8° Día de Pesaj 5775 - English

Eighth Day of Pesach

Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik

Kol Shearith Israel Congregation, Panama

The fact that the first Seder of Pesach fell this year on Shabbat is an infrequent event.  It happened eleven times during the 20th century. The last time was in the year 2005, and it will happen again in 2021 and 2025.  Besides, for obvious reasons, it implies that in the diaspora we get a second Pesach Shabbat, on the eighth and final day of the holiday.    

This phenomenon generates a peculiar situation.  In Israel, Pesach ends on Friday, so for Shabbat we return to the sequential cycle of the reading of the Torah with Parashat Shemini, while in the diaspora we have a reading from the eighth day of Pesach.  This produces a gap between Israel and the diaspora with regards to the weekly parashah, which will be fixed in the next five weeks.  

Having two Shabbatot during Pesach gives us the opportunity to reflect on the total reach of the holiday.  Sometimes I get the feeling that for many of our contemporaries, Pesach extends, in the best case scenario, to the end of the second Seder and the following days do not hold much meaning.  

In this sense, I would like to discuss the Haftarah for the eighth day of Pesach, for I believe it has a valuable message that allows us to embrace the celebration in its entirety.  The Talmud (Meguila 31a) establishes Isaiah’s text (10:32-12:6), which begins with the prophecy that announces the site of Jerusalem through the Assyrian king Sennacherib (704-681 B.C.E.) and his subsequent failure due to divine intervention, as is told in Kings II Chapter 19.  }

Rashi explains the reason for the selection of this particular passage:  the fall of Sennacherib happened during Pesach.  This claim, supported only by legend, seems to be part of a tradition that associates the great salvations of the Jewish people with the festivity of Pesach, the liberation of Egypt being the most renowned.

We may delve deeper along this same line.  At the heart of the Haftarah, Chapter 11 of Isaiah talks about the Messiah and the changes that would occur after his coming.  In this way, we might say Pesach is not only the holiday of past redemption (or past redemptions), but also the celebration of hope in future redemption.  

There is an additional connection between Pesach and Redemption: while in the former, God releases His people by sending Moses, in Redemption, the main character in the Exodus tale (though not in the Haggadah) is the Messiah, the divine envoy, who occupies the distinguished spot in the narration.  

This connection of Moses with the Messiah should lead us to reconsider the explanation of Moses’ name.  As Ovadia Sforno (Italy, 16th century) well pointed out, the name reflects an active verb and not a passive one, meaning it is not “the one saved from the waters” like the Torah claims (Ex. 2:10), but “the savior” like the prophecy the Talmud sages (Sota 13a) placed in Miriam’s lips: “In the future my mother will give birth to a child that will save Israel.”

However, this messianic idea that flourishes at the end of Pesach, is there since before it began.  In the Shabbat Hagadol that precedes the holiday, we read in the Haftarah (Malachi 3:4-24) the announcement of the coming of the prophet Eliahu to proclaim the arrival of the “day of great and fearsome Adonai”.

During the Seder, the noted presence of Eliahu around our tables and the closing phrase that sums up the redeeming hope “next year in Jerusalem” give testimony as to the profound bond that unites the past –the release from Egyptian slavery- with the future –the messianic age.  

I am convinced that the prolongation of the holiday serves to strengthen this message.  If we kept only the beginning, it would seem that the focus on the past and present would be the dominant one.  Pesach would simply be the historical reminder of the liberation or, at most, its contemporary experimentation.  The messianic notion reminds us that we must add the dimension of the future and anticipate it in the present.  

Pesach is not only the commemoration of the exodus from Egypt; it is also a call to liberate us from every form of oppression and to demand the end of any type of subjugation.  This way, we will take the first steps towards a society of justice, harmony, solidarity, and peace, which is none other than our aspiration of a messianic age.  

Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameach

Gustavo