Two Moshiachs

Compiled and edited by Ziv Ritchie
 
 
Yehuda was the one who did everything wrong. If you remember, Yehuda was the one who told his brothers, “Let’s sell Yosef.” According to this, in the deepest depths, the whole exile began on account of him. He should have given up then. But he didn’t. Then he gets married, and two of his children die. G-d is letting him know, mamash you are wrong. Everything goes wrong. Whatever he does is wrong. He makes a guarantee for the safety of Benjamin, and Benjamin gets caught. So what should Yehuda do? He just does not give up. Yehuda is this holy Yiddele [Jew] who doesn’t give up till the very last second. He doesn’t give up. He knows that if Benjamin doesn’t come back to Canaan with him he will lose his share in the World to Come. But what does Yehuda do? He says, “I don’t care. Even if I don’t have a share in the World to Come, you can’t knock me out.”
 
The Zohar HaKodesh on the Torah portion of Vayigash explains that Yehuda spoke to Yosef, but he really was talking to G-d. He was pouring out his heart. He was saying, “You know, we have an old father,” as if he was telling Yosef about Jacob, but actually he was saying to G-d, “You are my Old Father. You are my Father since I was born. I am just a little boy. I am nothing.” It is tremendous the way the Zohar HaKodesh translates every word.
 
So listen to this.  Yosef is the one who has the holy chutzpah so that he never did wrong.  You know how much strength it takes never to do wrong?  And Yehuda has this holy strength, that even if he does everything wrong, he still wants to come back.
 
The world needs both, because we are a combination of billions of little things. Certain parts of us are on the level of Mashiach Ben Yosef, certain parts of us never did wrong.  We have, thank G-d, the chutzpah, the strength needed so that we never did wrong. But other parts of us are completely destroyed, so for that we need Mashiach Ben David.  Between the two, they correct the whole world.
 
Before the selling of Yosef, Yosef was holier than Yehuda. When did Yehuda become holy? After he sold his brother Yosef into slavery, after he started doing wrong, then he became so very strong, so holy. In Bereshit it says, “mi teref bni alias – From tearing away my son, you became great and holy.” The meaning is, when did Yehuda really become Yehuda? When did he pull out [activate] his holy chutzpah, his holy soul, that is the holiness of Yehuda? After he sold Yosef into slavery.
 
That is why his father favored Yosef. On the level that the children were on initially, Yosef was really the king. There could be only one Mashiach, the son of Yosef. But after Yehuda sold Yosef, and yet Yehuda didn’t give up, then suddenly Yaakov realized; Yehuda was even stronger than Yosef. Yehuda doesn’t give up praying to the very last second. Gevalt!
 
So you see, we need both. We need someone who gives us the strength not to destroy the holy things we still have, and someone to teach us that even with all the things we have destroyed already, we should not give up, we should come back.
 
 
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Excerpt from “Rebbe Nachman Says”, The Teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslev as Taught by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach z”tl
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s books are available online at the Breslev Israel Store.