Shlichus (שליחות) — mission and the emissary

Core definition

Shlichus ("mission," the charge of the shaliach, emissary) is the charge entrusted by a sender (meshale'ach) to one who becomes his extension: "a person's shaliach is like himself." Its inner definition is radical selflessness: "A malach — a shali'ach. The shali'ach no matter to himself at all. His main only the sender's power to the shlichus's matter alone" [15966/maamar_022 :: §1691]. The shaliach's whole essence is the mission — not his own power but "the sender's power to the shlichus's matter alone" [15966/maamar_022 :: §1576].

How the Rebbeim develop it

Moshe's shlichus. The prototype is Moshe's mission to Pharaoh: "in Moshe's shlichus to Par'oh king of Mitzrayim it is written 'v'amarta el Par'oh koh amar Havayah: b'ni b'chori Yisrael'" [15966/maamar_022 :: §181]. The emissary speaks in the sender's name because his mission is the sender's — hence "the malach says... 'ne'um Havayah'" [15966/maamar_022 :: §1691]. Moshe's power to stand before Pharaoh and rule him derived from his root — as was explained: Moshe, rooted in Adam Kadmon's Yesod, "above Tohu and Tikkun," was given the power "to break the kelipah while it is in its force" [19801/maamar_022 :: Overview].

"In Your mission" — the heart as shaliach. Rashi on "lecha amar libi" reads "lecha" as "bishlichuscha" — "in Your mission." The Shabbos Teshuvah maamar asks: how can the heart speak "in Your mission" when "a shaliach is only his sender's power and souls serve with their own power"? The resolution: "bishlichuscha amar libi" means the heart's pnimius-cry is drawn from the pnimius of the Ohr Ein Sof — "the heart is a shaliach precisely by having no self — its cry is His" [58843/maamar_018 :: §1705; Overview]. The mission does not erase the emissary's person; it makes the person's cry the sender's.

The soul's descent as shlichus. "This is the shlichus and purpose of the soul's descent below" — at Matan Torah He "gave the power that the Yidden draw the 'Havayah echad' into the earth" [31667/sicha_005 :: §823]. The neshama is thus an emissary sent into the body and the world to make earthliness know "echad Havayah." The Rayatz's sichos carry this into practice: "a pnimiyus yasher koach to those who traveled in my shlichus" [31667/sicha_005 :: §988] — the journeys of the Temimim students, visiting Jewish communities to learn the state of Yiddishkeit and chinuch and carrying out shlichus "in the fixing of Yiddishkeit," for which they would receive instructions in yechidus [31667/sicha_005 :: Summary — עמוד קצד].

Mission and self. The paradox of shlichus is that the emissary's power is not his own — and yet it is precisely through his utter selflessness that he carries the sender's power. The malach's "ne'um Havayah" is said on himself because "his essence's main only the shlichus's matter alone" [15966/maamar_022 :: §1691]. Similarly the shaliach's work is done "with mesirus nefesh" — like Moshe Rabbeinu, whose mission was discharged "Moshe kibel Torah mi'Sinai" — carrying what he received without addition [31667/sicha_005 :: §632].

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Sources