Shevii Shel Pesach - The Deep Meaning of the Holiday in Light of Chassidus

00:00 The Tzemach Tzedek once spoke at a farbrengen on the seventh day of Pesach about the greatness and significance of the day. He said, “The seventh day of Pesach is the Rosh Hashanah of mesirus nefesh.” Rosh Hashanah is on 1 Tishrei, but the Rosh Hashanah of mesirus nefesh is on the seventh day of Pesach. The first Jew after the Exodus from Egypt to show mesirus nefesh was Nachshon ben Aminadav. We all know that the seventh day of Pesach is the day of the Splitting of the Sea, according to the Midrash and what is written in the Torah. As Rashi tells us in Parshas Beshalach, by the reckoning that the Jewish people left Egypt on the first day of Pesach, 15 Nissan, seven days passed before they stood at the sea. Then, on the night of the seventh day of Pesach, came that historic night of which the Torah tells us: “A strong east wind all night.” And toward morning, when... it opened... “Moshe stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea opened.” Then came the story of the mesirus nefesh of the tribe of Yehudah, led by Nachshon ben Aminadav, as the Gemara in Tractate Sotah tells us in detail. “When Israel went out of Egypt,” and it continues, “Yehudah became His holy one, Israel His dominion.” What happened when Israel went out of Egypt? “Yehudah became His holy one, Israel His dominion.” What happened with the tribe of Yehudah in particular? The Gemara tells us that the Jewish people stood at the sea, and they didn’t know where to go. Behind them were all the Egyptians, pursuing them. In front of them was the Sea of Reeds. To either side they saw the great and terrifying wilderness. Then, as is well known and recounted in the Midrashim, the Jewish people split into four groups. Some said, “Let’s go back to Egypt.” Some said, “Let’s throw ourselves into the sea.” Some said, “Let’s go to war.” And some said, “Let’s stand and pray.” Then Hakadosh Boruch Hu said through Moshe Rabbeinu, “Speak to the children of Israel and let them travel.” Not

02:27 this and not that. None of the four groups had the right approach. Keep going. “Speak to the children of Israel and let them travel. Hashem will fight for you, and you shall remain silent.” But where were they supposed to go? “Let them travel.” Nachshon ben Aminadav rose, and with him his tribe, the tribe of Yehudah, and jumped into the sea. Hashem had said, “Let them travel,” so they kept going. Then, when the water reached his mouth, Moshe stretched out his hand, the sea opened, and the great miracle took place—the historic miracle of the Splitting of the Sea, the miracle of the night of the seventh day of Pesach. That is what we celebrate on the seventh day of Pesach. The Tzemach Tzedek said that from then until today, the seventh day of Pesach is the Rosh Hashanah of mesirus nefesh. The first Jew to give himself over. Mesirus nefesh means that we give over our own will. Mesirus nefesh is not, as some people think, dying for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Mesirus nefesh means living for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It means giving over one’s will. Nefesh means will. “If it is your desire,” as it says in Parshas Chayei Sarah. Do you want to? Nefesh is the will. Mesirus nefesh means giving over the will. The first Jew to show mesirus nefesh, the Tzemach Tzedek said, was Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu jumped into the fire for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. We all know the story of Avraham Avinu in the fiery furnace. He was the first Jew, the father of the entire Jewish people. But that was at the beginning of the Jewish people, before the Giving of the Torah. Who, though, was the first Jew after the Exodus from Egypt, when the children of Israel had become a people and faced a moment that called for mesirus nefesh to fulfill Hashem’s will? Hakadosh Boruch Hu says, “Let them travel.” How could they keep going? That was Nachshon ben Aminadav. And when we say, said

