Dear Readers,

Currently, with my older children home for Chanukah break, the house is filled with music blasting from the computers. Yesterday, I came downstairs to the sounds of a beautiful song my son played on Youtube. The video featured a singer in a large stadium, filled to the brim with Lubavitcher Chassidim, dancing and singing along to a song about Moshiach. Almost instantly, I experienced a surge of joy, so powerful that I found myself dancing along in our own kitchen! As my kids looked on with astonishment (my husband is the exuberant dancer in the house), I wondered to myself — “Where is this deep joy coming from?”

I understood that joy of this nature, one that caused me to break-out and dance, as well as all the Chassidim in the stadium, is not something that is born from a superficial experience. Rather, it is an expression of one’s very being — the celebration of one’s purpose in life, and the joy that comes from it’s revelation.

It all started when I arrived in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York in 1990, from Berkeley, California as a young, secular Jewish woman (more about my journey).   I came to Crown Heights, the heart of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s home, knowing very little about most of the teachings of the Torah. I enrolled in a women’s yeshiva and although almost everything I learned was new to me, the most surprising concept to me was the Rebbe’s focus on Moshiach (the Hebrew word for Messiah).

As little as I knew about Judaism growing up, there was one thing that was firmly centered in my mind and that was “Jews are not into the whole messiah thing – that is for Christians.”

Lo and behold, to my surprise, I find out that the “messiah thing” was not only a Christian concept, but actually a Jewish one.

And Lubavitch is really into the “messiah thing”.

As much as Moshiach is mentioned in Jewish prayers and writings, it was always considered a far-off fantasy, something that would happen “over the rainbow”.  The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, changed all that, not just for his chassidim, but for the world at large.

As I began my studies in Crown Heights, the Rebbe’s Moshiach campaign was in full swing.  It was a very exciting time  — the Rebbe spoke every night about Moshiach’s coming; sirens went off to announce the Rebbe’s talks. Chassidim from as far away as Boston carried beepers so they could come in to receive books that the Rebbe was handing out.  Although, I couldn’t understand the Yiddish that the Rebbe spoke, every morning in my classes we studied the  Rebbe’s words translated into English.

The effect of the Rebbe’s focus on Moshiach had a powerful influence. With a full heart and soul, we anticipated the “switch” – the precise moment that Hashem (G-d in hebrew) would change the world from a place of darkness to a place of light – from exile to redemption.  The long awaited time of Geula (redemption) being when “there will be neither famine nor war, neither envy nor strife, because goodness will flow in abundance and all delightful things will be as available as dust.  The occupation of the entire world will be solely to know G-d” (Maimonides, Code of Law).  And this time gets ushered in with Moshiach’s coming.

Chassidim took the Rebbe’s words to heart. Billboards were put up in Manhattan, road signs announced Moshiach’s coming and yellow Moshiach flags were distributed for cars and homes. Israel was plastered head-to-toe with signs announcing Moshiach’s arrival.  Newspapers were notified and CNN interviewed the Rebbe on the Sunday dollar line.

What a surprise it was, when instead of the anticipated joy, came an unanticipated stroke. And for about two years after that, we were unable to hear the words of the Rebbe.

But we already had all the instruction that we needed.  The Rebbe had already told us what to do to hasten Moshiach’s coming and usher in Geula.

And so many of the Rebbe’s followers continue to do just that.  We are Moshiach obsessed.  Even the children and young men and women who have never seen the Rebbe with their physical eyes are doing the work that the Rebbe encouraged us to do.  To continue along the path of learning and teaching about Judaism, especially the concept of Moshiach and Geula.

After 20+ years, my home still has the flags waving and my cars have the bumper stickers.  My husband and children and I speak everyday about how we see the changes and happenings of the world revealing signs of Moshiach’s coming.

I believe that the music I heard that Chanukah morning represented in me a celebration of one my most cherished values — creating a better world for everyone.

Sometimes the world feels so dark with people bent on destruction and yet the Rebbe says that it is our spreading of goodness and kindness and joy in the anticipated redemption that ushers in this time of peace.

May we all do our part in welcoming the divine light to permanently fill the world.