The sh’china in exile in america

From Chapter Three of Rabbi Shloma Majeski’s Likkutei Mekoros Vol. 2. (Underlined text is the compiler’s emphasis.)

לע”נ הרב רחמים ב”ר יואב אנטיאן ע”ה

Translated by Boruch Merkur

5. […] “Rabbeinu,” nasi ha’dor (the leader of the generation), is also the Moshiach (the redeemer of the Jewish people) of the generation,* like Moshe Rabbeinu (the first nasi) – “the first redeemer is the final redeemer.”** Indeed, it is known*** that in every generation there is “one who is fit in terms of his righteousness to be the redeemer, and when the time arrives, G-d reveals Himself to him and sends him on his mission, etc.” Of course, it is logical to presume that this person is nasi ha’dor, as explicitly mentioned in the Gemara (Sanhedrin 98b, and in the commentary of Rashi) regarding Rebbi Yehuda HaNasi, “Said Rav,**** if he is among the living, it is, for example, Rabbeinu HaKadosh.” “If Moshiach is among those who are presently alive, he certainly is Rabbeinu HaKadosh,” who was the leader of the generation.*****

From the above discussion it is understood that the main function of “Beis Rabbeinu Sh’B’Bavel” is the redemption from Bavel,  empowering the Jewish people in their general avoda of transforming Bavel (the Diaspora) into Eretz Yisroel, as in the well-known saying, “Make this place (the Diaspora) Eretz Yisroel.” This transformation is accomplished first and foremost through building synagogues and yeshivos (“Mikdash M’at – a miniature sanctuary”) in the lands where the Jewish people settled. Holiness is drawn from the shuls and yeshivos to all the lands of the nations, and this speeds up and brings about the fulfillment of the promise, “In the future, Eretz Yisroel will expand [its borders] throughout all the countries,” “for the entire world at that time will have attained the spiritual height of present-day Eretz Yisroel, and Eretz Yisroel itself will be at the level of present-day Yerushalayim. That is what the Sages meant in saying that Yerushalayim will extent across the entirety of Eretz Yisroel,” namely, that the synagogues and yeshivos of Bavel will be established there, attached to the Beis HaMikdash.

Since the main purpose of “Beis Rabbeinu Sh’B’Bavel” is the gathering and convening of the synagogues and yeshivos of Bavel to establish them in Eretz Yisroel, adjoining them to the Beis HaMikdash, “therefore it is (not only the primary “Mikdash M’at” of Bavel “that traveled from Kadesh and settled there,” but also) the very place of the Beis HaMikdash of the Future Era,” wherein the Mikdash of the Future will be revealed, and from there it will return to Yerushalayim.

6. The above sheds light on the “Beis Rabbeinu Sh’B’Bavel” of this generation, the home (synagogue and yeshiva) of my revered father in-law, the Rebbe, leader of the generation:

But first to preface with the Rebbe’s saying: “Lubavitch was exiled ten times” – from Lubavitch (where there was the revelation of the inner dimension of the Torah, as elucidated in terms of understanding and comprehension (“providing sustenance”) through the teachings of Chabad Chassidus, throughout several generations) to Rostov, from Rostov to Petersburg, and from Petersburg it was exiled to outside that country, to Latvia, and then to Poland. Then Lubavitch was exiled to America. In America itself it journeyed to several places until “Beis Rabbeinu” finally arrived at its permanent location, the Rebbe’s shul and beis midrash, the headquarters of Lubavitch for the final (“everything goes according to the conclusion”) ten years (a complete stage) of the Rebbe’s life in this world. And even after the histalkus, “holiness does not leave its place.” In fact, holiness is always on the rise, until the advent of the righteous redeemer.

So too regarding the exile of the Jewish people at large. In this generation, the majority of the Jewish population are situated in the American exile. This is actually one of the reasons why nasi doreinu (for “the nasi is everything”) lived and resided, for his final decade, in America. From America, by means of his disciples and shluchim sent through the entire world, the Rebbe worked at disseminating Torah and Judaism as well as spreading the wellsprings of Chassidus outward throughout all the countries where Jews have settled.

And since “to every place the Jewish people were exiled, the Sh’china was with them,” in this final exile – where the majority of Jews and the majority of their buildings are exiled in America, together with the nasi doreinu – the Sh’china is also exiled to America. And within the exile in America itself – “where (in Bavel)?” – in the “Mikdash M’at” of “Beis Rabbeinu.”

(From Kuntres Beis Rabbeinu Sh’B’Bavel; Seifer HaSichos 5752, pg. 470-1)

NOTES:

*To note that there is a spark of Moshiach in every single Jew. (Accordingly we can reconcile the teachings of our Sages on the verse, “A star has gone forth from Yaakov” (Balak 24:17), which refers to Melech HaMoshiach (Yerushalmi Taanis 4:5), and it refers to each and every Jew (Yerushalmi Maaser Sheini perek 4, end). Both views are true and real, insofar as every Jew has a spark of Moshiach (see Maor Einayim Parshas Pinchas, end), the dimension of Yechida [of his soul], which is a spark of the general, aggregate Yechida, the soul of Moshiach (Ramaz to Zohar II 40b, among other sources). “The nasi is everything,” for the leader of the Jewish people includes within him the spark of Moshiach, the particular Yechida, of each and every Jew. Thus, the soul of the nasi is the general, aggregate Yechida, the soul of Moshiach, and he is, therefore, the Moshiach of the generation.

**See Likkutei Sichos Vol. 11, pg. 8 ff., where it is discussed.

***See Responsa of Chasam Sofer Choshen Mishpat (Vol. 6), end (siman 98), and see S’dei Chemed P’as Sadei maareches HaAlef, klal 70, among others.

****Rabbeinu Sh’B’Bavel, who is like Rabbeinu HaKadosh [Rebbi Yehuda HaNasi] in Eretz Yisroel (as discussed above in Footnote 40). Accordingly, we may infer that by Rav saying “it is Rabbeinu HaKadosh,” he is also ruling about himself* – that “it is Rabbeinu Sh’B’Bavel.”

*****See S’dei Chemed ibid: “In this manner, in each generation, they would speculate among themselves who it is … Rabbeinu HaKadosh … in his generation they declared and knew that he is the one that is ready [for the mission of redeeming the Jewish people] … And so it is in every single generation: there must be one who is suited [to be Moshiach] should they merit [the redemption]. Also in this spirit, the disciples of the Arizal wrote that in his time it was the Arizal,” and S’dei Chemed concludes, “and all this is obvious.”

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*Reflecting the explanation of the [unusual] wording of the Mishna (Avos 3, beg.), “judgment and reckoning” (judgment and only thereafter reckoning). This teaching is brought to light by another Mishna (ibid 16): “one is punished with his knowledge and without his knowledge.” That is, after a person rules, “with his knowledge” [according to his opinion and sense of justice] in a case about someone else, he [thus] renders judgment upon himself “without his knowledge”; in accordance with his “judgment,” a “reckoning” is made as it applies to his own case. (See Likkutei Sichos Vol. 6, pg. 283, where it is discussed.)