In[111] the last series of maamarim[112] that the Rebbe [Rayatz] wrote, he anticipated everything and hinted at everything.[113] Towards the conclusion of that series, in the maamar which was released in advance for study on Beis Nissan,[114] the Rebbe [Rayatz] explains the concept of netzach (lit., "victory").[115] He writes there that the attribute of seeking victory is rooted in the very core of the soul which transcends all of the soul's revealed (i.e., conscious) faculties. Because of this attribute, for the sake of victory in war even secret treasures, which have been locked away for generations, are squandered.[116] Indeed, a king himself will take up his position in the thick of battle, and will even risk his very life. Since this is all done for the sake of victory in battle, one can readily conclude to what extent the attribute of netzach is deeply rooted in the soul.

The Rebbe [Rayatz] says this of our present time -- the final era before the Redemption, the era in which the task of beirurim comes to an end. As the Rebbe [Rayatz] wrote in HaKeriah VehaKedushah,[117] now is the era preceding the Redemption, and the mode of spiritual service (the avodah) now required is a mode of victory,[118] with an unquestioning acceptance of the yoke of heaven.[119]

In order that victory be secured in the [current] battle, "secret treasures, which have been locked away for generations," have been squandered -- i.e., all the teachings and episodes which the Rebbe [Rayatz] revealed in recent times, and which had been hidden and sealed from generation to generation, until the generation of the Baal Shem Tov and his mentor, the Baal Chai.[120]

Because no one adequately took all these treasures to heart, their revelation is a veritable squandering, all for the sake of victory.

Since even all of this did not help -- then, as the Rebbe [Rayatz] adds in the maamar, "the king himself takes up his position in the thick of battle." This in fact was the practice of the Rebbe [Rayatz]. Rather than restricting his activities to lofty matters, he became involved even in quite mundane affairs. He personally took up his position on the battlefield.

Had we been found worthy, all of the above would have sufficed to secure victory in the battle, and the Rebbe [Rayatz] would long ago have led us to greet Mashiach. But since people did not devote themselves to him sufficiently, even all the above did not suffice, and -- as the Rebbe [Rayatz] continues in the maamar -- the king risks his very life.

[At this point, after weeping at length, the Rebbe concluded:] Since the Rebbe [Rayatz] writes no further than this in the maamar, and since the maamar is Torah, this means that the Torah determines that this is enough for now. We only have to muster strength and courage in order to secure victory in the battle, and the Rebbe [Rayatz] will lead us to greet Mashiach.

   

Notes:

111. (Back to text) From a sichah of Shabbos Parshas Vayakhel-Pekudei, Mevarchim (and erev Rosh Chodesh) Nissan, 5710 [1950]. The full text appears in Likkutei Sichos, Vol. II, p. 512ff.

112. (Back to text) See Sefer HaMaamarim 5710, p. 111ff. For English translation, see Basi LeGani: Chassidic Discourses (op. cit.).

113. (Back to text) According to the unauthenticated notes of a listener, the Rebbe said: "I search among the subjects explained in these maamarim for the answers to all the questions being asked."

114. (Back to text) Sefer HaMaamarim 5710, p. 154. For English translation, see Basi LeGani: Chassidic Discourses, p. 74; see also p. 49ff.

115. (Back to text) According to the unauthenticated notes of a listener, at this point the Rebbe summarized some of the concepts explained in the above-mentioned maamar -- that the word Tzvaos is one of the seven holy Names of G-d (which may not be erased), even though it is not used as such in the Torah (where it is used only in reference to the Jewish people, who are called Tzivos HaShem, "the hosts of G-d"), but was first revealed as a Divine Name only by the Prophets; and that this Name is related to the waging of war and to the pursuit of victory.

116. (Back to text) In fact the Rebbe [Rayatz] sustains this metaphor even more specifically: "The treasures are indeed entrusted to the ministers and commanding officers; ultimately, however, they are intended for the use of the rank and file soldiers (Yid.: 'those who shoot'), for it is they who in practice will secure the victory."

     The "ministers and officers" are those who engaged in avodah by their own efforts, over and above the energy that the king -- the Rebbe -- gives them as a gift, and thereby they attained ever loftier spiritual heights. Thus, for example, when the Alter Rebbe offered [his grandson] the Tzemach Tzedek sublime levels of spiritual perception as a gift, the Tzemach Tzedek declined, explaining that he preferred to attain these levels by his own unaided efforts. Later, however, he regretted this decision: he should have accepted as a gift whatever was offered him, and then by his own continued efforts he would have attained even higher levels. [The above interpolation to the sichah is taken from the unauthenticated notes of a listener.]

