When he was eight years old, the Frierdiker Rebbe recorded the events of the previous Pesach in his diary: “Erev Pesach, after teaching me the Seder Korban Pesach, my father said, ‘Tonight, Eliyahu HaNavi is coming to all the Yiddishe homes, and the great tzaddikim will be privileged to see him. Although in Shamayim all neshamos are able to see everything, once they are vested in a body they only feel things. In the Holy Tongue, the word mishna (משנה) has the same letters as neshama (נשמה). Start to review the mishnayos of Mesechta Pesachim eight times, and when you come with me to open the door for Eliyahu HaNavi, review the mesechta a ninth time....’ “
(ספר המאמרים תשי"א ע' 296)
Recalling his erev Pesach experiences in the home of his father, the Rebbe Rashab, the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote: “On erev Pesach, my father would wake up no later than three in the morning and daven no later than five-thirty. Afterwards, until the time of biur chometz, he was occupied with removing the chometz and the chometz’dike utensils from the house. At chatzos, midday, preparations for matzos mitzva began and my father would study the Seder Korban Pesach. From that time onward, a ruchniyus’dike light shone in our home, filling everyone with joy. During the remaining hours, until Yom-Tov began, my father would discuss the meaning of the Korban Pesach in Kabbala and Chassidus, and its practical application in our avoda.
“The time between reading the Seder Korban Pesach and the beginning of Yom-Tov was not considered a mere preparation for Yom-Tov. That time was itself considered to be a Yom-Tov. It was permeated with an inner joy, a certainty and an expectation that at any moment we would have Moshiach, the Beis HaMikdash and the Korban Pesach! In this elevated mood we would go off to daven Maariv. The shul was always packed with Yidden with shining faces, dressed in clean, fresh clothing despite the hard work they had been doing to prepare for Pesach. No one spoke. Everyone waited eagerly for the joyous Shir HaMaalos that would signify the beginning of Maariv. An especially delightful simcha’dike melody filled the shul as the mispalelim sang Hallel, their voices gradually intensifying. And that holy tefilla climaxed in an ahavas-Yisroel’dike ‘Gut-Yom-Tov!’”
(לקוטי דיבורים ח"א ע' 270)
CONSIDER
Why were the chassidim and their families so happy to prepare the matzos?
Is erev Pesach a preparation for Pesach or is it a Yom Tov itself?
