B"H
THOUGHTS FOR THE MONTH OF IYAR
Dear Friends:
Greetings from
the Holy City of Yerushalayim!
We are now in the
midst of the Sefira Count leading up to Shavuos. Will
we be worthy to stand at the foot of Mount Sinai to receive
the Torah?
In pondering this
question, I am thinking back to the Passover Seder. What
remains from that great occasion? Our Sages tell
us that the taste of Afikoman should linger in our mouths.
What really does
that mean?
Why, in fact, does
the Haggadah spend so much time on the Afikoman? For
example, the one answer we give the Wise Son is to "explain
to him the laws of the Pesach offering, that one may not
eat desert after the final taste of the Pesach offering
(Afikoman)."
Why does the Haggadah
devote so much time to the Afikoman?
Pesach is called "Chag
ha Matzos," the Festival of Matzos. "Chag" in Hebrew
is related to the word "chug," which means circle. In
the days of the Holy Temple, all Israel would ascend to Yerushalayim
and gather with their families in a great circle - a "chug" -
around the Temple Mount during the three holidays of
Passover, Shavuos and Sukkos.
I would like to
suggest that the round matzah at our Seder symbolizes that
circle, that "chug." We were one family then, gathered
around the Temple of G-d in unity and the
desire to serve Him. These were the days of our glory, when
the entire world looked to us for spiritual illumination and
guidance. All knew that we were the Nation chosen
by G-d to
be His emissaries in this world. As it says in the Holiday
prayers, "Ata v'chartanu," "You have chosen us from among all
the peoples." The unbroken circle encamped around
the Temple Mount symbolized the entire purpose of our Nation.
And then what happened?
At the beginning
of the Seder we dip a vegetable into salt water for Karpas. This
dipping is said to symbolize the dipping of Joseph's coat into
the blood of a goat, the act which symbolized the disunity
among the brothers that sent us down into Exile. After Karpas comes Yachatz,
in which we break the middle matzah and put away half for the Afikoman. Then
we begin Maggid, the story of our descent into the
terrible Egyptian exile, from which we emerged only through
the mercies and miracles of our Father in Heaven.
The dipping of
the vegetable, followed by the breaking of the matzah and
the story of our Egyptian Exile, exactly parallels the
story of the selling of Joseph and the disunity that
resulted in the descent into slavery and exile. The
unity of Israel was sundered, the circle was broken,
and this is symbolized by the breaking of the matzah.
Are the events
narrated at the Seder a fairy tale, a historical narrative?
No, my friends,
this is the tragedy of our nation. This is today!
The sale of Joseph
by his brothers, the disunity among the Children of Israel,
are still plaguing us. We are suffering today from the
tortures of exile. The Seder is a vivid picture of
our contemporary condition.
What, my friends,
is the way out? What does the Seder tell us about how
to end this seemingly interminable exile? Where is
the clue to bringing about our FINAL Redemption?
THE AFIKOMAN!
Why does the Haggadah
instruct the Wise Son specifically about the laws of Afikoman? Why
is that the taste that is supposed to linger in our mouths
even now, long after the Seder has ended?
Because the Afikoman is
the broken half of the matzah, the piece that represents
the reconstruction of our family, the chug, the circle
of Am Yisroel gathered around the Temple Mount.
We must repair
the broken family!
The children urge
their father to find the broken matzah, just as our Prophet
Malachi says that "before the coming of the Great and Awesome
Day of G-d... [Elijah the Prophet] will turn back
[to G-d ] the hearts of fathers with [their]
sons and the hearts of sons with their fathers...." [1]
And so it is that,
just before midnight, the fathers and children together find
the Afikoman, the missing half of our Nation, and
the circle is once again complete around the Temple Mount. Midnight
is the end of the night, the beginning of the morning. Once
our unity is re-established, the way is cleared for the
Great and Awesome Day of G-d that is surely close, closer
than we think!
As we count our
way toward Shavuos and the acceptance of the Torah at that
mountain where we stood "like one man with one heart," let
the taste of Afikoman linger in our mouth, the taste
of unity, a reborn and reunited Nation of Israel. May
we see it soon in our days!
With blessings
from the Holy City,
Roy S. Neuberger
