The subject tonight is a very important one and also a very interesting one that people are very interested in. That is the subject of Mashiach. Mashiach. My built-in microphone. We're going to discuss the concept of the coming of Mashiach, something that we are waiting for for so many years. Since the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, which took place over 1900 years ago, we Jews are waiting for Mashiach. So we have to discuss what Mashiach is, and what is it that we're waiting for, and what is even the meaning of the word Mashiach. And let's maybe start with that. Everyone knows that Mashiach, the word Mashiach is translated into English as the Messiah. Really, the word Mashiach in Hebrew means the anointed one. We find in the Chumash, when it speaks about the kohen gadol, the high priest, who was anointed with a special שמן המשחה, with a special oil, is called the כהן משיח, the kohen, the priest that's anointed. And the word Mashiach also, when we refer this word to Mashiach, the Messiah, also means the anointed one, which in essence means the chosen one. There is even an argument amongst the commentaries whether actually Mashiach will be anointed or not, because we know that a king, according to the Jewish law the way we find in the Rambam, a Jewish king was anointed. For instance, David Hamelech was anointed by the prophet Shmuel. He was anointed with the שמן המשחה. And the other kings were anointed. Shaul Hamelech, who was the king before David Hamelech, yes, was anointed with a special type of oil, not the regular שמן המשחה, with a different kind of oil, but was anointed. So there is an opinion that this man Mashiach will be anointed, too, physically anointed with the שמן המשחה. Others hold that he will not be anointed, because when he will come and become the Mashiach, at that time we will still not have the שמן המשחה. But whatever it is, whether technically physically he will be anointed or not, the fact is that it means to say that this will be a man that will be chosen to lead the Jewish people out of galut, out of exile. And he will be the one that will build the Beit Hamikdash, the third Beit Hamikdash, after the Jews will all be gathered and will be all taken to Eretz Yisrael. So Mashiach is a person, a human being that God promised He will bring, and this person will take the Jews out of galut. The first question that comes up in one's mind is, how do we know that this is true? How do we know that there will be such a person as Mashiach that will come and take the Jews out of galut? The answer is very simple. The Rambam says, in the end of his whole ספר Rambam, he says that we find in the prophets many, many pesukim that tell us that Mashiach is going to come. Not only do we find it in the prophets, but in Chumash, in the Five Books of Moses, we also find places where the Torah hints and tells us that Mashiach will come, and the Rambam tells us the different places that the Torah tells us that Mashiach will come. And therefore the Rambam says, כל מי שאינו מאמין בביאתו, anybody who does not believe in the coming of משיח, ואינו מחכה לביאתו, and doesn't hope for the coming of Mashiach, doesn't wait for Mashiach, not only do we consider this person as a person who does not believe in the words of the prophets, but this is a person that's considered a כופר בתורה, it's a person that denies in the Torah written by Moshe Rabbeinu. Because there are some people that say that in the Five Books of Moses, whatever it says there, that is holy, that I believe, but what it says in the prophets, well, that's from later generations, etc., etc. The truth is that what it says in the later prophets is also just as holy, but in this case, a person who does not believe in the coming of Mashiach does not, because in the Torah, in the Five Books of Moses, the Chumash, we find that the Torah tells us Mashiach will come. And therefore, being that it says in the Torah, we know that this is true. We're talking about people who believe in the Torah. Someone who does not believe in the truth of the Torah, well, for that we have to find a different discussion trying to prove the truth of the Torah. But a person who believes in the Torah, and therefore Therefore, this person keeps certain mitzvot because he believes in the Torah, automatically must believe in the coming of Mashiach. Because if it says in the Torah, and you believe that the Torah is true, we cannot say that part of the Torah is true and, God forbid, the other part is not true. There is no such thing as a half-truth. Or it's true, or it's not true. If a person believes in the Torah, meaning he believes that the Torah was given by God, so automatically, whatever it says in the Torah is true. So if it says in the Torah that Mashiach will come, there will be a person who will come and take us out of galut, so we know for sure that it's true. As true as it is that we have to keep Shabbos, as true as it is that we have to put on tefillin, the same Torah, the same God that said that there is such a thing as Shabbos, and there is such a thing as Torah, and there is such a thing as Pesach, and there is such a thing as shofar on Rosh Hashanah, the same God said that Mashiach will come and take the Jews out of galut. And therefore, if that is true, then this is just as true. And therefore, there is no way of questioning, a person who believes in the Torah, there is no way of questioning whether it is true that there will come a time that Mashiach will come. And the truth is, if we go a step further, every single Jew who holds himself as a Jew and believes in the concept of a Jew, automatically believes in the Torah. Because if not for the Torah, there is no such thing as a Jew. The whole concept of a Jew is a spiritual concept. If not for the Torah, which tells us that there is something about a Jew, which means that if he was born from a Jewish Jewish mother or converted according to the halachah, he becomes a Jew which makes him different, makes him a Jew. If not for the Torah, then there is no such thing. What is the difference between one human being and another? Why do we say that this person is a Jew, this person is a non-Jew? What difference is it? They both have two eyes, a nose, a mouth, they have hands, they look alike, what makes the difference? And when we say that this person is a Jew and this person is a non-Jew, we don't mean that this person is like an American and this person is an Englishman. There is no difference, just the difference of which country he comes from. But when we say this person is a Jew and this person not a Jew, obviously we mean something more than just a nationality. We mean that this person has something within him which makes him Jewish. Where does this whole concept of one person being Jewish mean that this person is different, where does that come from? From only one place: from the Torah. If not for the Torah, then it's a joke to categorize this person is Jewish and this person is not Jewish. Why should we categorize? Therefore, if we only believe in the concept of a Jewish nation, automatically believe that it says in the Torah that this person is a Jew, or this makes a person a Jew, this nation is Jewish, so we believe in the truth of the Torah. So automatically, whatever it says in the Torah is true. One of the things it says in the Torah is that Mashiach will come. The time will come when there will be a human being who will be Mashiach, and he will come and take us out of exile. So if it says in the Torah, which is true, so we know for sure that this is true, as true as anything else that we consider truth. It's true that Mashiach will come.

