On the seventh day of Passover this year, HaRav Ginsburgh held his traditionally public Seudat Mashiach at his house. Over the past 6 weeks since then, we have brought excerpts of the teachings he shared then.
The following article is an excerpt from one of the discourses he gave, which dealt with the reasons behind having a Seudat Mashiach on this day (and around the world, on the eighth day of Passover), and how the events in the Ba’al Shem Tov’s life that it commemorates are tied to the coming of Mashiach.
In a sudden twist, the Rav connected the entire topic to a whole new way of looking at the seven emotive sefirot, the weeks of Sefirat HaOmer and their meaning, while focusing on the sefirah of acknowledgment (hod). This in turn tied into the more general question related to Seudat Mashiach: When indeed will Mashiach come?
This excerpt first appeared in Hebrew in the Emor 5786 issue of Nifla’ot.
The Resignation of the Chasidic Masters
Resignation, in the sense of being able to accept reality, is a very tricky subject. On the one hand, the principle of confidence, especially self-confidence (necessarily rooted in our deep faith in God and His omniscience), requires us to do all that we can to bring about the true and complete Redemption. This is a topic we have talked about for decades in length, most notably in our article on “Faith and Confidence.”[1] Sometimes, we call this principle of confidence, determination. On the other hand, we must not enter a state of denial and accept reality for what it is, realizing that the course we have been following is not bearing the fruits we imagined, and we must be able to resign ourselves to that.
What we said in this Seudat Mashiach is that when you look at each of the emotive sefirot and boil it down to the Kabbalistic principle that it represents, you find that resignation or acceptance is the essential aspect of the sefirah of acknowledgment (hod), while determination (נְחִישׁוּת) is the essential aspect of its counterpart, the sefirah of victory (netzach).[2] Notice the similarity between acknowledgment and acceptance, which in Hebrew is the verb lehashlim (לְהַשְׁלִים) or the noun hashlamah (הַשְׁלָמָה).
Perhaps the most obvious example of resigning to and accepting reality is the Ba’al Shem Tov’s failure to reach the Land of Israel on his well-known trip here. It is not clear exactly when this effort to reach our Holy Land occurred, but it is a story that is retold every Seventh Day of Passover in many Chasidic communities[3] and is celebrated as the Seudah of the Ba’al Shem Tov.[4] In Chabad this is known as the Seudah of Mashiach.
In short, the Ba’al Shem Tov’s ship set sail from Istanbul and lost its way in bad weather. Eventually, it was lost and he, his scribe, and his daughter survived by reaching an island where they were taken captive. Thanks to a miracle, they were freed and made their way back on another ship to Istanbul. Finally, they returned to their hometown of Mezhibuzh. The Baal Shem Tov resigned himself to the fact that in the Heavens he was not permitted to reach the Land of Israel. There are those[5] who stress that he returned to Mezhibuzh after this adventure, for without his return, the Chasidic movement would not have spread. These versions of the story state that the entire affair took place just before the Ba’al Shem Tov was instructed from Above to reveal himself (or immediately after he revealed himself).
Why We Have Seudat Mashiach
So, all the “spreading of the wellsprings,”[6] which the Ba’al Shem Tov performed during his lifetime, until the coming of Mashiach, would not have occurred without his return to Mezhibuzh. We have therefore three reasons for holding a third meal on the last day of Passover (the seventh day in the Land of Israel, and the eighth outside the Land of Israel). First, the joy of his deliverance; second, the rejoicing in the subsequent spread of Chasidut, the Torah of Mashiach; and third, for the Mashiach himself, whom we anticipate coming speedily.
We should contemplate this carefully: the Ba’al Shem Tov was on his way to our Holyland with the express purpose of bringing the Mashiach. Some connect this with his express wish to meet Rabbi Chaim ben Atar, the holy Or HaChaim, a meeting that he expected would bring the Redemption.[7] Still, there is no doubt that hastening the Redemption was his goal. But it seems to have failed. Not only that, but when captured by the pirates it is related that he lost all his spiritual status, he even forgot the Hebrew aleph-bet and was able to return only through a set of miracles.
What did he do? What was his reaction? He accepted the reality that God did not want him reaching the Land of Israel. He resigned himself to the fact that his plan was not meant to be; he had lost. In the end, it turned out that returning to Mezhibuzh was the way to bring the Redemption, by strengthening the Chasidic movement and spreading the wellsprings.
