There’s a verse from Isaiah 10 that appears both in the Haftorah for the 8th Day of Passover, as well as in a personal prayer said when the Ark is opened on Festivals.
“And the spirit of G-d shall rest upon him (Moshiach), a spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, of knowledge and fear of G-d…” (Isaiah 10)
When we open the ark on festivals we say the 13 attributes of Divine Mercy, followed by a personal prayer in which we insert our names and the names of family members, and then ask, “May it be fulfilled in us the verse, ‘And the spirit of G-d shall rest upon him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding…'”
Hey! Isn’t that verse about Moshiach? How are we asking that this verse be fulfilled in each one of us, our sons and daughters? Is this some kind of misplaced Messiah complex, thinking that each one of us is the Messiah?
The Rebbe explains that there’s the macro Messiah for global redemption and a micro Messiah inside each one of us. Each in our own way can bring some degree of redemption to our lives and families, co-workers and friends. We all have an impact on our environments and surroundings, hopefully in positive measure, leaving our world a better place than the way we found it.
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Subsequent verses in the Passover 8th Day Haftorah from Isaiah speak of “the wolf lying with the lamb, the leopard with the young goat, the young lion with the fatted ox..”
Using the Rebbe’s macro/micro Messiah concept, I’d like to interpret this in terms of inter-student relations, cooperative efforts and community building. Thankfully many students here have “the spirit” which means they are eager to participate, happy to pitch in and help, are personally invested in our Jewish campus community and specifically at Shabbos House, the Rohr Chabad Jewish Student Center serving UAlbany. Students come to prepare and cook, set-up and clean-up, brainstorm at board meetings, make programs successful, keep Minyans stable, reach out to new students, table on campus and much more.
There’s no question that we have a diverse group of students. The crowd here differs in so many ways, whether in terms of level of religiosity or observance, personality type and character traits, backgrounds or level of involvement. Some students are loud and lively, others quiet and sincere, some are more knowledgeable, others have more talent, some more aggressive and outgoing, others more sensitive and thoughtful – we have wolves and lambs, and a reflection of all the animal types that Isaiah mentions – and like the idyllic animals of Isaiah’s Messianic vision, we are all in this together. That’s the beauty of it, a mini-miracle. Jews tend to be opinionated and different from one another, and while that is certainly true of our campus community, and our differences are important, somehow we are really lucky and blessed to have that “spirit” of getting along, appreciating one another, valuing everyone’s contribution though it may be different than our own.
It is a blessing, and we’re lucky, but it doesn’t come without effort. It takes work, but is worth it. Let’s keep it up!