## Tevele Bondi on Pesach Haggadah, Yachatz

###### Tevele Bondi on Pesach Haggadah, Yachatz 1:1
[Tevele Bondi on Pesach Haggadah, Yachatz 1:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Tevele%20Bondi%20on%20Pesach%20Haggadah/s/Yachatz/r/1:1)

**יחץ** מרמז:

**Rabbi Mark Greenspan:**
**Yachatz – The Broken Matzah:**
Limits, Memory, Promises, and Change. 
Yachatz, the breaking of the middle matzah, has several different meanings:


###### Tevele Bondi on Pesach Haggadah, Yachatz 1:2
[Tevele Bondi on Pesach Haggadah, Yachatz 1:2](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Tevele%20Bondi%20on%20Pesach%20Haggadah/s/Yachatz/r/1:2)

**א.** שנחלק בחצות הלילה לזה ג"כ מחלקין המצה לשתים ולא שוין המה. בשביל שאמר משה כחצות שלא יאמרו המצרים משה בדאי הוא ע"כ מראין בזה שזהו רק בידו של הקב"ה וב"ש הגדול לכוין האמצע כחוט השערה אבל בידי אדם אי אפשר לצמצם. והיא גדולתו.

**Rabbi Mark Greenspan:**
1.	It is a reminder that the tenth plague happened in middle of the night. Thus we break the middle matzah into two unequal pieces because Moses said; "Thus said the Lord: 'About midnight I will go forth among the Egyptians…'" (Ex. 11:4) Moses said k'chatzot, "about midnight," and not exactly at midnight, since only God is capable of knowing the exact moment of an event. The broken matzah is a reminder of human limitations and the greatness of God.


###### Tevele Bondi on Pesach Haggadah, Yachatz 1:3
[Tevele Bondi on Pesach Haggadah, Yachatz 1:3](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Tevele%20Bondi%20on%20Pesach%20Haggadah/s/Yachatz/r/1:3)

**ב.** שנחלק הים. והוא ג"כ זכר לקריעת י"ס ולא נחלק ג"כ לשוין באמצע הים רק בצדה.

**Rabbi Mark Greenspan:**
2.	The broken matzah is a reminder that God split the sea. Similarly, the sea was not split equally into two parts so we break the matzah into two unequal parts.


###### Tevele Bondi on Pesach Haggadah, Yachatz 1:4
[Tevele Bondi on Pesach Haggadah, Yachatz 1:4](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Tevele%20Bondi%20on%20Pesach%20Haggadah/s/Yachatz/r/1:4)

**ג.** שנחלק השנים של הגזירה בין הבתרים מן תי"ו שנים לא היו תחת השעבוד רק רד"ו שנים לכן הפרוסות הנחלקות ג"כ אינם שוין והאחת גדולה והאחת קטנה כמו בחלוקת השנים לרמז בזה שמטמין הגדולה לאפיקומן תחת הכר נגד חלק הגדל מהשנים שהיו בגלות זהו רד"ו שנה וחלק הקטן מחזירו על השלחן לסימן חירות רמז לק"ץ שנים שנעשו בני חורין ועל חלק פרוסה זו חוזר ומגיד כהא לחמא ומהא טעמא מניעת עשות פסח במקדש ואכילת בפסח חמץ דווקא בעונש כרת מפני שקב"ה ברוב רחמיו כרת השנים של הגלות במצרים כדי לקיימנו ולהחיותינו כטעמם הידועים שלא יבואו ח"ו לנו"ן שערי טומאה ואז ח"ו לא הי' להם תקומה לכן כרת מאתם השעבוד ק"ץ שנים קודם, ע"כ מי שלא קיים המצוה הזאת זהו בוודאי אינו מודה בכריתות אלו השנים של גלות לכן מעניש אותו ג"כ בכרת השנים מדה כנגד מדה.

**Rabbi Mark Greenspan:**
3.	God divided the years that were mentioned in the Covenant of the Pieces into unequal parts. The people were not subjugated by the Egyptians for 400 years (as promised in Gen. 15:13) but were enslaved only 210 years; so too the matzah is divided into larger and smaller pieces . The larger piece is hidden under the pillow (for the Afikomen) as a symbol of the majority of the years that the Israelites were enslaved, and the smaller piece is placed back on the plate as a symbol of Israel's freedom. It is on this piece of matzah that we say "This is the bread of affliction…" It is for this reason that one who failed to make the Passover offering in the Temple or one who ate leavened food on Passover was punished with karet, extirpation. This is a fitting punishment, measure for measure: since God cut short the number of years that Israel was to be enslaved, a Jew is punished by having his years cut short when he fails to observe Passover. God cut short Israel's subjugation so that they would not fall down to the fiftieth level of impurity and thus become unredeemable. God in His great mercy made certain that the number of years Israel spent in Egypt was shortened so that they could still be redeemed.


