The King in the Thick of Battle

From a sichah of Shabbos Parshas Vayakhel-Pekudei, Mevarchim (and erev Rosh Chodesh) Nissan, 5710 [1950]. The full text appears in Likkutei Sichos, Vol. II, p. 512ff.

See Sefer HaMaamarim 5710, p. 111ff. For English translation, see Basi LeGani: Chassidic Discourses (op. cit.).

According to the unauthenticated notes of a listener, the Rebbe said: “I search among the subjects explained in these maamarim for the answers to all the questions being asked.”

Sefer HaMaamarim 5710, p. 154. For English translation, see Basi LeGani: Chassidic Discourses, p. 74; see also p. 49ff.

According to the unauthenticated notes of a listener, at this point the Rebbe summarized some of the concepts explained in the above-mentioned maamar — that the word Tzvaos is one of the seven holy Names of G‑d (which may not be erased), even though it is not used as such in the Torah (where it is used only in reference to the Jewish people, who are called Tzivos HaShem, “the hosts of G‑d”), but was first revealed as a Divine Name only by the Prophets; and that this Name is related to the waging of war and to the pursuit of victory.

In fact the Rebbe [Rayatz] sustains this metaphor even more specifically: “The treasures are indeed entrusted to the ministers and commanding officers; ultimately, however, they are intended for the use of the rank and file soldiers (Yid.: ‘those who shoot’), for it is they who in practice will secure the victory.”The “ministers and officers” are those who engaged in avodah by their own efforts, over and above the energy that the king — the Rebbe — gives them as a gift, and thereby they attained ever loftier spiritual heights. Thus, for example, when the Alter Rebbe offered [his grandson] the Tzemach Tzedek sublime levels of spiritual perception as a gift, the Tzemach Tzedek declined, explaining that he preferred to attain these levels by his own unaided efforts. Later, however, he regretted this decision: he should have accepted as a gift whatever was offered him, and then by his own continued efforts he would have attained even higher levels. [The above interpolation to the sichah is taken from the unauthenticated notes of a listener.]

Journal founded by the Rebbe Rayatz in 1941.

In the original, nitzachon.

In the original, kabbalas ol.

The letters ח׳׳י , an acronym for Chayah and Yechidah [which are the two innermost and transcendental levels of the soul], allude to Achiyah HaShiloni. (See the sichah of Shabbos Parshas Pinchas, 5700 [1940], in Sefer HaSichos of that year, p. 159.)[Achiyah of Shiloh was a prophet who first appears in the Tanach early in the time of the First Beis HaMikdash. See I Melachim, chs. 11 and 14; Bava Basra 121b; and Rambam’s Introduction to Mishneh Torah. See also Vol. I of Likkutei Dibburim (in English translation), ch. 2b, sec. 1, and ch. 4a, sec. 3.]

As to why specifically Achiyah HaShiloni was the mentor of the Baal Shem Tov, it will be noted that R. Shimon bar Yochai, the master of the innermost, mystical dimension (the pnimiyus) of the Torah, once declared that he would save the whole world from judgment until the days of Mashiach, if Achiyah HaShiloni would join him. (This is the version of the statement as it appears in: the Yerushalmi, Berachos 9:2; Bereishis Rabbah 35:2; and Pesikta DeRav Kahana on the verse, Vayehi beshalach.) This declaration may be understood in the light of the teaching that appears in the Likkutim appended to Sefer HaGilgulim of the AriZal, that R. Shimon bar Yochai was an incarnation of Achiyah HaShiloni. The phrase “until the days of Mashiach” refers to the time when “the Jewish people will go out of exile with mercy,” by virtue of their having tasted of the Zohar, which is referred to as “your (i.e., the Rashbi’s) book,” as is written in the Zohar III, 124b.

The same concept is true of the Baal Shem Tov, for Mashiach will come when the wellsprings of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings are disseminated far and wide, as is stated in the well-known letter of the Baal Shem Tov [to his brother-in-law, R. Gershon of Kitov, in 1752; see Likkutei Dibburim (in English translation), Vol. I, ch. 2b, sec. 1].

The author of Toldos Yaakov Yosef refers (in Parshas Balak) to “Achiyah HaShiloni, who was a disciple of Moshe Rabbeinu and was one of those who left Egypt, and was later a member of the beis din of David HaMelech, and was the mentor of Eliyahu HaNavi, and the mentor of my master [i.e., the Baal Shem Tov], of blessed memory.” This implies, to some extent, that the fact that Achiyah HaShiloni was the mentor of the Baal Shem Tov is related to the fact that he was the mentor of Eliyahu HaNavi.

In the spirit of the above, it will be noted that the task of Eliyahu HaNavi (see, e.g., the mishnah at the end of Eduyos) is to prepare the way for the coming of Mashiach, to bring near those who are far removed, and so on; as it is written (Malachi 3:23-24): “Behold, I will send you Eliyah[u] the Prophet, before the coming of the great and awesome day of G‑d, and he shall turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers.” These same basic themes Eliyahu HaNavi shares in common with the Baal Shem Tov — loving every fellow Jew, even if he is at the other end of the world, and even if he is utterly unschooled; and the dissemination of the wellsprings [of the mystical dimension of the Torah], which is a preparation and a vessel for the coming of Mashiach. (See the sichah of Simchas Torah, 5690 [1929], in Likkutei Dibburim [in English translation: Vol. II, ch. 16, sec. 1].)

In response, then, to the question as to why specifically Achiyah HaShiloni was the mentor of Eliyahu HaNavi and of the Baal Shem Tov: One might explain this by noting that it was Achiyah HaShiloni who foretold the division of Israel into two kingdoms, which led to idolatry (calf-worship) and to exile — all of which will be rectified with the coming of Mashiach, when “they will never again be divided into two kingdoms, nor will they ever again defile themselves with their idols…; and I shall cleanse them…, and David My servant shall be king over them” (Yechezkel 37:22-24).

As to how the transcendent soul-levels known as ח׳׳י (Chayah and Yechidah) are related to the mystical dimension of the Torah and to Mashiach: The mystical level of Torah-interpretation known as Sod (i.e., the fourth, in ascending order, of the levels whose acronym is Pardes) is rooted in the World of Atzilus; this same World is the root of Chayah (i.e., the fourth, in ascending order, of the five soul-levels whose acronym is Naran-Chai) — and the soul-level of Mashiach is Chayah-Yechidah. [— Note by the Rebbe.]