Sacred and Mundane

The Rebbe taught this discourse for Shabbat Kedoshim in 1965. It expresses the central Chassidic idea: that not only the holy, also the mundane can express the Divine.   In this discourse this idea is expounded in terms of the fifth year of a fruit tree planted in Israel.  For the first three years the fruit is forbidden; the fourth year it is holy and must be consumed in Jerusalem. The fruit of the fifth year has no restrictions.    The discourse explains that the fruit of the fifth year is actually the most significant, because it expresses the way the Jew can reveal the Essence of the Divine in the ordinary aspects of life.