The question that comes up right away in most people's minds is, when will Mashiach come? That's a very hard question to answer, but that's the question that everyone asks: so when will he come? It's over 1900 years that we're waiting for him. All these years, all the people, all the Jews always said, \"We're waiting for Mashiach, Mashiach will come, Mashiach will come.\" When will he come? Well, the answer is given in the Gemara. The Gemara doesn't say when he'll come, but the Gemara gives an answer to the question. The Gemara, the Talmud in מסכת Sanhedrin quotes a פסוק. There is a פסוק that speaks about Mashiach and it says Mashiach is going to come בעתה אחישנה. בעתה means in his time, in its time. אחישנה means fast, speedy. And the Talmud, the Gemara asks the question that this seems to be a contradiction. On one hand, it says he will come in a set time. On the other hand, the פסוק says אחישנה, he will come fast, which means not in time, he'll come soon. Which one is it? And the Talmud answers, it depends: זכו, if the Yidden are זוכה, if the Yidden merit, then it'll be אחישנה, it'll be fast, there is no set time. לא זכו, if, God forbid, the Jews don't merit, then בעתה, then there is a set time. There is definitely a set time when, if all the previous years passed and Mashiach didn't come yet, he will definitely come. But there's a possibility for Mashiach to come before that time. Now obviously that time, the set time, was definitely before the year תש״נ because course he did not come yet, before the year Common Era of 1990 because he didn't come yet. But he could have come before if the Jews would merit. What makes the Jews merit for Mashiach to come? So the Rambam says very clearly, הבטיחה תורה the Torah promised. And if the Torah promised and the Torah was written by God, so God promised, we could trust it because there's nobody that could keep a promise like Hashem. And it says הבטיחה תורה, the Torah promised, ישראל עושין תשובה that when the Yidden will do תשובה, מיד הן נגאלין, right away they will be redeemed from the galut. In other words, it depends on the Jews doing teshuvah. If the Jews do teshuvah, then Moshiach will come right away before the time that was set for the coming of Moshiach. Now teshuvah could mean complete teshuvah, or as it says in other places, that if all the Jews in the world would keep two Shabbos, two Shabbos, Moshiach would come. In another place it says if all the Jews in the world would keep one Shabbos, Moshiach would come. But unfortunately it didn't happen, so Moshiach didn't come yet. But it was possible for all these years for Moshiach to come even though that was not the set time. Which by the way means that in every generation, there must be a person that if the generation merits, then that person will be Moshiach. Because otherwise, what is the meaning that Moshiach could come at any time, at any given moment? After all, we have free choice whether to do the mitzvot or not. One of the basic fundamental ideas in Judaism is that every Jew has free choice whether to act properly or not. Now what happens if all the people choose to do the mitzvot? And God promised at the moment they all do it, Moshiach will come. Who will be Moshiach? So therefore, necessarily there must be a person in every generation who is Moshiach. Meaning if the people will do teshuvah, and this generation will merit for the coming of Moshiach, then this person will be Moshiach. If the generation doesn't merit, then this person passes on, and there is another person chosen by God that he will be Moshiach. And that's how it goes on. And the truth is we find it from the beginning on. From the beginning, from the moment of the חורבן בית המקדש, it says in a Midrash, an interesting Midrash, that there was a Jew who lived far from Yerushalayim. In those days there were no communications, so when the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed in Yerushalayim, the Beis Hamikdash was put on fire, he was someplace far away, he didn't know what was going on in Yerushalayim. But he had a neighbor who was able to understand the language of the animals. And he was standing outside and that neighbor who was a goy, an ערבי it says, an Arab. That ערבי was standing outside next, and the Jew was standing outside too. And he heard his שור, cow I think, פרה it says, make certain noises. So he turns around to the Jew and he says, \"You know what he's saying? Your Beis Hamikdash is burning. Your Beis Hamikdash is destroyed.\" You can imagine how the Jew felt. A moment later, the cow made another noise and he turns around to him and he says, \"You know what he just said? נולד משיחן של ישראל. The savior of the Jews was just born.\" What does that mean? It means that if the Jews would have done teshuvah that moment when the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, Moshiach would have come right then and there. Because God promised when the Jews do teshuvah, Moshiach will come. So there had to be somebody who would have been Moshiach. Only thing is, he said he was just born and the question is, how can a child that was just born be Moshiach? Well, the commentaries talk about that, but the idea that brought out in that Midrash is that there must be somebody in every generation who is Mashiach if the generation merit for Mashiach to come. If not, then someone else will be chosen to be Mashiach. So when they ask the question, when will Mashiach come? The answer is there is a set time. We hope that the set time is this year, תש״נ. As a matter of fact, there it says in a sefer, now I don't know how reliable it is, but it says in a sefer that all the dates that were given by great people the coming of Mashiach, some people said Mashiach will come this year, some said that year, those were all included in the אחישנה. Those were all part of the coming of Mashiach if the people will merit, and he will come earlier than the designated time. But there is a set time when he will come for sure, and it says in this sefer that this that time is תש״נ. Now, I don't know. Halvai it is so. But the answer to when will Mashiach come is very simple. Not that we know a date. We don't know exact dates, as there is a saying in Yiddish, דער וואס ווייסט זאגט נישט, דער וואס זאגט ווייסט נישט. The one that says doesn't know, and the one that knows doesn't say. So we can't say and we don't know the exact date. But one thing we do know that it's possible for him to come today, now, if we, all Yidden, will do teshuvah. That's the time when Mashiach will come. So that's one thing that we have to know about Mashiach, that it's always possible for him to come.

