Rabbi Judah, the Rebbe in his time of all Israel,
as he passed from life confined within a body
to liberation from all physical bonds
—as he began to attain higher and yet incomparably higher states of being,
for “the righteous have no rest, not in this world and not in the world to come”—
at that time, he said, “My children, I need them.”
So too with our Rebbe.
Even as he has left the confines of his body,
even as he leaps to entirely new heights of existence,
not only will those tied to him still need him,
climb higher with him,
achieve so much more through the strength he gives them,
—but he, as well, will need them,
and depend upon their hard work,
to achieve that which he must achieve.
For a Rebbe and those bound up with him are one.
Two
To one whose self is his body, death of the body is death of the self. But for one whose self is his love, awe and faith, there is no death, only a passing. From a state of confinement in the body, he makes the passage to liberation. He continues to work within this world, and even more so than before.
The Talmud says that Jacob, our father, never died. Moses, also, never died. Neither did Rabbi Judah the Prince. They were very high souls who were one with Truth in an ultimate bond—and since Truth can never die, neither could they.
Yes, in our eyes we see death. A body is buried in the ground, and we must mourn the loss. But this is only part of the falseness of our world. In the World of Truth, they are still here as before.
And the proof: We are still here. For if these high souls would not be with us in our world, all that we know would cease to exist.
Three
A true master of life
never leaves this world
—he transcends it,
but he is still within it.
He is still there to assist
those who are bonded with him
with blessing and advice,
just as before, and even more so.
Even those who did not know him
in his corporeal lifetime
can still forge with him an essential bond.
The only difference is in us:
Now we must work harder to connect.
Four
A tzadik
introduces you to your G‑d
and then gets out of the way.
Five
A tzadik brings you to discover who you are.
You are light.
If the times are times of light, he can awaken you to know that light.
If the times are dark, he can squeeze out the pure oil within you and set you afire so that you will become a bright light in the darkness.
But to absorb that light and make it one with you,
that it should become the most obvious thing in your life,
that it should cause you to scream out on a normal day, when everything seems fine to the rest of the world, “Why? How could this be? How long can we wait for the entire world to become light?!”
…that is a job the tzadik must leave to you.
And when you attain it, you will have reached to the very essence of all light, a light that is everywhere at all times.
And now the tzadik, too, will have attained that essence-light.
Six
The true teacher is most present in his absence.
It is then that all he has taught takes root, grows and blossoms.
The student despairs for his teacher’s guidance,
and in that yearning, the student leaves behind his old way of thinking.
His mind opens to receive all that his teacher gave him,
to think as his teacher thought,
to know as his teacher knew.
Seven
When it all began, heaven was here on earth.
This physical, earthly world, more than any of the higher spiritual worlds, was the place where the very essence of G‑d’s infinite light could be found.
But humankind, step by step, banished that divine presence from its home, with a tree of knowledge, with a man who murdered his brother, with all those things that human beings do…
Since humankind chased it away, only humankind can bring it back. And this began with Abraham, who proclaimed Oneness for all the world.
And it ends with us.
Our generation will bring heaven back down to earth.
Eight
Each generation has its role in history.
From all the generations before us we inherited a wealth of dreams: philosophy, truths, wisdom and purpose. We are tiny dwarfs standing on the shoulders of their ideas and their noble deeds.
Our generation’s mandate—and destiny—is to make the dream real.
Nine
There are infinite worlds beyond ours and beyond the worlds of the angels, all full of divine light, beauty and oneness.
But know also that all this was brought into being with a single purpose: G‑d desires to be at home within your mundane world.
Ten
There are people who do many good things, but with pessimism—because to them the world is an inherently bad place. Since their good deeds have no life to them, who knows how long they can keep it up?
We must know that this world is not a dark, sinister jungle, but a garden. And not just any garden, but G‑d’s own pleasure garden, full of beauty, wonderful fruits and fragrances, a place where G‑d desires to be with all His essence.
If the taste to us is bitter, it is only because we must first peel away the outer shell to find the fruit inside.
Eleven
The times in which our generation lives
are not ordinary times.
We dwell on the interface between two worlds
—a world as it was
and a world as it is meant to be.
Everything is in place,
all the infrastructure to bind the world together as one,
the technology by which all of humanity
can share deep wisdom,
all that is needed so that the secret of oneness
can be grasped within the human mind.
The stage is set.
All that’s left
is for us to open our eyes.
Twelve
What more can I do that Jews will cry out sincerely to get out of this deep exile of the soul?
When they do cry out, it’s only because they have been told to do so.
All I can do is to hand it over to you.
Do all you can.
Thirteen
If you were there
and the forces of destruction
were about to set Jerusalem aflame
and you had the power to do something about it,
would you sit and mourn and cry?
Or would you turn the world
on its head
to change history?
So what is stopping you?
Turn over the whole world now!
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