There are many explanations for the breaking of the middle matzah. One question is why do we break the matzah now when it is not needed until later in the ceremony?

Because a key to freedom is to anticipate the future and make it real. We cannot move forward with our project of revolution if we stay only in the mindset of our current crisis. Many people who call themselves Marxists are stuck in the pessimism of the day. But armed with the lessons of history and dialectical materialist analysis, we understand that the working class can and will unite to rise up against capitalism. We need to prepare now, before the uprising, to be the leadership from within the working class. We learn in the story of Passover that Moses and Aaron prepared and secured their leadership long before the people rose up to leave. So too must we build our authority in our time.

The broken middle matzah also represents all those separated from their families or communities, from the Jews expelled from Jerusalem by the Romans to the Native Americans sent to reservations and enslaved, to the millions living in refugee camps around the world and the Palestinians removed from their homes. We cannot conclude the seder without the broken piece being found, and we cannot have true liberation until all those who are separated are given the freedom to cross borders and reunite with those they love.


haggadah Section: Yachatz
Source: http://jcua.org/document.doc?id=10