04:38 the Tzemach Tzedek, in davening, “We came through fire and water,” we mean Avraham Avinu, who went through fire, and Nachshon ben Aminadav, who went through water. They are symbols for the Jewish people, showing how a Jew must give himself over to sanctify the name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the world. So on... the seventh day of Pesach is the day from which a Jew draws strength. What does it mean that it is the Rosh Hashanah of mesirus nefesh? As Chassidus explains, rosh means not merely a beginning; it means a head. Just as the head supplies life to the whole body, to all its limbs, so too, among the days of the year, there are days that serve as a head, influencing all the other days of the year. On the seventh day of Pesach, when a Jew knows that this is the day of the Splitting of the Sea, the day on which that great miracle recurs each and every year, and we celebrate it anew, the power of mesirus nefesh that Nachshon ben Aminadav taught us awakens within every Jew. From it we draw strength for mesirus nefesh throughout all the generations. The Frierdiker Rebbe said at a farbrengen, when recounting this, that the Alter Rebbe—the Tzemach Tzedek’s grandfather—once told his family at a farbrengen during the festive meal on the seventh day of Pesach: “Take Chassidus, take purity from this day, this night of the seventh day of Pesach, for yourselves, for your children, for your grandchildren, for generations to come.” This is the night; this is the seventh day of Pesach. It is a day when a wondrous G-dly light is revealed, and from it we take strength for the entire year: to be Jews with mesirus nefesh, Jews who give ourselves over to Hashem’s will. What is there about the seventh day of Pesach? Today we’ll talk about that a little. We’ll go more deeply into it and understand the deeper meaning of the day

06:58 of the seventh day of Pesach, the day of the Splitting of the Sea. What does it mean for us, for every Jew? And of course, we’ll also come to the great and profound secret revealed by our teacher, the holy Baal Shem Tov, concerning this day—the seventh day of Pesach and the last day of Pesach. Outside Israel, they are two days; in the Land of Israel, it is one day. On this day, a revelation of the light of Moshiach shines in the world. One of the wondrous secrets we received from our teacher the Baal Shem Tov is that on the last day of Pesach, the light of Moshiach is revealed in the world. That is also why the Baal Shem Tov instituted a special meal at the end of the seventh day of Pesach, and at the end of the last day of Pesach outside Israel. At this special meal, after Minchah toward the end of the day, we wash our hands and eat matzah. Then the Rebbe Rashab instituted that, together with the matzah, we also drink four cups of wine, as we do on Seder night. So on the last day of Pesach, too, we have a special meal and drink four cups of wine with the matzah. He said that this is connected to the four cups of the future Geulah. Just as there are four cups of wine at the beginning of the festival, connected to the miracles and to the four expressions of redemption from Egypt, so too there are four cups corresponding to the cups of the future Geulah, the Geulah of Moshiach. As he points out from verses in Yechezkel that also speak of the miracles of the Geulah of Moshiach, there too are four expressions of cups of redemption. To commemorate this, and as a preparation—since at that time, on the seventh and last days of Pesach, the light of Moshiach shines in the world—the meal at which we eat matzah and drink wine awakens each of us to experience the Geulah in a more tangible, real way, and to awaken within each of us the faith

09:16 And the confidence that very soon we will merit to see the true and complete Geulah with our physical eyes, when all the verses and promises of the Geulah will be fulfilled: “And all flesh shall see together that the mouth of Hashem has spoken.” We will be able to see the revelation of Moshiach. So what is really going on here? How is all of this connected? We said that the seventh day of Pesach is the day of the splitting of the sea. It is the day Nachshon ben Aminadav jumped into the sea—the Rosh Hashanah of mesirus nefesh, a day when a glimmer of Moshiach’s revelation shines. So let’s begin with an interesting story. The Frierdiker Rebbe related this story, which he heard from his father. His father told him about something that happened when he was a little boy of four. It was 5625, during the last days of Pesach. That year, 5625, was the last year of his grandfather the Tzemach Tzedek’s life in this world. The Tzemach Tzedek passed away two days before Pesach in 5626, on 13 Nissan. This story took place exactly a year earlier, on Pesach 5625. The Rebbe Rashab, as we said, was a little boy of four, but he remembered the event. He related that it was on the seventh day of Pesach. The family was sitting at the table, together with his father, the Rebbe Maharash, and during the meal someone asked: What is the meaning of the seventh and final days of Pesach? Why do we celebrate the last days of Pesach? The Rebbe Maharash, the father, asked the children, “What do you think?” Then one of his daughters, Rebbetzin Devorah Leah, a sister of the Rebbe Rashab, said, “It seems to me that Pesach is a holiday with the mitzvah of eating matzah and the prohibition against eating chametz. It’s hard to be careful not to eat even the tiniest bit of chametz. After a Jew has spent a whole week

