Leader: We have drunk the wine and tasted the special foods of the Passover celebration. They symbolize our attachment to the traditions of our culture, to freedom, and to life. To remind us of these values as we go back out into the world, at the end of our festival meal, we shall return to have a final taste of matzah - our symbol of suffering and liberation, of renewal in nature and humanity.

I am breaking this matzah into two pieces. One half I will return to the table.

[Leader breaks a matzah, sets down half, and holds up half as the afikoman.]

The other half I will wrap in a napkin and save until the end of the meal. This piece is called the 'Afikoman' Without it the seder cannot end!

The Bread of Affliction

Raise the middle matzah so that everyone can see it and say:

hah lachmah anya  — this is the bread of affliction, let all who are hungry come and eat.

When we say that traditional line — let all who are hungry come and eat — we must also recognize the stark contrast between the generosity of the Jewish people expressed in this invitation, and the actual reality in which we live. We live in a nation with stark inequality and inequity. During the pandemic we have seen bread lines longer than any of us can remember. 

So when we say we "let all who are hungry come and eat" we must remind ourselves that it is this spirit of generosity that is the authentic Jewish spirit. As we break this matzah, begin to think about how you will live in that authentic generosity this year. In the spirit of dayenu, of having enough, and making sure that others also have enough. Just like this matzah is now imperfect, recognize that liberation is made by imperfect people, broken, fragmented — so don’t wait until you are totally spiritually centered and psychologically healthy to get involved in tikkun olam(the healing and repair of the world). It will be imperfect people, wounded healers, who do the healing as we simultaneously work on ourselves.


haggadah Section: Yachatz