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READER: [6b] Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? [7] Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast--as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. [8] Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:6b-8)

READER: So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. (Exodus 12:34)

LEADER: (Take three matzohs and put them in the matzoh pouch, one per section.) Take your matzah pouch and three slices of matzah and put one matzah in each section. In a moment we will break the middle one.

Many different explanations are offered as to why we do this and what it represents. One is that the three matzahs represent the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. However, why would we break the matzah representing Isaac? Abraham offered his son Isaac at the a-ke-dat Yitz-chak, the binding of Isaac, but Isaac was not broken.

Another explanation offered is that the three matzahs represent God, Israel and the Jewish people. Again, why break the matzah representing Israel and that one only?

The broken piece is called "the bread of affliction." Yet another explanation offered is that slaves could not be sure where their next meal was coming from and so they might hide some away just in case.

The Hebrew scriptures say Adonai e-chad u-sheh-mo e-chad,  "The Lord is One and His Name is One." However, the word e-chad carries with it the concept of some sort of plural aspect. For example, in Genesis 2:24 we read, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become e-chad flesh—one flesh." Also, the Hebrew scriptures refer to God as Elohim, a plural form.

Perhaps the three ma-tzot hint at the triune nature of God--a single indivisible spirit who manifests to us as our Father, and as Yeshua, the Mashiach, the living Torah, the Word of God and Son of God, and also as Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit of God. Perhaps the middle matzah is broken to remind us of what Yeshua, the Bread of Life, endured to be our ki-pur-ah, the sacrifice that atoned for our sins.

(Remove and break the middle matzah in two relatively equal pieces.)

We now break the middle piece, the bread of affliction. We will eat one half and the other half is called the a-fi-ko-men, [ah-fee-KOH-men] the dessert.

(Wrap the afikomen in a cloth or put it in the afikomen pouch. [Note])

I will hide the afikomen and later the children can try to find it to return it for a reward.

(Hide the wrapped afikomen, but don't make it too difficult to find. If the children can't find it later, the Seder can't continue. Put the other half back in the middle section of the pouch.)

ALL: In haste we went out of Egypt.
 

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