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Unlike the rebbes who preceded him, Menachem Mendel was not content simply to foster vague messianic hopes among his followers. On the contrary, he outlined a detailed metaphysical plan, based on kabbalistic ideas, for hastening the redemption.17 As scholar of Chabad Hasidism Alon Dahan has maintained, the Rebbe’s was a “radically apocalyptic” messianism, one that viewed
the linear and historical progression of time as a continuum of mostly tragic events, whose significance could be perceived if and only if they were interpreted according to the concept of the “dwelling below” [dira batahtonim, a mystical term that describes the infusion of the material world with the divine]. The messianic end grants these tragedies and catastrophes—and the Holocaust in particular—an optimistic dimension.18
The Rebbe therefore continued on the path paved by his predecessor, who declared redemption to be just around the corner. All that was left to discern, then, was the identity of the long-awaited messiah. In other words, the question was not when, but who.
Menachem Mendel first provided an answer, if only an implicit one, in his 1951 succession speech. Delivered on the anniversary of Yosef Yitzchok’s death, the discourse, titled “Basi Legani” (“I Have Come to My Garden”) in many ways encapsulates his entire doctrine.19 The speech quotes a Midrash based on the Song of Songs:
R. Menachem Chatanya, in the name of R. Elazar son of Ebona, said in the name of R. Shimon in the name of R. Yossena: It does not say, “I have come to the garden,” rather it says, “to my garden,” to my shelter, to my original place of dwelling. And the original place of the shechina [“divine presence”] was not in the lower realms, as it is written: “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden” (Genesis 3:8).20
According to the sages’ interpretation, the biblical passage signifies the return of God to his garden, which in turn denotes the reunification of the divine with the world by means of the redemption. The Rebbe used this text as a starting point for his presentation of a highly structured theological view of history. According to this view, the shechina abandoned this world on account of the sin of Adam and Eve, and continued to ascend through the seven heavens on account of the actions of six other sinners. Yet seven holy Hebrews, or tzaddikim, who lived in the period between the Patriarchs and Moses, drew the divine presence back into this world, where it was finally revealed through the Torah given on Mount Sinai. The reconciliation of the earthly and the heavenly that began with Abraham was thus completed by Moses, who was granted this honor because “all those who are seventh are most beloved.”21
This final point is of critical significance to Chabad’s understanding of history. From the general rule set forth by the Midrash, “all those who are seventh are most beloved,” the Rebbe infers that the identity of the redeemer has nothing to do with certain special qualities, nor is it dependent on human choice. Instead, it is determined by the predestined, divine pattern behind all historical events.22 In accordance with this pattern, God selects a seventh messenger to complete a process of redemption begun six generations before by a great tzaddik. The Rebbe explained,
The seventh’s primary quality lies in his being seventh. In other words, he is cherished not on account of his choice, desire, or spiritual service, but because he is seventh—and this is something he is born into.… It was for this reason that it was Moses who was privileged to have the Torah given through him.23
This interpretation leaves little room for free will or human agency. On the contrary, it appears to espouse an entirely deterministic understanding of divine intervention in this world.24 It holds, for example, that Moses was chosen to receive the Torah from God not because of his actions or virtues—as is generally accepted in traditional Judaism—but solely because he was seventh in a line of tzaddikim.
But redemption was not completed with Moses. The light of the divine presence, which descended to earth with the Torah, no longer shines with its original intensity. True salvation, the Rebbe believed, will be attained only when the creation is once again filled with the light that emanated from the divine presence before its withdrawal from the world (the tzimtzum).25 This task, which has remained unfinished through two thousand years of chaos and two thousand years of Torah, requires a second series of seven tzaddikim to conclude the work of the first. These seven tzaddikim, so goes the theory, are none other than the Lubavitcher rebbes. According to this doctrine, the seventh of these corresponds to Moses, and the burden of bringing forth the messianic age therefore falls to him. Evidently, this seventh tzaddik was Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
Continuing his sermon, the Rebbe stated unambiguously that the present generation was likewise the seventh and thus would witness the messiah’s arrival—a claim based, once again, on the simple fact that Menachem Mendel Schneerson was the seventh Lubavitcher rebbe.26 There can be no mistake on this point, nor is there room for free will:
Although the fact that we are in the seventh generation is not the result of our own choosing and our own service and indeed in certain ways perhaps contrary to our will, nevertheless “all those who are seventh are cherished.” We are now very near the approaching footsteps of the messiah; indeed, we are at the conclusion of this period, and our spiritual task is to complete the process of drawing down the shechina.27
