*Seder* Night Miracles: A Hasidic Passover Story and the Power Waiting in Your Home

A few weeks before Passover, Rabbi Meir Rosenberg learned he had the dreaded illness. It had already spread through large parts of his body, and it seemed there was nothing to be done—*lo aleinu*. This was after the passing of his teacher, the saintly Rebbe of Bluzhov, may his holy memory be a blessing.

On the night of *bedikat chametz*, the Rebbe appeared in a dream to one of his chasidim and asked him to go to Rabbi Meir and tell him that tomorrow, on *Seder* night, he should drink from what remains in Elijah the Prophet’s cup as a *segulah* for healing from his illness.

He came to Rabbi Meir’s home and found him lying on his deathbed, racked with pain, unable to move his body from sheer weakness, and he relayed the dream’s message.

The next evening, at the *Seder*, Rabbi Meir followed his Rebbe’s instruction and drank from the cup. Amazingly, as he drank he felt himself strengthening, receiving new, fresh energy. He felt the same the next day. On the second *Seder* night (as is customary outside of Israel) he was already seated at the head of the table with his family, their mouths full of praise and thanks to the Creator of the world for the open miracle they had witnessed.

Indeed, many have the practice of drinking from Elijah’s Cup as a *segulah* for deliverance, since Elijah the Prophet is the herald of good news.

Many miracles and wonders have taken place on this holy, singular night. Classic sources record different *segulot* for various needs, but here is one *segulah* that applies to everyone and to every matter, as cited in the book *Ohev Yisrael* by the holy Rebbe of Apta, may his holy memory be a blessing. He explains that the Exodus from Egypt is the key for every person to leave his or her own constraints and private pains. On *Seder* night, when the Jewish people were redeemed from their exile, a person can be redeemed from whatever presses on him or her, in both the spiritual and the material—yet this depends on the measure of one’s faith.

Therefore, when a person completes in the *Haggadah* the blessing "Blessed are You, *Hashem*, *Ga’al Yisrael*" with great *kavanah*, and believes with all heart and soul that *Hashem* will help and take him out of all his personal troubles and distresses, he will merit to go from hardship to relief, and from darkness to great light.

In fact, the entire home where the *Seder* is held becomes a sacred space—akin to the Temple and the Holy of Holies—and is capable of bringing abundant blessing and all kinds of salvations. As written in the book *Or Sameach*: In Egypt they smeared the blood of the sacrifice on the lintel and on the two doorposts, and that served in place of the altar upon which the blood was sprinkled in the Temple. The house’s floor also served as an altar for burning the portions of the sacrifice that are normally offered on the Temple’s altar, and thus the floor was sanctified with the sanctity of the altar. This, he writes, is eternal. That holiness returns each year on Passover night in every Jewish home where they eat *matzah* and *maror*, in remembrance of the Paschal offering.

(צילום: פלאש 90)

The *Chatam Sofer* uses this to explain what we proclaim at the start of the *Haggadah*: "Let all who are hungry come and eat—let all who are in need come and celebrate Passover." After all, a private home is limited in how many people it can hold, and the food is finite. How, then, can the host declare an open door to every hungry person?

The answer is that on Passover night the home receives the sanctity of the Temple—and in the Temple there was never a shortage of space. All Israel would gather each festival into an area 135 cubits long by 11 cubits wide. No one ever said to his fellow, "There isn’t room for me to lodge in Jerusalem," even though the pilgrims numbered in the millions. In just that way, the home becomes sanctified on Passover night with that same holiness, and if a person believes in it, he can host without limit, like in the Temple—and there will be room for everyone.

The mitzvah of eating *matzah* also brings a flow of livelihood for the entire year. As written in the book *Tiferet Shlomo*: All the sustenance that the Jewish people receive in exile throughout the year has its source in eating the mitzvah *matzot*.

To conclude, we share the words of the holy Rabbi Asher of Karlin–Stolin, may his holy memory be a blessing: Every Jew can draw for himself from this holy night an abundance of blessing, both spiritual and material. Not only the righteous or the especially pious—every Jew, even the simplest, can take for himself as he wishes in these exalted hours.

The author is the spiritual director at the 'Hidabroot' organization and the head of the Ahavat Torah *kollel*.