There is more festive rejoicing on the Seventh Day (Shevi'i shel Pesach) and on the Last Day of Pesach (Acharon shel Pesach) than on the preceding days of the festival.[314]

It was the custom in Lubavitch to stay awake throughout the night of the Seventh Day of Pesach, as well as on the [first] night of Shavuos and the night of Hoshana Rabbah. One should study Torah all night.[315]

The congregation stands during the public reading of the Shirah [i.e., the Song of the Sea; Shmos 15:1-19].315

At the evening and midday meals of the Last Day of Pesach it is customary to wet the matzah.[316]

On the Last Day of Pesach, when the fingertips have been washed with mayim acharonim at the end of the meal, one resumes the usual practice of passing them over one's lips.

After Mussaf on the Last Day of Pesach the preferred procedure is to recite Kiddush, and then to pray the Minchah service before the [midday] festive meal.[317]

The Baal Shem Tov would partake of three meals on the Last Day of Pesach. He used to call the third meal of that day, Mashiach's Seudah ("the festive meal of Mashiach").[318]

   

Notes:

314. (Back to text) See Sefer HaSichos, Summer 5700, p. 71; Likkutei Sichos, Vol. II, p. 545; op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 1298.

315. (Back to text) HaYom Yom, p. 47.

316. (Back to text) Such was the custom of the Previous Rebbe. [Cf. the passage on Shulchan Orech on p. 79, above.] The purpose of this custom is to differentiate between the first seven days of the festival and the Last Day, in the same way as we do not recite the blessing leishev bassukah on Shemini Atzeres, even though [outside Eretz Yisrael] it is our custom to eat in the sukkah throughout the day.

317. (Back to text) HaYom Yom, p. 47.

318. (Back to text) Ibid. It will be noted that the Haftorah of the Last Day of Pesach focuses on the theme of Mashiach (Isaiah 10:32-12:6); cf. Likkutei Sichos, loc. cit.

     In the year 5666 (1906) the Rebbe Rashab ate this meal together with the students [of the Tomchei Temimim Yeshivah in Lubavitch], and directed that each student be given four cups of wine, saying, "This is Mashiach's Seudah."

     It is obvious that this directive was not intended for that year only, but was meant to be perpetuated. (HaYom Yom, p. 47; and see at length in Likkutei Sichos, Vol. IV, p. 1299.)