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The following article was published by Beis Moshiach, a Hasidic Jewish magazine, in July of 1998. In addition to explaining how Hasidic gentiles are actively involved in bringing Moshiach (the Messiah), it calls upon Jews everywhere to get involved in fulfilling their Torah-mandated role as "the light unto the nations" by teaching gentiles the Seven Laws.
One of the 613 mitzvos commands all Jews to teach the gentile nations their Seven Noachide Laws (Sefer Hamitzvos, positive #3). This is a Torah obligation binding on all men and women over the age of bar or bas mitzvah, without which a Jew's service to Hashem is incomplete.
Obviously, the fulfillment of this mitzvah confers tremendous benefit on the non-Jews who listen and follow. But this is no distraction from a Jew's other efforts in carrying out Torah mitzvos; rather, it is an investment in the rest of Torah — and particularly in the work of bringing Jews back to Judaism. This truth is even more relevant at this moment, as we stand at the doorway to Redemption.
Speaking of the coming of Moshiach, the prophet Yeshaya revealed that the gentile nations will play a startlingly important role in the ingathering of the Jewish exiles: "Thus said Hashem G-d, 'Behold, I will raise My hand to the gentiles, and I will lift My banner to the peoples, and they bring your sons on their arms, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders" (49:22).
At the end of his book, Yeshaya again describes this incredible event: "And they [all the gentiles] will bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to Hashem, on horses, on chariots, in covered wagons, on mules, and with joyous songs to My holy mountain Yerushalayim" (66:20). According to the explanation of Redak, this refers to those Jews who do not return on their own. The gentiles, seeing the miracles and the sanctification of Hashem's name, will bring the last Jews out of exile, returning them physically to the land of Israel and spiritually back to the Torah.
How could the non-Jews have such an amazing spiritual power? The answer is obvious. Originally, those Jews who abandoned Torah mitzvos did so out of the desire to assimilate, to emulate the gentiles who were ignoring their own Torah service of the Seven Noachide Laws. Consequently, as soon as the gentiles will become observant B'nei Noach, carefully following their mitzvos as commanded in the written and oral Torah, they will lead Jews back in the opposite direction. Instead of Jews having to flee golus, the golus itself will be transformed into geulah, ushering Jews back to Yiddishkeit.
The Rebbe has forcefully insisted that this opportunity is now within our immediate reach:
"Even in the future, the nations will continue to exist, to serve and help the Jewish people.… This, then, is our lesson — to increase our activities in the areas where the many will be influenced: Jews, the world, and the nations" (Shabbos Parshas Vayeishev, 21 Kislev, 5745).
The Rebbe clarified this point the following year. "This means that every Jew is responsible to encourage the non-Jewish denizens of the world to act in accordance with the Seven Noachide Commandments," he explained. "As a result, the gentiles will extend their help to Jews, also in matters of Yiddishkeit" (Shabbos Parshas Metzora, 10 Nissan, 5746).
Already in 1977, the Rebbe was emphasizing that part of a Jew's total service is for the purpose of influencing the gentile nations, so that they will be transformed from a source of opposition into a vast reservoir of physical strength to assist Jewish service. In one letter, the Rebbe showed that when a Jew performs his mitzvos in an open, public manner, "the effect is sure to be that 'all the nations of the earth will see that the Name of G-d is called upon you, and they will be afraid of you' — afraid to do you any harm," and therefore "the whole world sees it with such clear perception that the 'hands of Esau' not only become impotent to harm the Jewish people, G-d forbid, but will be ready to aid them in every way possible" (20 Kislev, 5738, in Letters by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, vol. I, pp. 185-186).
In this way, the gentiles play a crucial role in helping to bring Moshiach, but we must open our eyes and take advantage of this new opportunity. On the third of Tammuz, 5751, the Rebbe declared that "the world is ready and prepared [for Moshiach]! When a Jew goes about his Divine service properly, rising beyond all limitations and constraints, yet doing so in a way that [his service] can be enclothed in the vestments of nature, he will see how the world, nature, and gentiles, are indeed aiding him in his service" (Shabbos Parshas Korach).
Small groups of B'nei Noach, non-Jews who have broken with former religions to study and perform their Torah mitzvos under rabbinical authority, are springing up through the United States and certain other countries. Many of these Noachides have related personal encounters with non-observant Jews. When the Noachide demands to know why the Jew is not putting on tefillin daily, why he is not observing the shabbos, and why he does not eat kosher, the stunned Jew suddenly rediscovers his own "Jewishness" and finds himself unable to talk about anything else — for the first time in years! Such stories are repeated by many Noachides, all throughout this country, and always with the same result.
When gentile Americans, in exponentially growing numbers, will abandon their churches and their missionary efforts, when they will demand kosher meat (since treif meat in the stores often fails Noachide standards of ever min chai), when they will replace their old, pagan holidays with Rosh Hashanah, Sukkos, and Chanukah, when they will finance rabbis to teach them relevant parts of Torah, when they will actively defend the territorial integrity of Eretz Israel and proclaim the Rebbe to be Moshiach — then no Jew, anywhere, will retain the slightest desire to remain in golus. Every single Jewish man, woman, and child will run to embrace the Torah, finally revealing their true underlying desire.
This is no fantasy; it is absolute reality, and it is easily attainable — with modest effort and in an amazingly short time. It is not a matter of actually transforming the gentiles so much as merely revealing the changes that have already been accomplished. The gentiles themselves have no idea that they are ready, for they have never even heard of the concept of Seven Noachide Laws.
But every Jew, including every shliach of the Rebbe, must immediately invest a portion of his time and efforts in developing a local Noachide congregation. The gentiles need to learn Torah, and to implement it by building new foundations for the family, new schools, new holidays, and all other aspects of the Noachide way of life. In this area, even the slightest efforts of a Jew will soon pay off visibly.
Copyright (C) 1998 by Bryan J. Ellison