When Moshiach came in 1803...

By Rabbi Nissim Lagziel

A Joke to Begin With…

A fresh, new neshama comes down from the celestial worlds. On its way, it meets a fellow neshama that finished its job on earth, making its way up to the next world. The young, fresh neshama looks at the neshama coming up and sees him tired, broken and anguished. The one going down askes the one coming up, “Tell me, what’s wrong with you? Is it so bad down there? What type of world is it?!”

The neshama going up answers, “Oh…it’s a beautiful world down there! As a matter of fact, there is one thing over there called ‘money.’ With it, you can get so much done! You can build shuls, buy top-of-the-line mehudardike tallis and tefillin, do acts of goodness and kindness! There is only one problem… until you get that “money,” your neshama can go out!

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This week we will read Parshas Pekudei which ends Chumash Shemos, which is known by our sages as “ספר הגאולה”, “the Book of Redemption”. At the beginning of the parsha, the Torah gives a detailed account on the pledges of the Bnei Yisroel to the Mishkan and on the usage which was done with the raw materials in order to build the Mishkan with all of its parts; the beams, the coverings, and the utensils, etc.

From the silver, they melted the adanim, the metal sockets that held the Mishkan in place and therefore became the foundation of the Mishkan. “מאת אדנים למאת הככר, ככר לאדון” - One hundred sockets to the hundred talents, a talent for a socket.

The pasuk continues “With the remaining silver, 1,775 silver coins, they made hooks and an overlay for the beams.” Apparently, this is a minor detail. Merely a mention of usage of public funds to beautify the Mishkan and its structure. Something that would be of intrest only to the IRS!

However, in the light of Chassidus, it turns out that this pasuk hides within itself the secret of the time of the Geulah. 

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A story is told about a chassid who was called up to the Torah in the Alter Rebbe’s shul on Parshas Pekudei. It is famously known that in his shul, the Alter Rebbe himself was the Baal Koreh. When he reached this pasuk, he heard the Alter Rebbe whispering that the year of “one thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five is the time of Moshiach’s coming.” Later on, the chassid recounted to others what he had heard from the Alter Rebbe’s holy mouth. When the Alter Rebbe heard about this, he was not pleased. That chassid did not live to see the next year.

What is the year of “one thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five”? What is the connection between this pasuk and the time of the Geulah?

In a beautiful ma’amar, the Alter Rebbe himself explains the mystery. The “trop” (cantillation mark) on the word “האלף” (one thousand) is called “Azla Geresh.” The meaning of the word “azla” in Aramaic is “to go”. “geresh” means “expelled, chased away”. This pasuk alludes to Galus. This is the claim of the Shechina that resides together with Am Yisrael, even in galus. Till when would we go (azla) from expulsion to expulsion (geresh), till when will we go from exile to exile? Ad Masai?!

The answer to the question lies in the words of the pasuk:

“One thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five years” and the Geulah will come! If we count 1775 years from the moment the galus began (the time of the destruction of the second Beis HaMikdash in the year 3828). According to this calculation, the destined time (ketz) of Moshiach’s arrival is the year 5603.¹

In the light of the above, turns out that the Alter Rebbe calculated the ketz to be in the year 5603 (1803).²

But 5603 is already long gone, and we have yet to see the coming of Moshiach…

Did the Alter Rebbe chas v’shalom miscalculate?

The truth is that this question applies to many more Gedolei Yisrael (Rashi, the Rambam, and even the Arizal amongst them) who calculated and predicted various times for the coming of Moshiach, all of those have passed…

Did they all make a mistake? ?couldn’t they learn from the “failure” of their predecessors?

When we look carefully at the dates given by our chachamim for the time of the Geulah, we can see explicitly that major developments (sometimes worldwide political upheavals) took place in them that served as a “taste” of the Geula, and in essence brought the world much closer to the ultimate Geulah.

The Ohr Ha’chaim Ha’Kadosh calculated the birth of the Redeemer for the year 5500, ה’ת”ק, and in the year 5494, just six years prior, the Ba’al Shem Tov was revealed to the world and generated a new way of serving Hashem, a way leading to the Geulah.

The Chasam Sofer calculated the “neitz ha’chama” — the sparkle of the light of the Redemption to happen the year 5550, ה’תק”נ, and indeed, the spark of redemption blossomed in the image of the founder of Chabad Chassidus, the Alter Rebbe, bringing the Geulah even closer by presenting the teachings of Chassidus with depth and understanding. A clear foreshadow of the occupation of the world when Moshiach will come — “to know G-d.” 

Moreover: the Rebbe explains that these giants of Torah when making these calculations took into account that it would happen only if Am Yisrael would wake up from their spiritual slumber and be more active. Revealing the ketz and heightening the excitement was meant to effect a change in us, so-to-speak “prompting” Hashem to hasten the coming of Moshiach on his part. We, however, missed the opportunity; we were lazy and therefore stayed in galus!

Take, for example, a military tank-commander sitting atop his tank trying to navigate through a dark tunnel. The visibility is poor and you can’t see anything, except for … the bright, strong light shining at the end of the tunnel. The commander is the only one who can see that light while the driver and the other soldiers are “stuck” in the dark.

“How long until we get out of this darkness?” The soldiers ask the venerable commander.

“Another three minutes,” the commander answers, taking into account that if the soldiers and the driver exert more effort, they will press the peddle-to-the-metal and start moving.

But to his disappointment, the driver is asleep, and the rest of the crew are, also, not active enough. Everything is moving much slower than expected, and after three hours, the tank, the commander, the driver, and the soldiers are still stuck in the dark…

The commander is the Nassi of the generation, the tunnel is the galus, the light symbolizes the coming of Moshiach and the Geulah, while the soldiers are us!

The Rebbe promised us that our generation is the last in galus and the first to be redeemed. The Rebbe sees the light of redemption before him. If we stop sitting by the side dreaming and join the mission, if we roll our sleeves and begin to work, we’ll be out of this Golus in no-time!

And to wrap-up with a story

In one of Rabbi Lau’s Yechidus’s with the Rebbe, Rabbi Lau asked the Rebbe about the terrible situation in Israel and around the world. He concluded his question with the sentence: “Rebbe … what will happen? What will be?”

The Rebbe replied. “Instead of asking ‘what will be?’ it’s more conducive to ask, “What can we do about it?”

Takeaway

Let us not sit by and ask “What’s gonna be?” Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work until the neshama will go out… of Galus!

A Gut Shabbos! ■