Moshiach Matters 30/30 - *Hashem Will Save Us Speedily, and Shine His Light on All!*
_In honor of the Bris Milah of our dear son, Yehoshua Tzvi Meir Wilansky_
Two minutes before our baby’s bris began, my husband came over to ask me which name we were giving the baby?
I still didn’t feel sure of what to answer, but this time there was no more option to wait, and so I said it - “All three!”
Yehoshua Tzvi Meir sounds like a pretty big name for a tiny little baby to carry, and it’s quite a big name to call him by, countless times a day…
But once I heard his name announced out loud, “Yehoshua Tzvi Meir... zeh hakatan gadol yihiye...” - I realised that’s it! This is really his name, forever.
And while he is still so “small” now, bezH he will grow up to be truly “big”, and live up to all three of his great names. 🙏
Today I want to share the “ruach hakodesh” of how we got to this name, and also what these names mean to me - how each of them is so connected to Geulah!
(Sorry it’s a bit long, but it’s a long name😉)
***
Ever since our Zaidy Yehoshua Wilansky A”H passed away 3 years ago, we knew that we wanted to name our next baby boy Yehoshua bezH.
Zaidy Yehoshua had a heart of gold. He was so kind, caring, compassionate, thoughtful, humble, sincere, patient, positive, and grateful. He loved his family so deeply, and he also had a great sense of humor. My husband and I were both very close to him, and we felt it would be a great zechus for us to have a child named after him!
(The kids guessed it on their own too, and have already been walking around for the past few months saying that, “If it’s a boy, he will be Yehoshua,” and sometimes without the “if” because they were somehow so sure it would be a boy.)
Right around my due date, I wrote in to the Rebbe about something, and opened up to a letter that was addressed to someone named Yehoshua, and the letter was a response to a Mazel tov, and was about naming a child at the first opportunity!
So if I had any doubts at all, now I knew 100% that this was the right name for our baby bezH.
But the most amazing part was that while I thought our baby was born around 10 days “late”, when I looked at the chitas of the day of his bris, I could see openly that he was born exactly on time!
The parsha of his bris is about Yehoshua receiving his name, and the chumash of the day of his bris is about how Yehoshua was saved from the sin of the meraglim, thanks to his deep hiskashrus with Moshe Rabbeinu, and how he returned from Eretz Yisroel saying that, “The land is very very good.”
There couldn’t have been a more clear and open sign that specifically this baby is connected to Yehoshua!
***
As we stayed up late for the vacht nacht on the night before the bris, my husband once again mentioned the idea of adding the name “Tzvi Meir” for his elter Zeidy, Tzvi Meir Steinmetz A”H.
Zeidy Tzvi Meir was a great talmid chochom with a sharp mind and a great love for learning. From the first time he met the Rebbe, he was taken away with awe by the brilliance, breadth, and depth of the Rebbe’s teachings, and immediately became a chossid. He was also an extremely talented Torah poet, and a big baal tzedakah.
My husband felt very connected to him, especially in his last years, and we always knew that we wanted to name one of our sons after him. We were just hoping for the opportunity and waiting for the right time…
But at first, the idea didn’t sound realistic at all.
We thought it didn’t make any sense to combine both names together, since they are each such great and beautiful names in their own right, and we thought that maybe combining them would take away from the focus on each one...
especially since it adds up to 3, and they also aren’t names that we are used to hearing together…
We thought it’s better to just hope that Hashem would bless us with another opportunity to give this name…
But a short while later, my husband was suddenly inspired to look up what happened in Lubavitch on the day of our son’s bris, 21 Sivan…
He was really surprised to see that just about the only thing that came up was that 21 Sivan 5776 was the yahrzeit of my mother’s older brother, my dear Uncle Meir A”H!
When my husband told me this the next morning, I was so moved!!!
Uncle Meir has such a special place in my heart!
And he is one of my greatest role models of a true yirei shamayim and of a true chossid of the Rebbe, who deeply felt the Rebbe’s passion, and who did everything in his power to bring Moshiach!
I hadn’t realised that it was his yartzeit that day!
To me, it was such a clear sign that today was in fact the day to give our son the name Tzvi Meir as well; That this baby is truly connected to all three of these great names!
