This Ritual Life Archive

Welcome to This Ritual Life.

Here you will find out about ways to enhance your holiday experience, to celebrate or mark a meaningful life cycle event, and to deepen your experience of the everyday. Our authors are especially interested in hearing your responses to what they have written. So after reading, visit the Ritual Life discussion forum where you can join in conversation with CLAL faculty and other readers.

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Searching for the Afikoman….

Given the high-tech nature of entertainment now available for children, it is amazing that searching for the afikoman, a simple game of hide-and-seek, continues to provide such a strong focus of attention at our seders and to be a source of anticipation, fun, and memory. How might we build upon the popularity of this beloved ritual, increasing awareness of our potential for greater spirituality, commitment to Judaism, and creative transformation of Jewish communal life? Like the afikoman that is hidden, but not so utterly hidden that it cannot be found, important themes of Passover are already being embodied in our environments. We need only notice.

Meditation:

May my eyes always be open to the traces of Passover that our embedded in my life. Just as some keep a piece of afikoman all year long as a sign of God’s blessings, may the hidden afikoman I discover be a sign of God’s blessings.

Ritual:

At the seder, after the young people have searched for the afikoman, everyone searches for signs of Passover themes that are already present in your life, even if they may be slightly concealed. Choose one theme of Passover that feels especially important to you this year. You might select: Renewing life (karpas), being free (matzah), telling our sacred story (magid), feeding the hungry (ha anya lachma) asking important questions (mah nishtanah), honoring multiple voices (arba’ah banim), connecting to past generations (b’khol dor vador), celebrating life (hallel) and yearning for sacred space (l’shanah ha’ba’ah b’yerusalaim). Getting up from the seder table, search your home—or your host’s home-- for different ways your important Passover theme is reflected in people, places and things. For instance, if "renewing life" is an important theme for you, look for signs of springtime, personal and spiritual growth, new interests, new family members, rekindled relationships, pruning back, getting second chances, planning for the future, renovation. If you’ve found daffodils, slipcovers or a pregnant guest, you’re on the right track.

Returning to the table, share the theme you’ve been searching for and describe any evidence you’ve found. The discoveries you’ve all made—the daffodils, the slipcovers… are symbols of sacred commitments, just as the haroset, matzah and marror are for many. Now, your seder can conclude with blessings and song as the taste of afikoman lingers. If your have been a seder guest, search your own home for important passover themes.

Blessing:

(As you begin your search)

Barukh atah pokayach ivrim.

Blessed is the One who gives us the vision to see.

Teaching:

And in the end, we will find afikoman. We will find the hidden matzah, the hidden awareness, the hidden parts of the soul. (Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav)

Many commentators believe that the afikoman is reserved for the end of the meal so that matzah would be the last taste of the celebration. A striking commentary by Rabbi Harold Schulweis suggests that the afikoman is the matzah of the future (messianic) redemption. The matzah is broken because the world is still unredeemed; the matzah is eaten at the end because our hope is still unbroken. (Irving Greenberg, The Jewish Way)

(CLAL Faculty)

CLAL's National Jewish Resource Center develops and publishes rituals that help to bridge the gap between our contemporary lives and the ancient wisdom of the Jewish tradition.

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