“Vine of Israel”

After the Rebbe’s liberation from Soviet-imposed exile, he delivered a Chasidic discourse expounding the verse: “You caused a vine to journey out of Egypt; You expelled nations and implanted it.” The Sages explain that just as a vine is uprooted from its place and replanted elsewhere in order to grow more plentifully, likewise, when G-d moves a Jew to a new location, it is only in order to increase his success.

The success is achieved when the Jew “expels” the ‘gentileness’ from within his own life and “implants” the ‘Jewish vine’ within the world – sowing and cultivating Yiddishkeit and causing it to flourish, until it becomes a “wine that brings joy to G-d and men.”

No matter that we are still in exile, the smallest among the nations, surrounded by intense spiritual darkness, with non-Jews and gentile culture surrounding us – all Jews remain connected to G-d, and draw infinite strength and success from Him. They need only join together in this mission, each one transforming the materialism of his own portion of the world, and truly becoming “G-d’s plant, His handiwork in which He takes pride.”