On the last holiday of Passover, it is customary to hold a special meal – the Messiah's Supper. This custom was established by the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, who explained that "on this day the revelation of the Messiah's illumination shines forth.".
The fifth Rebbe of Chabad Hasidism, Rabbi Shalom-Dover of Lubavitch, also prescribed drinking four cups of wine at this meal, as on Seder night.
The idea behind the meal is that we should receive the illumination of Messiah not only through spiritual tools, such as the mind and emotions, but also through our physical bodies.
When we eat the 'Messiah' we absorb the illumination of the Messiah into our bodies. The matzah we eat and the wine we drink become a part of us. In this way, faith in the coming of the Messiah is strengthened and the anticipation of his imminent arrival is intensified.
An outburst of cry
The Jewish faith holds that the redemption of the people of Israel will not be routine and natural. Our long and difficult years of suffering will come to an end only with the coming of our righteous Messiah, who will have great spiritual powers. We are certainly required to do everything in our power, by earthly and natural means, to bring peace and prosperity to the people of Israel, but it is clear to us that the true and complete redemption will be surprising, unexpected, a miraculous redemption.
When we look around and see the collapse of values and the loss of the path, this is the point at which a cry for complete redemption should erupt from all of our hearts, which alone will bring true salvation to all the problems that plague us, both physical and spiritual.
And since in the end, the unexpected does happen, let us pray that the 'unexpected', which we all expect and hope for, will happen. Chazal say that the Messiah will come in the absence of thought. Even though everyone expects and prays for him to come, his appearance will still be a complete surprise.
The Israelites, when they left Egypt, were in a similar situation. They too found themselves in dire straits - the sea in front of them, the Egyptians behind them, and the desert closing in on them from all sides. The people were torn between fighting Egypt and surrendering or committing suicide in the sea, as the Midrash says. No one dreamed that salvation would come by parting the sea and walking through it. However, when they cried out to God, He brought them a surprising, miraculous deliverance.
To ask truly
This cry, which should come from our hearts, is eroded by routine. Even though we all believe in the coming of the Messiah, expect redemption and pray for it to come, we sometimes ask for it as a learned commandment of people. When we have a pressing personal problem – we know how to cry out in truth and pray with sincere intention; but the prayer for redemption, which will bring the true and complete solution to all our problems and afflictions, is done as a matter of routine.
The last holiday of Passover is a time to strengthen our complete faith in the coming of redemption and our anticipation of it. We will eat the 'Messiah Supper', which aims to instill faith in the coming of the Messiah into our bodies and souls, and we look forward to the fact that this year we will be able to celebrate the complete and true 'Messiah Supper' - in honor of our righteous Messiah who will come and return with us and bring true and complete redemption.
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