Then there's another thing to know: there are some people that say that there is no such thing as a human being that will be Mashiach. Some people who don't really believe 100% in everything it says, they say that really this is only a תקופה, a period, a messianic era as they call it, but they don't believe in the concept of a human being that will come and he will be Mashiach. So let us tell them that it's not true. It is like a contradiction. Where does this whole concept of Mashiach come from anyway? From the Torah. So or you believe what the Torah says or not. In the Torah it says clearly that there will be a human being who will be Mashiach. And if you don't accept what the Torah says, then don't accept the whole concept of Mashiach, that there is no such thing as a Mashiach. Who says there is a messianic era? Maybe there isn't. It's all based on the Torah. The Torah says it will be a person. Now when we say the Torah, it doesn't only mean Chumash or Neviim and Ketuvim, it means all the devarim, like the Gemara, and in the Gemara it says, in the Rambam. The Rambam says clearly that Mashiach will be a human being who will come and take the Jews out of exile. And the Rambam even goes to the details of telling us exactly how it's going to work. And the Rambam is a sefer of halacha, which means the Rambam doesn't just say ideas, philosophy. The Rambam has other דברים that deal with philosophy, but in the ספר Rambam, that we call the Rambam which is known as the Mishneh Torah or the Yad Hachazakah, it's only a book of laws. So when the Rambam talks about Mashiach in this ספר, it's also he's telling us the laws of Mashiach. And as a matter of fact, in certain old prints of the Rambam going back four, 500 years, the last two chapters of the Rambam which are under the heading הלכות מלכים, the laws of the kings, which are 12 chapters, but the last two that deal with Mashiach, there's a separate heading, and the heading says הלכות משיח, the laws of Mashiach, these are laws. So when the Rambam, who is a codifier, who paskent a din, this is a halacha, and a halacha means that we have to keep it and it's true. Just like the Rambam paskent a halacha that you have to keep Shabbos, and when we want to know can we do this on Shabbos? Can we not? Is this muktzeh or not? Where do we look? We look in the Shulchan Aruch, which is taken from the Rambam. So the Rambam says and we follow and we know that is true 100%. So the same Rambam tells us concerning the coming of Mashiach and he tells us the laws, which means this is it, this is the way it's going to be. And the Rambam says as follows, what's going to happen is יעמוד מלך מבית דוד. First, a man who is a king from the house of David, because we know that Mashiach will be a descendant of David Hamelech and Shlomo Hamelech. So it says a melech, a king from the house of David will get up, and this king will be so great, he will be הוגה בתורה כדוד אביו, he will study Torah like David Hamelech his father, תורה שבכתב and תורה שבעל פה, I'm quoting the רמב\"ם, which means the written Torah, the written law, and the oral law. And then the רמב\"ם continues, and he will יכוף כל ישראל לילך בה ולחזק בדקה. He's going to force all the Jews to follow the Torah and to strengthen its cracks, which means those people who are turned away from the Torah, he will bring them back to the Torah, he will bring them back to the teshuvah. Then the Rambam says what will happen is וילחם מלחמות השם. Then the Mashiach will have to have a war. He will fight a war for the sake of Hashem. Then ויבנה בית המקדש במקומו, then he will build the בית המקדש in its proper place. Then ויקבץ נדחי ישראל, then he will gather all the Jews from the whole world and bring them to Eretz Yisrael. So the Rambam states clearly that there will be a human being who will be the Mashiach, which means he will be the king, and he will have a halachah, a law of a מלך, a halachah of a king, and he will lead Klal Yisrael, he will make sure that Klal Yisrael returns to Yiddishkeit, returns to the mitzvot, Torah u'mitzvot, and he will build the בית המקדש and take all the Yidden out of galut and bring them to Eretz Yisrael. So we see clearly Mashiach is not just a period. It is true, Mashiach is a period, it's a time that will change, the world will be different as I will explain soon. That is true. But those that say that this is it and deny the fact that there will be a human being who will be Mashiach, that is not true. Definitely, there is a person that is set aside by Hashem that he will be the anointed one, the chosen one, to lead Klal Yisrael out of galut.

