Passover matzah has always been divided. One part of our people, let’s compare it to the smaller part of our matzah, still stubbornly sitting at the “seder table”. They sit around the table of their ancestors, following the traditions, continuing the rituals, studying the laws and telling the story. This is the smaller part of the matzah, the minority of our people, which refuses to get up from the Passover table and find other alternatives for life and for happiness. Yes, they sometimes sit there with closed eyes, half asleep, but they are present. These are the Jews who wake up each morning remembering that we are part of a long narrative — beginning with Abraham, culminating with Messiah — and we ought to live our lives inspired by this narrative. They don a tallis, wrap tefilin, go to the synagogue, pray to G-d and send their children to Jewish schools to receive an intense Torah education. These are the Jews who celebrate Shabbos, eat kosher, would not eat a meal outside of a Sukkah or wear a garment made of wool and linen.
The larger part of the matzah — the majority of our people — have wandered from the seder table, into foreign pastures. They have found alternatives to Torah. Indeed, most of our nation remains ignorant and, in many ways, apathetic to our heritage and its wisdom; millions of our brethren feel alienated from our people and its story.
And the split of the matzah continues. We continue to be a divided people. The small part of the matzah often looks with disdain at the larger piece of the matzah: “I am at the seder table; you are lost and estranged;” while the big part of the matzah often looks at the small piece of matzah with bewilderment and pity, wondering how it manages to remain so isolated and detached from modernity and the new world.
Here we will discover the secret of the Matzah. Open your hearts…
The Rebbe’s Calling
April 19 marks the 114th birthday of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (1902-1994), who was born in Ukraine, just days before Passover. Growing up at the height of the revolutions which swept the world and captured the hearts and souls of millions of Jews, the Lubavitcher Rebbe observed firsthand the “matzah” being split, fragmented, broken and then almost completely consumed by the flames of Stalinism and Nazism.
The larger part of the matzah may be absent from our seder table, but it is still matzah; our matzah may be divided, but we are still one matzah. Millions of Jews may be absent from the seder table, but they may never be forgotten. Most importantly: we cannot conclude our seder if we do not bring back the larger piece of matzah which has been gone from the seder table.
The small piece of matzah will never be capable of reaching the culmination of its seder if it will not reach out to its brother-matzah and bring it back to the seder table, recognizing the truth that we are one people and each of us has a place of dignity at the eternal table of Jewish history and consciousness.
This, the Lubavitcher Rebbe believed, was the mission of our time. The seder is almost complete, the story is almost finished. Messiah is at our doorstep. The meal has been eaten, and we have had our share of maror, of bitter herbs and suffering.
And now we must remember the Afikoman. We must search for the Afikoman (matzah), and, with much love and sensitivity, bring it back to the table, and let it reunite with its own essence, with its own story, with its own soul.
Only then will we be able to conclude our journey and truly be “Next year in Jerusalem.”
Please encourage unity in your family in your community, in your country and in our world!
If you need a place for the Seder please contact the Rabbi at chabadoflighthousepoint@gmail.com or RSVP for our Community Passover Seder at www.JewishLHP.com.
Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the Director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches. New location soon. For all upcoming events, please visit www.JewishLHP.com.
