Shiur given during Melevah Malka, Parshat Beshalach, 11 Shvat 5785 (February 8, 2025)

The Rebbe said[1]:

I’m a wonder, and my soul is very wondrous, from the creation of the world. I can bring the Moshiach at every minute, at every second, I could bring the Moshiach.

The Rebbe sent to the Shpoloer, the Shpoler questioned the Rebbe:

You can bring the Moshiach?!

The Rebbe said: Of course, I can bring him!

The Shpoler asked, Can you show him to me?

[The Rebbe replied] Of course, I can show you him!

[The Shpoler said] Ah, it’s like that? So come, and we’ll drink a cup of tea together.

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Really, Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshicha said this, that when two Jews drink a cup of tea, so then they can see the Moshiach – if they really love each other, and each person is prepared to sacrifice themselves for the other person.

It’s like what’s written now[2] With one heart, like one man.

“And behold, Egypt was journeying after them.” (Shemot 14:10).

So it’s written, with one heart, and by Am Yisrael it’s written by Mount Sinai, “and Israel encamped there”, it’s written like one man – that Am Yisrael is one man, mamash.

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And the Rebbe did everything, in order that [Jews] would return in teshuva.

The Rebbe said in [Chayei Moharan] 252[3], by me, the ‘running’ is no work – from the moment a person is born, they need to be yearning for Hashem.

Hashem created him, Hashem is his true Father. It’s like a baby, who yearns for its mother, like a baby yearns for its mother, a person needs to yearn for Hashem. To see Hashem at every moment.

The Rebbe said: I saw Hashem from the day I was born, and by me, the ‘running’ is no work at all. By me, just the ‘returning’ is the work – how to return the soul to the body.

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It’s like when they asked Rabbi Mendel of Nemirov[4] what he’d learnt, by the Maggid.

What did the Maggid do for you? Beforehand you prayed – and now also, you pray. What’s the chiddush?

He said: Before I was by the Maggid, so I had to strengthen the body, so it wouldn’t fly after the soul. When I drew close to the Maggid, the body stuck to the soul. Now, I need to return it. Only with difficulty, can I bring it back, the body is already to be found by the soul, it’s found in shemayim.

So ‘the same prayer’ is not the same prayer,

It’s already a soul without a body.

When you come to the Tzaddik, so the prayers are a soul without a body. It’s just a neshama.

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Excerpted and translated from Shivivei Or, No. 397.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] In Chayei Moharan, Numbers 256 and 257 (in English, translated as ‘Tzaddik’):

256: “The Rebbe said Lipovech: ‘I am an ish pele, a wonder, and my soul is very wondrous.’”

257:” He said: “I have reached such a level of perception and devotion to God that I would have been able to bring the Moshiach. Yet I put everything aside and gave myself over to you, so as to make you better people. This is more important than anything else.”

[2] Rashi, writing on the verse: “[A]nd Israel encamped there, opposite the mountain.” Shemot 19:2.

[3] 252: “The Rebbe said that for him, the ‘running’ was no effort at all. What he found hard was the ‘returning’, and this was what involved work and effort as far as he was concerned.

To explain this further, the terms ‘running’ and ‘returning’, which are used in Ezekiel 1:14 to describe the chayot, refer to two different facets of phases of divine service. They apply to everyone, no matter how low his level. There are times when everyone feels inspired in his devotions. This happens especially when a person is praying. He suddenly feels a burst of enthusiasm and says the words with tremendous fervor. This is the phase of ‘running’. But then inspiration and fervor pass and all that is left is a trace. This is the phase of ‘returning’.

For most people the main effort and work come in trying to achieve the ‘running’ – the moment when the heart ‘runs’, as it were, in fervent devotion. ‘Returning’ is something easy for them, because that is their nature.

In the Rebbe’s case, however, it was the other way around, because he had already broken and annihilated his physicality completely. On his level it was the ‘running’ which was part of his nature. For him, the main effort was in the ‘returning’ – because this is also a necessary part of divine service as long as a person is alive. Otherwise, he would leave his body and die before his time, God forbid.

Both ‘running’ and ‘returning’ are necessary parts of serving God.”

[4] The Hebrew transcriber corrected this in the text to R Menachem Mendel of Rimanov – which is an anagram of ‘Nemirov’. Menachem Mendel of Rimanov was said to be a leading disciple of the Seer of Lublin, R Yitzhak Yaakov Horowitz, and also one of the main rabbis who supported Napoleon, at least in the spiritual sense.

It’s very hard to find much concrete information about him.