Yechi HaMelech
Why didn’t the Rebbe speak more often openly about the importance of saying Yechi HaMelech after 5748?
Of course, no one really knows the answer to this but certainly this is no indication that saying Yechi is not that important, Chas VeShalom. Based on everything else which Chassidus says about Kabbalos HaMalchus it is understood that it is something which we do, not the king. We accept the Melech’s Malchus and that is the coronation which empowers him as the Melech. Therefore, it is actually generous of the Rebbe to have revealed to us in the first place that we should say Yechi HaMelech. The main characteristic of this Avoda is that it is something which we have to do. If the Rebbe would continuously tell us to say Yechi HaMelech, it would not be considered our Avoda, but the Rebbe’s efforts. This is the way many Chassidim interpreted the famous words which the Rebbe said during the Sicha of the 28th of Nissan, “I did everything I can do...now you Chassidim have to do what you can do.” Everyone asked what it could be that we can do which the Rebbe cannot. The answer is Kabbalos HaMalchus.
This is the Avoda which the Rebbe declared as necessary now (Sefer HaSichos 5751, p. 330). As the Rebbe has stated, “...Dovid Malka Meshicha has already been appointed...All that is needed is the acceptance of his Malchus by the people and the connection between the King and the people in a completely revealed way.” The Rebbe continuously reiterated that the only Avoda of this era is to be Mekabel Moshiach. By its very definition, this means that it has to come from us. Although the Rebbe told us only once that the time has come to say Yechi HaMelech, it is then up to us to say it on our own initiative.
This is similar to the Sicha (Sefer HaSichos 5751, p. 496) where the Rebbe points to those Talmidim who said that their Rebbe is Moshiach. The Rebbe says that we should follow their example regarding our Rabbeim. However, the Rebbe makes it clear (footnote 67) that their Rebbe’s were the ones to initiate this, not the Talmidim, and then the Talmidim said it themselves. So, too, the Rebbe initiated that the time now is for Kabbalos HaMalchus, but the actual Avoda has to come from us.
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