You Are Moshiach

The Meor Einayim quotes the Besht that everyone has a part of his soul that is Moshiach.  See here (start bottom of pg.) for whole piece.  This is the quote from Besht.

What does this mean?  This idea is merely a reflection of the entire approach of the Besht.  Everything in Torah is viewed a lesson and teaching in regard to a person's soul.  The idea of golus and geulah is viewed through the same prism.  Many people think that golus and geulah is something external, is a state of being that a person is living through.  Therefore, many don’t care about golus and geulah.  They feel we are merely passing through golus waiting for some geulah to happen that has absolutely nothing to do with me and besides some pesky customs for 3 weeks in the year should be completely ignored. 

The Chassidic masters teach that is completely wrong.  We say in lecha dodi קרבה אל נפשי גאלה, there is a geulas hanefesh.  If there is a geulas hanefesh, then there must be a golus hanefesh.  Most notably of course, when a person sins, when there is a lacking in the service of Hashem, this is golus.  In a broader perspective, depression, barriers standing in the way of a person’s success, troubles that adversely affect a person, are all states of golus.  Geulah isn’t an external state of events in the world, it is a perspective on a person’s life.  Geulah is to be able to rise above all the problem.  To be able to feel close to Hashem despite all the problems.  There are problems; but that doesn’t impede or impair a person’s relationship with Hashem in any form or manner.    

The Kabbalists (highlighted in Egeret Hateshuva (third section of Tanya) and often cited in Solevetchik on Repentance) say that sin is the secret of the galus haShechinah and teshuva is the redemption.  The idea is the same as above.  It is a destruction and rebuilding of a person’s own soul.  The external golus is merely a reflection of the golus of the heart and nefesh.  A way to achieve the geulah of the klal is to fix the geulah of the individual.  It is not by accident that in Likutay Torah of the Baal HaTanya (which focuses on the pnemious of the parsha,) in parshas Balak (which kicked off the three weeks this year,) there is a lengthy discourse (מה טובו) about teshuva. It is when the soul returns (שב,) to its source that there can be a geulas hanefesh.