Yachatz
Break the middle matzah into two pieces. Wrap and set aside the
larger piece as the Afikomen, the matzah to be eaten after the meal.
The smaller half is returned to its place with the other two matzah.
We break the matzah because we have been broken. There are parts we can never repair, but the whole of our communities is greater than the sum of our pains.
We, in solidarity with Palestinians and all oppressed peoples, break this bread of affliction as we begin our retelling of our journey from enslavement out of Mitzrayim.
Ha Lachma Anya
Raise the tray with the matzot and say:
הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא דִי אֲכָלוּ אַבְהָתָנָא בְּאַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם. כָּל דִכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכֹל, כָּל דִצְרִיךְ יֵיתֵי וְיִפְסַח. הָשַׁתָּא הָכָא, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּאַרְעָא דְיִשְׂרָאֵל. הָשַׁתָּא עַבְדֵי, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּנֵי חוֹרִין.
Ha lachma anya di achalu avhatana b’ara d’Mitzrayim. Kol dichfin yeitei v’yeichol, kol ditzrich yeitei v’yifsach. Hashata hacha, l’shanah habaah b’ara d’Yisrael. Hashata avdei, l’shanah habaah b’nei chorin.
This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in Mitzrayim. Let all who are hungry, come and eat. All who are isolated, come and celebrate Passover with us. This year, as long as some are oppressed, none of us are free.
Next year, may we all be free.
Bread of Affliction
“This is the wondrous thing we call ‘bread’—a mixture of
rabbit, donkey, and pigeon feed. There is nothing good about
it except that it fills our bellies. It is impossible to stuff it with other
foods, or even break it except by biting down hard with one’s teeth.”
Text: Hamza Abu Toha, Gaza, February 2024.
Since then, even animal feed has largely run out in
Northern Gaza.According to Oxfam, three hundred
thousand people have been subsisting on 245 calories
a day on average, one eighth of the normal intake.
“When the famine threshold is crossed, the death spike starts
with the very young, the elderly and the chronically ill before
spreading among the population. Recent acute malnutrition
numbers [in Gaza] are not only alarmingly high but, in the words
of a famine expert, “jaw-dropping” in their rate of increase over
the past two months, especially among children under five.”