For fifty years the Rebbe wrote of the Redemption — and what he asked of us changed.

“This is not the Geulah from the fourth exile. On the contrary, by all the signs this is a descent lower into the doubled and redoubled darkness of this exile.”

Against a widely-held assumption, the Rebbe rules that the State of Israel is not the beginning of the Redemption — reading it through the Rambam’s own ruling and the pattern of the false messiahs. He calls the claim itself “a matter of danger.”

“In the Time to Come, Moshiach will convey the inner dimension of the Torah even to the Avos, and to Moshe Rabbeinu, and Aharon.”

“None arose in Israel like Moshe” — yet the Rebbe shows that this holds only for prophecy. In kingship, in the root of the soul, and in the Torah he will teach, Moshiach is greater than Moshe Rabbeinu.

“Not me alone did the Holy One redeem — but also whoever is merely called by the name of Israel. For every Jew’s heart is perfect with Hashem.”

The redemption reached even the Jew with no Torah and no mitzvos — one who is only “called by the name of Israel.” Not because of what he keeps, but because of what he is.