Break off some Matzah, melt remaining fair trade chocolate chips, and spread the chocolate onto the Matzah while we read the following paragraphs.


Matzah is the “bread of poverty,” that is, the bread which our ancestors ate as slaves in Egypt. It reminds us of the great haste in which our Israelite ancestors fled from Egypt. Our ancestors had little time to prepare food for their escape, so they had to bake unleavened dough.


The chocolate coating on our matzah recalls the poverty in which most cocoa growers live. They rarely taste the finished product of the chocolate. In this elaborate and plentiful Seder feast the Matzah is a slender reminder of poverty and those who barely eke out a living from their agricultural work, particularly the contrast between the limited resources of most cacao growers and the wealthy consumers of chocolate. When we cover our matzah with chocolate we recall that we are descended from slaves in Egypt and that unfortunately slaves exist in our chocolate-growing world today. As we seek to break the bonds of slavery may this occasion help us form bonds with each other, so that we may eliminate all forms of enslavement on earth.


haggadah Section: Motzi-Matzah