But I’m naturally indecisive, and so I still felt I needed more confirmation that 3 names is not “too much”... and that combining them will only add, and not take away anything, from each one.
As I read the hayom yom, I noticed that it had the number 3 - it mentioned the 3 intellectual attributes that are explained in the 3rd perek of Tanya…
And I also noticed some hint in the day’s Tanya, but nothing that seemed clear enough.
I was feeling really pressured and time was running out… and so my thoughts turned to the Rebbe, asking for clarity asap!
And then suddenly, my Shviger forwarded the English Chitas summary of the day to me, with a comment, “special hayom yom today”.
I looked at it, but the first thing that hit my eyes was the Tanya, because it was at the end of the message, (before pressing “read more”)…
And it said,
“So far we learned about *three attributes of G-d, each represented by another name of Hashem*.
- Havaya is Chesed -Mercy
- Elokim is Gevura - Discipline
- Ad-nay is Malchus -Sovereignty
*When two names join forces*, in this case, the name Ad-nay is together with the name Havaya, the time and space of the world is connected with what’s higher than time and space….”
I was amazed! That was enough “Ruach Hakodesh” for me!!!
If Hashem has 3(+) names, our baby can too!
And the Tanya was speaking about the advantage of combining 2 different names! How combining them is not just adding more quantity, but it adds up to a whole new quality, that is higher than each one can ever accomplish on their own!
I realised that Zaidy Yehoshua a”h, Zeidy Tzvi Meir a”h, and Uncle Meir a”h, each have such different special qualities that stand out about them, and so when we combine all 3 together, they complement each other in the most beautiful and perfect way!
And they also compliment each other in their meanings, in connection with Geulah…
*Yehoshua* means that Hashem will save us -
That we don’t hope for, or rely on, any other form of salvation from the world’s problems, other than from HaShem alone, and other than through the true and complete Geulah.
But that is not enough!
Of course we are guaranteed that Hashem will eventually send Moshiach, our only question is WHEN?! Ad mosai?!
The purpose of all our efforts is not to bring Moshiach, who will come anyway, but to bring Moshiach _faster_…
And that’s why we need to add the name *Tzvi* -
That Hashem should not only send our salvation, but He should send it right NOW, speedily, as quickly as a deer!
And then *Meir* -
Hashem will quickly remove the shield that is concealing His light, and instead shine His light openly throughout the entire universe…
because that is the only difference between Golus and Geulah - seeing light instead of darkness.
***
I also realised that what they all share in common is a powerful inspiration for our deep desire for Geulah!
*Yehoshua*
In the daily Rebbe video that I saw right as I went into labor, the Rebbe spoke about the meaning of the name Yehoshua;
That the reason Moshe Rabbeinu added a Yud to his name Hoshea, was to say that HaShem is the one who will save him from the undesirable ideas of the meraglim…
And that through him, Hashem will actually save all the Yidden, since Yehoshua was the first one who led the Yidden, as a nation, into Eretz Yisroel.
What caused Yehoshua to be saved was his deep desire to enter Eretz Yisroel! He was not afraid of the big change. He was not afraid of leaving the material and spiritual comforts of the midbar behind. And because he and Kalev were the only ones who *wanted* to go up, they were the only ones who actually merited to go up in their lifetimes...
The greatest lesson for us from Yehoshua is not to be afraid of the Geulah, and not to be afraid of leaving the Golus behind! Because *in the zechus of our desire, we will all merit to once again enter the Land!*
*Tzvi Meir*
This past 28 Nissan, my daughter was inspired to start sharing Moshiach thoughts with her class every morning in school. And so one morning, about a month before our baby was born, I was searching on Chabad.org for a Moshiach story for her to share.
I found just one new story there, and it was so beautiful!
It went like this.
"Tell us a story, Grandpa!"
Begged the children.
"About whom shall I tell you tonight?"
Asked the grandfather.
"Tell us a story about a prince,"
They all pleaded.
So the grandfather told:
Once upon a time
Many, many years ago
A mighty king had an only son
Whom he loved very much.
