For Pesach: Nothing After the Afikoman

Our answer to the wise child of the Haggadah is: ayn maftirin ahar haPesach afikoman. “One adds no after-dinner revelry after eating the Passover sacrifice.” Normally, after the meal, we might have another mini dessert party. But not tonight. The mitzvah is to end with the Passover lamb. [In our seders today, of course, since we no longer have a sacrifice, we end with the taste of matzah, which, ironically we call the “afikoman,” the word for the after-dinner revelry we are not to have.]

One should end with Pesach, either with the actual sacrifice or with some experience, like the matzah, that is specifically related to our Pesach experience of redemption. After that, nothing more should be added.

This idea reminds me of Nadav and Avihu, of the notion that the moment of divine revelation inside the Tabernacle, that moment that God’s Glory first came to fill up that space, that moment was the peak. It was enough and complete. For Nadav and Avihu to add to it, to try to top that moment, was an act of sacrilege; they meant to add, but they were actually taking away from the moment. (See my earlier Shmini blog).

Here, too, on Pesach, we are meant to have such an experience of divine Presence, indeed, to feel that God has redeemed us in particular right now and taken us out of Egypt. We need to be totally present for that experience, not to try to add to it afterwards, to think we need more, but simply to be present. Nothing extra. This moment is total and complete as it is. It is enough.

I think it’s interesting that this message is deemed especially appropriate for the wise and knowledgeable among us, for the overachievers, the strivers who are always looking to learn more and add one more insight and one more text and one more halakhic regulation, to add “dessert” to our Pesach. While the Haggadah encourages us to add to the telling of the story and to elaborate, there is also a place for minimums, for knowing what the core is – pesach, matzah and maror; feeling that you have left Egypt; singing praise to God – and sticking to the core.

Pesach can be a time of overdoing it, overdoing the cleaning, overdoing the shopping and the cooking and even overdoing the seder. There is a restlessness in all our striving that could lead us, like the wise son, to miss the main point, to be so worried about the dessert that we forget the main meal. The Haggadah warns us, at the start, ayn maftirin ahar HaPesach afikoman. Don’t be extra. Get to the Pesach itself, have an experience of God’s redemption, and be totally present for that. Know that that is enough. Indeed, know that that is everything. To do more detracts, and is indeed a kind of slavery, a slavery that comes from a lack of faith in the simple power of presence. There is nothing more. We will only be free when we know that in our full presence we are enough.