On passover we hide the afikoman, the matzah, and retire it at the end of the
night as our desert. This act is called Tzafun which means hidden in Hebrew. It is
important to make sure you have eaten and drank enough before retrieving the
afikoman because the only thing you can have is another two cups of wine for a
different mitzvah. After retrieving that hidden matzah you eat it reclining on your left
side. With the first matzah, we fulfilled our obligation to eat matzah. This one is in place
of the Pesach lamb (which can only be brought in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem) that is
meant to be eaten on a full stomach (from chabad.org).
According to halachipedia.com one has until Chatzot to eat the matzah. If one
didn’t eat any Matzah until Chatzot one should eat matzah after Chatzot without a
Bracha of Al Achilat Matzah. If one began late and there is a little time before Chatzot
one should just say Kiddush, wash one’s hands, say HaMotzei and Al Achilat Matzah,
eat the Matzah, and then make Al Achilat Maror and eat that before Chatzot and then
complete the seder with the reading of the Haggadah and eating of the meal.
Rav Sholem Kaidaner, tutor of the Rebbe Rashab, once asked the Rebbe
Maharash the meaning of the name Tzafun. The Rebbe Maharash replied that tzafun
means “hidden.” Eating the afikoman endows us with the potential to destroy the evil
hidden in our hearts according to the previous Rebbe.
What is meant by “hidden evil”? We all have faults that are easily recognizable.
These must surely be corrected. Beyond that, each of us has character flaws of which
we may not be so aware. This is the evil which the afikoman empowers us to destroy
according to the Rebbe.
In the Kabbalah, it is explained that there is something deeper than the soul.
There is the body, the spirit, and then there is the essence. If the soul is light, then that
essence is the source of light. If it is energy, then the essence is the dynamo. It is called
"tzafun," meaning hidden, buried, locked away and out of reach. Whatever we do, we
dance around that essence-core, like a spacecraft in orbit, unable to land. We can
meditate, we can be inspired, but to touch the inner core, the place where all this comes
from, that takes a power from beyond.
On Passover night, we have that power. But only after all the steps before:
Destroying our personal chametz, preparing our homes for liberation, the eleven steps
of the Seder until now. Then, when we are satiated with all we can handle, connecting
every facet of ourselves to the Divine, that’s when that power comes to us. Whether we
sense it or not, tasteless as it may seem, the matzah we eat now reaches deep into our
core and transforms our very being. In general, it is this way: Those things you find
inspiring and nice may take you a step forward. But if you want to effect real change,
you need to do something totally beyond your personal bounds.


haggadah Section: Tzafun