The topic tonight, as we all know, is the topic of Mashiach. That's something we are waiting for for so many years. Now, just to get to the point, we all know that what we all know that Mashiach is the one that's going to take us out of this galut. Now, first just to start in the literal translation of the word Mashiach. Now Mashiach, people think is the messiah, which is true, but the word Mashiach has a meaning. The word Mashiach comes from the word משוח, which means he was anointed, meaning he was chosen. He was anointed and chosen by Hashem. What this really means is that there will be a person, a human being, who will be chosen by Hashem, by God, that he will be the one that will take the Jews out of this galut. Just like Moshe Rabbeinu in his time was chosen by Hashem, Hashem spoke to him by the סנה, by the burning bush, and chose him that he should be the one to take out the Yidden from Mitzrayim, so too, Hashem will choose a person who is fit to be this person, and he will, so to speak, anoint him, and he will be the one that will take us out of this galut. The first question that comes up is, how do we know that this is going to happen? And the answer is very simple: The Torah says so. Just like one may ask, how do we know about everything else in the Torah that it's true? And the answer is that the Torah says so. The Torah was given by God, and every word of the Torah is true. So too, when the Torah tells us that Mashiach will come, this is true. This is a 100% true, more true, truer, so to speak, than anything else we could imagine. Anything that we look at and we see with our own eyes, to us that is true. We see the beam here, we see the shtender here, and to us this is true. But nevertheless, we are not really sure this is true, because maybe this is an illusion, maybe it's not really there, we think it's true. But whatever it says in the Torah is a 100% true without any doubt. Just like the Rambam says, as we explained a few weeks before, that the only truth that exists is Hashem, as the pasuk says, השם אלקים אמת הוא אלקים חיים, השם is the truth. There is another pasuk that says, אמת השם לעולם, the truth of Hashem is forever or in the world, whatever the peshat would be. So too, everything that was said by Hashem is true. And therefore, when it says in the Torah that Mashiach will come and take the Jews out of galut, that is true. And therefore, the Rambam says that anybody who does not believe that Mashiach will come, this person is considered a min, an apikoros, or whatever title he gives. And the Rambam goes in more detail. Some people think that it is only in the Neviim, in the prophets, that we find that Hashem promised that Mashiach will come, but not in the Torah itself, meaning not in the חמשה חומשי תורה, in the תורה שבכתב of תורת משה, the five books of Moses as we would call it. And the Rambam says no, that anybody who is kofer, who denies in the coming of Mashiach, the Rambam says not only denies in the words of the Nevi'im, but also denies in the words of Moshe Rabbeinu in the Torah. Because the Rambam says in the Torah we find more than once where the Torah tells us that Mashiach will come. And therefore, it is no doubt and it is sure that Mashiach will come. This person who will be Mashiach, the Rambam says that he will be a great tzadik, he will be a great chacham, a great scholar, he will be a great king, and he will be a great prophet, קרוב לנבואתו של משה, close to the level of the nevuah of Moshe. Not greater than Moshe, not even as great as Moshe, because the pasuk says, ולא קם עוד בישראל נביא כמשה, there will never be a prophet as great as Moshe, but nevertheless, he will be pretty close to Moshe Rabbeinu. And this will be the person that will take us out of galut. Some people think, obviously people who did not learn enough or people who were misled, think that the whole concept of Mashiach is not a person. It is what we call there will be a messianic era, as they call it. There will be a certain תקופה, a certain period when things will change, there will be peace in the world, and there will be no wars, everything will be there plenty, And that is all that Mashiach is. It is true that when Mashiach will come there will be such a period, and after Mashiach will come and take us out of galut, there will be a period of peace, a period of harmony, etc., as the Rambam explains and I will mention soon. But in addition to that, there will be a human being who will be the Mashiach. He will be the person with the title Mashiach, just like in the first galut when the Jews were in Mitzrayim, Hashem chose an individual, a human being, Moshe Rabbeinu, and he sent him to take the Jews out of Egypt. It wasn't with his own strength or power that he did it. It was with the power of Hashem, obviously. Like we find in the Haggadah, that השם בכבודו ובעצמו, השם himself took them out of Mitzrayim. But it went through, he sent Moshe Rabbeinu. So too, Hashem will choose a human being who will be a great person, greatest possible, and he will send him to take the Jews out of out of this galut. There is a famous midrash that says משה הוא גואל ראשון, משה הוא גואל אחרון. Moshe was the first redeemer and Moshe will be the last redeemer. And there are many pshatim what this means because it cannot be that Moshe will be the last redeemer because Moshe was from שבט לוי, Mashiach will be from שבט יהודה, he will be from the house of David which is not in the family of Moshe. But one of the pshatim what it means is that just like in the time of yetziat Mitzrayim there was a human being that was sent by Hashem to take the Jews out of Mitzrayim, out of galut, so too of this galut there will be a human being that will be Mashiach, and he will take the Jews out of this galut.