But one day the prince did a very silly thing
And rebelled against his father
So the king banished his son from his palace
And handed him over
To a cruel slave-people
Who dwelled in the depths of a valley
In one of the countries of his kingdom
And so said the king to them:
"See, I have placed my son
In your hands to enslave him
To do with him whatever you please
Until the day that I shall remember him
To return him from his exile.
And this shall be the sign to you:
A burning torch
I shall place in my window
Overlooking your valley
Where it shall constantly burn
And when the day comes that my son
Lifts up his soul
In regret and yearning
Toward my palace on the hilltop
And attaches an imploring look
To the glow in my window --
On that day
The days of his enslavement shall come to an end
And he shall be set free."
The prince was put in chains
And taken down to the valley
To the slave quarters
And his enslavers said
To each other:
"Let us outwit
The prince
Lest he lift his eyes
And gaze upon
The light of the palace
And be redeemed."
So they oppressed him with their labors
And made bitter his life --
Until the profusion of toil
And shortness of spirit
Made him forget his father's house
And the sign of his redemption.
The enslavers of the prince
Further plotted
They contrived to build
High walls
And to plant
A thick forest
To interpose between the prince
And the window of his father's palace
They placed upon him taskmasters
And he built fortified walls
And he planted a thicket of trees
Around the vale of his captivity
And these are the walls he built:
A wall of distress
A wall of fear
A wall of hate
A wall of sorrow
A wall of despair.
And these are the trees he planted:
A tree of rapacity
A tree of forgetfulness
A tree of jealousy
A tree of strife.
But no one knew
That if the captive prince
Would only raise
One yearning look
The walls would fall away
The forest would disappear
And the light of his redemption
Would be glowingly revealed.
But the toil of his heart
Bowed the soul of the prince
To the dust
And his eyes remained glued to the ground...
The grandfather tells his story
And the grandchildren fall asleep
Only black-eyed Shoshana
Is listening still
With a wakeful heart
And an attentive soul.
She implores her grandfather:
"When will the prince
Muster the strength
And lift up his gaze
Toward his ray of redemption?"
And the grandfather replies:
"Every day
I awake and hope
That this shall be the day
When in the darkness
Of the prince's heart
Ignites a spark
Of yearning memory
For the glow of his freedom..."
By the time I reached the end of the poem, I was touched to tears.
And then I noticed the last line on the bottom,
_Dedicated to the author's first yahrtzeit, Elul 12, 5766 (September 5, 2006)_
_By Zvi Yair_
My husband’s Zeidy!
My daughter was so proud to hear that this poem was written by her own great great grandfather! (Tzvi Yair was his pen name.)
She shared it with her class that day in Hebrew, and I had it translated and designed in Russian too, and shared it at the opening of our Moshiach event a few weeks later.
Once again, the message that I learned from Zeidy Tzvi Meir, was that *the Geulah will come in the merit of our desire*! That all Hashem is waiting for now, is to see that we truly yearn to return to Him!
*Meir*
For over a decade, Uncle Meir would share a Moshiach thought in 770 right after Shacharis, every single day. He would carefully choose timely excerpts from the Rebbe’s sichos, and share them in the Rebbe’s words. But he did it with such a strong passion and emotion that showed how much he felt these words by himself too, and meant them with every fiber of his being.
It wasn’t just one of the many moments of his day...
It was deeply connected to his essence.
He literally breathed and lived for this shlichus, and he continued to do it with Mesiras nefesh, even when he was physically very very weak, until his very last days…
And his purpose in sharing these Moshiach thoughts was not to give over information, but to give over a desire!
I once heard him farbreng about the sicha of 28 Nissan, where the Rebbe said that if we truly wanted Moshiach with an “emes”, then Moshiach would have already been here long ago.
He explained that when the Rebbe came out a week later in the sicha of Tazria/Metzorah, saying that the “direct path” to bring Moshiach is through learning about Moshiach and Geulah, he wasn’t saying something different than he said on 28 Nissan.
Instead, the Rebbe was telling us that since Moshiach’s coming depends on our desire for him, and we can’t want something that we know nothing about, the direct path to awaken our desire for Geulah is through learning about it…
And I have no doubt that when the desire for Moshiach will burn in more of our hearts, the way it did in Uncle Meir’s heart, Moshiach will come immediately!
May He be revealed speedily, in the blink of an eye-
“As swift as a deer”!!
