BY ALL ESTIMATIONS, our generation is experiencing the final era before the coming of Moshiach. This special time is known as “ikvisah d’meshicha,” “the heels of Moshiach,” as those with discerning ears can already begin to hear the approaching footsteps of the final redemption. However, the words “ikvisah d’meshicha” hold a secondary implication as well. Like the heel, the souls of our generation are particularly susceptible to spiritual numbness and emotional detachment. The awesome potential for spiritual elevation in our time is matched by a deluge of impurity, lowliness, and despair. But there is yet a ray of hope, shining through the darkness of our times. In His overwhelming mercy and love, Hashem sent the remedy before the disease set in.

IN THE EARLY 1700’s Hashem brought an exalted soul into the world to illuminate the darkness of a broken and battered European Jewry. This soul was Rebbe Yisrael Baal Shem Tov, “the light of the seven days of creation.” Following many years of intense Torah study and prayer, the holy Baal Shem Tov began to reveal deep and liberating Torah teachings he had received from the upper realms, eventually founding the Chassidic movement whose various tzaddikim and dynasties would revolutionize European Jewry in the coming decades. Two generations later, a great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, continued the work of his forebear by re-establishing the spiritual foundations of Chassidus that had become somewhat obscured by the garments of institutionalization over time. It was the teachings of these exalted masters that would support a spiritually exhausted Jewish nation as they took the last few steps toward the finish line of history. It was the consciousness these tzaddikim yearned to foster that would prepare am Yisrael for the final redemption.

JUST A FEW short years ago, the term "Chassidus" was a fairly uncommon expression. There were certainly "Chassidim", and various "Chassidic courts," but Chassidus as a philosophy, as a comprehensive path toward closeness with Hashem, had not yet risen to the forefront of our consciousness as a community. Today, all of this has changed. Looking past the externalities of a cultural experience to tap the eternal spirit of the masters and teachings which sit at its core, many thousands of Jews from all walks of life have begun to taste from the bubbling spring of the holy Baal Shem Tov. Across the entire spectrum of Orthodoxy, there is a deep thirst for the teachings of Chassidus and the life-giving waters of clarity, depth, beauty, and relevance that flow forth from the foundational works of the early masters.

R' YAAKOV KLEIN founded the Lost Princess Initiative in May of 2020 for the purpose of encouraging and fascilitating this national discovery of Hashem’s remedy to our generation's ills. Through its various projects, this broad initiative aims to foster a Yiddishkeit that is deep, passionate, sincere, joyous, inspirational, positive, vibrant, profound, individualistic, broad-minded, healthy, and eminently relevant. LPI brings the leading lights of this silent revolution under a single banner, consolidating talent, vision, and energy for the purpose of amplifying the communal voice that is continually crying out for a deeper way of engaging with our tradition. With Rebbe Nachman’s tale as our guide, we pray that the dawn of Moshiach will continue to spread its healing rays over our community and that the study of Chassidus and Pnimiyus HaTorah facilitated by LPI will bring both personal and general redemption for our holy nation.