It is an intriguing way to open the Seder, and specifically Maggid the telling of the story. – הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא This is the bread of affliction. At first glance, this feels almost pedagogically misplaced. Pesach is built on questions, on curiosity, on the slow unfolding of wonder. And yet we begin with an answer, pointing to the matza and naming it, seemingly preempting the very first question of the Mah Nishtanah:

 שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָנוּ אוֹכְלִין חָמֵץ וּמַצָּה, הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה – כֻּלּוֹ מַצָּה

Why on other nights we eat either bread or matza, but tonight there is only matza?

Why blunt the question before it is even asked?

More enigmatically we point to the matza, the bread of affliction and use that to entice those who are hungry to come in and eat? Surely it would have made more sense to offer the Pascal Lamb for those who are hungry, and the matza as the responsa and the greeting for those דִצְרִיךְ who are in need. The matza in a sense becomes an equalizer, we are in fact all in need, we are in fact all living as the oppressed eating the food of the impoverished. 

What is the distinction made in this cryptic preface between those who are hungry and those who are needy?

 כָּל דִכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכֹל, כָּל דִצְרִיךְ יֵיתֵי וְיִפְסַח

Let all who are hungry come in and eat; let all who are in need come and join us for the Pesach.

Clearly they are not the same, hunger can be relatively easily addressed, through food, even or perhaps especially when it is  unpretentious. Being  “in need” is more elusive, more enduring. It may be emotional, relational, existential. The Pesach is not only the lamb, it is the story, the process of being transformed from being enslaved to being free, from powerless to powerful. 

The invitation, then, operates on two levels. We open our doors to feed those who are hungry. But we also open our lives, our hearts to those who are in need, inviting them into community, into our story. Joining us for the Pesach, is not a one time event, it must be on-going and perhaps our opening introduction, re-launches this timely and timeless task of reaching out, seeing and tenaciously doing what it takes to answer that calling, and question the answer which too often remains evasive and insufficient. 

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)