11:40 keeping that prohibition and being careful not to eat chametz, the end of the holiday arrives, and he celebrates to thank Hakadosh Boruch Hu for having managed to avoid chametz.” The Rebbe Maharash liked the explanation and told his daughter, “You are a clever girl.” She, too, was a little child. The next day, they went to visit their grandfather. As we said, their grandfather, the Tzemach Tzedek, was nearing the end of his life and was already very weak at that time. They came to visit him and wish him a happy Yom Tov. During the visit, the Rebbe Maharash, the Tzemach Tzedek’s son, told him about the conversation at the meal the night before and what his daughter had answered. The Tzemach Tzedek was very pleased with her answer. He told them to come closer, because speaking was difficult for him and he wanted to tell them something. Then the Tzemach Tzedek said to them in a few words: “Pesach is the festival of Geulah. It is the festival of freedom. It is the holiday on which we celebrate Geulah—‘the season of our freedom.’ The first days of Pesach are the days of Moshe Rabbeinu, when we celebrate the first Geulah, the Exodus from Egypt. On the last days of Pesach, we celebrate the final Geulah: ‘As in the days of your departure from the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders.’ Just as there was the Geulah from Egypt, so too will we merit to see wonders in the Geulah of Moshiach. At the beginning of the holiday, we celebrate the first Geulah; at the end, we celebrate the final Geulah.” That is why we celebrate the last days of the holiday. A Jew celebrates his faith and confidence that soon we will merit the complete Geulah through Moshiach, and he celebrates it already now. After telling this story, the Frierdiker Rebbe went on to relate that there was a continuation to it,

13:59 which his father, the Rebbe Rashab, recounted years later. The original story took place in 5625. More than forty years later, in 5666, the Rebbe Rashab was in Lubavitch and overheard his granddaughters. Among them was the girl who would later be Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, a”h, the Rebbe’s wife. She was then four or five years old. The girls were discussing why, when lighting candles for the last days of Pesach, we do not say the blessing of Shehecheyanu. They were debating why Shehecheyanu is not said. We know that on Yom Tov, when lighting candles, we also say Shehecheyanu. The exception is the last days of Pesach: we make the blessing over the candles without Shehecheyanu. Why don’t we say it? The Rebbe Rashab said: “When I heard the girls talking among themselves about this, I remembered that story from over forty years earlier—that on the last days of Pesach we celebrate the Geulah of Moshiach. That also explains why we do not say Shehecheyanu on those days. Since we celebrate the Geulah of Moshiach on those days, yet we are still awaiting it, a Jew is not ready—or does not yet feel able—to say Shehecheyanu fully. He waits for the moment when we will merit the coming of the Redeemer. Then we will be able to say, wholeheartedly and without reservation, ‘Who has granted us life, sustained us, and brought us to this time.’” Of course, we must add that there is a halachic explanation for why we do not say Shehecheyanu on the last days of Pesach. Shehecheyanu is said only when there is something new, a new holiday. Shemini Atzeres, as the Gemara says, is considered a festival in its own right, a separate holiday, so we say Shehecheyanu on it. But the seventh day of Pesach is a continuation of Pesach