But now let's try to understand a little bit deeper, what is the meaning of the coming of Mashiach? For one hand, we know what it is. The Jews are in exile, we are under the control of the non-Jews, of the goyim, and even let's be honest, even with all the different things we have with the State of Israel, we are still under the control of the goyim. It probably was never in history did the Jews have to rely on the chesed, on the kindness of the goyim as much as we have to rely now. Israel exists because of the kindness of the goyim. That is not what we're waiting for as the coming of Mashiach. Thank God, we have a place where we could live, where Jews could live as Jews, true, but this is not at all the coming of Mashiach we're waiting for. This is not at all the אתחלתא דגאולה, not even the beginning of the coming of Mashiach. This is good, but this is not the geulah. The first thing that we understand Mashiach will do, he will take us out of exile, he will throw off from us, we call it, the yoke of the nations. And the Rambam holds, which is not so simple because there is an argument amongst the mefarshim, amongst the poskim, but the Rambam holds that when Mashiach will come, אין בין ימות המשיח לעולם הזה, there is no difference between the period after Mashiach will come and now, כי אם, אלא אך איז שיעבוד גוים בלבד. The only difference is that now we are under the control of the goyim, then we will be on top, we will not be under the goyim, as a matter of fact, the goyim will be under us. But there will be no change, the Rambam says, במנהגו של עולם. The nature of the world will not change. But that is just one period. Later on, we will enter a second period, which is the period of עולם הבא, which means the world to come. The period which is also known as עולם התחיה, the world of the resurrection of the dead, the time of תחיית המתים. That's a second period. That time, there will definitely be a change in the nature of the world. The mere fact that dead people will become alive is already a change in the nature of the world. But in the first period, till that happens, there will be no change in the nature of the world. The world will be עולם כמנהגו נוהג. The world will go on as it is now. And the Rambam asks the question: don't we find in the prophecies that there will be a change? For instance, it says, וגר זאב עם כבשׂ. It says that the wolf will live peacefully with the sheep. That's against the nature of the world. So the Rambam says, how can I say that there will be no change in the nature of the world? So the Rambam answers, it's only a mashal, it's only a parable. The sheep represents the Jews, the wolf represents the goyim. וגר זאב עם כבשׂ, that the sheep will live peacefully with the wolf, means that the Yidden will be able to live peacefully with the goyim. That's the opinion of the Rambam. There are others, for instance, the Raavad, who on the spot, on the Rambam, says no, he holds that it means that there will be a change in the nature of the world. The truth is that the Rambam himself writes in a different place, there is a letter of the Rambam known as Iggeret Teiman, a letter that he wrote to Yemen, to the Yemen, to the Jews of Yemen who had a lot of problems, and he wrote them a letter to comfort them. In that letter, the Rambam writes that when I wrote in my ספר Rambam that in the period when Mashiach will come there will be no change in the nature of the world, לא על הוודאי כתבתי, I didn't write that because I was sure that's the פשט, אלא על הספק, as a doubt. In other words, since I wasn't sure, so I wrote that at least it definitely means that, that the Jews will live peacefully with the goyim. But maybe it means that actually there will be a change in the nature of the world. And the truth is, there are commentaries who learn that even according to the Rambam, in that first period, before תחיית המתים, there will also be like two periods. There will be a beginning when there will be no change in the nature of the world, which means Mashiach will come, the world will continue, but we will have the בית המקדש, we will not owe the goyim anything, we will be the supreme, the supreme power of the world, we will be the superpower of the world, but the world will remain the way it is. Then, there will be a second period when there will actually start changes in the nature of the world. So that's more or less the physical part of what will happen when Mashiach will come. There will be we will have everything that we need, and the Rambam himself says that at that time there will be לא קנאה ולא שנאה ולא תחרות, there will be no hatred, no jealousy, no competition, and he gives the reason why, because at that time שהטוב מושפע הרבה, the good will be so much, there will be no need for competition, no need for hatred. Why does a person hate somebody else? Why are you jealous? Because he has something I don't have. If everybody will have everything he needs, there will be no need for jealousy. He says המעדנים מצויין כעפר, the goodies, maadanim means the tasty good things, will be as much as dust, it will be all over. As the Gemara says, that you will be able to walk over to a tree and you'll be able to pull down fresh-baked challot. You won't have to take flour and mix it with water, and then bake it into challah, bake it into bread. It will be ready-growing challot. It says you'll be able to walk over to the tree and pick off כלי מילת, silk garments, imagine, silk dresses will be growing on the tree. But that the Rambam doesn't mention because the Rambam holds that there will be no changes in the nature of the world. So I guess according to the Rambam this is only a mashal to show that everything will be so plentiful, so available that there will be no need for people to fight. But that's all the physical part. One thing is for sure that we cannot say that it's enough for us if that will happen. For sure there must be something deeper, more spiritual in the coming of Mashiach. This is all a side benefit, fringe benefit that we will get by the coming of Mashiach, but the main thing is not that. The main thing, since this is something we are waiting for, and the Jews for thousands of years are waiting for, and God promised it, the Torah talks about it, there must be something more than just that we will have a lot of money, a lot of gold, silver, jewelry and food. Can you really say that this is what Mashiach is all about? People think so, but they're mistaken. There's a famous saying that the Alter Rebbe, the Baal HaTanya said, they once asked him, \"When is Mashiach going to come?\" So he said, \"Unfortunately, the Mashiach that everyone is waiting for is not going to come, and the one that's going to come, no one is waiting for him.\" I mentioned that I think two weeks a few weeks ago. Why? Because people think Mashiach is that we're going to have a lot of goods, physical goods, but that's not really what we expect. The Mashiach everyone expects is that, that won't come, and he didn't mean it won't come, it will come, but that's not what we're waiting for. The one that will come, the real meaning of Mashiach, that no one is waiting for. But we do have to understand what is the depth of the meaning of the coming of Mashiach. In other words, what is going to happen actually when Mashiach will come, not just physically, but spiritually? What change will take place in the depth of the creation? What is going to happen then? One thing we know, that the coming of Mashiach is the ultimate goal that we are all waiting for. So obviously, if this is the ultimate, this is what God had in mind at the time when He created the world. He created the world, and lechatchilah there was everything was set up in such a way, and eventually the end will be, and we call it end, not because it's going to finish, but that's the ultimate, that Mashiach will come. So we have to look back to the creation and see what took place at the time of the creation, and from that we'll get an understanding what will happen when Mashiach will come.

