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eParsha Afikoman FindingtheAfikoman Afikoman. For
children, it is the highlight of the seder. Over
the years they discovered that because the seder
could not be concluded until this final piece of matzah
is eaten, they could “steal” it in order to coerce their exhausted parents,
desperate for sleep, into granting them whatever ridiculous demands they
should choose to impose, hence the American idea of “Afikoman
presents.” For adults, it just seems like an ingenious trick to give kids an
authorized “recess,” a chance to run around and have fun while at the same
time keeping them involved in what is happening at
the table. What
is the Afikoman? One of
the first things we do at the seder, following
Kiddush and Karpas, is “Yachatz”
which is the breaking of the matzah. Typically a matzah will break into two incongruent pieces. The larger
piece, the Afikoman, which literally means
“desert,” is stowed away, to be saved for later, and the smaller piece is set
in front of us. It is before it, and on it, and that we now recite the entire
Haggadah. Many of the most crucial and integral parts of the seder experience are prefaced with the instruction:
“uncover the broken matzah” or “raise
up the broken matzah.” This matzah,
precisely because it is small and broken, aptly represents our “bread of
affliction,” and “the food of poverty.” It is the quintessential matzah, and it plays a leading role throughout the seder drama. If the seder were
a play, this would be one of the main actors. Finally, after concluding the
recitation of the entire Haggadah, it is the first thing eaten, and with it
we fulfill our biblical obligation of eating matzah.
The
larger piece, meanwhile, is hidden away, sidelined and absent; it must wait
patiently until its return much later into the night. Only after reciting the
Haggadah, after eating matzah, maror,
korech, and after the entire holiday meal do we
remember it and retrieve it from its hiding place, and this becomes our
“desert.” Preferably,
it is the last thing to be eaten that night so that we sleep with the taste
of matzah lingering in our mouths and in our
memories. Although seemingly relegated to a secondary part in the play, and
cast into some sort of supporting role, the Afikoman is just as integral, crucial, and necessary to the seder experience as its “younger brother.” Our Sages tell
us, “ain maftirin ad acharei hapesach afikoman,” meaning “The seder
cannot be concluded without the Afikoman.” It also
replaces and represents what was the biblical highlight of the seder, the Pascal sacrifice. A
Tale of Two Matzos The
Passover story is the eternal story of the Jew. “For not only once did they
stand up against us to destroy us, rather in every generation they attempt
this again. And only G-d saves us from their hands,” we state in the
Haggadah. It is
fascinating to observe the prestigious place the seder
held and continues to hold in the lives and memories of so many Jews. The seder strikes a chord deep within us. Surveys show that
more Jews conduct some form of Passover Seder than attend even High Holiday
services. Many of our warmest and fondest childhood memories were created at
our parent’s seder table. Somehow the Jew feels
that he or she cannot ignore the seder story; it is
our personal story as individuals and as a people. The
story of Pesach is the story of the Jew. With the Exodus from Now we
can understand the breaking and separation of the matzah.
Perhaps the matzah represents the Jewish people,
the Congregation of Israel, who throughout history have continuously been
crushed and humbled (like matzah), and have been
given to eat the “bread of poverty,” the “bread of affliction.” [Time and
time again we were not allowed to wait until our dough rose, we had to take
the wandering stick and leave with nothing but matzah.] But
for a long time now, our matzah has been divided;
we are sadly a divided people. One part of our people, the smaller part of
the matzah, still stubbornly sits at the “seder table,” waking up each morning and remembering that
we are part of a story; we are on a journey from Abraham till Moshiach. This
is the small part of the matzah, which refuses to
get up of from the table and find other alternatives for life. Yes, they
sometimes sit there with closed eyes, have asleep, but at least they are
there! These are the Jews who wake up each morning, put on tefilin, pray to G-d, learn Torah, and send their
children to learn and discover the ideals, values of dreams of Judaism. The
larger part of the matzah – the
majority of our people -- seem to have wandered from the seder table, into foreign pastures. They are often absent
from the Jewish experience, e often ignorant of their heritage and its
timeless messages, often alienated from our people and its story. And we
can identify the moment in history when the matzah
was “split.” Around
250 years ago, with the French Revolution, and what was known as
“Enlightenment,” the shtetl walls crumbled and
many, indeed the majority, of Jews have ultimately said goodbye to their
ideology for the leading ideologies of the day. Voltaire replaced Moses;
Rousseau replaced Rashi. In And
the split continues… Here in The
Rebbe’s Calling This
Sunday marks the Rebbe’s 107th birthday. The Rebbe was born in 1902, in the What
was the Rebbe’s message to our generation? That
the larger part of the matzah may be absent from
our seder table, but it is our Afikoman.
Millions of Jews may be absent, but they have not been forgotten. Indeed, the
seder cannot reach its conclusion without them;
they must be sought out, brought back one by one and rejoin the seder table of Jewish life. This
is the mission of our time. The seder is almost
complete, the story is almost finished. Moshiach is at the doorstep. The meal
has been eaten, and we have had our share of maror,
of suffering. And now we must remember the Afikoman. We
must search for the afikoman, and with much love and sensitivity bring it back to the
table, and let it reunite with its own essence, with its own story, with its
own soul. At
times the Afikoman is hard to locate, the
assimilated Jew is difficult to identify. Sometimes he struggles to even
identify himself. But at the end of the night, at the end of this exile, he
will return, to listen to the story of the Exodus, to take part in the
mitzvah and pass it along to his own children. For no Jew will be left
behind. And only then will we be able to conclude our journey and truly be
“Next year in ~ By Rabbi YY Jacobson |
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26 00 55 www.chabadbayside.org.au You’re always welcome! |
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03 9596 7701 | 0438
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Where you’re always Welcome!