The Napoleonic Wars and Gog and Magog
Another powerful example of resigning to reality occurred during the Napoleonic wars. It is well-known that there was a great dispute between the great tzaddikim of the third generation of Chasidut. The Seer of Lublin (the Choizeh), Rebbe Mendele of Riminov, and the Maggid of Kozhnitz and others decided to stubbornly bring the Mashiach in the wake of the Napoleonic wars by transforming them into the prophetic war of Gog and Magog. The price would have been that the Redemption would have come together with unimaginable bloodshed (not just of Jews, of people in general). But the Alter Rebbe of Chabad stubbornly maintained that it was necessary to resign to the fact that these wars and their aftermath would not bring the Redemption, that the Redemption would be delayed some more, and that it would come out of mercy and loving-kindness, in the merit of continuing to spread the wellsprings further out.
When Will the Mashiach Come?
What is the rabbinic source for resigning to reality and accepting it? We have learnt together[8] the Talmudic story of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi who met the Mashiach and asked him when he is coming and he replied, “Today.”[9] When the day passed and he did not come, Rabbi Yehoshua objected and told Elijah the Prophet that the Mashiach was a liar. Elijah explained that the Mashiach was referring to the verse, “Today, if you hearken to His [God’s] voice [His commandments].”[10]
According to the Maharal of Prague, the way to understand this story is that it is describing various strata of our consciousness. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi is one stratum, the Mashiach is at another stratum, and Elijah is on a stratum that lies between them. Thus, Elijah’s explanation is meant to reconcile what the Mashiach had said to Rabbi Yehoshua, but it is not necessarily what the Mashiach meant when he said, “Today,” without any additional words.
Now we would like to add that there are two more strata above and below these three. Below Rabbi Yehoshua’s stratum, there is the consciousness level of regular people. And above them is the Divine consciousness, which also adds a word to the Mashiach’s response, but the Almighty’s consciousness says, “Today, not!”[11]
God certainly wants what is best for us, and when He says, “Today not,” which seemingly means that today the Mashiach is not going to come—His true intent is to bring the Mashiach from the level known as “Today not.” This level is the high spiritual state we reach during Shabbat afternoon, which is known as “the Will of Wills”[12] (רַעֲוָא דְּרַעֲוִין), which reaches the Unknowable Head of the sefirah of crown. In simple words, God wants to bring the Mashiach from a place that is beyond all our plans and all our visions for the Redemption. To truly greet the Mashiach, we have no choice but to resign to God’s will and what He does.
Without acceptance of reality, even our most intent determination will not be true, it will not be realistic. Instead of acceptance (הַשְׁלָמָה), we will be met with an escalation (הַסְלָמָה), a radicalization of the situation. We might easily fall into a world of fantasy, or denial of reality. By locking onto our “path to bring Mashiach,” our envisioning of how to bring it about, it will become a substitute for the real Mashiach that God wants to send us.
Five Answers to the Question
These five levels of consciousness from top to bottom correspond to the five levels of the soul.[13] In our nefesh (psyche), every Jew cries out “Until when?” (עַד מָתַי).[14] At the level of ru’ach (spirit), our own internal Rabbi Yehoshua questions the Mashiach very specifically, “When are you coming?” (אֵימָתַי קְאָתִי מַר). At the level of the neshamah (soul), we have Elijah’s revelation, which is that it is up to us. We have free will to determine when the Mashiach will come—when we follow God’s commandments. At the level of the chayah (living one), the Mashiach consciousness in us says simply: “Today.” But the yechidah (the singular one) that constantly clings to God, understands that the Mashiach must come from, “Today not.” That is where the true Mashiach will come from, from the place where we are able to surrender our vision and resign to accept God’s.
[1] . Appearing in our Hebrew volume, Lev LaDa’at.
[2]. The full partzuf (model) of the essence of the seven emotive sefirot is: loving-kindness (chesed) is extension (הִתְפַּשְּׁטוּת), might (gevurah) is withdrawal (הִסְתַּלְּקוּת), beauty (tiferet) is partitioning (הִתְחַלְּקוּת), foundation (yesod) is inter-inclusion (הִתְכַּלְּלוּת), and kingdom (malchut) is yearning (צִמָּאוֹן or תְּשׁוּקָה).
[3]. Zevin’s A Treasury of Chassidic Tales—Festivals, §291.
[4]. See Nitai Gavriel, Pesach vol. 3, ch. 20.
[5]. Skver Haggadah for Pesach (Jerusalem: 1993), p. 170.
[6]. Proverbs 5:16.
[7] . However, if it occurred in proximity with his revelation as a tzaddik, it would have been long before the Or HaChaim had come to the Land of Israel from Morocco.
[8]. Lev LaDa’at, “Emunah VeBitachon,” ch. 7 and its excurses.
[9]. Sanhedrin 98a.
[10]. Psalms 95:7.
[11]. Exodus 16:25.
[12]. Zohar 3:129a.
[13]. Bereishit Rabbah 14:9. Devarim Rabbah 2:36.
[14]. As discussed many times by the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