The question that comes up right away before we start is, and that is the $64,000 question that seems no one has an answer to the question: Why did God create the world? People who don't believe in creation don't have a question, it just happened, but we all know that's all nonsense, and not only nonsense because we believe in the Torah, and we believe in creation, but we know logically that all that is narishkayten and shtusim, and it's hevel havalim. What did He want with the creation? Why He wanted that or why He needed it, so to speak, we can't answer. But what did He want? We know He gave us a Torah, but what was the goal? What did Hashem want to accomplish, so to speak, with the creation of the world? Not I'm not going to answer, \"Well, why did He want to accomplish that?\" That I don't know. But what He wanted, that I do know. How do I know? Have I spoke to Him? Again, because He gave us a Torah, and He communicates with us through the Torah. In the Torah He wrote, when I say Torah, again, I don't mean that's Chumash or Neviim, Midrash, Gemara, Rambam, that's all Torah. Those are all the words of God. In the Torah God gave us over exactly what He had in mind, what He wanted with the creation. And that is, it says in the Midrash, which is a A Midrash quoted in חסידישע ספרים constantly. Anybody who is a little bit familiar with what it says in חסידישע ספרים knows this Midrash by heart 50 times over, because it's a Midrash quoted constantly. And the Midrash is as follows: נתאווה הקדוש ברוך הוא, השם had a desire, להיות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים. Hashem wanted to have a dwelling place in this low world. In other words, Hashem wanted that there should be a low world as this world is, and He wants that He should have a dwelling place in this world. Now what does that mean? And I'll explain it. Why do we call this world a low world? We say God is up above. We are down here below. What do we mean below? God is up above meaning there are a certain amount of stories that we're here, He is a million miles up. When we say up and down, when we're talking in relationship to Hashem, we can't talk about space, about miles. What do we mean up and down? Things which are closer to Him is considered up. Things which are further from Him is called down. When we say further, we don't mean a space. Further means in those things that reveal less the truth of God. And that's what happened when God created the world. He made such a world which covers up on the truth of God. The world is called in Hebrew עולם. The word עולם means world. The word עולם has another meaning. It comes from the word העלם. העלם means cover up, hidden. The world was created in such a way that God is hidden in the world. We don't see Him. When we look at the world, the world in itself does not express the truth of God. If a person wants, he could close his eyes and say, well, there is no God. He'll look at the world and say, well, the world is here. There are people who don't believe it, who are atheists, who don't believe in the creation, don't believe in the existence of God. They are fools, but they it's possible for a person to feel that way. And you would have to work hard to convince him that there is a God. So obviously, the world in itself does not actually reveal the truth of God. You have to think about it, you have to look into it, but the world itself does not reveal the truth of God. So that's why it's called עולם, from the word העלם, it covers up. This is actually what nature is. The nature of the world which we look at as nature is a cover-up on God. Really all this comes from Hashem. Who made the world? God. Who controls the world now? God. It is not the pshat that Hashem created the world 5,750 years ago and then it can exist by itself. Every second, God has to recreate the world. The reason the world exists now is because He makes it happen. I don't want to get into the details to explain it, that would be too long. But it's self-understood if you think about it that He creates the world every second. Who makes everything happen in the world? God. But when we look at the world, we look at it as nature. People say, well, how does this happen? Through nature. What does nature mean? Nature is no explanation how things happen. It doesn't explain it. All the word nature means is it's taking everything that happens and putting it into one word. It's a description of what's going on, it's nature, but it's not an explanation how it happens. But how does it happen? Well, we can see. What is the truth? The truth is it's from God. But it's a cover-up. Nature really covers up on the truth of God. That's why the word nature in Hebrew is טבע. We all know טבע. The word טבע, as I explained I believe once before, the word טבע also has a meaning of sunk in. טובעו בים סוף, when it says it was sunken into the Yam Suf. When something sinks in the water, we call it טובע. If someone drowns, טובע בים. The word טובע means sinks in. Nature is the pshat. What is the idea of nature? That the truth of the power of Hashem is sunk in into this world, in nature. That's why it's called טבע. When something sinks into the water, it's there. It's there just as it was before it fell into the water. The difference is before you could see it, now you