The question that is asked, and this is the we could say the 64,000 dollar question, when will Mashiach come? That's the question we always ask. We talk about Mashiach, when will Mashiach come? You think I'm going to give you the answer? I don't know. Di velt zogt, whoever knows doesn't say and whoever says doesn't know. It could be you don't know and you don't say either. I'm not going to say and I don't know. But all I can tell you what it says, the Gemara says that there is a pasuk that contradicts itself. The pasuk says that Mashiach will come בעתה אחישנה. בעתה means in its time, אחישנה means fast, speedily. And the Gemara asks it's a contradiction. Will he come in a set time, which means we could wait a certain amount of time, or will he come אחישנה, will he come very fast, very soon? And the Gemara answers that the pshat is it depends. זכו אחישנה, לא זכו בעתה. If the Jews merit, then he will come soon, he will come right away. לא זכו, if they don't merit, then בעתה he will come when the time will come. Because there is definitely a set time when he'll come. But the Rambam says הבטיחה תורה, השם promised, the Torah promised. Now as much as we could trust a promise of a human being, we could definitely trust the promise of Hashem, the promise of the Torah. The Torah promised that when the Yidden will do תשובה, מיד הן נגאלין, they will automatically right away go out of galut. So that's what the Gemara means that if it will be זכו, the Jews will merit, then it will be אחישנה, it will be fast, we won't have to wait. As we find a story in the Gemara that one of the rabbis, one of the Tannaim, met Mashiach. And he asked him, 'When will you come?' And he said to him, we would only hear that answer, he said to him, 'היום.' Today. You can imagine how happy he was, Mashiach will come today! The day passed and Mashiach didn't come. He met Eliyahu HaNavi and he asked him, 'What's the maaseh? He told me he'll come today.' So Eliyahu HaNavi said, 'Do you know the pasuk where it says, היום אם בקולו תשמעו? Today if you will listen to my voice. That's what he meant. That when you will listen to my voice, when you will do the mitzvot, you will do teshuvah, then I will come right away. But if not, then we have to wait for the time.' Because there is definitely a set time when Mashiach will come. One thing is for sure, Mashiach will come, this is an emet, there is no doubt. When he will come depends on us, but even if chas veshalom the Jews don't do teshuvah, Hashem will eventually, when the time comes, force the Jews to do teshuvah, and that's when Hashem will bring Mashiach. Because there is definitely a set time, and one thing we know for sure that Mashiach has to come before the end of the 6,000 years. That's a clear thing. Now looking at our period now, there is not much time bichlal left till the end of the 6,000 years when we're at the year 5,747. Plus we know that there are so many things that have to happen after Mashiach will come. It says that it will be 40 years between Mashiach and תחיית המתים, and many other things that have to happen. There are so many things that have to happen that there is not much time left. And therefore we are sure that we live in the time very, very close to the coming of Mashiach, even if chas veshalom it's not going to be achishena, not going to be speedily, but it'll be in the time. Especially when we look into the Gemara, and the Gemara tells us all kind of signs, all kind of things that are going to happen before Mashiach will come. And when we look around and we see these things are happening. At the end of Masechet Sotah, the Gemara mentions many things, and in other Midrashim, and the things are coming true now. For instance, it says חוצפה יסגי, before Mashiach there will be a lot of chutzpah. We don't need more chutzpah than we have today. It says where you will see the אומות מתגרות זו בזו, we will see nations arguing, teasing each other. And when we say nations, we mean the supernations, the superpowers. Then צפה לרגלו של משיח, at that time Mashiach will come. Many more things it says in the Gemara that show that we are living mamash in the time of Mashiach. Because even though he didn't come for so long, and we don't see bederech hateva naturally how is this going to happen, all of a sudden Mashiach will be here. And therefore by some people, in their mind they think, \"Ah, it is only Rachmana litzlan a fantasy.\" It is not so. We are very, very close to the time of Mashiach, even though we don't see it. But if we do teshuva, then we won't even have to wait the little bit that we might chas veshalom have to wait, but Mashiach could come right away.

