There is a custom practiced by descendants of the Baal Shem Tov and his students to observe an annual seudas hoda’ah on the last day of Pesach, in celebration of the Baal Shem Tov’s miraculous salvation during his aborted journey to Eretz Yisroel .
The late Rabbi Dr. Aaron Wertheim discussed this minhag in his sefer, Halachos Vehalichos Bechasidus. A former maggid shiur in RIETS, Rabbi Wertheim served as rav in Bendery, Romania before immigrating to the United States and serving as a rav in Brooklyn for more than half a century. As descendants of the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Wertheim and his family observed the minhag every year until his petirah in 1998. There are many versions of the story, but the one Rabbi Wertheim retells is as follows.
The Baal Shem Tov attempted to journey to Eretz Yisrael, accompanied by his shamash, R’ Tzvi Sofer. The ship they were sailing on anchored at a small island for a stopover, and all the passengers disembarked, including the Baal Shem Tov and his shamash. The two took a walk, so engrossing in a long discussion of lofty matters that they forgot to return to the ship. When they returned to port to discover their ship had sailed, the Baal Shem Tov and R’ Tzvi were suddenly seized by pirates who chained them and threatened to murder them.
R’ Tzvi begged the Baal Shem Tov to do something to save them, but the Baal Shem Tov said that for some reason he had not only lost all his strength, but all of his senses had dulled. He could not remember even one word of Torah or tefillah. In his panic and weakness, R’ Tzvi too suddenly forgotten everything. The only thing he could recall was the alef-beis. The Baal Shem Tov bade him to recite each letter, and repeated after him with tremendous fervor.
Suddenly, they heard the sounds of a very large ship entering the harbor. The pirates fled, and the disembarking passengers unchained the two, now barely alive. They were brought aboard the ship, which was returning to Russia from the Mediterranean Sea . All the matzos the Baal Shem Tov and his shamash had prepared were left on the ship that had sailed away; they ate nothing but fruit and potatoes.
They also had no money to pay for the trip. The captain, whom R’ Tzvi would later announce was Eliyahu HaNavi, permitted the Baal Shem Tov to obtain money from the Jews in Black Sea port of Kilya. There, the Baal Shem Tov ate kneidlach to relieve his tremendous hunger, and the community paid for the rest of his journey home.
Rabbi Wertheim relates in his sefer that even if the last day of Pesach did not fall on Shabbos, they would partake of a shalosh seudos after Mincha and call it “the Baal Shem Tov’s seudah,” where they would recount the story and eat kneidlach. Kneidlach are, of course, gebrokts, and typically avoided by chasidim on Pesach, but they are eaten in commemoration of the miracle.
The source for this minhag, Rabbi Wertheim writes, is the Shaarei Teshuvah, Orach Chaim 218:2, which states, “One to whom a miracle occurred should set aside that day each year to thank Hashem and rejoice and tell of that miracle.”
The custom is widespread among chasidim. The communities of Skver-Chernobyl, Skolye, and other dynasties also celebrate acharon shel Pesach by relating a similar story. Rabbi David Sears, director of the Breslov Research Institute in New York, describes how Reb Levi Yitzchok Bender, a prominent figure in the Breslov kehillah after World War II until his passing in 1989, would retell the story of the Baal ShemTov’s salvation every year on acharon shel Pesach. Rabbi Bender heard the story from Rabbi Shimshon Barsky of Uman, a grandson of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, himself the great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov. However, Reb Levi Yitzchok conceded that, like all oral traditions, there are many nuschaos to the story.
In the Breslov version, the Baal Shem Tov was traveling to Eretz Yisrael with his shamash and daughter Aidel. They had only enough money for transportation to Istanbul, but the Baal Shem Tov was not worried. He had complete bitachon that Hashem would take care of them.
The three arrived in Istanbul on Erev Pesach After finding an inn in the Jewish quarter, Aidel went to the nearby Black Sea to wash their clothes for Yom Tov, while her father and R’ Tzvi went to a nearby beis midrash.
Unbeknownst to them, a wealthy childless couple from Germany had been following the Baal Shem Tov from town to town to obtain a brachah for children. They, too, arrived in Istanbul, equipped with matzos, wine and food for Pesach. They rented a large suite of rooms in the same inn, not realizing that the Baal Shem Tov was staying there.
Finding a Jewish girl washing clothes at the seashore, they asked if she knew the whereabouts of the Baal Shem Tov. Aidel revealed that he was her father. Overjoyed, the couple returned with Aidel to the inn and instructed the servants to bring the possessions of the tzaddik, his daughter and the shamash from the stables to their rooms upstairs. The Baal Shem Tov and R’ Tzvi returned from Maariv to discover everything prepared for the Sedarim and Yom Tov.
The Baal Shem Tov, who had been sure all along that Hashem would take care of them, conducted the Seder as if nothing unusual had occurred. At the conclusion of the meal he turned to his hosts and told them, “I know you came here for a brachah for children. Your wish has been granted.”
As he spoke, the Baal Shem Tov closed his eyes and turned deathly pale. Apparently, this couple was destined not to have children. In order for Hashem to fulfill the tzaddik’s decree, the Heavenly Court ruled that the Baal Shem Tov would have to lose his Olam Haba.
Suddenly the Baal Shem Tov opened his eyes and declared, “Now I will be able to serve Hashem without any ulterior motive!” However, the Satan would not stand for the Baal Shem Tov serving Hashem with such selflessness, and insisted that the Heavenly Court restore his Olam Haba.
On Chol HaMoed, the childless couple presented the Baal Shem Tov and his companions with tickets to Eretz Yisrael. Their ship stopped at an island, where the Baal Shem Tov, his daughter and shamash were accosted by cannibals who tied them up and threatened to murder them. They forgot all Torah and tefillah. At the request of the Baal Shem Tov, the shamash recited the alef-beis, and the Baal Shem Tov repeated after him.
Suddenly, the sound of a bell ringing frightened the cannibals away. It was the sound of a chariot approaching, and its passengers actually malachim who had come to save them.
According to all versions of the story, the Baal Shem Tov never continued his journey to the Holy Land. Legend says that it was because the Ohr Hachaim, Rabbi Chaim ben Attar, was living there at the time and requested that he turn back. The Baal Shem Tov believed that the Ohr Hachaim’s soul was the counterpart to his own, and if their two souls were to unite, the all-powerful Soul of Man would be created and possibly bring down the soul of Mashiach. Although the Baal Shem Tov felt he was ready, the Ohr Hachaim believed the time had not yet come.
Among Lubavitch chasidim, the Baal Shem Tov’s seudah on acharon shel Pesach is called “Mashiach’s seudah,” and is dedicated to the coming of Mashiach. The custom of conducting such a seudah was widely disseminated by successive rebbes of Chabad.
Lubavitch tradition says that when the Baal Shem Tov ascended to heaven on Rosh Hashanah, he encountered Mashiach and asked, “When are you coming?” to which Mashiach replied, “When the wellsprings of your teachings spread outward.” Since the goal of the Baal Shem Tov’s life was to prepare us for Mashiach, the institution of Mashiach’s seudah is part of that life’s work.
The haftarah of acharon shel Pesach contains many prophetic references to the era of Mashiach, including the well-known, “The wolf will dwell with the lamb; the leopard will lie down with a young goat” (Yeshayahu 11:6). The Baal Shem Tov explained that as the first days of Pesach deal with the redemption from Egypt, the last days of the holiday focus on the ultimate redemption by Mashiach.
May the celebration of Mashiach’s seudah lead to Mashiach’s actual arrival, and may we be zocheh to the third Beis HaMikdash speedily in our days!