We usually think of the breaking of the matzah as being about splitting it so that we can save one portion for later (the way poor people might). But Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik had a different explanation. He said that even in Egypt, there were different degrees of slavery. Some Jews lived under really bitter and harsh conditions and some had it better. The tribe of Levi was apparently not even enslaved at all! According to this, the Jews who had more food would split their food and give it to those who had less. That’s why it was “poor man’s bread”- they were giving it to the people who needed it more than them. So when we break the matza, we do it as a symbol of chesed of Jew to Jew. That’s why it makes sense that right after Yachatz we would say “Ha Lachma Anya” and invite anyone in need to come eat with us- doing hachnasas orchim, which continues that chesed. (Taken from the YU Torah to Go packet by Rabbi Goldschedier-


haggadah Section: Yachatz