And therefore it says in sefarim that in every generation, every generation from the beginning on, there is always a person, a human being who is the Mashiach. And Hashem waits that if the people will do teshuva, this person will be Mashiach. We cannot say that Mashiach is not always there because Hashem promised if we do teshuva, Mashiach will come. And what happens if they would have done teshuva 500 years ago? What would have happened? How would this promise have come true? Obviously, 500 years ago there must have been a person who was Mashiach. The world wasn't ראוי, the world the people did not do teshuva, so he didn't come. And therefore we find this in the Midrash. It says in the Midrash that a faraway place from Yerushalayim, there lived a Jew. When the Beit Hamikdash in Yerushalayim was destroyed, that means the moment when the galut started, this Jew who lived someplace far did not know about it. Didn't get a telephone call, or didn't get a telegram that the Beit Hamikdash in Yerushalayim rachmana litzlan is burning. He was there in the field, and he had a neighbor, an ערבי, an Arab. And that ערבי understood the language of the animals, it says in the Midrash. And when the Beit Hamikdash was burning in Yerushalayim, here in this faraway place, געתה פרתו של, של ערבי. The cow of this Arab, that was a neighbor of the Yid, made some kind of noises. And the Arab turns around to the Yid and he says, he's saying that your Beit Hamikdash is burning. A few moments later, געתה פרתו פעם שניה. This cow makes this noise again, and he turns around to him and he says, \"You know, know what this cow says? נולד משיחן של ישראל, משיח was just born.\" If Mashiach was born then, he must be close to 2,000 years old now. What is the pshat? The pshat is that even the moment of the galut when started, when the Beit Hamikdash was burning, if the Yidden would have done teshuva right then and there, Mashiach would have come right then and there. So obviously there must have been a person who would have been Mashiach. And that's what he says. The expression is this person, Mashiach was born. But we can't say he was just born, but he was still a baby, because what would happen if the Jews would do teshuva? How could a baby be Mashiach? There must have been an adult at that time. And the same thing, every generation there must be a person who, if the generation is ראוי, is ready, then Mashiach will come. But it all depends on us. We have to do teshuvah. Generally teshuvah, or specific things. It says that אלמלי שמרו ישראל שתי שבתות, if the Yidden would just keep two Shabbatot. Imagine if all the Yidden in the world would keep two Shabbatot, Mashiach would come. Or as it says in another place, that אלמלי שמרו שבת אחת, one Shabbos, and then Mashiach would come. So it really depends on us when Mashiach will come. But one thing is definite, that Mashiach will come, and it definitely will be very, very soon in our time.

When Mashiach will come, we know there are two tekufot, two periods, two general periods. One period is called ימות המשיח, the days of Mashiach, or as we would translate it into English, the messianic era, and then we have the time which is called תחיית המתים, עולם התחיה, the time when there will be the resurrection of the dead, תחיית המתים. And it says in the Zohar that there will be, as I mentioned before, 40 years between the coming of Mashiach and the תחיית המתים. When Mashiach will come, then the Rambam says: אין בין עולם הזה לימות המשיח אלא שעבוד מלכיות בלבד. In this first period when Mashiach will come, there will be no change in the nature of the world. People imagine that Mashiach will come, things will happen, things above nature, but the Rambam says no. There is an argument in the Gemara, but the Rambam paskent that there will be no difference between the way the world is at this stage and the way the world will be after when Mashiach will come. The only difference will be there will be peace in the world. We will not be under the shi'abud of the מלכיות, we will not be under the control of the nations. On the contrary, we will be in control of the world. Then, when the period of תחיית המתים will start, that's when there will be a change in מנהגו של עולם, in the nature of the world. The fact that the dead will become alive itself is a change in the minhag of the world. Now, within the first period itself that the Rambam says there will be no change in the nature of the world, it is not so simple. The Rambam himself writes in Iggeret Teiman, one of the letters that he wrote, one of the famous letters that he wrote, he says there like this: that the reason that I wrote in my Sefer Rambam, Yad HaChazakah, that when Mashiach will come there will be no change in the nature of the world, and even though the pasuk seems to be saying that there will be a change, for instance it says וגר זאב עם כבש, that the wolf will live with the sheep together. Now, that seems to be a change in the nature. So, the Rambam says that is only a mashal, it's a parable. The wolf represents the goyim, the sheep are the Yidden, and it means that the Yidden will live in peace with the goyim. So, the Rambam says in Iggeres Teiman, the reason I wrote that is not because I am sure that this is what's going to happen. He says, since I wasn't sure, therefore I wrote the minimum. So, I wrote that it won't be, there won't be a change. But it's possible, the Rambam himself writes, that even in the first period of ימות המשיח there will be a change in the nature of the world. And as the רבי, זכותו יגן עלינו, brought out, he brought many proofs, that from the Rambam himself you see that the Rambam holds that even in this first period, which assuming it will be 40 years, it seems from the Zohar, in this period itself there will be two periods. The beginning, there will be no change in the nature of the world. But within this period itself, in the second half, the world will be changed, there will be a change in the nature of the world. Miracles above nature will happen even in this first period which is called ימות המשיח. Now, how will we know if Mashiach is here or not, is here or not? What will be the signs? The signs