May All Your Matzahs Be Whole

Sitting at a breakfast in shul this morning after a siyum for Taanit Bechorot, enjoying one last bagel before Pesach, I overheard two gentlemen discussing their latest idea for a business: selling insurance policies to protect against broken shmura matzot. After complaining that the best you can hope for when buying a box of shmura matza is for 6 of the 8 pieces to be unbroken, they laughed it off and wished each other a Chag Kasher V'Sameach. As they were leaving one friend said to the other, "I give you a bracha that this year all your matzahs should be whole." His friend thought he said "old" instead of "whole," while another thought he was wishing him matzot with lots of "holes," and everyone walked out with a smile on their face.

But it got me thinking, that that bracha, "may all your matzahs be whole," is actually a beautiful bracha. You see, matzah represents two contradictory ideas. On the one hand it is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate as slaves in Egypt. And on the other hand it is the bread of freedom that they ate as they left. Maybe the bracha our friend was really trying to give was that all the things in our life that seem contradictory, that don't seem to fit, should come together and make sense.

You see, to be Shalem, to be whole, does not mean to be one dimensional or simple. It means having different sides, like the 6 sides of a square. It means bringing together multiple perspectives, and letting each contribute to the greater whole. It means that all four sons add something to the Seder, and that all twelve tribes combine to make a Nation.

Shalem also has the same shoresh as Shalom, Peace. Because when we realize that by making room for opposing perspectives and meanings we create a greater whole, we are able to find peace instead of dispute, respect instead of resentment.

To the Jews, leaving Egypt must have seemed strange, and even ironic, to be eating the same slave bread they had eaten all those years, even after they were free. But maybe that was exactly the point. Matzah teaches us that the times of Avdut, of slavery, give meaning to the times of Geula, of Redemption.

Sometimes in life we wish we didn't have to go through certain experiences, and only later do we realize how they helped us grow. Sometimes we meet certain people who think differently than us, and only upon reflection do we sense that our thinking has become just a little bit more sophisticated after considering their perspective.

So this Pesach, among the many beautiful messages that we can learn, let us each receive the bracha that all our matzah should be whole. That we should find meaning and growth from every experience and every person. If we can do that then even those broken shmura matzot will truly have been a worthwhile investment.

Chag Sameach...