117. (Back to text) Journal founded by the Rebbe Rayatz in 1941.

118. (Back to text) In the original, nitzachon.

119. (Back to text) In the original, kabbalas ol.

120. (Back to text) The letters ches yud, an acronym for Chayah and Yechidah [which are the two innermost and transcendental levels of the soul], allude to Achiyah HaShiloni. (See the sichah of Shabbos Parshas Pinchas, 5700 [1940], in Sefer HaSichos of that year, p. 159.)

     [Achiyah of Shiloh was a prophet who first appears in the Tanach early in the time of the First Beis HaMikdash. See I Melachim, chs. 11 and 14; Bava Basra 121b; and Rambam's Introduction to Mishneh Torah. See also Vol. I of Likkutei Dibburim (in English translation), ch. 2b, sec. 1, and ch. 4a, sec. 3.]

     As to why specifically Achiyah HaShiloni was the mentor of the Baal Shem Tov, it will be noted that R. Shimon bar Yochai, the master of the innermost, mystical dimension (the pnimiyus) of the Torah, once declared that he would save the whole world from judgment until the days of Mashiach, if Achiyah HaShiloni would join him. (This is the version of the statement as it appears in: the Yerushalmi, Berachos 9:2; Bereishis Rabbah 35:2; and Pesikta DeRav Kahana on the verse, Vayehi beshalach.) This declaration may be understood in the light of the teaching that appears in the Likkutim appended to Sefer HaGilgulim of the AriZal, that R. Shimon bar Yochai was an incarnation of Achiyah HaShiloni. The phrase "until the days of Mashiach" refers to the time when "the Jewish people will go out of exile with mercy," by virtue of their having tasted of the Zohar, which is referred to as "your (i.e., the Rashbi's) book," as is written in the Zohar III, 124b.

     The same concept is true of the Baal Shem Tov, for Mashiach will come when the wellsprings of the Baal Shem Tov's teachings are disseminated far and wide, as is stated in the well-known letter of the Baal Shem Tov [to his brother-in-law, R. Gershon of Kitov, in 1752; see Likkutei Dibburim (in English translation), Vol. I, ch. 2b, sec. 1].

     The author of Toldos Yaakov Yosef refers (in Parshas Balak) to "Achiyah HaShiloni, who was a disciple of Moshe Rabbeinu and was one of those who left Egypt, and was later a member of the beis din of David HaMelech, and was the mentor of Eliyahu HaNavi, and the mentor of my master [i.e., the Baal Shem Tov], of blessed memory." This implies, to some extent, that the fact that Achiyah HaShiloni was the mentor of the Baal Shem Tov is related to the fact that he was the mentor of Eliyahu HaNavi.

     In the spirit of the above, it will be noted that the task of Eliyahu HaNavi (see, e.g., the mishnah at the end of Eduyos) is to prepare the way for the coming of Mashiach, to bring near those who are far removed, and so on; as it is written (Malachi 3:23-24): "Behold, I will send you Eliyah[u] the Prophet, before the coming of the great and awesome day of G-d, and he shall turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers." These same basic themes Eliyahu HaNavi shares in common with the Baal Shem Tov -- loving every fellow Jew, even if he is at the other end of the world, and even if he is utterly unschooled; and the dissemination of the wellsprings [of the mystical dimension of the Torah], which is a preparation and a vessel for the coming of Mashiach. (See the sichah of Simchas Torah, 5690 [1929], in Likkutei Dibburim [in English translation: Vol. II, ch. 16, sec. 1].)

     In response, then, to the question as to why specifically Achiyah HaShiloni was the mentor of Eliyahu HaNavi and of the Baal Shem Tov: One might explain this by noting that it was Achiyah HaShiloni who foretold the division of Israel into two kingdoms, which led to idolatry (calf-worship) and to exile -- all of which will be rectified with the coming of Mashiach, when "they will never again be divided into two kingdoms, nor will they ever again defile themselves with their idols...; and I shall cleanse them..., and David My servant shall be king over them" (Yechezkel 37:22-24).

     As to how the transcendent soul-levels known as Chayah and Yechidah are related to the mystical dimension of the Torah and to Mashiach: The mystical level of Torah-interpretation known as Sod (i.e., the fourth, in ascending order, of the levels whose acronym is Pardes) is rooted in the World of Atzilus; this same World is the root of Chayah (i.e., the fourth, in ascending order, of the five soul-levels whose acronym is Naran-Chai) -- and the soul-level of Mashiach is Chayah-Yechidah. [-- Note by the Rebbe.]