I mentioned before are not signs that Mashiach came. The signs the Gemara says is signs for ikveta deMashicha. Those are signs that we're living in the time which is close to Mashiach. Those signs are coming true. But when will we know that Mashiach is here? What are the signs? What will prove that Mashiach is here, the geulah started? Now, there are many things mentioned in different sefarim. There are things mentioned in the Yerushalmi, there are things mentioned in the Gemara Bavli, Sanhedrin, many different places. But we have one rule: that we cannot pasken a din, we cannot make a halacha, take it from the Gemara. No one is allowed to take a Gemara and based on the Gemara make his own halacha. No one is allowed to take a pasuk in Chumash and say, well, it says a pasuk so-and-so, this is the halacha. You can't do that. The only way we could pasken a din is from ספרי הלכה, from the poskim. Those are the codifiers that interpreted the halacha based on the rules that they were given, and those are the only places we're allowed to take a halacha from. Now, concerning other hilchos we have different poskim: we have the Shulchan Aruch, we have the Rambam, we have other poskim, the Rif and the Rosh, and we have all kinds of poskim that pasken dinim in הלכות שבת, the laws of of Pesach, all different laws. Concerning the laws of Mashiach, we don't have too many poskim, and therefore we're only able to pasken because we're questioning a halacha here. What is the coming of Mashiach all about? When will it be? How will we know? Not when will it be, but how will we know it's there? So we have to look in the halacha. Now, there are not too many poskim, as I said, in the הלכות משיח. The Rambam is about the only one that wrote הלכות which he called הלכות משיח. The last two פרקים, the last two chapters of הלכות מלכים, of the laws of kings in the Rambam, in certain prints it it is said, or in certain manuscripts it's said that the Rambam had called them הלכות משיח, the laws of Mashiach. And there the Rambam said clearly as a halacha. And therefore anybody who will dispute this because he will bring a Gemara, which I know some people do and they prove that this shows Mashiach is there, Mashiach is here, it has no value in comparison to halacha. The Rambam in הלכות משיח פסקנס exactly what the order of the things will be, and when this happens, he says, then you will know Mashiach is here. And if this does not happen, then Mashiach is not here yet. We might have, let's say, you know, our own state, and we might have this, and we might have that, but this is not Mashiach, because this does not fit to the halacha of the Rambam. It might be very good things, we might have our own homeland, a place where we could live, and a lot of miracles happened, this is not Mashiach. This is not atchalta d'geulah, this is not even the beginning of Mashiach, of the גאולה. What is the beginning of גאולה? When will we know? So I'll quote the Rambam. The Rambam in הלכות משיח writes as follows: He says that the first thing that will happen, יעמוד מלך מבית דוד, there will come a person who will be a king from the house of David. And he will be a person who will be הוגה בתורה. He will study a lot of Torah. The first of all, he will be a great scholar, a great talmid chacham, a great gaon, versed in Torah. He will learn תורה כדוד אביו, like דוד המלך. And he will study, the Rambam says, תורה שבכתב and תורה שבעל פה. That's what the Rambam says, the written Torah and the oral Torah. The next step is וילחם מלחמת ה'. This king will have wars for the sake of ה'. And at this point the Rambam says, if we see this happening, if we see this person that's doing this... but before that, I'm sorry, I skipped a piece, he says after he says he will learn a lot of Torah, he says he will work on ויכוף כל ישראל לילך בה ולחזק בדקה. He will force, he will work to see that all the Yidden should follow the ways of Torah, and he will strengthen the cracks of Yiddishkeit, meaning he will strengthen Yiddishkeit. Then וילחם מלחמת ה' he will have the wars. At this point, we see a person going in this order, the Rambam says it's a safek, maybe he is Mashiach. But this is not the coming of Mashiach yet, and this is not the geulah. He will then, after this, build the בית המקדש, the Rambam says. And it's still not vadai for sure he is Mashiach. Then ויקבץ נדחי ישראל, he will gather all the Jews together and he'll bring them to ארץ ישראל, then we know that this is Mashiach, that's when the geulah will be. This is what the Rambam says, and the halachah is, the rule in halachah is that even the order, the way the Rambam writes everything is also exact. That means it has to work in this way. קיבוץ גלויות, the gathering of all the Jews to ארץ ישראל is the last step. There seems to be an argument in the in in Yerushalmi in different places, what comes first, but nevertheless the Rambam says as a halachah that the last thing will be the קיבוץ גלויות, that the Jews will all come back to ארץ ישראל, that will be the geulah. But before that, we have to follow the this order. As the only way we know this is Mashiach, this is the halachah. And the Rambam says this, and we know a rule that we have many commentaries on the Rambam, and in many cases they argue, the Raavad is one of the main ones who argues against the Rambam, then we have the Kesef Mishneh, we have the Radbaz, we have the Magid Mishneh, so many commentaries. Whenever they have something to say that they don't accept what the Rambam says, they say it, they're not ashamed. The rule is that wherever they do not argue against the Rambam, that means that that's the way they hold, too. So in this case, this halachah of knowing what Mashiach is, when is the beginning of the geulah, is the opinion of the Rambam, of the Raavad, of the Radbaz, of the Kesef Mishneh who happens to be the Shulchan Aruch himself, the Mechaber, of the Magid Mishneh, of every posek who has something to say about the Rambam, that this is the way we will know that the coming of Mashiach is real. What we hope is that this will happen very soon, but we don't wait, but that depends on us already, that depends on our doing teshuvah.

