The Making of the Afikoman

Haggadah Section: Yachatz

(Take the middle matzah of the three on your Seder plate. Break it into two pieces. Wrap the larger piece, the Afikoman, in a napkin to be hidden later. As you hold up the remaining smaller piece, read these words together:)

"A whole vessel can contain its measure, but a broken one can hold the Infinite."

According to tradition, we leave the top matzah whole and take the middle matzah to break in half so we can bless the top matzah later, because we aren't supposed to bless things that aren't whole.

But when you break something in half, aren't each of the halves now a complete whole?

Is your body or soul ever completely whole? We feel blessed for the creation of our universe, even though many atrocities and acts of injustice make it broken. We know that nothing is ever completely whole, so let's be thankful for all the pieces that work towards making a whole.

Over the course of the evening, we are going to follow the Afikoman on its journey. Step one of that journey is breaking apart an otherwise unremarkable piece of matzah. What we learn is that the first step to liberation is an act of breaking. The second step is naming that brokenness. In this case, the name is Afikoman. 

We now invite you to go around your table and name one thing what you would like to break in your own lives.

(Break into small groups and each person gives one answer.)

Source:  
Robyn

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