BESURAS HAGEULO
The Announcement Of The Redemption
"These are the generations of Yaakov, Yoseph"
- The name Yoseph, which means "increase," alludes to the increase of the revelation and dissemination of the teachings of Chabad Chassidus by our Rebbes and leaders, successors of the Alter Rebbe, until my sainted father-in-law [Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchak], the leader of our generation, the "Yoseph" of our generation. His primary focus was the realization of the deeper sense of the name "Yoseph": "may G-d increase another son,"
that is, to take the "other," the "outsider," and transform him into an insider, a "son."
This goal of transforming the "outsider" into an "insider" became even more pronounced when he arrived in this lower hemisphere (analogous to the descent of Joseph into Egypt). His arrival here facilitated the revelation of Chassidus (along with the dissemination of Torah and Judaism) to the entire world, even to the lowliest - the most spiritually remote - regions of the world.
In the forty years since his passing, we have experienced an increase in these efforts, an increase which finds expression in the verse, "paratzta alecha paretz," "you have broken through a breach."
Our sages teach that after forty years one has the capacity to "fathom the mind of one's teacher," that then one can acquire "a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear" the teachings learned forty years earlier. Similarly, the "dissemination of the fountains of Chassidus to the outside" followed the Biblical description of "and you shall spread forth to the west and east, north and south," reaching even the most remote corners of the globe, breaking all the barriers. Therefore, as both the forty-year barrier to understanding and the barriers to the "dissemination of the fountains of Chassidus" have been breached, we are already prepared for the coming of our righteous Moshiach. Significantly, Moshiach is identified with Peretz, as our sages comment: "Peretz, this is Moshiach, as it says: 'The breacher [HaPoreitz] had arisen before them.'"
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On Yud-Tes Kislev of this year, 192 years will have elapsed since the liberation of the first Yud-Tes Kislev (5559-5751).
The significance of the number 192 is that:
- a) Rearranged, the Hebrew letters for 192 (cme) form the word (.ce) (collecting or gathering). This suggests that we have now concluded the service of the era of Exile, namely, the process of collecting and gathering the Divine sparks of the entire world (for which purpose G-d exiled Israel among the nations). (This includes collecting and gathering all the variations, represented by the phrase "kabetz-shanah" - for the word "shanah," (year) is cognate to the word "shinuy," (change) i.e., all the possible changes and variations of [divine sparks]).
- b) The Hebrew letters for the word 192, cme, derive from the term "fixed time" or "cut off." This implies that the time for the dissemination of the fountains to the far reaches (as well as the spiritual achievements during this time), which commenced Yud-Tes Kislev 192 years ago, has finally reached the "cut off" period, at last been completed. Therefore we are ready for the realization of the promise that when the fountain [of Chassidus] will be disseminated to the farthest reaches, the master, the King Moshiach, will come.
This is one of the reasons for the publication of a special (and enlarged) edition of the Tanya (the "written Torah" of the teachings of Chabad Chassidus) and its distribution to everyone present, men, women and children, in conjunction with the "festival of Liberation of Yud-Tes Kislev - 192nd year" - to emphasize, in a concrete manner, one visible to even eyes of flesh, the completion of the service of disseminating the fountains to the farthest reaches during these 192 years. This completion leads to the "end of days" (that is, the end of exile), which also implies the realization of another "end of days," that is, the deadline for and the beginning of Redemption.
(From the talk of Shabbos Parshas Vayeishev, 21 Kislev, 5751)