Now to go a little bit deeper into what will happen when Mashiach will come, the Rambam says at the end of Hilchot Mashiach, he says like this: לא נתאוו הנביאים והחכמים, the prophets and the chachamim did not desire the coming of Mashiach, not because of the physical things that they will get, not because they will be now in control of the world. That is not the reason. Not because of all the goodies, for the shtik that they will have. The only reason they wanted Mashiach, he says, is so they should have the time without any obstacles, without any problems, to sit and study Torah. In essence, what that means, putting it in other words, is we find in the neviim, there is a pasuk that says that when Mashiach will come, ונגלה כבוד ה׳ וראו כל בשר יחדו כי פי ה׳ דבר. The honor, the glory of Hashem will be revealed, and all the flesh, not all the eyes only, all the flesh will see that the mouth of Hashem spoke. When did the mouth of Hashem speak? When Hashem created the world. The world will at that point recognize the truth, recognize that Hashem is the Creator of the world. That is the whole purpose of the creation, and that was the reason of the creation, that is the goal. And let me explain it. It says in the Midrash, it says concerning the Mishkan, but it says concerning the whole creation, why did Hashem create the world? Very big question. Everyone wonders, why in the world did He do it? One of the questions with all the, all the big philosophers, what was the purpose? Now the Midrash says, נתאוה הקדוש ברוך הוא להיות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים. Hashem desired to have a dwelling place in תחתונים, in this low world. Now we don't know why He wanted that. That we'll never know. They once asked the Alter Rebbe, the Baal HaTanya, why did Hashem have this desire? So he said, אויף א תאוה פרעגט מען נישט קיין קשיא. What meant was that this is something beyond our understanding. So we don't know why, but we know what. We know what He wanted. He wanted to have a dwelling place in this physical world. Why did He care? What did He need it for? We don't know, but we know what He wanted. What it really means is Hashem created a low world. In Kabbalah we find there are many spiritual worlds, high worlds. This is the lower. And Hashem wanted that we, He put us here, we should work on bringing Him, revealing Him, making Him live in this low world. Now what makes this world so low? Why is it low? In which way is it low? How is it considered a low world? Why is it lower than the spiritual worlds? Is it because it's on the bottom floor? It doesn't go on floors. There is no such thing. Why is it called a low world? What is called high and what is called low? A level where God is more revealed, the truth is seen, that means high. The further you get away from Godliness, when you come to a level where Hashem is not felt, where you do not see the truth, this אמת ה׳ לעולם, this truth of Hashem, that ה׳ אלוקים אמת, if you don't see it, that means you're low. And the lower you go, the further away, the less you see, that is called low. This physical world is such a low world, Hashem is so hidden in this world, that this is called תחתונים. The lower. In Tanya it says that this is תחתונים עולם שאין תחתון למטה ממנו. There is nothing lower than here. And Hashem wanted that just in this physical world to have a דירה. The world, in Hebrew a world is called olam. The word olam means world, but also comes from the word העלם. העלם means hidden, covered up. Hashem is covered up in this world. And so we spoke about last week or two weeks ago the concept of שם אלקים. Hashem is known with His name Elokim. He has many names, Havayah and Elokim. We know the word Elokim is בגימטריא הטבע. The name Elokim of Hashem adds up to the same numerical value as the word הטבע, which means the nature. Because the truth is that what is nature? Nature is Hashem. So why does this happen? Why does the sun rise in מזרח, in east every day? That's nature. But who makes it happen? That's all Hashem. We just get used to it. There in sefarim it says that what is really טבע? A נס מתמיד, it's a constant miracle. When we see a miracle, we say this is Hashem. Why is it a greater miracle for the sea to split than the fact that every morning the sun rises in מזרח? That children are born, human beings are created, that's all a miracle. עד היום, up to today, the doctors haven't figured out how this happens. It's all a miracle from Hashem, but Hashem is hidden in it, we don't see it. That's why the word טבע, which means nature, also means, comes from the word טבעו בארץ שעריה, טבע, sunken. Hashem is here, but He's sunken. Just like when you put something into the water, it's there, but you can't see it, it's covered. It's טובע, means it's sunk, it drowned. That's what it is. Hashem is here, but we don't see Him, that's Elokim. The name Havayah, as I explained, I think, last week, comes from the three words היה, הוה, ויהיה, past, present, and future, together because that represents Hashem the way He is beyond nature, but the truth is that הוי'ה הוא האלקים, that the truth is there are no two things. The same as Hashem represents Hashem beyond nature, that is Elokim. In this world when we say Elokim is in this world and He is hidden, it is really the same as Hashem. The truth is the world is controlled by Hashem, that's all. Hashem hu haElokim. This phrase Hashem hu haElokim is mentioned many times. It's mentioned in Tanach when Eliyahu HaNavi convinced the Jews that Hashem is the true G-d, not the עבודה זרה, not the idols, the בעל. So, when the Jews recognized, what did they say? They screamed out, \"Hashem hu haElokim! Hashem hu haElokim!