Editor’s note: The following is a free translation of a directive the Rebbe issued to his chassidim at a gathering on Purim of 1963[13].
G-d has granted our generation opportunities that have never been granted before. To our great misfortune, we are not utilizing them to the utmost.
One of these opportunities is the recent awakening among the youth for what they call “a return to roots.” They hunger and thirst for the word of G-d[14], it’s only that they are, as of yet, unaware as to where the word of G-d is to be found. The sole responsibility therefore lies with those who are already immersed in the waters—“there is no `water’ save for Torah”[15]–to explain to them that their thirst is for G-d’s perfect Torah, without compromise.
The first step, the rejection of the negative, they, our generation’s youth, have already achieved. They have shattered the idols and icons which prevailed among some of their parents. They have recognized that the man-made ideologies that were embraced forty and fifty years ago are false. We need only bring them to the second step, the acceptance of the positive—the study of Torah and the observance of mitzvot.
We are living in a time of opportunity and divine grace, and much can be achieved. We must not squander these times, G-d forbid.
We are living in a time that “The voice of my beloved knocks: Open for me.”[16] When G-d knocks on the door of every Jew’s heart and begs that it open to Him. G-d is not asking that we demolish walls or break down doors, only that we open up to him as the point of a needle,[17] “for My head is filled with dew, and My locks with the drops of the night”[18]—G-d can no longer suffer, so to speak, the tribulation of the galut night. He promises that when we open to Him as the point of needle He will do the rest, and in the blink of an eye,[19] bring the true redemption through our righteous Moshiach.
Adapted from the teachings of the Rebbe by Yanki Tauber.
[13] Printed in Likkutei Sichot, vol. IV pp. 1369-1370
[14] Cf. Amos 8:11: “Behold, says G-d, days are coming in which I shall dispatch a hunger upon the land; not a hunger for bread, nor a thirst for water, but to hear the word of G-d.”
[15] Talmud, Bava Kama 17a on Isaiah 55:1.
[16] Song of Songs 5:2
[17] “G-d says to Israel: My children! Open to Me an opening of teshuvah as the point of a needle, and I will open for you doors for wagons and carriages pass through…”—Midrash Rabbah on Song of Songs, ibid.
[18] Song of Songs, ibid.
[19] See Mechilta on Exodus 12:41.