can't. The same thing is with the power of Hashem. Nature means it swallows in the power of Hashem, covers it up, but it's really Hashem. We can't see it, but it's really Hashem. So Hashem created the world in such a way it should cover up on Him. That's why we call this world תחתונים. דירה בתחתונים it says, that Hashem wanted a dwelling place in this low world. It's low, low meaning it's further away from Him, meaning that we cannot see the truth of God in this physical world. what God wants of us and that's the reason He created the world, as the Midrash says, we don't know why He needed this, but this is what the goal was, that we should make a dwelling place for Him in this lower world, meaning we should reveal the truth of God within this world. We should prove or express that really even though it seems to be nature, really this is Hashem. And the Zohar explains, the Zohar which is the fundamental sefer, the most fundamental sefer of Kabbalah explains that the most important concept in Yiddishkeit is to understand, and I'm going to get a little bit kabbalistic so to speak, to understand that הוי׳ הוא האלקים. הוי׳ and אלקים כולא חד, הוי׳ and אלקים are one. And let me explain that. I touched upon it, I think, once before. Hashem has many names. There are two main names that He has: one is that name הוי׳, י-ה-ו-ה, הוי׳; one is the name אלקים. Elokim represents Hashem the way He works through the nature. That's why the name Elokim which is made up of the letters א, ל, ה, י, ם is בגימטריא הטבע. Every Hebrew letter has a numerical value, a number. א is one, ל is 30, ה is five, י is 10, ם is 40. It adds up to 86. The word הטבע which means the nature adds up to 86 too, because Elokim represents Hashem the way He works through the nature. Havayah, the name of Hashem Havayah, י-ה-ו-ה, we're not allowed to pronounce it, therefore we say Havayah, that represents Hashem the way He is beyond nature, because the word Havayah is made up of three words, היה, הוה, ויהיה, past, present, and future. They're all in one word. That is not nature. You can't have past, present, and future in nature. Nature is time and space. If it's beyond time, then it's not nature. So, Havayah, when we say the name of Hashem Havayah, that means that we refer to Hashem as He is beyond nature, not the way He put Himself in the world that the nature works and it's Him. Havayah means beyond. What we have to remember is that Havayah and אלקים כולא חד. It's all one. That's what the Zohar says. We have to remember that even though there seems to be Elokim, which means there seems to be a nature, and that is not really the same Hashem so to speak, God forbid. So, we have to remember: no, Havayah and Elokim is one. We see in Chumash many many pesukim that tell us, speaks about Hashem. Says: וידעת היום, you should know, והשבת אל לבבך, take it to heart, that what? כי הוי׳ הוא האלקים, that Havayah and Elokim is one. After Aseret HaDibrot, we say כי הוי׳ הוא האלקים. Constantly, it mentions הוי׳ הוא האלקים. When Eliyahu HaNavi, the famous Eliyahu HaNavi, convinced the Jews that God is the true God and not the idol, the Baal, the famous story when he had this ויכוח, this dialogue with the prophets of the Baal, and there was a test. The test was that they both would build an altar and pray to their god to bring a fire down from heaven, and the one that will succeed, everyone will know that his god is the true God. So, first the נביאי הבעל, the prophets of the Baal, built their מזבח, put down the animal, prayed to their idol. Nothing happened. They prayed all day, they cut themselves, they hurt themselves, screaming. Eliyahu started mocking them and he said to them, \"Scream louder. Maybe your god is asleep. Maybe he can't hear. Maybe he went for a walk.\" He was making fun. Nothing happens. Then it came Eliyahu's turn, and he put down, made a מזבח, put down the korban. He davened to Hashem, and the fire came down from heaven. And the Jews recognized the truth. So, what does it say? What did they say when they admitted to the truth? It says they all screamed out, \"הוי׳ הוא האלקים! הוי׳ הוא האלקים!\" Twice, they said. What does that mean? They recognized that even though there is Elokim, which means nature, we understand that the Elokim really is Havayah. Havayah is Elokim. Really it's Hashem that is beyond nature. What do we need more than Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year? The climax that we reach on Yom Kippur towards the end of the day, which is this תפילה of נעילה. When we come to נעילה, imagine how every Jew feels, standing there towards the end of Yom Kippur, the moment when Hashem forgives for all the sins. The gates of heaven are about to close. Imagine this special feeling you have, and then you finish davening. And towards the end, the last few minutes, what do we say? So, first, we scream once: שמע ישראל ה׳ אלקינו ה׳ אחד. Then we say three times: ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד. By the last Last thing we say, we scream seven times, 'cause seven is a complete number, a complete cycle. What do we scream? השם הוא האלוקים! השם הוא האלוקים! And the word Hashem is written י-ק-ו-ק. And it says in sefarim, anybody who knows this, that when we scream these pesukim, we have to be ready to give up our life for Hashem, to