28 Nissan: The Rebbe Pours Out His Heart

Rabbi Y. Oliver

Today is 28 Nissan, the day on which the Rebbe delivered the famous sicha of 28 Nissan 5751. If there was any sicha that presaged our current situation after 27 Adar and Gimmel Tammuz, it was this one. It was in this sicha that the Rebbe declared: “I have done everything I can [to bring Moshiach]; I hand it over to you—do everything that you can.” This sicha can be heard here. The edited transcript can be viewed here. Earlier posts of mine discussing the sicha can be read here and here. 

Below is my free adaptation of the sicha. L’Chaim!

My dear chassidim, I’m frustrated.

For all these years I devoted myself totally to teach you and guide you to live a life in which Hashem, Torah and Mitzvos, Chassidus, and Moshiach, are real. Yet I feel that despite my giving it my all, you aren’t truly interested in all these sublime teachings, in these precious treasures that I’ve been revealing.

After the countless ma’amorim and sichos I delivered and edited, the igros I wrote, the prayers I offered tearfully at my father-in-law’s holy gravesite, and the sea of na’amorim of Chassidus from all the Rebbeim that no previous generation merited that I had self-sacrifice to publish, you’re still not changing! You’re still allowing yourselves to remain in your self-imposed box, in your comfort zone. Why aren’t you going out of your limitations?! You’re still living a life that revolves primarily around satisfying your physical needs and desires, where the spiritual is of secondary importance.

My dear chassidim, in terms of the grand scale, Moshiach is so palpably close. Hashem wants to send Moshiach, and Moshiach wants to come. If you would only want him sincerely, he would have already come! He’s waiting until you want him deeply, to the point at which you can’t hold it in anymore, and you cry out in pain to Hashem, “How long must we be deprived of the Geulah?! We beg of You, enough! Please send Moshiach now!”

But how can you reach this feeling in these dark times? You need to change your inner selves, not just your external actions. Work hard on yourselves so that the Chassidus that you learn fills you with an intense love and fear of Hashem and thus a yearning for the ultimate revelation of Hashem in the final Geulah. These teachings are not supposed to be transcribed and left to sit on a shelf, or even memorized. They are meant to be used, to be applied in a way that they change each and every person on his level, and bring him or her to be truly inspired in serving Hashem. Believe me, it can be done! In fact, that’s really what these teachings are for! I’ve said this so many times.

It’s not that you don’t follow my instructions. You often do. But that’s not enough, and that’s not my ultimate goal. My ultimate goal is that fulfilling these instructions should change you deep-down. It devastates me to see that your hearts are not truly in it. You nod your heads, clap along, and shout amein, but that’s only while I’m egging you on. In private, do you reflect on these teachings? And even if you do, do you do it because you want to, or because you think that in this way you’re somehow doing me a favor? You’re relying on me to boost you from above, to hold your hand, to do the hard work for you. You lack a desire to change on the inside, through your own efforts.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to solve this problem is by explicitly making it your job to bring Moshiach. Then you can’t leave it all to me. 


So I’m making it very clear: My main task in order to bring Moshiach is complete; I did everything I could. From now on, it’s your job to do everything that you can to bring him. And don’t give up until he actually comes!

It’s not necessary to change the entire world. Change yourselves. It doesn’t need to be a lot of people who accomplish this inner change. If even a handful of chassidim meet together and resolve that they must finally bring Moshiach, and discuss ways to accomplish it in a down-to-earth manner, but without compromising the purity of the mission, they will indeed succeed at bringing the final geulah in actual reality. May it happen immediately!