Finding More Than Matzah - CHRONICLE Online/The WORD 03/26/26

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah

March 26, 2026

10 Nisan 5786

Shabbat Hagadol

Parashat Tzav

As Passover approaches, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Afikoman—the half-piece of matzah we hide during the Seder. The Seder can’t be completed until the Afikoman is found and everyone has a taste. 

As a child, I loved searching for it, hoping I’d be the one to earn the prize and help move the Seder along. As an adult, I loved watching my kids take up that same joyful hunt. But I think we’ve reached the point in our family where the excitement has started to fade. 

And yet, setting aside the treasure hunt and the ransoming of a piece of matzah, the Afikoman marks a crucial moment in the Seder. We can’t reach the end of the story without it. In a deeper sense, we can’t move toward redemption without our children. Their participation isn’t just nice; it’s necessary. The story remains unfinished without them. 

That’s true at the Seder, and it’s true in real life as well. 

There is a growing generational divide in the Jewish community when it comes to Israel. Many younger members of our community have come of age in a time when vast sums—billions of dollars—have been invested by countries like Qatar and the UAE, attempting to shape and influence the American educational system. 

As a result, some young Jews have come to accept as fact that Israel is guilty of the three great modern libels: colonialism, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing. In much of today’s academic discourse, the world is neatly divided into oppressors and oppressed. Somehow, within that framework, 57 Muslim countries—25 of them Arabic-speaking—are cast as oppressed, while the one Jewish state, in our historic homeland, speaking Hebrew, is labeled the great oppressor of the Middle East.  It is one of the great feats of Israel’s enemies that they have convinced the world of this inversion. 

Just like at the Passover Seder, we need to call our young people back to the table. We need to give them a taste of the bread of affliction and remind them of our story—how we struggled, endured, and fought to return home to the land of Israel. 

In the Haftarah we read on the Shabbat before Passover, the prophet Malachi teaches what must happen before Elijah can herald the Messianic age: “He will reconcile the heart of parents with their children and the heart of children with their parents.” 

Maybe a good place to start is simple: sharing a half-piece of matzah at the Seder—and speaking heart to heart. 

Best wishes for wonderful Passover –  

Shalom,

RAF.