Mashiach (משיח) — The Messiah

Core definition

Mashiach is the future redeemer — a man, yet of a level above all others: the Yechidah of Atzilus. His coming completes the cosmic work of the birurim (refinements): the ingathering of the exiles, the building of Yerushalayim and the Beis HaMikdash from above, the revelation of the reasons of the Torah, and finally the resurrection of the dead. In the corpus, Mashiach is both the goal of history and its teacher — the one man who will bear and teach what no other could [15881/maamar_022 :: Overview; 31695/maamar_053 :: Overview].

How the Rebbeim develop it

Mashiach's level is above all: the Yechidah of Atzilus. The maamar on the future crossing of the Pras maps the ascending soul-levels — Dovid/Nefesh, Eliyahu/Ruach, Moshe/Neshamah, Adam/Chayah — and asks how one man shall bear and teach them all: his study is in seeing, like the Arizal's, who learned eighty years' worth in a nap [15881/maamar_022 :: Overview]. The future's revelations depend on the exile's avodah — "today to do them" — and the reward is the revelation of the mitzvos' reasons, now unknown: tefillin, mezuzah, matzah [15881/maamar_022 :: Overview].

The eschatological order is established through a dense catena of sources (Zohar, Midrash HaNe'elam, Gemara, Rambam): Mashiach's coming; the building of Yerushalayim and the Beis HaMikdash from above; kibbutz galuyos (the ingathering of the exiles) through Mashiach; then Mashiach's revelations and his kingdom; then techiyas hameisim [31695/maamar_053 :: Overview]. In all sources, kibbutz galuyos belongs to the completion of the birurim: spiritually it is the gathering of the sparks of the chassadim and gevuros of Tohu — clarified by the souls of Israel, the chassadim of Shem Mah, who descended into garments of nogah — back to the Simple One. The gathering precedes and enables Mashiach's revealed kingship — "there is no king without a nation" — yet its agency is through Mashiach himself [31695/maamar_053 :: Overview].

Our present work is the birur of the seven middos of Tohu — "the land of the seven nations." The future revelation of the kachab (Keter-Chochmah-Binah) of Tohu — "the land of the ten nations," ta'amei Torah (the reasons of the Torah) — comes through Mashiach, along with the second, true ascent of the sparks [31695/maamar_053 :: Overview].

At Matan Torah all revelations were already given — including the "new Torah" of Mashiach: "a new Torah shall go forth from Me." This is not a changed Torah but a new interpretation according to the fiftieth gate of Binah, revealing the reasons of the mitzvos — taught by Mashiach (yechidah) in the manner of sight, embracing all the myriads at once [58841/maamar_039 :: Overview].

The maamar on the future crossing of the Pras (Yeshayah 11:15) develops the same future through the river's image: sea and river are speech and thought — the sea's waters gathered, the river's drawn — and the river's splitting is Atik's internality's revelation; the seven streams are the seven middos of Atzilus' ascent (against the twelve tribes' ascent at Yam Suf) [15881/maamar_022 :: Overview].

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Kibbutz Galuyos, Techiyas HaMeisim, the Beis HaMikdash, Yemos HaMashiach, the Birurim, the 288 Sparks, the Fiftieth Gate of Binah.

Sources