Mashiach Seudah

On Pesach, chametz is forbidden — even a mashehu, the smallest amount. For a full month before Pesach, we begin the very arduous task of cleaning and removing all the chametz from our houses. Room by room, closet by closet, shelf by shelf, we are on a veritable “search and destroy” mission.
Our Rabbis teach us that the search for chametz must be accompanied by a parallel inner search for that which chametz symbolically represents – an overblown ego. As we get closer to Pesach and Seder night, the chametz becomes more and more “contracted” until, on the morning before Pesach, we burn and mentally nullify all that remains.
This process, interestingly enough, corresponds to the Kabbalistic concept of tzimtzum, contraction, which plays a crucial role in the Kabbalistic understanding of how God created the world. When God, as it were, contracted His Infinite Presence in order to form the eventual “place” of the universe, what remained was a “vacuum,” wherein all “independent” reality could be created. It is within this vacuum that a mysterious kav, or line of light, pierced through to the middle point of the of vacuum, depositing an infinitely small seed of light into the fertile void, from which all worlds come into existence. This Kabbalistic cosmological description poetically parallels modern science’s Standard Model of the Universe, better known as the “Big Bang,” in which an infinitely small point of matter, or a mashehu of pure energy, explodes, giving birth to the physical universe.
By removing all the chametz from our possession, and even more important, an overblown ego from our consciousness, we create within ourselves a spiritual vacuum wherein new inspiration can explode into consciousness. This is the spiritual energy we feel on Seder night. The mashehu that exists within human consciousness when ego is nullified is what the Ba’al Shem Tov called the inner point of the Mashiach within each person, that point is what remains after we remove all the chametz.
Once, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, while teaching about the Mashiach, mentioned the phenomenon during the 1960’s of young people, usually under the influence of drugs, who thought they were the Mashiach. He said that in fact they were actually in touch with a very deep part of their consciousness, where they felt their most essential potential. The only problem was that they thought they were THE Mashiach; their single point of Mashiach, when spoiled by overblown ego, became chametz!
The Ba’al Shem Tov began the custom of gathering people together on the last day of Pesach for one last meal at the time when the holiday is coming to an end. Pesach is infused with the hope and faith in the ultimate redemption of the Jewish people and the entire world, and as the holiday ends he wanted to focus that longing one last time in a community atmosphere. This last meal is called the Mashiach Seudah, the meal of the Mashiach, where we eat matzah and drink wine as at the Seder and express our deepest and holiest visions for a redeemed future world.
Just as we ask four questions at the Seder of Pesach, it would be appropriate for each person to ask themselves four questions at this time:
1) Do I really believe in the coming of the Mashiach and that world peace and redemption will actually occur?
2) Do I sincerely believe the Mashiach could come at any moment, even today?
3) Can we as individuals really help quicken the process of redemption?
4) Have I truly tried to reveal my own inner spark of Mashiach?
Ultimately, each person can only do their small part and contribute their mashehu towards the great goal of world redemption. As Pesach ends and ebbs away, we all need to rededicate ourselves to this loftiest of goals by recapturing the spiritual big bang of Seder night. When enough individuals succeed in kindling and fanning their inner spark of Mashiach, this will then create a critical mass of energy that will bring the final redemption into reality. May it be speedily in our days!