Yachatz: The Broken Matzah:
Limits,
Memory, Promises, and Change
יחץ מרמז א. שנחלק בחצות הלילה לזה ג''כ מחלקין המצה לשתים ולא שוין
המה. בשביל שאמר משה כחצות שלא יאמרו המצרים משה בדאי הוא ע"כ מראין בזה שזהו
רק בידו של הקב"ה וב''ש הגדול לכוין האמצע כחוט השערה אבל
בידי אדם אי אפשר לצמצם. והיא גדולתו
ב. שנחלק הים. והוא ג''כ זכר לקריעת י''ס ולא כחלק ג"כ לשוין באמצע הים רק בצדה.
ג. שנחלק השנים של הגזירה בין הבתרים מן תי''ו שנים לא היו תחת
השעבוד רק רד''ו שנים לכן הפרוסות הנחלקות ג''כ איכם שוין והאחת גדולה והאחת קטנה
כמו בחלוקת השנים לרמז בזה שמטמין הגדולה לאפיקומן תחת הכר נגד חלק הגדול מהשנים
שהין בגלות זהו רד"ו שנה וחלק הקטן מחזירו על השלחן לסימן חירות רמז
לק"ץ שנים שנעשו בני חורין ועל חלק פרוסה זו חוזר ומגיד כהא לחמא ומהא טעמא
מניעת עשות פסח במקדש ואכילת בפסח חמץ דווקא בעונש כרת מפני שקב"ה ברוב רחמיו
כרת השנים של הגלות במצרים כדי לקיימנו ולהחיותינו כטעמם הידועים שלא יבואו
ח"ו לנון שערי טומאה ואז ח''ו לא היה להם תקומה לכן כרת מאתם השעבוד ק''ן
שנים קודם, ע"כ מי שלא קיים המצוה הזאת זהו בוודי אינו מודה בכריתות אלו
השרים של גלות לכן מעניש אותו ג"כ בכרת השנים מדה כנגד מדה.
ד. יחץ ר"ל אחר שקידש את עצמו בטבילה ובהזאה כבעל תשובה
צריך לקיים ג"כ מצוה יו''ט כנהוג וזהו יחץ לשון מחצה ר"ל חציה לד' וחציה
לכם ולא נחלק לשוין רק חלק הקטן שהוא חציה לכם על השלחן לאכול לשמחת יו"ט
וחלק הגדול הוא מצוה לד' שמור לאפיקומן שמרמז לקדושת עולם הבא, וזהו הטעם שנוטל
חלק הגדול ומניח תחת מראשותיו בין כר לכסת מכוסה ונעלס להראותינו ששכר עולם הבא
הוא ג"כ טמיר ונעלם מאתנו והוא גדול מאוד עכ''ז אין אנחנו שוכני בתי חומר
נוכל להשיגו כמאמר הכתוב מה רב טובך אשר צפנת ליריאך עכ''ז עין לא ראתה
Yahatz, the breaking of the middle matzah, has several different meanings:
1. It is a reminder that the tenth plague
happened in middle of the night. Thus we break the middle matzah into two unequal pieces because Moses said; "Thus said
the Lord: 'About midnight I will go forth among the Egyptians…'"
(Ex11:4) Moses said k'chatzot, "about midnight," and not exactly at midnight,
since only God is capable of knowing the exact moment of an event. The broken matzah is a reminder of human
limitations and the greatness of God.
2.
The
broken matzah is a reminder that God
split the sea. Similarly, the sea was not split equally into two parts so we
break the matzah into two unequal
parts.
3.
God
divided the years that were mentioned in the Covenant of the Pieces into
unequal parts. The people were not subjugated by the Egyptians 400 years (as
promised in Gen. 15:13) but were enslaved only 210 years; so too the matzah is divided into larger and
smaller pieces . The larger piece is hidden under the pillow (for the Afikomen) as a symbol of the majority of
the years that the Israelites were enslaved, and the smaller piece is placed
back on the plate as a symbol of Israel's freedom. It is on this piece of
matzah that we say "This is the bread of affliction…" It is for this reason that one who failed to
make the Passover offering in the Temple or one who ate leavened food on
Passover was punished with karet,[1]
extirpation. This is a fitting punishment, measure for measure: since God cut
short the number of years that Israel was to be enslaved, a Jew is punished by
having his years cut short when he fails to observe Passover. God cut short
Israel's subjugation so that they would not fall down to the fiftieth level of
impurity and thus become unredeemable. God in His great mercy made certain that
the number of years Israel spent in Egypt was shortened so that they could
still be redeemed.
