There are three pieces of matzah stacked on the table. We now break the middle matzah into two pieces.We wrap up the larger of the pieces and, at some point between now and the end of dinner, hide it. This piece is called the afikomen, literally “dessert” in Greek. After dinner, the guests will have to hunt for the afikomen in order to wrap up the meal… and win a prize.

We eat matzah in memory of the quick flight of our ancestors from Egypt. As slaves, they had faced many false starts before finally being let go. So when the word of their freedom came, they took whatever dough they had and ran with it before it had the chance to rise, leaving it looking something like matzah.

We break the matzah to represent the broken world in which we live, in which some people have too much and others don't have near enough. We break the matzah also to show the brokenness within ourselves and to remember how far we've come and how much we've healed.

These days, matzah is a special food and we look forward to eating it on Passover. Imagine eating only matzah, or being one of the countless people around the world who don’t have enough to eat.


haggadah Section: Yachatz
Source: JewishBoston