The great chassidic master Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, known as the great defender of Jews once complained to G-d. “It’s not fair. Torah and Mitzvot and the motivation to live a moral and ethical life are packaged neatly in a book while life’s pleasures and everything rotten about human behavior are all out there in front of us. If You would only stuff evil into a book and put goodness out in the streets everyone would live a proper life.”
I’m pretty sure he was not seeking to justify bad behavior. We are responsible for our actions under all circumstances and pinning the blame on G-d is not helpful. But this short anecdote reveals a deep truth about life that we all should know and take to heart.
Yesterday we concluded the festival of Pesach. For eight days we were tucked away in a festive cocoon celebrating our liberty and the birth of our nation. The strict Matzah and zero Chametz (leaven) diet represents the departure from the norms of ego and self centeredness and the focus on our relationship with G-d and our responsibility for each other.
After a week it abruptly ends and we start eating Chametz, re-entering a world that hasn’t changed much from before Pesach. What was the purpose of the week-long spiritual high if we find ourselves back to square one?
The final day of Pesach we read a portion from Isaiah describing the ultimate redemption. The prophet assures us that in that blessed era there will be no famine, war or disease and everyone will be preoccupied with understanding our Creator. All this will happen through a mortal human being “Moshiach,” similar to Moshe from the story of Exodus and this new reality will encompass every detail of creation; every human, every specimen down to the inanimate minerals.
But reading these amazing ideas from a holy book presents the challenge of it remaining abstract. One can possibly feel that Moshiach is science fiction or the type of fantasies novels are made from.
Therefore the Baal Shem Tov introduced the custom of eating a special meal celebrating Moshiach in the final hours of Pesach, to appreciate that Moshiach is as practical as the food we digest and continues to be relevant even after Pesach ends when we re-enter regular life. To bridge the chasm between our week-long Matzah diet to our routine year-long Chametz diet.
Moshiach is not about disrupting life. It is about revealing what life is really all about. Moshiach will take the beautiful and inspiring ideas currently packaged in the holy books and make them as accessible and relatable as the facts of life we encounter all the time.
Since the redemption from Egypt was all about smashing natural norms we commemorate it through eating different foods and disconnecting from certain realities. But the ultimate redemption is all about elevating and inspiring our current routines. To bridge the chasm between transcendent miracles and regular nature.
We can live this way even before the flesh and blood Moshiach arrives, by introducing more Torah in Mitzvot into our routines and allowing our belief and trust in G-d to dictate how we perceive life today. Doing so will hasten his arrival and the onset of that wonderful era we hope and pray begins immediately.