From Exile to Redemption - Chassidic Teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson

From Exile to Redemption - Chassidic Teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe,
Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson and the preceding Rebbeim of Chabad
on the Future Redemption and the Coming of Mashiach

At the farbrengen of Shabbos Tazria-Metzora, 5751 [1991], the Rebbe Shlita said: "Mashiach is about to come imminently, but has not yet come in fact. This calls for a final effort on the part of every single Jew to bring Mashiach...by studying subjects involving the KingMashiach and the Ultimate Redemption in both the Written and the Oral Torah, and also (indeed, especially) in the inner, mystical dimension of the Torah, beginning with the Zohar, and particularly in Chassidus -- in the teachings of our Rebbeim, especially in the teachings of theNasi of our generation."

The present volume is a masterly translation by Uri Kaploun of a skillfully constructed work that was compiled in Hebrew by Rabbi Alter Eliyahu Friedman in response to the above call. The expanded edition of the complete work comprises six parts: I. Exile; II. On the Way to the Redemption; III. On the Threshold of the Redemption; IV. Yearning for the Redemption; V. The Redemption; VI. Studies of Scriptural and Rabbinic Sources. Each part includes several chapters, and the passages they furnish on their particular subjects are either quotations or slight adaptations of the sources indicated. The present volume covers Parts I-IV; the longer Parts V and VI are translated in the following volume. A detailed Table of Contents in each volume enables the reader to quickly locate any particular favorite passage which he may wish to reread. In addition, each volume is equipped with a comprehensive Glossary, as well as a chronological table of the founders of Chassidism and the leaders of Chabad-Lubavitch.

The manuscript was closely read and prepared for the press by Rabbi Yonah Avtzon, Director of Sichos In English. The book owes its user-friendly layout and typography to the meticulous efforts of Yitzchok Turner, and Sichos In English is gratified once again to have secured the services of Avrohom Weg for the cover design.

It is the hope of the publisher that the translation of this outstanding compilation, which has been sped on its way by the active encouragement of the Rebbe Shlita, will enable ever-widening circles of people to join in the historic "final effort" of which the Rebbe speaks.

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Every Rosh HaShanah, as the Alter Rebbe teaches in Epistle XIV of Iggeres HaKodesh,[1] the world is irradiated with a new light, a light more sublime than any that has ever shone down on the world since the beginning of time. This is obviously true too of the Rosh HaShanah which we recently observed. Significantly, some months before Rosh HaShanah, when calendars for the present year 5753 were being prepared for the press, the words that the Rebbe Shlita chose to be represented by its Hebrew initials were: "This will surely be a year of great wonders." And indeed, after the long months that elapsed since the events of 27 Adar Alef, it was on the Second Day of Rosh HaShanah that thousands of grateful chassidim caught their first elated glimpse of the Rebbe Shlita. As to the weeks that followed, probably no one reading these lines needs to be told of the visible and rapid progress that marked the many prolonged and energetic public appearances of the Rebbe Shlita during the solemn and exuberant occasions of the month of Tishrei.

With ardent gratitude to G-d for His favors of the past, we and our readers join hundreds of thousands of Jews in every corner of the globe in an optimistic prayer: May the Compassionate One, in the very near future, enable the Rebbe Shlita to resume his historic mission -- to prepare the entire House of Israel for the imminent arrival of Mashiach.