All sevenths are dear

Today is the holy day of Yud Shevat, the yahrtzeit of the Frierdike Rebbe (Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe) and the day that, one year later, the Lubavitcher Rebbe took over the mantle of leadership from his father in law and became the next Lubavitcher Rebbe, the leader of world Jewry.

In his first public address, the Rebbe spoke about the last maamar his father in law  which is called Basi L’Gani. In that maamar the Rebbe explained how after Adam and Chava sinned in the Garden of Eden, the Shechina (Divine presence) which was revealed in the world at that time left the world and retreated back up to the first heaven. After that, with subsequent generations of sins, the Shechina retreated to higher levels of heaven all the way up to the seventh Heaven. Then seven tzadikim arose who brought the Shechina back into the world. First came Avraham avinu who brought the Shechina from the seventh heaven back down to the sixth….and then Yitzchak brought it back to the fifth and so on, right up until Moshe Rabbenu, the seventh , who brought the Shechina back into this material world and gave us the Torah. Why did Moshe merit this? Because he was the seventh leader and all sevenths are beloved.

Not because they did anything more special, but because they are seventh from the first.

So basically the Rebbe went on to explain that we are the seventh generation  (and all sevenths are beloved) and the Rebbe is the seventh Chabad Rebbe , and our mission is to reveal Moshiach: to actually bring the geulah: to actually bring Moshiach. To do that the Rebbe said we need to leave the comforts of our material lives and go out to bring other Jews back to Judaism: to teach them aleph beis; to teach them about G-d and about holiness. And to help them understand that just by virtue of being in the seventh generation they will be part of bringing the redemption. Every Jew can and must take part in this mission to bring Moshiach.

This is why the Rebbe instituted the idea of sending shluchim all over the world to wake up the Jewish souls of Jews everywhere and bring them back to their heritage, back to G-dliness and holiness.

This is the mission of each and every Jew. We are all the Rebbe’s messengers to do this in whatever place we live in the world.

And through doing this, and spreading the teachings of Chassidus, we will merit the redemption on a personal level and on a universal level.

This is the mission of the Rebbe: to lead us out of galus, out of exile, just as Moshe Rabbenu led the Jews out of Egypt.