\" Motzaei Yom Kippur, we say שמע ישראל, we say ברוך שם, and then we say seven times and everybody screams it out on top of his lungs. And if you look into the Machzor, I don't know about other Machzorim, in the Lubavitcher Machzor, it says that when you say these פסוקים, שמע ישראל and ברוך שם and Hashem hu haElokim, you have to be ready to be מוסר נפש. You have to be ready to be so close to G-d that you're ready to give up your life for Hashem. And how do we express this? In the words Hashem hu haElokim. That Elokim, which represents Hashem the way He's hidden in nature, is really Hashem, really is beyond nature, it's really Hashem Himself. But the way Hashem created the world, that we do not see it. We don't see in this physical world Hashem. If we look at the world, we look at the beam here, we don't see that this is existing because Hashem gave it existence. We look at it and we see that this is an existence in itself. In truth, it's only Hashem. אין עוד מלבדו, there is nothing but Him. בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ, השם created the heaven and earth. And not only He created it 5,747 years ago, every second Hashem recreates the world. The Pasuk says, לעולם השם דברך נצב בשמים, your words, Hashem, forever stand in the heavens. And the Baal Shem Tov says that what does that mean? That the words Hashem said, יהי רקיע, when He created the heavens, He said He spoke, there were 10 statements He made, and one of them was יהי רקיע, let there be a heaven. Now, those words are always there. Every second Hashem continues, so to speak, to say these words, and gives the world its existence. That's why the world exists. And if Hashem would want, He would stop, there would be no more world. The world in itself has no existence. It's not like they once asked somebody and he said, \"What would Hashem do if He'd want to destroy the world?\" So, he said, \"Well, what would He do? He would put the whole world on fire.\" \"Well, then you would have ashes left over.\" \"Hey, sprinkle it all over the oceans and become battel b'shishim or whatever and it won't be there.\" But the other one answered him, \"You're a fool. That's what Hashem has to do if He wants to destroy the world? All He has to do is not give in its life, not to say that part of the maamar.\" That's really what it is. So, the world's existence is there only because of Hashem, but unfortunately it's olam, it's covered, it's he'elem, we don't see it. Great, great tzadikim actually see it. They say that it's recorded in history, איש מפי איש, person to person, that the Alter Rebbe, the Baal HaTanya, before he passed away, a few days before, he said to his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, he said to him, it was in the house and there was a beam there, that's why I happened to mention the beam before, he says to him, \"When I look at this beam, in my eyes, do you think I see the beam? I see the דבר הוי'ה that's mechayeh the beam. I see the words of Hashem that give this beam life.\" Because that's the truth. But most cases, most people don't see it. And that's why this world is called an עולם השפל, תחתונים, the low world. And what Hashem wants of us is that we should elevate this low world to a higher level, meaning we should reveal within this world that covers up on the truth of Hashem, we should work on revealing it and that it should be seen. Now, how do we work on this? Through doing mitzvot, through learning Torah. Every time we do it, there is more kedushah in the world, meaning the truth is revealed. We don't see it, but it all gathers together. When all the Jews will do enough Torah and mitzvot that will reveal the truth in the world, automatically the time for Mashiach will be, because when Mashiach will come, this will all actually be revealed. This is the goal. The goal of the creation of this תחתונים was that this תחתונים, this low world, should recognize the truth of Hashem through our effort. Hashem could have done it just like that, but He wanted for some reason that it should come through our effort, and that's what we have to do. So when we do Torah and mitzvot, and all the Yidden together do enough Torah and mitzvot that reveal the truth in the world, automatically what will happen? ונגלה כבוד השם וראו כל בשר יחדו. The truth will be revealed in the world, but we have to work on it. It says in sefarim an interesting thing. It says that Mashiach adds up to the same as Moshe and echad. Moshe Rabbeinu and echad. Echad is one. Echad adds up to 13. So if you add Moshe, how much the numerical value of Moshe is, which is 345, plus 13, it adds up to Mashiach. Because Mashiach is 358. What is the meaning? Not to go into all the details, Moshe represents מתן תורה. Moshe, when we think of Moshe, we think of the Torah