"The Great Redemption" (38)

"The Great Redemption" by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

-- A Discourse on The End of the Exile and the Beginning of the Great Redemption

Translated by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
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38.

I’ll now inform you of a lovely and pleasant mystery involved in this song, and about who’ll be singing it. Know that whoever is elevated is (in fact) elevated by music, and at the time of the redemption all the groupings and lights will experience a great elevation. For when holiness is to be elevated, the Jewish Nation will be elevated along with it, as all servants are drawn after their masters.

Understand that most of the (ultimate) great goodness and peace will result from this. For when the universe will be elevated, it will be elevated to a very great and robust degree, and things will no longer be as they’d been before, but will be very much loftier.

The tranquility (cited before) and the unstopping of the Luminaries will come about as a consequence of this, for in truth all the gates will open up as well as all the entranceways of blessing. All of creation will experience a great expansion, and there’ll be no lack of anything or poverty, and the verse “There will be no poor among you; for G-d will bless you greatly in the land which G-d your L-rd is granting you as an inheritance to possess” (Deuteronomy 15:4) will have been fulfilled. And all of creation will grow quantitatively and qualitatively thanks to the elevation of the roots and the unstopping of the Luminaries I’d mentioned. That's the secret import of the verse, “May there be an abundance of grain in the land and may it wave on the tops of the mountains” (Psalms 72:16).

But know that the more the Luminaries are unstopped and the more blessings there come to be, the more will the Jewish Nation be able to accept it. For if they weren’t allowed to, they couldn’t withstand all the goodness. But they will already have been elevated (enough to withstand a lot), as you’d been told. They’ll also enjoy length of days and abundant wisdom -- aside from the opening of the Celestial Luminaries, indeed! It’s thus said about this, “Your heart will rejoice when you see this, and your bones will flourish like grass” (Isaiah 66:14).

I’ll now tell you what (the term) “grass” implies (here). It refers to the levels that depend upon the Celestial Land, and it's also (quite literally) the grass on the ground, since it’s all one and the same. The prophet means to let us know that the Jewish Nation will enjoy all this great joy. And even though the joy is so very great, they will blossom and to grow stronger yet as everything else gets stronger. That’s what the verse “May the men of the city flourish like the grass of the earth” (Psalms 72:16) is referring to. For humankind will benefit from the blessings granted the grass of the earth.

So understand that everything -- from humankind to everything else in creation -- will be judged together. For when Adam was in the Garden of Eden his material makeup was very pure, and all of creation was drawn toward him and enjoyed great perfection. But when he sinned and his body grew coarser, all of creation and the various groupings descended along with him. But the future rectification will be experienced equally by all, just as all the harm done was.

As such, all the singing that those who gather together out of exile will be doing when they arrive at Amanah will be as a result of that ascent.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

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