Dayenu! But also, more please!

One of the great Passover traditions is hiding the afikomen. We hide half a piece of matzah (the middle of three, to be exact) and the child who finds it during the Passover meal receives a prize. And importantly, your meal can’t end and the seder can’t continue until the afikomen is found.

But where did this strange custom come from and why do we do it?

It seems this tradition dates back at least to the Talmud, Pesachim 109a, where we are told that “We snatch matzahs on the night of Passover in order that the children should not fall asleep.”

So basically, the search for the afikomen exists solely to keep things interesting. But why should we need to keep things interesting? A Passover seder has everything, right? Family, food, singing, powerful stories of liberation and freedom, 4 questions, 4 sons, 4 cups of wine, even a shank bone! We recline, we dip twice, we eat horseradish (nothing clears out Jewish sinuses better than a Passover seder!) – Dayenu! That should be enough!

Ben Zoma taught, “Who is rich? One who is happy with his lot,” but let’s be honest – I think the human condition could be best summed up by a family friend who once said at a Synagogue luncheon, “What a spread! I wish they had some of those little knishes. But what a spread!” No matter how great something is, it’s both enough, and yet there could always be a little more!

We’ve had a great year at Hillel 818. We’ve already reached more Jewish students than we did all of last year, and if the school year ended today, that would be enough. But my wish for all of you this Passover, and for us at Hillel 818, is that we use the rest of this school year to find our afikomens and have just a little bit more.

Chag sameach!

Matt Baram