Shabbat Shalom - Parshas Yisro

Approaching the Redemption

The Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote to the Baba Sali that he should do everything he can, "to conquer the young generation with a firm hand" (לִכְבּוֹשׁ בְּיַד חֲזָקָה).

This is similar to what Maimonides writes about the Mashiach, that, "He will coerce the entire Jewish people to follow the Torah and to strengthen it."

What type of coercion is Maimonides speaking of?

What did the Rebbe's advice to the Baba Sali refer to?

There are different types of coercion. Notice that we ourselves, in the morning prayers, beseech the Almighty to coerce our inclination, our will, so that it submits before God (וְכֹף אֶת יִצְרֵנוּ לְהִשְׁתַּעְבֵּד לָךְ).

In Jewish law there are three types of coercion.

The first is referred to as active coercion (literally "coercion with flog"). If there is a man whom the court has ruled must divorce his wife (because he is abusive, etc.) and he is unwilling to give his wife a get (divorce document), the court has the right to actively coerce him to do so. Even though he gives the document by coercion, the document is legal, because his innermost essence (his soul) does indeed agree to the court's opinion.

A second type of coercion is verbal.

Usually, this means communicating to the other person how much his negative conduct hurts him. Anyone in this position to coerce someone else verbally, needs to make this clear. But, there is a higher level of verbal coercion in which the sole purpose is to publicly state what should be, e.g., what is your role as a Jew, what is the role of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. This requires that one not be embarrassed of anyone, not even of those who ridicule him. We must clearly explain what the Torah says and to state openly that the Torah is the sole authority over us, as individuals and as a people.

But, there is a third type of coercion, the type that the sages note occurred at Mt. Sinai, where God "coerced the mountain over their heads." The normal explanation is that God held Mt. Sinai as it were over the people's heads and warned them that should they not accept the Torah they would die underneath the mountain. But, in Chassidut it is explained that the word mountain is related to Abraham (Abraham called the location of the Temple, a mountain, Mt. Moriah). Abraham is the archetypal soul of love and thus God coerced us to accept the Torah by showering love upon us. By revealing tremendous and infinite love for the Jewish people, God coereced us to accept the Torah.

Indeed, the gematria of "to conquer," (לִכְבּוֹשׁ), the word used by the Rebbe, is the same as "Mashiach" (מָשִׁיחַ)!

Also from HaRav Yitzchak Ginsburgh on Parashat Yitro: United Before Mt. Sinai