As you may have heard Vine of David is publishing the Vine of David Passover Haggadah and the Vine of David Meal of Messiah this year in time for Passover. (For pre-order and general information click here) While most believers in Messiah are familiar Passover and the traditional seder, very few have heard of the Meal of Messiah. To aid with this we have decided to post Boaz Michael's forthcoming article from Messiah Journal 103 on this beautiful tradition in three blog posts.
Passover is one of my favorite times of year. It is a time of new beginnings and rebirth. It's a time to do a spiritual house-cleaning and remove the leaven that has formed in our hearts over time. The highlight of Passover, of course, is the seder meal on the first night. So much preparation is done for that single special event that the rest of the week of Passover receives little attention. The remaining days feel like a letdown--like we have climbed the mountain and are now coasting down till it is completed--just waiting until we can put the matzah away and eat bagels again. That's how it was in my house before we discovered the beautiful tradition of celebrating the last day of Passover with the Meal of Messiah.
It Starts at the Seder
The seder meal on the first night of the festival is supposed to be the beginning of our annual Passover experience, not the end of it. For believers, the seder remembers Yeshua's last seder with his disciples. It reminds us to long and to hope for the final redemption that will be realized in the future--a time when Messiah will return and bring full restoration to his people. We find that sense of anticipation in the words of our Master at the Last Seder. He told his disciples at the beginning of the Passover week:
I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. (Luke 22:15-16)
Some day in the future, we will recline at a seder meal with the resurrected Yeshua. Therefore, the first night of Passover should be just the beginning of our joy. Ahead of us is the remembrance of the resurrection of the Master which took place during the seven days of Passover. Each day of the living hope that is the resurrected Messiah should be more electrifying than the one before.
In Chassidic thought, the seder night is just the beginning of a spiritual high that keeps on growing until we reach the pinnacle experience of the last day. The last day of Passover is the big day.
The Last Day
In Hebrew, the seventh day of the feast of Unleavened Bread is called Acharon Shel Pesach (אחרון של פסח), which means "The Last [Day] of Passover." Like the first day of the festival, the last day is also a high Sabbath:
On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. (Exodus 12:16)
In traditional Judaism, Diaspora Jews double each of the high Sabbaths, so for most Orthodox Jews living outside of Israel, the last day of Passover is two days long--a seventh day and an eighth day. Like many other Messianic Jews, my family follows the Israeli reckoning of the calendar, so our last day of Passover is always the seventh day of Unleavened Bread.
We find allusion to the importance of this last day in Torah. In Deuteronomy 16:8 we read, "On the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work on it." The other festivals in the Torah are called "a solemn assembly to you." Only the last day of Passover is referred to as "a solemn assembly to the LORD."[1]
Why is the last day so special? Jewish tradition observes it as the anniversary of the crossing of the Red Sea. The Torah reading for that day contains the story of the crossing of the sea and the song at the sea. Although the entire Festival of Passover is known as "The Time of our Freedom," the Israelites did not realize absolute freedom until the last day. Pharaoh still held his psychological grip on the minds of the Israelites. Even though it had been seven days since they left Egypt, they were still terrified when they realized that they were trapped between his army and the sea. They cried out to Moses:
Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt, "Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians"? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. (Exodus 14:11-12)
Israel did not reach true and final freedom until the Father revealed his mighty power, split the sea, rescued his people, and drowned the Egyptians. What an amazing sight that would have been to see. At the sea, the average Israelite reached a revelation and spiritual peak that the greatest of the prophets never obtained. The sages tell us that the common Israelite "maidservant saw at the splitting of the sea what Isaiah and Ezekiel and all the prophets never saw."[2] It reminds us of when the Master told his disciples:
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (Matthew 13:16-17)
When seen from the perspective of the crossing of the Red Sea, the last day of Passover becomes the spiritual goal of the entire festival. For believers, the crossing of the Red Sea is paralleled by the joy of the resurrection and the great hope of the second coming of our Master. As the Lubavitcher Rebbe stated in one of his talks on the last day of Passover, "The ultimate [Passover] leap forward will be realized with the coming of Moshiach."[3]
Keep reading: What is the Meal of Messiah? Part 2.
[1] Cf. b.Pesachim 68b.
[2] Mekhilta on Exodus 15:2 [Lauterbach].
[3] Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Sichos in English: Excerpts of Sichos Delivered by Rabbi Menachem M. Shcneerson (51 vols.; Brooklyn, NY: Sichos in English, 1979), 44:236.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário