This Thursday, the 10th of Shvat, is a very special day for the Chabad Hasidim. It is very difficult to explain in the brevity of this editorial all that this day signifies and what it holds for the future.
Because, from a Jewish perspective, and as we've mentioned several times, events in history are not just past history, but also present and future. Present in the sense that the energy present on a particular day is repeated when that day returns in the following year, and future because of the life lessons they impart and because that energy permeates all subsequent days, thus accumulating the power of each past event.
On the 10th of Shvat in 1950, the previous Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, passed away. Knowing that this would be such an important day, he wrote a Chassidic discourse to be studied on that day and applied throughout life. This is not the place to transcribe the entire discourse, but we will take just one idea and explain it in a very concise way.
After the creation of the world, the primary place where the Divine Presence manifested itself was this world. Contrary to what one might think—that God is with the angels, with the divine emanations that surpass the angels, with Himself!—God is in this world just as we know it.
History tells us that over seven generations, various wicked people worked to "cast God out" of the earth and confine Him to a spiritual realm, without revelation in the material world. Then came another seven generations of righteous people who "brought" God back to earth.
The last of these seven was Moshe who, after the construction of the Tabernacle (a traveling temple that accompanied the Jewish people on their journey through the desert and was later installed in different cities), made the Divine Presence reside on earth, in a form manifest to the eyes of flesh and blood of any person.
Then, the Midrash recounts, God said, "I have come to my garden," because God's main place, where He wants to be and manifest His presence, is here, in this physical and material world.
Now, what does this story have to do with us? The spiritual work that corresponds to each of us, in the time and place in which we find ourselves, is to bring God to that place (where we are), to reveal His presence, both in our body and in the objects and circumstances that surround us.
While we are not Moses, possessing the power to make God dwell on earth, we do have the advantage of living in the era after the giving of the Torah. This means that through Torah study and the observance of the mitzvot, we can generate the same effect that Moses had after the construction of the Mishkan (Tabernacle).
We tend to complain about the political and economic situation, about wars, hunger, and suffering, and we complain to God, demanding that He come and change such atrocities in the world. But we don't tend to think (not even consider!) that it is actually our responsibility to bring God to us. We demand that He come, but (so to speak) He is waiting to be brought!
It is time for us to assume our responsibility and act accordingly.