go on mesirat nefesh. We have to be ready, we have to feel that we're ready to go on kiddush Hashem. How do we express it? By saying הוי' הוא האלוקים. What does that mean? Because that means that we admit to God that Havayah', which represents Hashem the way He is beyond nature, is really the same as Elokim, meaning that there is no such thing as nature. That's what Hashem wants of us to do, to mean that means to reveal the truth into the world. And that's what the Midrash says, that Hashem created the world to make that we should make a dwelling place in this lower world. How do we do it? One thing is by recognizing the truth. But then Hashem said that's not enough. You have to do things that by doing the things I will tell you, this will be a way that you will reveal in the world the truth of the world. Not only the truth of God, the truth of the world. The truth of the world is only one thing: that the truth of nature is that it's controlled by God. As the pasuk says which I mentioned previously, that אמת השם לעולם. What is the emet, the truth, of the olam, of the world? Hashem. So we have to do things that express it. And that's when Hashem came down on Har Sinai, gave us a Torah, and He said, when you will do this mitzvah, and you will do this mitzvah, and that mitzvah, through doing that, you will reveal the truth in the world. Now, not through every mitzvah do we see how by doing that specific mitzvah, it brings about this change in the world, the revelation of the truth of God. But the fact the Torah says that it happens, we don't see it sometimes, but it happens. In addition to that, there is something else that the Torah says we have to do, which will express the truth. And that is בכל דרכיך דעהו. That means that in all your ways, you should know Him. There's another saying: כל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים. All your actions should be l'shem shamayim, for the sake of Hashem. Which means we are not talking here about mitzvot. It says, כל מעשיך, your actions, should be l'shem shamayim. Mitzvot are not our actions. Mitzvot are the מעשים of Hashem, the actions of Hashem. The mitzvot are called the דרכי השם, the ways of Hashem. So when it says, בכל דרכיך דעהו, in all your ways you should know Him, it talks about our own things, when we do things which are not mitzvot. When we eat, there's no mitzvah to eat. I mean, there's a mitzvah to be healthy and stay alive, but generally there is no mitzvah in the Torah that you must eat like there's a mitzvah to put on tefillin. There's no mitzvah to sleep. There's no mitzvah to do business. These are all things that we do for our physical needs. The Torah tells us that when you do those things, you also have to do it for the sake of Hashem. When a person goes for business, and he wants to make money and he should do it, he has to keep in mind, I want to make money so I should have enough money to buy a nice pair of tefillin, I'll have enough money to give a lot of tzedakah, buy a lot of food for Shabbos for the mitzvah of Shabbos. So you do your business for the sake of Hashem. When a person eats, he should eat so he should be healthy. Why does he want to be healthy? So he should be able to serve God. When you do that, you express the truth of the creation of the world. Because then you show that even though what you're doing is nature, but the nature is there for the sake of Hashem, because this was the whole purpose of the creation. As Rashi says in the first verse of the chumash: בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ, which means, \"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.\" So Rashi says it means, בשביל התורה ובשביל ישראל, the whole world was created for the sake of the Torah, for the sake of the Jews, to learn Torah and to do the Torah, to do the mitzvot. So when do we express that? If we act that way, not only when we do the mitzvot, when we do our own things for the sake of Hashem. When did we get this power to be able to accomplish this, to reveal within the world the truth? That started by מתן תורה. At the time when Hashem gave us the Torah, He came down to Har Sinai and He said the עשרת הדברות, the Ten Commandments. At that moment, He put into us that power that we are able to reveal within the world the truth of Hashem. Because the truth is, He put Himself into us at that moment, because who is really the one that's able to change the nature of the world? Only the Creator. He He created the nature, so he could change it. How does he expect us to do things that will change, that will reveal what's behind the nature? How do we have the power? The truth is we have because he gave us the power. He has the power, he gave it to us. He put part of himself into us. When he said אנכי השם אלקיך, I am God, your God, at that moment he put his Godliness into every single Jew. And it doesn't mean only the Jews who lived at that time. It says that all of the Jews from all generations stood by Har Sinai. So we all stood by Har Sinai. When Hashem said אנכי השם אלקיך, he spoke to us. So we, each one of us here and each one of us of this generation, got a piece, kivayachol, so to speak, of God, that gave us the power that we are able to reveal within the world the truth, which is what's behind the nature, the truth of God.

