The Triumvirate Generation of Moshiach

For long now they made no sense to me - the words of the Rebbe - that we were "the last generation of Exile and the first generation of the Era of Redemption".

After all, how long is this generation's duration? The Rebbe first spoke these words back in 1951, in his very first Ma'amar, yet here we are 62 years later and not much looks different today from what seemed to be the situation back then. Had a generation passed?

The Rebbe strongly intimated all along, and especially since 1991, that his generation is the generation of Moshiach, King Moshiach, who will usher in the long-awaited Era of Redemption, yet Moshiach and his actions have yet to be seen and felt by all Jews.

Then I came across these words in Yalkut Shimoni, in section 942 (תתקמ"ב), in explanation of       זכר ימות עולם
in the Torah-portion Ha'azinu:

בינו שנות דור ודור - זה דורו של משיח שיש בו ג' דורות שנאמר "ייראוך עם שמש ולפני ירח דור דורים"י

This generation of Moshiach stretches across or comprises three generations!   Puzzle solved.

UPDATE Dec. 15, 2013:
Had I been well-learned in Gemora, I would have also noted that this phenomenon of Moshiach is expressly mentioned in Sanhedrin 99a:

ימות המשיח ,,, רבי אומר שלשה דורות

and see Rashi (on spot) who refers to the above reference in Psalms (72:5) to explain this Gemora.

As it says in Pirkei Avos 5:21, "Explore it and explore it for all is therein contained." "הפך בה והפך בה דכלא בה"

The Bottom Line

Imaginatively, take a huge funnel, huge enough to contain all the sand that would fill the oceans, plus all the sand that would fill the earth's atmosphere. This funnel tapers to a tip that allows only one grain to fall out at a time. How long do you think it will take to empty that funnel of all that sand?

Well, the time it would take is merely a microscopic fraction of the time you yourself, as a Jew or Noahide, will live on this earth - in the Era of Redemption.

What does it take to get a ticket of entry into that world of paradise? The conditions are specific.

A Jew automatically gains entry, no matter who he is (barring a few exceptions perhaps).

For a Jew, if he receives punishment for misdeeds, gets punished in this world. The few sins he commits in this world "cost him" in this world. That's to ensure his free ticket to the eternal world-to-come.

A righteous Gentile, or one who follows the "7 Noahide Laws", also receives remuneration as does the righteous Jew. The same accounting procedure is used. He too has a present account settled here, so as to receive a future credit.

The Gentile who misbehaves is reckoned with differently. For every deed of goodness or kindness he did he is "paid for" - in this world. Paradoxically, a villain's success may give the impression he's a person of "goodness".

But G-d, Who is fair, knows better. The non-righteous Gentile is not cheated out of his merits. God "pays" this person in this world because - for this person there is no other world to go to. This world for him is a dead-end.

This is the meaning of the verse in Deuteronomy 7, 10, "And he pays his hated one the face value [in this world] in order that they forfeit [the world-to-come]."

ומשלם לשנאיו אל פניו להאבידו לא יאחר לשנאו אל פניו ישלם לו

This is also the meaning of another verse in Deuteronomy (32, 4), "He is a faithful G-d [Who will grant the righteous their due portion in the future] and He does not cheat [those criminially-behaving Gentiles from their due recompense in this world]."

הצור תמים פעלו כי כל דרכיו משפט

The world-to-be is reserved only for the dispensation of good to the righteous - who earned their destiny in the brief trial period they spent in this world.

Like an Eagle Awakens Her Nest

"Like an Eagle Awakens Her Nest"

כנשר יעיר קנו

(Deut. 32:11)

Jews are like just-hatched chicks of the mother eagle. They look around but see no mother just yet. So too the Jewish people scurry about, mostly oblivious to the God that watches over them.

The way the mother eagle, upon returning to her nest, to feed or visit her chicks, does it is interesting. Were she to simply fly in and land in front of them, her size and speed would frighten them to death. So she first lands nearby, out of sight, and then begins to shake branches or make movements to draw their attention from afar. Then she slowly will advance towards them.

So to we Jews may not behold God if He were to suddenly present Himself, as happened in Mount Sinai when the Jews received the first two commandments from God Himself. It says there, they had to be miraculously resuscitated, when, with each commandment, the fright killed them. They then persuaded Moses to be the conduit and through him, instead, receive the remaining 8 commandments.

This is how God is preparing us for the Final and Ultimate Era of Redemption. He cannot reveal Himself suddenly. He does it gradually. First He brings Chassidus into the world. He raises a dynasty of Rabbis who, with every passing generation, spread Chassidus more and more, each Rabbi reaching out much more than his predecssor, taking these waters of the utopic fountain of eternity to wherever Jews find themselves. By now, there hardly remains a Jew worldwide who has not been touched by the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Unlike the nitty-gritty stuff that makes up the Talmud, and unlike the harsh approach of Mussar to rally the Jews to observance, Chassidus is lofty and mellow. It brings to light new aspects of Torah heretofore concealed from even the greatest minds. Chassidus awakens the soul with sweet-talk of God and the value of the Jewish soul. It talks of the role of Moshiach, the meaning of a conduit, and what redemption means. It talks about God's eventual revelation to us in dimensions as of yet unbeknown to us.

Before the Sabbath dons on us, the obligation of the Jew on Friday is to have a foretaste of the Sabbath - by tasting a bit of the dish prepared for the approaching Sabbath day. Similarly, on the eve of the eternal Sabbath, we, today, at the threshold of the Era of the Final and Ultimate Redemption, must get a foretaste of the Eternal Sabbath era. How so? By studying Chassidus, or, at the very least, studying about Moshiach! In order that we stand prepared.