Moshe-Mashiach: From the Dust I will Arise

Today is Gimmel Tammuz.  It is the day that HasShem stood the sun in its place for Yehoshua bin Nun and it is the day that the light of the world, the Moshe of the generation was "seemingly extinguished."   The Lubavitcher Rebbe's yartzheit is a very powerful day.  It signals in many ways a transitionary period between galut and geulah.  Yet, what is the connection between the Rebbe and Yehoshua bin Nun, and why is this connected to our redemption?


The role of the Moshe in every generation is to inject the Nation of Israel with the light of Torah.  The Moshe has what is called the "collective soul."  In other words he has a conscious interaction with our National soul called Knesset Yisrael.  It is through this interaction that he can see and direct the National enterprise.  As redemption has moved closer, the Moshe has become more and more revealed. According to the Ari there is a role at the end of Galut for the Moshe-Mashiach.  The Rebbe made this clear in many sichot and of course we understand his last ma'amer (dissertation) as a direct reference of his connection to this role.

The Rebbe's torah is the blue print or cosmic understanding of Mashiach and Geulah (similar to Rav Kook's Torah being connected to Eretz Yisrael and our National rebirth).  It is the pure potential Mashiach consciousness waiting to be expressed and actualized into reality.  This can and will happen in Eretz Yisrael.   As it says in Lecha Dodi: "I have awoken, from the dust I will arise."  The dust here is the life giving dirt of Eretz Yisrael, where the Torah of the Moshe-Mashiach will become actualized (Rav Yitzchak Ginsburgh - Malchut Yisrael Vol. 2).

Yehoshua the Actualizer

It is known that Yehoshua was compared to the moon and Moshe to the sun.  Moshe could have come into the Land of Israel if we had merited it, but we didn't and instead the Torah remained in potential only until we entered.  Yehoshua remained the servant of Moshe even after he entered the Land, and it was in this capacity that he began actualizing the Torah of Moshe.  In this sense it is the miracle of the sun which symbolizes the actualization process of the Torah of Moshe.

David the Builder

The process of Malchut Yisrael took 400 years from the redemption of Egypt to actualize and build.  It is this actualization process that Yehoshua started and David (and his son Shlomo) nearly finished with the building of the Beit HaMikdash. As we have begun the journey along the process of Geulah, the Torah of Mashiach and redemption has moved from potential to actualization, from the Moshe to the David.  Gimmel Tammuz represents that transition.  We are somewhere along that path and although we find ourselves home we have yet to fully begin our task of building our Malchut Yisrael.  May this Gimmel Tammuz remind us that it is not enough to live in the consciousness of the Mashiach, but we need to actively actualize it in order to witness its full revelation.