This explains an interesting thing. It says in sefarim that Moshe, Moshe Rabbeinu, the one that received the Torah, plus 13 more equals Mashiach. Moshe is 348. Mashiach is three, 345, Mashiach is 358. מ is 40, ש is 300, י is 10, ח is 8. Moshe is 40 and 300 and 5. So Moshe with another 13 equals Mashiach. What's 13? Well, by the גוים להבדיל, they say 13 is an unlucky number. You notice in the hotels here they don't have a 13th floor. That's narishkeit. We know 13 is a lucky number. What's so lucky about 13? 13 is the גימטריא אחד. 13 adds up to אחד. אחד is א, ח, ד. א is 1, ח is 8, ד is 4. That's 13. Who is אחד? What is אחד? We don't have to go too far. שמע ישראל השם אלקינו השם אחד. Hashem is one. So אחד is 13. So when we say Moshe and 13 equals Mashiach, there's a lot to it. Echad represents what we do throughout our lifetime in this world. How? And now just take a few moments to discuss the subject of echad. We say in Keriat Shema, \"Hear O Israel, God our God, God is one\", השם אחד. There is a famous question asked by many of the commentaries: Why does it say השם אחד, השם is one? It should have said השם יחיד, השם is single. Because when you say one, it doesn't necessarily mean that there is no second. A person could have five watches. This is one and this is two. But what we're trying to say is that Hashem is the only one. So it should have said השם יחיד, single. When you say someone has a בן יחיד, that means he has an only son. But if you say this is בן אחד, this is one, it doesn't mean there is no second. In the Haggadah we say there are four sons: אחד חכם ואחד רשע, one is a chacham, one is a rasha, one is a tam, and שאינו יודע לשאול. It all says one, but it doesn't mean there is only one. יחיד means only one. Why don't we say השם יחיד? And the answer that's given is: השם יחיד would mean that Hashem is the only thing, the only being, there is nothing else. But what we're trying to say is that even if we look at the world and the world seems to be something, nevertheless Hashem is the one of the world. So the word one, so to speak, leaves place for a second, and nevertheless we say he is the one. That's what it's trying to show, that even at the moment when we're leaving place for a person's thought that there is one and another one after this one, still we're saying: No, he is the one. That's why it says in the Semak that the word echad, the four three letters mean like this: א is 1. ח is 8. 8 represents the seven heavens and the earth. ד is 4, represents the four corners or the four sides of the world. What we have to think when we close our eyes and we say echad is that the seven heavens and the earth plus the four sides of the world are all nullified to the א, to the one, which is אלופו של עולם, which is Hashem. So the word echad itself shows that there is a world, there is nature, but we have to remember the nature in essence is all batel, so to speak, nullified to the one. So this is really our job to bring about this feeling throughout all these years. When did all this start? At the time of מתן תורה. Who was the one that brought the Torah to us? Moshe. And that's the meaning: Moshe, which represents מתן תורה, plus echad, plus the time when we work to reveal within the nature the truth of Hashem, which is echad, the One, meaning that there is another one seemingly and there is the one that we bring into that, so Moshe, מתן תורה which is the beginning, together with echad equals Mashiach, and that's what's going to happen when Mashiach will come. Meaning that when we finish our mission in this world to reveal the truth of the world, that's when Mashiach will come. After all these years, when people did so much Torah and mitzvot, people did so much, as we said, כל מעשיך לשם שמים, and all that revealed more and more and more in the world the truth, when all that will gather, that's when this will all, so to speak, blow up, and then the truth will be revealed outright in the whole world. You can never know. There's so much there, all we need maybe is one more act. The Rambam says a person is always supposed to think that it's possible that with his one act he is going to bring Mashiach, because all we need is for it all to get up together. We need a certain amount of mitzvot to be done in the world, which mean a certain amount of revelation of the truth, when it's all done, then it will bust and the world will see the truth. Now, maybe we are now holding by that straw that's going to break the camel's back. Maybe that mitzvah that I will do tonight is going to be that mitzvah that will be the last mitzvah to bring Mashiach. But this is actually what it is: when all the revelation of the truth in the world will be finished, the revelation will come out into the open. And that's what it says in many of the prophets, that what will happen when Mashiach will come? ונגלה כבוד השם, the glory of Hashem will be revealed, וראו כל בשר יחדו כי פי השם דבר. All flesh will see that Hashem spoke, meaning that the world will see the truth. So when we ask somebody, \"What is the meaning of the coming of Mashiach?\" We will have a lot of bread, a lot of silk clothes, a lot of candies, we will have peace. True, but really what it is, is that the world will see the truth. Now the world is העלם, the world covers up on the truth. God wanted us to work to reveal the truth in the world. When we finish our job, that will happen, the truth will be revealed. The world itself will express the truth of God. It's hard to understand how that will be, because now the world is a physical, coarse, tangible world that doesn't express it, but when Mashiach will come, that's what will happen. And the people in the world, including lehavdil the goyim, will all see the truth, and that's all the involvement that they will have. The Rambam says, the last, last halacha of the Rambam in his whole sefer, which is the end of Hilchot Mashiach, the Rambam says that what will happen at those at that time? That ולא יהיה עסק, at that time the involvement of כל העולם, of the whole world, will be אלא only לדעת את השם בלבד, to know Hashem. Which means that's the time when the revelation of the truth, which is that God is the Creator of the world, and He is the true existence, and He is the only real existence, that אין עוד מלבדו, there is nothing but Him, will be revealed at that time. How will it happen? When we finish our work, it will happen. There will be levels in how much you will see, because God is unlimited, so the understanding of the truth will be unlimited. And that all depends on what we do now. The more we work now, the greater of a role we play now in the revelation of the truth, the greater we will understand, the more we will understand at that time. And therefore, all I could say is: m'darf araynchapn. Because soon Mashiach will come, then it'll be too late. Whatever was done, was done. We have to chapn arayn, as we say, and we have to do everything possible to reveal the truth in the world. And that will all gather together, all the people's avodah of work what they're doing, and the generations before, of the true revelation, when it all gets together, then Mashiach will come. And we hope and pray that it'll be not much longer, we won't have to wait until next year or two years. This year, which is תש״ן, which, by the way, as we all know, is an abbreviation of תהא שנת ניסים, should be a year of miracles. And the greatest miracle is the miracle of the coming of Mashiach, so we hope and pray is going to happen very soon. And let's hope that it'll be בקרוב ממש, במהרה בימינו, now. Amen. Amen.