After the meal, the half-matzah which had been “hidden,” set aside for the afikoman (“dessert”), is found and then eaten. Everyone should eat at least 1½ ounces of matzah, reclining, before midnight. After eating the afikoman, we do not eat or drink anything except for the two remaining cups of wine.

We read earlier in the seder about the afikomen and some of what it represents. Why do we save the afikomen for the end? We often say that socialism is international or it is nothing. We are obligated in the class struggle here in our own country, but that doesn't mean ignoring the class struggle that is carried out throughout the world. As Marx and Engels say in the Communist Manifesto, workers have no nation, and while the borders established by capitalism define political and economic challenges unique to each section of the proletariat, the system we are fighting is global and the capitalists are united internationally, so we must unite as well.

We eat the afikomen at the end of our seder because we know that the revolution will not be complete until each of the pieces of the world proletariat are united in struggle. As we eat the matzah that represents both our slavery and our liberation, let us bring together all the pieces of our international and the class struggle in our renewed efforts to bring freedom at last.


haggadah Section: Tzafun