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# The Hasidic tish: how the rebbe distributes challah and how it recalls the Last Supper
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/ni-na-chto-ne-namekaiu-no-esli-khotite-proniknutsia-tem-kak-iisus-razdaval-na-tainoi-vechere-khleb-i-vino-svoim-uchenikam-poprobuite-naiti-video-s-khasidskikh-zastolii/
- Published: 2019-04-12T13:15:50.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:09:57.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Faith, Observations, Ethnography

[​​](https://telegra.ph/file/ff77698674e794a12d193.mp4?ref=theparnassian.com)I am not hinting at anything, but if you wish to feel how Jesus handed out bread and wine to his disciples at the Last Supper, try finding video of Hasidic feasts. To attend such a gathering would be nothing short of a miracle, if only because the way there is barred to women and non-Hasidim, so have a look at the footage I have dug up.

The ceremony of the feast, the tish (Yiddish for "table"), is usually timed to coincide with the Sabbath or some special date. The Rebbe dances at the head of a great table, onto which very long tables are joined, sometimes laid out almost in a spiral in vast halls and courtyards; hundreds of people gather at these tables, and the nearer to the head, the more important the person.

Before the Rebbe lies a large challah, sometimes a metre long. After the blessing he will hand out pieces of this challah. Does it remind you of the bread that Christ broke? This is the sacred ceremony of the distribution of bread, which arose not among the Hasidim at all but descends from ancient Judaism.

As soon as the last words of the blessing are spoken, Hasidim hasten from every table to the rabbi to receive even a crumb of the blessed challah; to satisfy everyone, the number of loaves is sometimes increased to 12, the number of the tribes of Israel. In some recordings one can even see people running across the tables to snatch at least a morsel from the rabbi's table.

The crumbs received at the tish will not simply be eaten: they will be carried to the most distant communities and to people's homes, to pass on the blessing to those nearest and dearest. In principle, this scattering of the bread echoes another Hasidic custom, the ceremony of the leftovers, "shirayim", when not only the challah but any remains of food from the table of the righteous man are considered sacred: pieces of fish, or sometimes simply broth, fruit, nuts, anything at all may carry spiritual benefits within it.