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March 22, 2013
Finding the missing pieces
Amid our abundance we still sometimes suffer spiritual poverty.
RABBI ISRAEL RUBIN
On Passover night we begin the seder by breaking the middle matzah. This important symbol, called Yachatz, precedes the saying of the Haggadah. Half of this matzah is hidden for the afikoman, which is then eaten at the end of the seder. All the other important parts of the seder and the blessings are conducted with a broken matzah. Why do we take a good whole matzah and intentionally break it apart? Is it appropriate to use a damaged and broken matzah at the seder’s centrepiece?
This unusual breaking of bread symbolizes the pain and poverty of our ancestors under Egyptian oppression. They ate crumbs and had to carefully ration their food. Our ancestors were so poor that they had to divide and break up their meals, eat a little bit and save the rest for later. The broken matzah reminds us of the poverty and hunger in those difficult times.
But that was back in Egypt under the Pharaohs. What about the Jewish poor today? I don’t mean the literally destitute and penniless. I am referring to the rich and affluent American Jewish community.
Thank G-d, many of us don’t have to eat morsels or ration our food today. In fact, many of us are spoiled to the point that we want and expect to get everything we desire. Yet, amid all this abundance, we also suffer a heartbreaking version of pain and poverty.
Like the broken matzah, the Jewish people are divided, incomplete and only half of what we should be. Let’s visualize the matzah as part of a circular graph, illustrating the breakdown of the contemporary Jewish family. Demographics show that Jews who identify as belonging to the community comprise only about half of the whole. The other part of the community seems to be hiding, never to be seen at a seder or any other Jewish function.
Assimilation is taking quite a bit out of us. Even as we sit comfortably at the seder, surrounded by family and traditions, we must remember how the other half lives. We should remember that, statistically, 50 percent of our people remain outside, uninterested and unaffiliated.
Even the affiliated Jews are further divided. There are those of us who love and care for all our brethren, affiliated or not. Then there are those who think wholly of themselves, who look inward only to “their own.” The Torah teaches that we are all part of the whole and responsible for each other.
Most of us are spiritually impoverished. It hurts to talk about our poverty, but knowing the problem is half the solution. Assimilation is caused by poor Jewish education, poor Jewish upbringing and poor communal planning.
A half a century ago, Jewish identity was taken for granted. A general feeling of family and mishpocheh kept the community together with a minimum of observance and commitment, but that is no longer so.
Today, we realize that it takes much more than bagels and lox or synagogue attendance to remain Jewish. Fiddler on the Roof nostalgia doesn’t keep up the tradition. A halfhearted interest is insufficient to withstand the external pressures of the wider society. Only personal involvement, a fulfilling Torah education and dynamic mitzvah observance will carry the future.
On the other hand, we shouldn’t despair. Optimistically, the matzah is half “full,” not half empty – for each individual person is a full world, says the Talmud. We must do our best to strengthen Jewish education, involvement and identity to prevent the matzah from crumbling any further.
Even though our community has become segmented and fragmented, we must together work hard to pick up the pieces. We should reach out and keep in touch with one another. We must welcome our brothers and sisters to enjoy the beauty and fulfilment of our common heritage. We have to search and look high and low until we find the missing pieces, the hidden afikoman, which brings the whole seder – and Am Yisrael – together.
Rabbi Israel Rubin serves as director of Chabad of the Capital District in Albany, N.Y. A version of this article appeared on Chabad.org. It is reprinted with permission.
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