The Bigger Half is Hidden

So much in the seder defies the laws of physics. Opposites co-exist. We are free people and slaves at the same time. Charoset is the mortar of our heavy toil and charoset is the sweet hope that we never lost, the sweet taste of freedom. Salt water is our slaverytears and salt water is the Red Sea that we crossed to freedom. It is written right in the Hagaddah that we break the middle matza in HALF, and the larger half gets hidden. All that telling before we get to the gefilte fish, and yet, the bigger half of the story is hidden, to be found by.......the afikomen hunters! the next generation! I see, penciled in to my hagaddah: "Why do we break the matzah? Why is there so much broken in our world? Why did the cosmic designer make a world where hearts break, lives shatter, beauty crumbles? A whole vessel can contain its measure, but a broken one can hold the infinite." And I think to myself, "It is from our broken places that we can feel compassion for the brokenness in others", and I think to myself, "Matzah is fragile food. Crumbs fill the house, take a bite and it shatters. And Matzah is a durable food, keeping the Jewish people connected and remembering, throughout the ages". This year, let's make the motzi over matza, and ask everyone at the table to be silent through the chomping on the first matza, to listen to the matza talking. It is a grand and glorious noise.