Origin 70 to 200 CE
The half of a broken matzah set aside early in the Passover seder and eaten at the end of the meal, after which nothing further is eaten: it stands in for the paschal offering, which was the last thing eaten in the Temple period, and the rule that the taste should remain in the mouth is why the meal ends there. The widespread custom of children hiding or stealing it and holding it for a ransom is a device to keep them awake and engaged, recorded in the Talmud's instruction that the matzah is snatched so that the children will ask, and it is the point at which the seder most openly admits that its whole structure is pedagogical.
Facts
Use
Who May Handle ItThe household that keeps it 1 Eaten by the household at its own table ConsecrationNot consecrated; an instrument, not a consecrated object 3 Origins
Origin Period Learn More
The Hidden Half of the Broken Bread
The afikoman is the half of a broken matzah set aside early in the Passover seder and eaten at the very end of the meal, and its role is to hold the seder together from beginning to end.
Broken, hidden, sought
Near the start of the seder the middle of three matzot is broken, and the larger piece is set aside as the afikoman to be eaten last of all, so that nothing is eaten after it and the taste of the unleavened bread is the final taste of the night. In a widespread custom the afikoman is hidden and the children search for it, or take and ransom it, a game built into the ritual to keep the young engaged through a long evening, so the piece of bread carries both a solemn function and a playful one.
The last taste
That nothing is eaten after the afikoman gives it a particular weight: it stands in the place once held by the paschal offering, whose meat was to be the last thing eaten, and its final position ensures that the seder ends on the unleavened bread that is the sign of the deliverance rather than on the ordinary food of the meal. The setting-aside of the afikoman at the start and its eating at the close thus frame the whole seder, and the search for it draws the children into the observance, so a simple half of matzah serves at once to shape the ritual, to recall the offering, and to hold the attention of the next generation the seder exists to teach.
A Baker's Race Against Time, Not a Craft of Its Own
The afikoman is not made by any special process, it is simply a piece broken off the middle of three matzahs on the seder table, but the matzah itself is made under a real technical constraint, flour and water mixed and baked within roughly eighteen minutes by tradition, fast enough that the dough has no time to rise, a rule enforced by specialized kosher for Passover bakeries working under rabbinic supervision rather than an ordinary bakery's pace.
Who hides it, and who searches
The seder leader breaks the middle matzah, wraps half, and hides it somewhere in the house, a deliberate game aimed at keeping children engaged through a long ritual meal, and the children search for it later, traditionally negotiating a small reward for returning it, since the seder cannot properly conclude until the afikoman is eaten as the last food of the night.
No disposal question at all
Because the afikoman is eaten by everyone present as the final taste of the meal rather than stored or displayed, there is no retirement, burial or disposal custom attached to it the way there is for a worn prayer book or a damaged mezuzah scroll, its whole existence runs from breaking to hiding to being found and eaten within a single evening.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The afikoman is set aside early in the Passover seder and eaten at the end of the meal.
Belongs to Tradition
Implement Of
Related To
One piece of matzah, the afikoman, is set aside during the seder as a separate ritual object.
The Talmud records the instruction that the afikoman is snatched so that the children will ask.
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.