that was given. Echad is the avodah that we have. From when the Torah was given, we have a job of echad. What do I mean we have a job of echad? Echad means one. There is a famous question when we say in שמע ישראל, השם אלקינו השם אחד, Hashem is one. We want to show that there is nothing but Hashem, Hashem is one. But wouldn't it make more sense that we should say יחיד? יחיד means single. One doesn't mean single. You could say this is one and this is a second. That's why in Yigdal you have to say הוא אחד ואין שני. He is one, and there is no second. Because if you just say He is one, there might be a second. If you say יחיד, that means single. If you say someone has a בן יחיד, a single son, you know he has only one son. But if you say someone, this is בן אחד, this is one son of this person, he might have another one, but this is one. So why do we say השם אחד, not השם יחיד? And the answer that's given in Chassidus and Kabbalah is that this is to tell us that our job is that even in a level where it seems to be that there is something other than Hashem, the world we live in that seems to show that there is other things than Hashem, Hashem is not the יחיד. Our job is to prove that He is the echad, that even in a level where it seems that He is not יחיד, He is still one. There's nothing else. That's the job. So that means that Moshe, which represents the Torah, together with our work serving Hashem in the level of echad equals, meaning that will bring Mashiach. And that is the reason why, especially when we are very close to Mashiach, which is definitely true, we are very, very, very close to Mashiach, we are obligated to work along this line even more than the generations before. As much as the generations before worked on making, we call it a dirah batachtonim, in elevating the world, trying to prove that every corner of the world, every object of the world is created by Hashem, we have even a greater job, because we are very, very close to the finish, and when you come very close to it, that's when you need it very strong. The truth is that בראשית ברא אלקים, Hashem created the world. Everything in the world was created for one reason: בשביל התורה ובשביל ישראל, for the Torah and the Yidden. When Mashiach will come, this will be revealed. The world will recognize that the whole world is there because Hashem wants it there for Torah and Yidden. Now we don't see it. Our job, throughout all generations, especially now, is to work on revealing the truth that everything in the world has one purpose: to serve Hashem. כל מה שברא הקדוש ברוך הוא בעולמו לא ברא אלא לכבודו. Whatever Hashem created was only for His honor. But the world doesn't see it. We have to work on revealing in the world that this is true. And this is takka the reason why we see certain things that are we have are being done now that were not done before, but it is because we are close to Mashiach. There are certain things, to be clear and not to beat around the bush, there are certain things that the Rebbe, zol er gezunt zayn, the Liubavitcher Rebbe does that people question: \"Well, my great-grandfather didn't do it. My grandfather didn't do it. A נייע מעשה, new inyanim that he's inventing.\" Well, first of all, the answer would be his great-grandfather of the same person who is claiming that he didn't do it didn't have a beautiful chandelier in his house either. And he didn't live the way we live either, and there he doesn't complain: \"My grandfather lived with one jacket he had for and he gave it over to his children and the ירושה to his grandchildren. We don't live that way!\" But that's okay. But when it comes to ruchniyus, there we say, \"Oh, my great-grandfather didn't do it.\" But that's not the point I'm trying to bring out. The time is different now. There are certain things that we have to do now because we are close to Mashiach. For instance, the Rebbe is working very hard that we have to convince the goyim, the non-Jews, to keep the seven mitzvot. And it's based on the Rambam. The Rambam says that we are obligated to see that the goyim keep the seven mitzvot. And people say, \"Well, this wasn't done, we didn't hear 100 years ago that any rabbanim should come out that we should convince them.\" Well, except the הלכהדיקע answers to it that at that time it wasn't possible, because we were not in a situation as we are now. There never was a Jew able to try to convince a goy in Europe, in Poland or in Russia, let's think of it, would you be able to convince a goy to do his mitzvot? Now, in America, or in any other country that's a free country, we could do it. But in addition to that, by show, by telling a goy to do the seven the mitzvot, what's really happening? That's proving that the whole existence of the goy in the world is because he has a mission of Hashem. That's revealing the truth of his existence. The goyim think they're here because they're here, just for the for their for their own enjoyment. The truth is, why are the goyim here? Why is everything else in the world here? בשביל התורה. Now now before Mashiach, when this will be revealed, we have to work on revealing this, showing the goyim, yes, now is the time, soon you will feel it more, now is the time for you to see it.