###### Tevele Bondi on Pesach Haggadah, Yachatz 1:5
[Tevele Bondi on Pesach Haggadah, Yachatz 1:5](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Tevele%20Bondi%20on%20Pesach%20Haggadah/s/Yachatz/r/1:5)

**ד.** יחץ ר"ל אחר שקידש את עצמו בטבילה ובהזאה כבעל תשובה צריך לקיים ג"כ מצות יו"ט כנהוג וזהו יחץ לשון מחצה ר"ל חציה לד' וחציה לכם ולא נחלק לשוין רק חלק הקטן שהוא חציה לכם על השלחן לאכול לשמחת יו"ט וחלק הגדול הוא מצוה לד' שמור לאפיקומן שמרמז לקדושת עולם הבא, וזהו הטעם שנוטל חלק הגדול ומניח תחת מראשותיו בין כר לכסת מכוסה ונעלם להראותינו ששכר עולם הבא הוא ג"כ טמיר נעלם מאתנו והוא גדול מאוד עכ"ז אין אנחנו שוכני בתי חומר נוכל להשיגו כמאמר הכתוב מה רב טובך אשר צפנת ליריאך עכ"ז עין לא ראתה.

**Rabbi Mark Greenspan:**
4.	Having sanctified himself and immersed himself in the way of a ba'al teshuvah, he now celebrates the festival. This is called Yachatz , from the word mechetzeh or chatzi, half. The celebration on festivals is partially devoted to God and partially devoted to the persons physical comforts. The larger portion of the commandment to rejoice on the festivals is for God. This is represented by the Afikomen, the larger piece of the matzah. This portion is hidden behind a pillow just the reward of the portion for the world to come is hidden from sight. Even though this reward is huge, it is beyond our comprehension, as is written: "In the covert of your presence you hide them from the plots of men. You hold them safe under your shelter from the strife of tongues" (Psalms 31:20). 
Let Me Explain:
Why do we break the middle matzah and hide the larger portion of it for the Afikomen to be consumed at the end of the Seder meal? Rabbi Bondi explores the significance not only in breaking the matzah into two pieces but purposely breaking it into two unequal size pieces. He offers four reasons, which I would suggest fall into four different categories: theological, historical, prophetic, and existential. These four categories closely parallel Pardes, the literal, homoletical, allegorical and mystical.
1. The first explanation is the theological. Moses does not say that the tenth plague will come at midnight but "around midnight." The rabbis puzzled over this expression and explained that lest the Egyptians timing was off they might accuse Moses of having been wrong in his timing. Therefore Moses fudged the time a bit so that he could not be accused of being off in his timing. Only God can know the exact middle point of the night. One should note that midnight does not mean 12 AM but the middle point between sundown and sunrise. This is a halachic category which the rabbis regularly use to define times during the night.
2. The second explanation (and the third to an extent) is historical. The broken matzah is a reminder of the splitting of the red sea, and the amount of time that Israel was enslaved in Egypt.
3. Prophetic/historical - the Covenant of the Pieces refers to the mysterious vision that Abraham has in which God predicts that Israel will be strangers in a land not their own for four hundred years. (Genesis 15) The problem with this prophecy is that Israel was only enslaved 210 years - so what happened to the other 190 years. According to the sages, the Israelites were liberated earlier because they could not have endured 400 years of slavery. There are fifty levels of impurity - if Israel had descended all fifty levels they would have been incapable of being redeemed. God, therefore, redeemed them when they reached the 49th level of impurity before they were completely lost - this was after 210 years.
5. The existential interpretation continues an earlier line of interpretation. The fifteen steps in the Seder are not a reference to the ritual acts that are part of the Seder but also refer to the ways in which we sanctify our lives and undergo a process of spiritual transformation, beginning with kadesh - preparation, urechatz - cleansing, and karpas - immersion. We are now spiritually ready to celebrate and rejoice in the presence of God, yachatz - both for ourselves and for the sake of God.