A Tale Of Two Halves

The final סימן of the seder is נרצה.  What is the meaning of this סימן, every other סימן connotates an action that must be done but what is the action of נרצה?  (The songs that are recited at the end are just added on later and are a mere custom; that is not the core of the meaning of the siman.)

The hallel of the Pesach night is split into two halves.   The Maharal says that the two parts of the Hallel are distinct.  The first half of the Hallel we recite in Maggid, as part of telling the story of the exodus.  It is an expression of thanks for the great miracles that happened on this night.  The second half of Hallel is at the end of the Seder, it is a prayer that the final redemption should be brought upon us.  (See also here.)  In the Maharal’s view in fact נרצה is not it’s own siman, it is part of Hallel, the siman is הלל נרצה for we are asking in Hallel that we should find favor in the eyes of Hashem  to merit miracles like those that occurred in Egypt.  Based upon this Maharal we can understand even according to the common custom to count נרצה as its own siman, the siman connotes a state of mind of closeness to Hashem after completing all steps of the night and yearning to re-experience the great miracles that occurred.

The answer to the question of the ben chacham is אין מפטירין אחר הפסח אפיקומן.  How does this answer his question? In order to understand the answer we first must understand his question.  We can explain his question is in the words of the holy Tannah, מנין שמזכירין יציאת מצרים בלילות, how do we no know that even in the darkness of golus, through crusades, pogroms, inquisitions, holocausts, terrorists, through all the hardships, that we still mention yitzias mitzraim?  What's the point of highlighting a glorious ancient redemption if currently the situation is deplorable?  The breaking of the matzah represents that we don't see how our current state leads to a brighter future.  All we can do is eat it as part of sippur yitzias mitzraim, as a commemoration of the past.  However, we recite yitzias mitzraim at night because we know there is a dawn that follows.  We only see half of the story.  However, we put the bigger side away, its hidden away for the future.  As the Shla says, that the bigger half of the matzah which we put away represents עולם הבא.  The bigger half, the end of the story is hidden for the future.  אין מפטירין אחר הפסח אפיקומן, we end the Seder with a taste of the future.  The answer given to the ben chacham is that we aren't commemorating ancient history, we are recounting the story to give us a taste of what lies in wait in the future.  So, at the Seder, as you remember the past, dream for the future.