Passover 21

The meal has ended. It is time for TZAFUN, "the hidden". Near the beginning of the seder, we broke a matzah into two, and hid a piece away for the Afikoman. Afikoman is a Greek word, meaning "we go out"; that is essentially "dessert". But it is no ordinary dessert. When the Temple stood, some of the Passover sacrifice, as well as the hagigah holiday sacrifice, were eaten at the beginning of the meal. At the end of the meal, an additional piece of the Passover sacrifice was eaten. Surprisingly, this was considered the main partaking of the sacrifice. The initial eating indeed fulfilled the obligation, but this later eating was understood to be the main event. The participants at the seder are already full. Now they can fully concentrate on the MEANING of the sacrifice rather than their hunger. Although the seder can be held, and the sacrifice eaten with matzah and bitter herbs anytime after dark, there is a debate as to whether the latest time was midnight or the first light of dawn. The eventual decision of the Sages was that in either case, it should be eaten before midnight, with the doubt being if that was the actual requirement, or just a safety measure in order to keep us from overshooting dawn. The plague of the First Born occurred at midnight. Immediately following was Pharaoh's order to leave Egypt at once. The pre-midnight eating of the sacrifice was in anticipation of the huge shift in our destiny in just a few moments. That is the meaning of midnight; to recognize the moment of being closer to dawn than to darkness. It is despair in the process of becoming hope. This is one of the understandings of the meaning of the Midnight Repair, recited every night by Kabbalists. When we were no longer able to have the sacrifice, the Sages instituted the eating of an additional piece of matzah, ideally before midnight, in memory of the Passover sacrifice. We take out the matzah of the Afikoman. Each participant eats an olive's bulk (some prefer two, symbolizing both the sacrifice and the matzah that was eaten with it). Additional matzah may be added to make up the quantity. We eat it leaning to the left. We remember the sacrifice, as well as the meaning of life. In a sense, it is anti-climactic; we have already fulfilled our obligations. But like the climax of a movie, it is the act that connects all the loose ends, and we finally see what it was all about. Our physical hunger is long gone, but our spiritual hunger is now beginning to be satisfied. Although the drinking of two additional cups of wine still lies ahead, we eat no more that evening; not even a post-seder snack. The taste of deliverance is to remain in our mouths, as we set out on our National, as well as Personal, journey towards Sinai. Many people save a small portion of the Afikoman as a permanent reminder. In the folklore of some communities, they say that when Mashiach has arrived, and we are all headed towards the Holy Land, the seas will be rough. At that point, we will throw the pieces of saved Afikoman from an entire lifetime, and the sea will become calm. Life is full of stormy seas. The seder has given us the strength and power to calm them.