Pesach - 063 Afikomen Yechida

Summary: This class explains that the light of Yechidah which shines in the house – both one’s personal Yechidah as well as the collective Yechidah (the light of Mashiach) which will be in the great “House”, the Beis HaMikdash – is what envelopes the entire chain of events of leaving Egypt in general and the Korbon Pesach specifically, and this is all the root of the future Redemption which is the light of Echad, one.

Leaving Egypt on Pesach eve was “No man shall leave the entrance of his home”. This was the light of the Yechidah shining in their homes. The korbon pesach had to be eaten in one home, and tied to the bedpost, which shows that it has to remain overnight in that home. Chametz conceals that light and thus we have to remove all chametz the night before.

The root of going down to Egypt was the 12 tribes each coming with their houses, their families. Pharoah wanted to stop the redemption – the light of the Jewish home – by enslaving them to build Pisom and Ramses, which swallowed homes. The root of redemption is that “They made for themselves homes” as it says of the wet-nurses (Shifrah and Puah, or Yocheved and Miriam) who were the root of Moshe and Ahron, the redeemers. This built the hidden homes of Klal Yisrael within the exile of Egypt, until finally the light of their homes became revealed on Pesach eve. And when leaving Egypt as well, the light of their homes continued to shine through the Clouds of Glory. This was the root of the mitzvah of Succah – which brings the light of their “homes” to all generations after them.

The ultimate house was the Beis HaMikdash, which we would ascend to three times a year, and the main time was Pesach when we brought the Korbon Pesach. When it was tied to the bedpost, this was not merely to tie it to our personal homes but to the Beis HaMikdash which is called the ‘overnight place to sleep’ which Yaakov Avinu called a “home”, when he slept at the future site of the Beis HaMikdash. Thus at the time of redemption from Egypt, the Clouds of Glory which were like a home to Klal Yisrael enabled them to bring the Korbon Pesach at the site of the Beis HaMikdash, and when they left Egypt they carried with them the cedarwood trees to build the Mishkan with – their home – and from this they could enter Eretz Yisrael and build the Beis HaMikdash.

The Korbon Pesach was an aspect of Yechidah, thus it is apart from all other Korbonos, in its laws of how it is sacrificed and eaten. The 14^th of Nissan is a Yom Tov, and it is the light of mesirus nefesh, of slaughtering the idol-worship of Egypt. All other korbonos are about drawing close (korbon from the word kirva, closeness) but the Korbon Pesach had to be eaten in one home, where the light of one’s personal Yechidah was, and in the future when there will be the light of Mashiach, the collective Yechidah, all of Klal Yisrael will eat the Korbon Pesach under one collective “home” – from the very root of the third Beis HaMikdash which will be the one single home that unites all Klal Yisrael together. This will be the “meal of the future, of the Shor HaBor and the Leviathan, when all of Klal Yisrael will eat the Korbon Pesach from one animal, when it will not merely be an additional Korbon to the Korbon Chagigah so that it can be eaten while full, rather it will be an eating that is entirely Korbon Pesach. The higher root of this is what we say even now during Halel on Pesach eve – that in the future the Korbon Pesach will become turned into a Korbon Todah (to give thanks).

Pesach eve and Tisha B’Av eve always fall out on the same night. This is because opposite aspects are intertwined. Pesach eve is the root of building the Beis HaMikdash and Tisha B’Av is the destruction. In the future, at the Redemption the light of Mashiach’s soul will reveal the true light of Tisha B’Av, at the site of the third Beis HaMikdash which will be the time when “In Nissan they are destined to be redeemed”, and specifically this is the depth of the light of the Afikoman – afiko, to take out, the illumination of the Manna which fell from Heaven, and it is from that very root which the third Beis HaMikdash will descend from Heaven.

As explained in the previous three lessons, the afikoman reveals the light of Raishis (the beginning), composed of several parts: Havayah, which is the root of Matzah (metzius, reality), from which emunah is drawn, and this is the bread of faith. The taanug (pleasure) in eating it must remain in our mouths, representing the inner pleasure of the mouth which is speech – afi-koman means to take out the Manna, to reveal pleasure. The faculty of Ratzon is also revealed through afikoman because it is at the end of the Seder, Nirtzah, from the word Ratzon. These are the fundamental aspects hidden within Afikoman.

Summary פסח_063_אפיקומן_יחידה (תשפא)