16:15 from a halachic standpoint. Since it brings nothing new in halachah, it is not considered a festival in its own right. It is the seventh of the days of Pesach, so we do not say Shehecheyanu. That, of course, is the halachic explanation. Here we have the deeper, inner explanation, based on a deeper understanding of what the festival of Pesach really is. So, after all these wonderful stories and sayings, we understand that the seventh and final days of Pesach—the last days of Pesach—have this wonderful meaning. Let’s try to go a little deeper and understand the connection. What exactly is the essence of the seventh day of Pesach? How do the splitting of the sea and the coming of Moshiach, both of which we celebrate on the last days of Pesach, fit together? It says in the writings of the Arizal and in earlier works of Kabbalah that the seventh day of Pesach is the day of the birth of souls. In other words, the souls of the Jewish people are born on the seventh day of Pesach. It is their birthday. What does “the birth of souls” mean? And how does it connect to the splitting of the sea? Listen to something remarkable. We know what happened at the splitting of the sea: the sea turned into dry land. There was a meeting of sea and dry land. The Jewish people walked on dry land in the midst of the sea. Now let’s pause and consider what happened here. An enormous miracle! We are at the sea, and suddenly the sea becomes dry land, and the Jewish people walk on dry land in the midst of the sea. The simple question is: What was the purpose of this great miracle? We know Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not perform miracles for no reason. If He wanted to save the Jewish people, He could have done so in different ways. Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu bring about the splitting of the sea

18:23 the sea in this way? What’s more, in Tractate Pesachim—in chapter five of Pesachim—Tosafos cites a Midrash saying that the Jewish people did not actually cross the sea at all. It wasn’t as we tend to imagine: the sea split, they crossed it, and they continued on the other side. No. The Midrash says that the Jews went down into the sea and came back up at the same place where they had gone in. They returned to the same place. They went down into the sea and came back up where they had entered. That’s what the Midrash says. Their route formed a sort of circle. So Tosafos asks: What was the reason? It was to drown the Egyptians. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted to punish the Egyptians by drowning them in the sea, so He arranged this whole sequence of events. The Jewish people entered the sea, and miraculously it opened for them and they were able to come back up. The moment the Egyptians entered, the sea came crashing down on them, and they all died in the sea. It’s an interesting and beautiful account, and that is indeed what the Torah says. But here the question arises: Couldn’t Hakadosh Boruch Hu have found other ways to punish the Egyptians? Why did it have to be done in this particular, rather curious way? If Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted to punish Egypt, He could have done it in an instant. So there must be something deeper here. And here we come to the deep, inner, wonderful point. When we speak of the sea, the sea symbolizes the loftiest spiritual worlds—think of fish in the sea. A fish is entirely immersed in water; it cannot be separated from it. Water is its life. That is a symbol of the souls of the Jewish people. The Jewish soul is literally a part of G-d above. Each of us, as the Alter Rebbe teaches us in Tanya, has a Jewish soul: “The second soul in a Jew is literally a part of G-d above.” A Jew has a soul that comes

20:30 from the loftiest place, the treasury of souls in Gan Eden, in the world of Atzilus, in the higher worlds. And the soul as it is at its source, at its root, is like a fish in water. Just as a fish in water is completely surrounded by water and cannot be separated from it, the soul comes from the Divine light. The soul, at its roots and source, is a part of G-d—that is its entire essence. There is no way to separate it. That is the soul in and of itself. But then comes the soul’s task: to descend into this world. The soul must descend into the physical world, enter a physical body, and come into a world that is completely different—a world of dry land. A world where the Divine light is not revealed at all. All we see is a material world, a world of “I,” of the here and now, where the Divine light is utterly hidden and concealed. That is the idea of dry land. The Divine soul descends, as we say every morning in the morning blessings: “The soul You have given me is pure.” That is the soul as it is in the world of Atzilus, the soul as it is in the sea. “You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me, and You preserve it within me.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings the soul down from world to world, from level to level, until it enters the physical body. And here we have our task. What is that task? The special task of Jewish souls is to bring the sea and dry land together: “And the Children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea.” A Jew is meant to walk on dry land, in the physical world, in a physical body. But at the same time, within that dry land, the sea must shine for him openly and wondrously. In other words, a Jew must not, G-d forbid, become disconnected from his soul. On the contrary, the light of his soul, as it is literally a part of G-d above, illuminates the world. He acts within the world. He takes his body and his animal soul and works with them through Torah and mitzvos, refining them. He fulfills the Divine will, and through that he brings the entire world to the point where it is transformed

