps of Moshiach, insolence will increase,” and so on. For this is the darkness that is intensifying just before the revelation of the light of the great day, the day which is all light.
The Rebbe Rashab, printed from From Exile to Redemption with permission from Sichos in English