Brooklyn Heights

Moshiach meal symbolizes redemption and joy anticipating Moshiach’s arrival

April 28, 2016 By Francesca Norsen Tate, Religion Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Rabbi Aaron Raskin. Photo courtesy of Rabbi Aaron Raskin
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Jews around the world are familiar with the custom of a child (or children) asking the Four Questions during seders on the first night of Passover. But there is another special custom that concludes the eight-day festival and that links the first and last day meals into the concept of liberation and redemption.

The Meal of Moshiach, celebrated on the eighth day of Passover, symbolizes this redemption and the coming of the Messiah.

Congregation B’nai Avraham will host a Moshiach meal on Saturday, May 30. During the meal, the B’nai Avraham community will follow a custom that began at a yeshiva in 1906, in which the Rebbe Reshad (the fifth Rebbe of Chabad) gave four cups of wine to the young boys studying at the institution.

Rabbi Aaron L. Raskin, spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Avraham, is the official Chabad emissary to Downtown Brooklyn. The author of the books “Letters of Light,” “By Divine Design” and “Guardian of Israel,” and co-author of “The Rabbi & The CEO,” Raskin explains in a Chabad.org video the Torah tradition on which this relatively recent eighth-day custom is based.

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The Rabbi Baal Shem Tov instituted this festive meal in anticipation of the Redemption, Raskin explains in the video. “We see very vividly in the Torah that this day — the eighth day of Passover — is truly connected with the concept of Moshiach.” The Baal Shem Tov “called this meal the Moshiach Seudah — the meal of Moshiach. On this day the radiance of the day of Moshiach shines openly.”

In 1906, Rebbe Rashab (fifth Rebbe of Chabad) added the custom of drinking four cups of wine. Matzah is poor man’s bread, flat and tasteless. Wine, in contrast, not only possesses taste, but induces joy and delight. Rebbe Rashad told the students, “this IS the Mosiach.”

Rabbi Raskin continued, “Therefore, many synagogues throughout the world have, on the eighth day of Passover, a special Moshiach Seudah where they give matzah and four cups of wine — and of course you can add to this gefilte fish and other delicious items as well. The main part of Moshiach Seudah is to eat matzah and drink four cups of wine. One of the concepts is ‘Why must we eat and drink? Why isn’t it enough that we read the Haftarah that deals with the aura of Moshiach?’ The answer is very simply that it’s not enough that we think about Moshiach or that we talk about Moshiach.

“We have to internalize Moshiach by eating, we are internalizing this concept of Moshiach into our bodies,” he said in the video. “And making it real — bringing it into the world of action. And now we infuse every act that we do into the aura and radiance of Moshiach. Wine and matzah are crucial to this meal. The wine represents the joy of Simchat — joy in the awaiting of the coming of Moshiach.”

Three teens and one child will each be in charge of one of the four cups: Sammy Bender with the first cup; Eden Ehrenberg the present the second cup; and Leah Roth and Chaya Raskin with the third and fourth cups, respectively. The light buffet meal will begin at 7:30 p.m. Maariv and Havdala (conclusion of Shabbat begins at 8:40 p.m.) The sold chometz (leavened products forbidden during Passover) can be eaten again starting at 9:40 that night.

For more information, contact Congregation B’nai Avraham at 718-596-4840, ext. 11.

 


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