In the Passover Haggadah, we read the words: Ha lahma anya… (“This is the lehem oni that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt.” This statement is based upon the verse: “You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, lehem oni −  for you came out of the land of Egypt in hurried flight − that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt” (Deut. 17:3).

What is “lehem oni” mentioned in the Bible and the Haggadah? From such expressions as “I have seen the affliction [oni] of my people” (Exodus 3:7); “that He had seen their affliction [onyam]” (Exodus 4:31), it would appear that the “oni” referred to is not poverty and want, but rather, as Ibn Ezra (Spain 1092-1167) explained, the term oni is related to the term inui (suffering). Lehem oni is the bread of suffering and affliction, or as Rashi (France 1040-1105) explains: “Bread that recalls the torment that they suffered in Egypt.” Thus, the midrash tells us: “R. Simeon says: Why is it called lehem oni? Because of the torment they suffered in Egypt” (Sifrei Deut. 130).

In this vein, the Talmud tells us that on the eve of Passover we place a matza and a half on the Seder table: “R. Papa said: All admit that on Passover one puts the broken cake under the whole one and breaks [them together]. What is the reason? Scripture speaks of ‘bread of affiction’ (Berakhot 39b). The use of the “broken cake”, like the eating of matza for seven days, reminds us of the torment, the want, the hunger and the suffering of slavery.

However, R. Asher b. Jehiel (Spain 1250-1327) wrote: “One puts the broken cake between the two whole ones” (Rosh, Pesahim, Hilkhot Pesah Biktzara), and in the Shulhan Arukh we read: “There is no obligation to eat matza except on the first night alone,” to which the Remah (R. Moses Isserles – Poland 1525-1572) adds: “and it is customary to make the three matzot of the Seder from an isaron [a measure of grain], recalling the thanks offering,  and they are marked in order to know which is first and which is second and which is third, and the first is placed on top, and the second in the middle, and the third on the bottom…” (Shulhan Arukh, OH 475:7).

As to the significance of the matzot, R. Zadok Hacohen of Lublin (1823-1900) suggested: “The three matzot that we take, would seem to refer to the Patriarchs…” (Pri Tzedek, Vayikra Le-hag Ha-pesah).

1.   What does matza signify? Has the symbolic meaning of matza changed over time, or has the focus simply moved from one aspect to another, as Nahmanides explains in his commentary to parashat Re’eh: “It states that matza is lehem oni, telling us that we are commanded to recall that they left in haste, and it is oni to recall that in Egypt they were sustained by meagre bread and the water of affliction, and thus it represents two things.”

2.   How is the symbolism of lehem oni preserved when we use three matzot? Does the use of three matzot contribute new symbolic meanings that were not present in the original custom?

3.   Which aspect of the symbolism of matza is emphasized by the words “seven days you shall eat it”, and which is emphasized by the halakhic rule:  “There is no obligation to eat matza except on the first night alone”?

For further reading on the topic, see Shinan and Zakovitch, “Eating matza – why?” in That’s Not What the Good Book Says (Hebrew) (2004); Joshua Kulp, The Schechter Haggadah: Art, History and Commentary (2009).