In the Ba’al Shem Tov’s vision in the chamber of the Messiah, he was told that the coming of the Messiah depends on “when your [the Ba’al Shem Tov’s] springs overflow abroad.”
Thus, spreading Hasidism in the world and its disclosure among the masses is the key to bringing near the redemption.
The heavenly trial, then, was a trial about the ways in which God’s light should be revealed in the world and about bringing near the redemption.
The verdict below, which delivered Hasidism from its physical straits, was also the heavenly verdict that Hasidism should be revealed in the world and, moreover, that through Hasidism there would be a revelation of divine light and the bringing near of the universal redemption.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz