Lead Tidbit

The two other sides of the coin

Coins usually have two side - this one and the other side of the coin. (Forget about heads and tails, obverse and reverse, Pali and Eitz, etc. We’re dealing with a proverbial coin… as you will see.)

This coin has one side and two other sides of the coin. How so? Good question. Let’s go…

The idea of this Lead Tidbit began many years ago with a beautiful Hagada “vort” by Rav Sorotzkin z"l in his hagada HaShir v’haShevach. He observes that the “child” (can be any age, 4-120) sees several unusual things at the beginning of the Seder: Chairs with pillows for reclining, kittel-clad men (perhaps), table set differently and fancier than usual, everyone getting his own full cup of wine, reclining for drinking the first cup, washing Netilat Yadayim but without a bracha, Karpas in salt water, breaking the middle matza, hiding the larger part for later, pouring a second cup, covering or removing the Seder plate - he or she must be bursting with questions. Finally, we tell the child that it is his turn - ask away. The first question he asks (from Ma Nishtana) is about matza. That’s what he asks about?! We just answered that one for him before he even asked. We held the broken matza aloft and declared in Aramaic (the vernacular way back when), so that everyone would under- stand the declaration: This is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. It’s the only thing we’ve answered yet - all other questions would be appropriate except one about matza, since he just heard, loud and clear, why we eat matza. Wasn’t paying attention?

Rav Sorotzkin says that he was, and therefore asks a brilliant question. He is not asking about why we eat matza. We just told him and he heard and understood. What actually puzzles him is why we eat KULO MATZA - matza and only matza. If matza is the bread of affliction than in contrast there should be a delicious, sweet, fragrant challah that would represent freedom, nobility, luxury. But it isn’t there. We got rid of all chametz. Why is this night KULO, exclusively, matza? Great question.

Rav Sorotzkin continues that we tell the child that after we go through the Magid portion of the hagada, we will pick up the same broken piece of matza and ask and answer the question - again - as to why we eat matza. Only this time, the answer is different. The answer is the other side of the coin from the HA LACHMA ANYA side. This time, matza represents the haste with which we left Egypt at G-d’s command and the trust we put in Him that we didn’t even linger to prepare food for the journey. And now matza becomes the perfect “item” of the Seder experience, because it symbolizes slavery and freedom. It have both sides of the coin. (As do many other Seder items - but that’s for another time.)

That’s our answer to the child’s question about KULO MATZA.

Almost. But not quite. There’s something a little off; something missing. Of all the aspects of the freedom side of the Mitzrayim experience, haste in leaving doesn’t seem like such a major thing. Drinking four cups of wine seems to fit the bill in that role. Luxury, freedom, nobility. Wine. Slavery - no wine. Even better than wine, let’s look at Korban Pesach. Now there is the real other side of the coin. Everything about KP says “luxury, freedom, nobility”. Roasting meal is the least economical way to prepare it - lots of shrinkage. But it is the tastiest. Saving some of one’s food for the next day is what a slave and a poor person does. Not a nobleman. KP cannot be left over. Its bones cannot be broken - something a poor person would do to get every last bit of food from his meat. And eating it, not to satisfy hunger, but to enjoy it as a dessert after a satisfying meal? Luxury, itself.

Matza is LECHEM ONI, poor person’s bread. Slave’s food. KP is the food of MAMLECHET KOHANIM. Of free people. Or wealth and nobility. There is your contrast. There are your symbols of emerging from slavery to freedom.

Obviously, we have both “other sides of the coin”. But the specialness in the message of matza is that G-d is praising us for having faith in him. For not lingering when it came time to leave Egypt. For not even properly providing for a journey. And G-d named the whole 7 days of the holiday, Chag HaMatzot.
We call it Pesach, becaue that is our way of expressing our appreciation to G-d for saving our firstborns, for saving us. KP symbolizes our getting out of Egypt. Matza symbolizes our readiness to become G-d’s nation.

When it came time to eat Korban Pesach, the mitzva was to eat it with matza (and Maror). This brings the two other sides of the coin together. This we commemorate with the Afikoman which represents BOTH the KP and the matza that was eaten with it. Chag Samei’ach.

• Other Lead Tidbit
• The Middle Matza
• When will we learn?!?
• A Brief Look Back at Chanuka