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Teaching

Leftovers and the Last Seder

One of the most special times of year for believers in Messiah is the Passover festival. At our Master's Last Seder he broke the bread and distributed the cup of wine representing his body and blood. Yet, for our unbelieving Jewish brethren, this type of symbolism and metaphoric language can seem foreign and even idolatrous. To the majority of Judaism, speaking of bread and wine in the imagery of flesh and blood doesn't sound very Jewish or even compatible with Torah. The language was abrasive to Jewish ears even in the first century: "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" (John 6:60).

But Chassidic Jewish practice provides a remarkable parallel called shirayim. Shirayim (שיריים) means "leftovers." Some Chassidic Rebbes distribute food to their Chassidim that they have first blessed and partaken of. [1] Chassidim believe that, through this practice of eating the leftovers from their Rebbe's table, the disciples intimately connect themselves to their Rebbe and to God himself. While this practice did not show up until almost two thousand years after the Gospels, it provides a worthy area of exploration as we search out Jewish parallels to the Last Seder.

Leftovers

Although the Chassidic custom of shirayim did not fully evolve until about the nineteenth century, we find earlier texts that allude to the sacramental nature of eating a meal. The Torah itself commands the priests to consume portions of the sacrifice brought by the Israelites as a key part in the atonement process. When commenting on Exodus 18:12 where Jethro brings a sacrifice and then he and all the elders eat bread together before God, the Talmud cites Rabbi Abin:

If one partakes of a meal at which a scholar is present, it is as if he feasted on the effulgence of the Divine Presence, since it says, "And Aaron came and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God." (b.Berachot 64a)

Eating a meal with tzaddikim ("righteous individuals") was considered as if one had eaten in the presence of God himself. Additionally we read of the practice of Rabbi Jonathan who would enter the synagogue in the morning after a seudat mitzvah ("festive meal") and consume the crumbs that were left by those who had celebrated this holy meal. [2] He would say, "Let my lot be with him who eats here evenings." [3] Capitalizing on the Torah commandment of leaving the corners of one's field un-gleaned for the poor, [4] the Talmud taught that leaving leftovers at the table was so important that he who doesn't do so "will never see a sign of blessing." [5] Therefore the concept began to develop early on that leftovers bring blessing and that eating the food of the righteous connects an individual to them.

The Talmud teaches that sharing in the kos shel brachah (the cup of wine that grace after meals is said over) brings blessing upon the members of the household. [6] At the Last Seder, Yeshua chose the "cup after they had eaten" (Luke 22:20), the cup over which he would have recited the blessing after the meal, to be symbolic of his blood and thus distribute to his disciples. It is a short leap from these Talmudic-era ideas to what we see in the later Chassidic custom of shirayim.

This has been cited as a source for the Chassidic custom of consuming shirayim--the left-overs of the food and drink of a Rebbe-Tzaddik, and in particular the wine of kos shel berachah (the cup over which he recites grace after meals)--which in general is a source of blessing. [7]

The Rebbe's Tisch

Although the practice of shirayim takes on various forms in Chassidic circles today, such as a Rebbe handing out fruit and nuts at special occasions or disciples of a Rebbe receiving pieces of bread and wine from Rebbe's Kiddush, the most elaborate form is found at a Rebbe's tisch. Tisch (טיש) is a Yiddish word meaning "table" which in Chassidic circles refers to a communal festive meal that takes place either on Shabbat or a Festival. It has been called the "the most enduring and significant public ritual in Hasidic life." [8] The whole meal takes on both an elaborate and sacred tone, keeping two Chassidic principles in mind: dibbuk chaverim (דבוק חברים), the "bonding of friends" and avodah begashmiyot (עבודה בגשמיות) which refers to serving God even in seemingly mundane activities such as eating. At these joyous meals, filled with singing and dancing, the Rebbe would divulge some of the most treasured and intimate of all his Torah teachings.

One of the elements that make these meals so special is the veneration the Chassidic disciples have for their Rebbe. [9] The Rebbe is considered to be a tzaddik, an extremely righteous person who has an intimate connection with God. To the Chassidim, he is their intermediary between them and their heavenly Father. The closer they come to him, the closer they come to God. Therefore the tisch becomes a time to bind themselves with their Rebbe in a unique way.

At the tisch, the shirayim take on an entirely different level. There is usually a huge platter of food where the Rebbe partakes of a small portion and then the food is passed around for all present to take a portion of his "leftovers." The idea is that by partaking of the leftovers of the Rebbe, the disciple is able to connect with him, receive a spiritual blessing, and in turn connect with God. The desire to connect with the tzaddik was so strong that at times it would even lead to frenzy.

