Two Invitations, Both Authentic and Vulnerable - Passover 2019

We make two invitations during the Passover seder. They bookend the evening beautifully. In the first, we hold up the matzah and announce Ha Lachma:

הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא דִּי אֲכָלוּ אַבְהָתָנָא בְאַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם
כָּל דִכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכֹל, כָּל דִצְרִיךְ יֵיתֵי וְיִפְסַח

"This is the bread of destitution that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Anyone who is famished should come and eat; anyone who is in need should come and partake of the Pascal sacrifice."

Later, toward the end of the seder, we pour Elijah's cup, open the doors of our homes with a grand choreography, and invite him in.

There is a beautiful and generative vulnerability that comes with this second invitation. Traditionally, we open the door for the prophet Elijah out of a belief b'emunah shleima ("in full faith") that he might one day walk in the door bringing the Messiah. To believe — or to act out a belief — that is so physically manifested, to be so ready for Elijah that we literally open our doors, is a vulnerable moment for us personally and as a People.

But the first invitation of the Ha Lachma is no less vulnerable a moment. A midrash in Leviticus Rabbah teaches: "[When] the poor person stands at your door, the Holy One stands at their right hand" (34:9). We learn that God is outside the door, immediately beside the poor person who might accept our invitation.

The seder's two invitations are really one and the same: We invite God into our homes first alongside the poor person, then through Elijah. Therefore, we must work to reach the same level of vulnerability and authenticity in our invitation to the poor at the beginning of the seder as we do for Elijah at the end.

What would it mean to open the door physically at Ha Lachma — to adopt a new practice at our seders? What would it mean to open the door spiritually at Ha Lachma — to have such deep compassion that we are ready for a poor person to show up at our doorstep and take us up on our offer of bread? Let us challenge ourselves to extend both invitations this year.