4.
Having
sanctified himself and immersed himself in the way of a ba'al teshuvah, he now celebrates the festival. This is called Yachatz , from the word mechetzeh or chatzi, half. The celebration on festivals is partially devoted to
God and partially devoted to the persons physical comforts. The larger portion
of the commandment to rejoice on the festivals is for God. This is represented by the Afikomen, the larger piece of the matzah. This portion is hidden behind a
pillow just the reward of the portion for the world to come is hidden from
sight. Even though this reward is huge, it is beyond our comprehension, as is
written: "In the covert of your presence you hide them from the plots of
men. You hold them safe under your shelter from the strife of tongues."
(Psalms 31:20)
Commentary:
Why do we break the middle matzah and hide the larger portion of it
for the Afikomen to be consumed at
the end of the Seder meal? Rabbi Bondi explores the significance not only in
breaking the matzah into two pieces but purposely breaking it into two unequal
size pieces. He offers four reasons, which I would suggest fall into four
different categories: theological, historical, prophetic, and existential.
These four categories closely parallel Pardes,
the literal, homoletical, allegorical and mystical.
1. The first explanation is the
theological. Moses does not say that the tenth plague will come at midnight but
"around midnight." The rabbis puzzled over this expression and
explained that lest the Egyptians timing was off they might accuse Moses of
having been wrong in his timing. Therefore Moses fudged the time a bit so that
he could not be accused of being off in his timing. Only God can know the exact
middle point of the night. One should note that midnight does not mean 12 AM
but the middle point between sundown and sunrise. This is a halachic category
which the rabbis regularly use to define times during the night.
2.
The second explanation (and the third to an extent) is historical. The
broken matzah is a reminder of the splitting of the red sea, and the amount of
time that Israel was enslaved in Egypt.
3. Prophetic/historical - the Covenant
of the Pieces refers to the mysterious vision that Abraham has in which God
predicts that Israel will be strangers in a land not their own for four hundred
years. (Genesis 15) The problem with this prophecy is that Israel was only
enslaved 210 years - so what happened to the other 190 years. According to the
sages, the Israelites were liberated earlier because they could not have
endured 400 years of slavery. There are fifty levels of impurity - if Israel
had descended all fifty levels they would have been incapable of being redeemed.
God, therefore, redeemed them when they reached the 49th level of impurity
before they were completely lost - this was after 210 years.
5. The existential interpretation
continues an earlier line of interpretation. The fifteen steps in the Seder are not a reference to the ritual
acts that are part of the Seder but also refer to the ways in which we sanctify
our lives and undergo a process of spiritual transformation, beginning with kadesh - preparation, urechatz - cleansing, and karpas - immersion. We are now
spiritually ready to celebrate and rejoice in the presence of God, yachatz - both for ourselves and for the
sake of God.
[1] KARET
(Heb. כָּרֵת; "Extirpation"), a punishment at the hands of heaven
mentioned in the Bible as the penalty for a considerable number of sins
committed deliberately such as: idolatry, desecration of the Sabbath, the
eating of leaven on Passover, incest and adultery; and for some forbidden
foods. No previous warning need be given in these cases. The halakhah
explains karet as premature death (Sifra, Emor, 14:4), and a baraita
(MK 28a; TJ, Bik. 2:1, 64b) more explicitly as: "death at the age of
50," but some amoraim hold that it refers to "death between
the ages of 50 and 60." The word karet is also used to indicate the
degree of severity of a transgression, and serves as a "standard" for
many other halakhot. The Mishnah (Ker. 1:1) enumerates the 36
transgressions mentioned in the Torah for which the penalty is karet,
and lays down (ibid., 1:2) that only where there is karet for the
deliberate act is there a sin-offering for the act committed inadvertently.
Since the punishment is divine, and the fact that it is deliberate is known
only to God, it does not require witnesses or previous warning. (Jewish Virtual
Library)
No comments:
Post a Comment