22:53 into a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu as well: dry land in the midst of the sea. Within physical reality, the Divine light shines, and Divine power penetrates the physical reality of creation. That is our task in this world. This task began at the moment of the Splitting of the Sea. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu performed that great miracle, opened the sea, and the Jewish people entered the water, that was when this wonderful thing happened. It was a preparation for the Giving of the Torah. After all, the Splitting of the Sea was the path to the Giving of the Torah. The Exodus from Egypt was a passage from slavery to freedom. On 15 Nissan, the Jews were able to leave in a miraculous way, beyond the natural order. Hakadosh Boruch Hu performed the great miracle by which they went from being Pharaoh’s slaves to being Hashem’s servants. They accepted the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven, and the Children of Israel went out with a raised hand. That was the moment of the Exodus from Egypt. But Egypt was still pursuing them. As we said, the sea was before them and the Egyptians behind them. That vast world, that frightening enemy, was still there, and it filled the Jewish people with great fear. But when the great miracle of the Splitting of the Sea took place, something momentous happened: the birth of the souls of the Jewish people. That is, the birth of the soul—its connection with the body, the connection of a soul that is literally a part of G-d above with the physical world. A Jew is not afraid of the world. A Jew is not afraid of nature, and a Jew is not afraid of the things he sees, of all the trials and difficulties that pile up around him. He knows with certainty, and it shines for him with complete clarity, that the Divine light is present within this reality. That is what gives him the ability to transform nature and reveal G-dliness, the Divine light within nature. All of this happened at the moment of the Splitting of the Sea. And it was Nachshon ben Aminadav, of the tribe of Yehudah, who was an ancestor of King Moshiach. After all, King Moshiach

25:03 comes from the House of David, from Nachshon ben Aminadav’s family. As is well known, Nachshon was an ancestor of King David. In other words, the entire line of the House of David began at that moment of the Splitting of the Sea. This power to take nature and transform it, to reveal the oneness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu within reality, to transform the nature of the world and show what is there within it: the King, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He is the King, and He is everything. That is what happened at the moment of the Splitting of the Sea, and it prepared the Jewish people to reach the moment of the Giving of the Torah. With this in mind, consider what we find in the Song at the Sea on that day, at that moment, after the great miracle of the Splitting of the Sea. What do the Jewish people say in the Song at the Sea? This is the very point of the entire song: “Then Moshe and the Children of Israel sang this song.” And what is its message? “Hashem will reign forever and ever.” Rashi explains that at the moment of the Splitting of the Sea, the Children of Israel saw the kingship of Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the world in a tangible way. That is why they asked for the building of the Beis Hamikdash. What does it say at the end of the Song at the Sea? “You will bring them and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance… the Sanctuary, Hashem, which Your hands established, the place for Your dwelling… Hashem will reign forever and ever.” The Jewish people stand before the sea and see the ultimate purpose of creation. What are we, the souls of the Jewish people? We were born. The Exodus from Egypt was the birth of the Jewish people. The seventh day, the last day of Pesach, is the day when the Jewish people understand their task. They see with their physical eyes, they see tangibly where we are going. We are going to turn sea into dry land and dry land into sea—dry land in the midst of the sea. Even when we live within the reality of nature, of the world, of nature’s outward forms, of physicality and materialism, in a world surrounded on every side

