The Broken Matzah: Finding Wholeness in Our Brokenness

During our Passover Seder, we encounter a profound ritual that speaks to the heart of the human condition. During the Yachatz, or the breaking of the middle matzah, we take a whole matzah, fracture it in two uneven pieces, and then hide the larger piece—the afikoman—to be discovered at the conclusion of the seder. Why would our tradition, which so passionately emphasizes making things whole and repairing our broken world, deliberately incorporate an act of breaking into our Passover meal? What deeper truth lies concealed within this ancient ritual?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe gives a fascinating answer. When we break the matzah, the smaller piece symbolizes our brokenness—our wounds, our limitations, and our suffering. Meanwhile, the larger piece—the afikoman—represents a state of divine perfection that will come with our future redemption.

During the Seder, we keep the smaller piece of Matzah, representing our brokenness, visible on the table as we tell the story of the Exodus. The larger piece, representing our divine perfection and ultimate redemption, is hidden throughout the seder until it is discovered later and consumed at the conclusion of the meal.

The wisdom here is profound. In our age of social media, where everyone shows the world an image of effortless perfection, the truth is that nestled within each of us is a broken piece of matzah. No one on this earth is perfect, and this Yachatz ritual teaches us humility, to acknowledge that we all are broken inside and that no one is picture perfect. 

When we speak of “freedom” and “liberation” at the Seder, we are not speaking of a freedom from our wounds and imperfections, but by the freedom that comes from embracing them. Mitzrayim in Hebrew means Egypt, and it shares the letters with the word “Meitzarim” which means our confines or our limitations. 

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Each of us has a personal “Egypt”, something which confines and oppresses us today. Passover teaches us that constraints and problems are not an accident, a fluke, or a deviation from G-d’s plan. Rather, they are an essential part of this plan and what it means to be human. As stated in the Psalms, Min hameitzar karati Yah, anani bamerchav Yah—”from a narrow place I called out to G-d, and he answered me with expansion.” Just how G-d redeemed the Israelites at their spiritual low point – their “rock bottom” – he also sees and loves us in the depths of our sorrow, our pain, and our brokenness. 

On Passover, we are invited to embrace both “pieces of the matzah” in our lives—to honor our pains and struggles while kindling faith in future redemption. Just as in the covenant that Avraham sealed with G-d, where animals were divided in half as part of the divine pact with humanity, G-d doesn’t expect us wholeness from us. Our brokenness is not a mistake to be corrected, but part of a greater picture that encompasses both suffering and redemption, addiction and recovery, transgression and forgiveness, fragmentation and restoration.

May this Passover bring inner healing to all that lies broken within us and our fractured world. May we come one step closer to the ultimate redemption, when the words “next year in Jerusalem” will no longer be a hope or a wish, but be fulfilled in actuality with the coming of Moshiach.

A Happy and Kosher Passover,

Rabbi Areyah