And therefore we have to utilize also all the things that we have in the world, all the powers of nature for the sake of Hashem. For instance, there is a power in nature which is called radio. That's the power of nature, there's nothing wrong with the radio, that's just a power of nature, a law of nature. It has been utilized for no good things. Why did Hashem create this ability in the world? So that this should be used for kedushah. Why is there electricity? So Yidden should be able to have light and sit and learn Torah. Why is the radio? So Yidden should be able to learn Torah over the radio. They don't understand that, it's our job that we should show it. And that's why it's just lately that this is being used because we're getting closer to Mashiach. Even television, which everyone knows, ugh, what's taste? We're going to use television? It's a law of nature, it's a koach of nature, there's nothing wrong with the koach itself, it just has been utilized, used for no good purposes. But the truth, why did Hashem create the television, the ability of doing something here and should be seen someplace else? So because נברא לכבודו, it was for his own honor, it's for the sake of Hashem. When Mashiach will come, we will see it. We have to work on revealing that. How do we do it? So we have to utilize the television that we should see a farbrengen of the Rebbe on television. That's the purpose of the television, there's no other reason. If not for that, it wouldn't be. Ay, people will laugh, but first they use it for other things, and how can we say that the whole purpose of that is for kedushah, when we see so many years it has been used for other things which are far, far from being holy? Well, there is a Midrash that says, לא היה העולם ראוי להשתמש בזהב, the world was not worthy of using gold, gold is too precious for the world, ולא נברא זהב אלא בשביל בית המקדש, the reason gold was created was for the Beit HaMikdash, that's the whole purpose, and they used it for the Beit HaMikdash, for the Mishkan. But you know what they did with the gold before that? Avodah zarah! They used to use gold for avodah zarah, and nevertheless the purpose is for the Beit HaMikdash, and the same is with this. Nowadays, when we're so close to Mashiach, to the time when we are supposed to show that when Mashiach will come and we will see that everything comes from Hashem and everything was created for the sake of Hashem, now is the time when we have to work even harder that we have to show the world, show ourselves too, reveal the truth that everything in the world is only for the sake of Hashem. Every corner of the world, why is it there? For the sake of Hashem. There are certain places in the world that we never heard of, why are they there? For the sake of Hashem. The Rebbe wants that in every single city in the world they should print a Tanya. What's the big deal? Because the reason why there is Tanzania, Shmanzania, whatever it is, is נברא אלא לכבודו, for Hashem, so there should be a sefer printed there. And now before Mashiach, when the time is so close, we have to work along these lines. And one more point that's important to know, that we said before that when will all this happen? When we will do teshuvah. And there's one important thing that comes along with the teshuvah, and that is that we have to want Mashiach to come. We have to ask Hashem for Mashiach to come. The Chafetz Chaim writes that just like the halachah is that when there's a din that you're supposed to pay your worker and if you don't pay him on time, there is an aveirah of לא תלין פעולת שכיר, you're not allowed to let the salary of your worker stay overnight. The din is, when is this an aveirah? If he asks for it. If he doesn't ask for it, then you're not over that aveirah. The same with Hashem. We have to beg Hashem, we have to ask Hashem, have to show him that we want. If Hashem will see that we really want, we really have the emunah, that's when he will bring it. By Mitzrayim it says, בזכות האמונה נגאלו אבותינו ממצרים. In the zechut of the belief that they showed, ויאמן העם, that they believed, that's when Mashiach, that's when Moshe brought them the geulah through Hashem. And now, too, we have to show Hashem that we really want. How do we show is when we constantly constantly ask, and it became like a phrase in the world. Everyone knows the statement: We want Mashiach now. Who doesn't know it? Some people might not be happy with the statement, well too bad. We have to say: We want Mashiach now. Yes, that's the way to express it. Because the truth is, there are some people who behind their mind, subconsciously, don't want Mashiach. who lived in a a שטעטעלע, and he had this little house, and parnasah was very bad. Finally he managed to save a little money and he bought himself a little house and a cow. And the cow would give milk and he would have parnasah, finally. As soon as he did, he came to the the shul one day and he heard this maggid or this Rebbe teaching, and he said, \"You know, Mashiach is going to come soon and take us to Eretz Yisrael.\" He comes home to his wife, he says, \"Oy, Esther, you know what's going to happen? We finally managed to settle a little bit. Now is going to come Mashiach and take us to Eretz Yisrael. What's going to happen to the house? What's going to happen to the cow?\" So his wife said to him, \"Moshe, don't worry. Hashem saved us from Paro and from Haman and from all others, whatever it is, so He'll save us from Mashiach too, don't worry.\" That's really Rachmana litzlan what can be. We live such a Baruch Hashem a good life, and we have all that we need. Sometimes we forget about Mashiach. Some people think, \"What will happen when Mashiach will come? Where will I stand? Now I'm a choshuve person in the community. What's going to happen then? When Mashiach will come, the truth will be revealed. They'll really know who I am.\" So sometimes we keep on forgetting. We have to constantly remember that we have to ask and hope and want and scream that we want Mashiach now. When Hashem will hear us screaming and saying that, all together, and asking Hashem and saying, \"עד מתי? How long will this galut go on? It's already 1900 years, over 1900 years. How long can we wait?\" If Hashem will hear, and He'll see that we really mean it. And there is one person that really means it. I'm not making trying to make chas v'shalom propaganda for Lubavitch, but if anybody hears a farbrengen of the Rebbe, the Rebbe every farbrengen screams and cries and there's one theme: \"Mashiach! Mashiach! We want Mashiach, and we can't wait, and we have to have Mashiach, there's no way.\" If we would all want Mashiach in such a way, not such a way, 1% of it, and Hashem will have rachmanut on us, and He will definitely bring us Mashiach speedily in our days, and we won't have to wait any longer, but He will bring him now. Amein. Huh? Any questions?