27:12 Kelipah and sitra achra, the nations of the world. We know the truth, and that truth will accompany us everywhere, at every moment and at all times. The seventh day of Pesach is the Rosh Hashanah of mesirus nefesh. This is the day when a Jew takes his resolve, his will, his dedication, and says: I am not afraid of anything. I leap into this reality that seems to conceal the truth, and there I reveal the Divine light of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Then we are on dry land in the midst of the sea. The day the Jewish people were born is the seventh day of Pesach. And so the Baal Shem Tov comes and says: In these later generations, after more than three thousand years in which the Jewish people, in every era and every generation, at every time and in every place, throughout this long and grueling exile, have stood the test of mesirus nefesh wherever they were in the world, the great secret will be revealed: On this day, the seventh and final day of Pesach, a glimmer of the revelation of Moshiach shines in the world. Because Moshiach is the culmination of this wonderful mission: to make the world a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to reveal that “Hashem will reign forever and ever.” And listen to something wonderful-- The source is actually the Baal HaTurim, and it connects with everything we are discussing now. We said that on the first days of Pesach we celebrate the first Geulah, through Moshe Rabbeinu. On the last days of Pesach we celebrate the final Geulah, through Moshiach Tzidkeinu—even on the seventh day of Pesach itself. The seventh day of Pesach, the Splitting of the Sea, was the beginning of breaking through the material world by Moshe Rabbeinu: “Then Moshe and the children of Israel sang.” Its completion will come through King Moshiach. The Baal HaTurim tells us, in Parshas Vayechi, concerning Yaakov’s blessing to the tribe of Yehudah, that the words “the scepter of Yehudah” refer to the Geulah of Moshiach. Yaakov Avinu tells them:

29:21 “The scepter shall not depart from Yehudah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes.” “Shiloh comes” refers to King Moshiach. The Baal HaTurim says that the numerical value of Shiloh is the same as Moshe. The numerical value of “comes” is thirteen. Add thirteen to Moshe, and the numerical value of “Shiloh comes” is the same as Moshiach. Moshiach is 358. Moshe is 345. Moshe plus thirteen is Moshiach. What does the number thirteen represent? One. The Hebrew word for “one” has a numerical value of thirteen. In other words, Moshe Rabbeinu began to bring the light of Geulah, the Geulah from Egypt. Throughout the thousands of years since Moshe Rabbeinu, the Jewish people, in every era and generation, in every place and at every time, have brought the oneness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and revealed it within reality, within creation. “Hashem will be King over all the earth; on that day Hashem will be one and His name one.” That is the expression of the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu. This is what is meant: there is Moshe, and there is Moshe plus “one,” whose numerical value is Moshiach. Moshe began the revelation, but it was-- the world had not yet been refined. It was only a beginning. It came as a gift from Above, but the inner refinement has been accomplished by all the Jewish people throughout the generations, including our generation, the last generation of exile and the first generation of Geulah. And the work is not finished-- it is credited only to the one who completes it. Our generation is privileged, and in these very days we already see with our physical eyes the great miracles of the complete Geulah, the Geulah of Moshiach. And there is something wonderful that the Arizal writes in connection with what we said. We said that the seventh day of Pesach is the day of birth. He says that Shemini Atzeres, Simchas Torah,

31:42 is the day when pregnancy begins. So to speak, according to Kabbalah, Shemini Atzeres is the day when the conception and pregnancy of souls begins. And the last day of Pesach is the day the souls are born. Well, in our time we have seen this difficult period, which began on Shemini Atzeres, on Simchas Torah—the great darkness that descended upon the world, and all the trials and hardships. We hope, we are certain, and we pray at every moment that this year, on the last day of Pesach, we will already be living in the reality of the complete Geulah. We will already merit to see the fulfillment of all the verses we recite in the Song at the Sea: “You will bring them and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance, the place You have made for Your dwelling, Hashem, the sanctuary, Hashem, that Your hands have established. Hashem will reign forever and ever.” And again, “Hashem will reign forever and ever.” And in the words of the Aramaic translation: “Hashem’s kingship endures forever and ever.” As we continue with the verses we recite in the morning prayers: “For kingship belongs to Hashem, and He rules over the nations”; “Hashem will be King over all the earth; on that day Hashem will be one and His name one.” May each and every one of us resolve that, with Hashem’s help, on the last day of Pesach this year we will do as the Baal Shem Tov taught us: hold a Moshiach’s Seudah with matzah and wine, rejoice, and begin living in the atmosphere of the days of Moshiach. For we have already been assured that it is here. We are moving through this process, and then we will merit to say, “Who has granted us life, sustained us, and brought us to this time,” and to experience the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu. A joyous Yom Tov to each and every one of us.