It is therefore not surprising that the Hasidim believed the food left over by a Tzaddik had been sanctified, because--given their faith in him--he had already refined everything which needed refining in it and rectified it, so that it was worthy of having blessings rest upon it. That was why they considered the shirayim so holy that they would jump from their places and literally push and shove one another just in order to grab a crumb of the shirayim of a Tzaddik. [10]

The food actually becomes an extension of the Rebbe himself and eating that food connects one to him. The food that the Rebbe had touched was considered holy and not to be wasted. The Chassidim feel that "he sanctifies all the food in his platter and a blessing rests upon it all." [11] The whole meal takes on the symbolism and the tone of a priest offering a sacrifice at the altar in the Holy Temple.

Once, Rabbi Monele Karliner entered the tish [table] of Rabbi Shmuel of Karlin and the Ratner Maggid was cutting the meat for him. His face was burning like a torch, and he took a piece of meat and put it in his mouth and said: I eat this with the same intent as the High Priest in the Holy Temple would eat the sin offering; then he took another piece and said, this one, as a burnt offering. [12]

At the tisch, "the Rebbe's priestly powers are manifested during his administration of the sacramental rites of sanctifying, eating and then distributing to the assembled the shirayim [remains] of his Sabbath meal." [13] Much, like the ancient Israelites partaking of a thanksgiving offering together with the priest, the Chassid counts it a privilege and an immense blessing to sit and enjoy the food of his Rebbe.

The Last Seder

When compared with the Chassidic custom of shirayim, the Master's behavior and language at his Last Seder does not seem foreign to Judaism at all. As we pointed out in rabbinic and Chassidic circles it was this cup of wine after the meal, the kos shel berachah that was considered to be the most special.

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:26-28)

Even the controversial discourse in John 6 has a Chassidic ring to it.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. (John 6:53-56)

In both these Gospel accounts and the Chassidic shirayim we have the idea of connecting to a tzaddik through the eating of food and that the food actually becomes an extension of the tzaddik himself. We also have the priestly imagery of the meal being akin to a sacrifice. In fact these similarities have not gone unnoticed by modern scholars.

Not entirely unlike the Eucharist, shirayim constitute the sacrament that allows the Hasid to attain intimacy with the Divine. [14]

Also, we can see the parallel between the development of "communion" as it evolved from a formal Seder meal into a tiny piece of bread and a sip of wine and the Chassidic tisch as it evolved from a full festive meal into the disciples savoring only small morsels.

Conclusion

Although it is obvious that the actions and words of Yeshua were not influenced by the custom of shirayim and vice versa, it is encouraging to find a similar development to Yeshua's sacrament in Judaism today. It seems that however distant both practices are in the course of time, they are both outcomes of a theology and life based on Torah and Judaism.

Endnotes:

[1] The Lubavitcher Rebbe writes that this "is not a custom of Chabad which developed in Lithuania, though it is prevelant among different trends of Polish and Galacian Jewry." See Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Letters From the Rebbe (3 vols.; New York: Otsar Sifrei Lubavitch, 1998), 3:193.
[2] Ibid.
[3] y.Moed Katan 2:3 (Neusner).
[4] E.g. Leviticus 19:9-10.
[5] b.Berachot 92a.
[6] b.Berachot 51b.
[7] Jacob Schochet, The Mystical Dimension Volume Two: Chassidic Dimensions (New York: Kehot Publication Society, 1995), 98 n. 52. Later Chassidic works would seek to find justification for the shirayim custom in the text of the Tanakh, such as in "And He hath left (hishir, השאיר) behind Him a blessing" (Joel 2:14, YLT) and "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl (mishartecha, משארתך)" (Deuteronomy 28:5). Because both of these verses contain derivatives of the Hebrew word for leftovers, they are creatively interpreted to allude to this practice (See Sefer Chassidim 888 and Aaron Werthheim, Law and Custom in Hasidism [Hoboken, NJ: KTAV, 1992], 252).
[8] Allan Nadler, "Holy Kugel: The Sanctification of Ashkenazic Ethnic Foods in Chasidism," in Food and Judaism: A Special Issue of Studies in Jewish Civilization Volume 15 (ed. Leonard J. Greenspoon, Ronald A. Simkins, Gerald Shapiro; Omaha: Creighton University Press, 2005), 193-214. For a narrative story about a tisch see Paul Levertoff, "The Wisdom of the Chasids," in Love and the Messianic Age: Study Guide and Commentary (Marshfield, MO: First Fruits of Zion, 2009), 158-163.
[9] For more on the concept of Rebbe and comparisons to Gospel texts see Toby Janicki, "The Exalted Rebbe," in Love and the Messianic Age: Study Guide and Commentary (Marshfield, MO: First Fruits of Zion, 2009), 143-154.
[10] Werthheim, Law and Custom in Hasidism, 253.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Nadler, "Holy Kugel: The Sanctification of Ashkenazic Ethnic Foods in Chasidism," 195.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.