The afikoman isn’t the matza TB Pesakhim 119

 Scholars have known that the Passover Seder is patterned after a Greco-Roman symposium. Dr. Burton Visotzky explains what was the symposium like in the Greco-Roman world. “Literally, the sym-posium is a cocktail party. Sym is Greek for ‘together,’ as in sympathy (having fellow feeling). Posium is from the Greek word meaning ‘to drink.’... so a symposium is a cocktail party, specifically a literary cocktail party.”¹ Knowing this bit of information will help our understanding of the Mishnah on daf Pesakhim 119.

Mishnah: “One does not conclude after the Pesakh meal with an afikoman.” Obviously the word afikoman is a Greek word and the Gemara immediately asks is what is it? Although everybody understands the afikoman to be the matza at the end of the meal, this is a misnomer. Reading the Mishnah carefully one is not allowed to conclude the Passover meal with an afikoman. This matza is better referred as the “last matza-מצה אחרונה”

A more expanded version of the Mishnah is found in Tosefta Pesakhim 10:11 “and they may not conclude the Pesakh meal with an afikoman, like nuts and dates and parched corn. A person must engage in the laws of Pesakh all night, even if it is just him with his son, even if it is just him by himself, and even between him and his student.

“Interpreting this passage in a parallel in the Yerushami, Lieberman (1995:521) offered a new interpretation to the word ‘afikoman,’ one which is subsequently accepted by all critical scholars:

“(The Rabbis) were familiar with Greek customs in the banquet manners, that when the festivities would reach their peak, they would burst into others’ home to force them to join in the continuing party, and call this epikomazein. The Mishnah warns that one does not conclude the Passover meal with an afikoman- epikomazein, and this is the interpretation of the Babylonian and Eretz Yisrael Talmud.

“...the original meaning of ‘afikoman’ seems to have still been familiar to early amoraim, and is evidence... (in today’s daf-gg) ‘Rav said: It means that a member of a group that ate the Paschal lamb together should not leave that group to join another group. And Shmuel said: It means that one may not eat dessert after the meal, like mushrooms [urdilafei] for me, and chicks for Abba, And Rav Hanina bar Sheila and Rabbi Yokhanan say: such as dates, roasted grains, and nuts,’

“Building upon Lieberman’s interpretation, Bokser (1984:132, n. 62) and Tabory (1996:65-66) explained that the other interpretations found in the Tosefta and in the Tosefea and in the Talmudim- that afikoman refers to dessert-are harmonious with Lieberman’s explanation, for those were ‘types of delicacies served a meal, especially to whet one’s thirst’...Even sweet foods were heavily salted to reduce drinking. Indeed in Greek meals dessert and drinking went hand in.”²

^{1. Aphrodite and the Rabbis, page 96. Read pages 96-111 for further comparisons}

^{2. Dr. David Golinkin, The Schechter Haggadah, page 261-262}

1Aphrodite and the Rabbis, page 96. Read pages 96-111 for further comparisons

2Dr. David Golinkin, TShe Schechter Haggadah, page 261-262