Hayom Yom: Tackling Life's Tasks - 19 Nissan

Shabbos Chol HaMoed Pesach,1 Day 4 of the Omer

[Whenever Shabbos coincides with Yom-Tov or (as in the present case) with one of the days of Chol HaMoed,] the wording [in the last stanza of the Lechah Dodi hymn in Friday evening’s Kabbalas Shabbos service] is gam besimchah u’vetzahalah (“both with rejoicing and gladness”).2

[In the above-described situation,] the passages beginning Shalom aleichem, Eishes chayil, Mizmor leDavid and Da hi seudasa [that are recited on Friday evening],3 and the passages beginning VeYiten Lecha [that are recited after Havdalah],4 should be said in a whisper.

My revered father, the Rebbe [Rashab], once gave the following [mystical] interpretation [of the Four Questions]:5

Why is this night, this final exile (for exile is symbolized by night), different from all the other nights, from all the exiles that preceded it?6

On all [other] nights we do not dip (the verb מטבילין also means [immersion and thus implies] scouring, cleansing, and purification) even once. The process of cleansing was not completed in the previous exiles, as is evident from the fact that each was followed by yet another exile. On this night we dip twice, [once to] scour the body and [once to] reveal the soul.

On all [other] nights, we eat chametz or matzah. Following all the other exiles, our Divine service involves both the G‑dly soul, symbolized by matzah, which represents bittul (self-nullification), and the animal soul, symbolized by chametz, which represents yeshus (egoism). On this night, after this final exile, [we eat] only matzah, for the spirit of impurity will be removed from the world.7

On all [other] nights, we eat other vegetables. [This recalls the popular saying that] “when a person becomes envious, his face turns green.”8 During all the exiles there were many kinds of envy, [including negative ones, such as envying another’s wealth, and also positive kinds of envy,] such as “the envy of scholars, [which increases wisdom].”9 On this night, after this exile, [we eat] only maror: envy will be [only positive and of] the most intense [kind]. As the Sages said,10 “[In the World to Come,] every tzaddik will be singed11 by the [fiery] canopy of his colleague.”

On all [other] nights, we eat either sitting or reclining. [In the case of] all the revelations elicited by [the Divine service of Jews throughout] the exiles, “we eat” [i.e., we experience] the pleasure [that G‑d derives from this service]. Now, there is a [mere] emanation of this pleasure, and there is the pleasure itself. Some people, through their Divine service, reach a point [of spiritual growth] at which they apprehend [merely] an emanation of G‑d’s pleasure; others reach a point at which they can apprehend the very essence of His pleasure. [Sitting connotes a limited level of relaxed pleasure; reclining connotes the ultimate level of pleasurable tranquillity. Hence:] On this night, after this exile, we are all reclining: every Jew will reach the level at which they will apprehend the ultimate level of [G‑d’s] delight.12