Weekly Dvar Torah: Eight Days of Passover, Now What?

For eight days we ate Matza, the food of faith and the food of healing. We absorbed faith by eating real physical food, and we benefited healing by eating the food of faith.

Now we packed up the Pesach and we’re back to the mundane simple Chometz, just eating to survive. Will all this inspiration disappear?

The last two days of Pesach, although they were holy days, yet there was something missing. We did not make a Shehecheyanu, and we did not complete the Hallel, what did we miss?

The explanation goes that on the first days of Passover, we were celebrating the past. We ate Matza and drank wine, to remember the exodus from Egypt, Mitzrayim, freedom from bondage and slavery. We break all our limitations to rise above and beyond any constraints that we may have faced.

Then come the last days, when we celebrate the future. The new freedom that Moshiach will bring. We read the Haftorah about the days of Moshiach, when on the one hand we will benefit from the amazing revelations of G-dliness, while at the same time we will lament the missed opportunities that we had while waiting for Moshiach. We will thank G-d for the pain He caused us, realizing what benefit we gained out of those terrible times, but we will also stipulate that we still remember the pain.

In addition, we ate a special Moshiach meal, eating Matza and drinking wine, in anticipation of the coming redemption through Moshiach.

Believing in the coming of Moshiach is a great stimulant that keeps us going. It gives us hope and a goal and destination to look forward to. But while we suffer it remains a very abstract idea. And this changes during the last days of Passover.

Because Moshiach is still in the future, we cannot make the blessing of Shehecheyanu, and we cannot complete the Hallel. But when we eat Matza and drink wine, we are identifying with Moshiach as a real tangible idea, that we eat and drink towards that goal.

There is something fascinating about this concept. When we wait for Moshiach, what is it that we are waiting for? What are we looking forward to? What are we expecting to happen?

Of course, Moshiach will relieve us from all the suffering and pain of Gallus. We will have this great feast eating the gefilte fish of the Leviathan and the most sumptuous steak of the Shor Habor, and we will wash it down with a L’chaim on a cup of the most delicious aged wine stored for us since the days of creation. But is this alone what we have been waiting for, for thousands of years?

Obviously, there’s a lot more to Moshiach than just this feast. Chassidus teaches that when Moshiach comes he will reveal and teach the secrets of creation, he will reveal to us the loftiest spiritual aspect of existence, and we will see G-dliness with our eyes of flesh. Whatever we know about G-dliness in concept, we will then see with our flesh. It will no longer be just a spiritual concept, it will become part of our physical existence.

To go from being a physical mortal to appreciating G-dliness, takes a serious transition. It is very hard to jump and become holy and spiritual from being a coarse physical mortal. So how does this happen?

For this we have the last days of Pesach. We get together and we eat real Matzah, and we drink wine. We psyche ourselves up, and we eat real food in preparation for Moshiach. We are demonstrating that Moshiach is not just an abstract idea. Moshiach is something that we can relate to with our physical being.

Clearly we must learn some of the teachings that explain and communicate the tip of the iceberg, of what type of revelations Moshiach will teach us. But we don’t want it to remain in the spiritual realm alone. Therefore, we eat a meal for Moshiach, so that our body can identify with the concept of Moshiach.

But then the party is over, and we are plunged into the mundane. On Shabbos we will learn about discerning between the Kosher and the forbidden. We will learn about the pure and the impure. And we may think to ourselves, oh, what a letdown, I was just in heaven eating and drinking foods that took me to the highest and loftiest levels of spirituality. And now I’m back to the normal daily struggles?

This exactly is what the Moshiach day and the Moshiach meal is there to help us cope with, and inspire us for the coming days. We celebrated Moshiach not just in concept, but we actually ate and drank, we absorbed Moshiach into our flesh, Moshiach became part of our being. Now we have it within us to take on the challenges of the mundane, that it won’t drag us down. We can only go up, and elevate the mundane higher and even higher.

As I once heard in the name of a Tzaddik, that after the Seder on Passover, he would go out and dance with exceptional ecstasy. He would say; I now have a belly filled with Mitzvos, I ate Matza and Moror, and I drank four cups of wine, my body is filled with Mitzvos, how much better can it get?

We are now on overload filled with food of Mitzvos. The first days for the past, and the last days for the future with Moshiach, how much better can it get. Now we have all the energy that we need to stand up to the mundane challenges, because it is no longer a concept, it is part of our physical body. We are fully energized.

Have a Joyous body filled with energy of a Shabbos,
Gut Shabbos

Rabbi Yosef Katzman