Q: How is Seder related to Passover?
A: Passover is an eight-day Jewish festival during which we remember the flight of Israelite slaves from Egypt and also the rebirth that is associated with spring. Seder falls on the first two nights of Passover, and is marked by special meals with symbolic food. The food and the rituals associated with it are meant to help us retell the story of the Exodus and, in a sense, relive it.
Q: What goes on a Seder table?
A: The most symbolic item on the Seder table is the Seder plate. Many families have special ceremonial Seder plates. They can be massive plates, about the size of a large pizza, and are often separated into five sections—like those Ziploc containers you get to take your lunch to work in, with a separate section for your sandwich and your cookies. A different food goes into each section; each represents a different part of Seder.
Q: What are the foods, and what do they symbolize?
A: Karpas is a green vegetable, like parsley, that we use to symbolize spring and rejuvenation. Haroset is a mixture of apples, nuts, wine and spices like cinnamon, ground together. It looks like a gluey glob of dirt—it’s meant to represent the mortar that Israelite slaves would have used in their work in Egypt—but it’s actually very sweet and tasty. Maror is bitter herbs, often horseradish, which is meant to represent the bitterness of slavery. Beitzah, a hard-boiled egg, symbolizes the traditional sacrifice, as does zeroa, which is usually a shank bone.
Q: Do any foods get left out of Seder?
A: Lots of the staples are fine: chicken is chicken, fish is fish, but we don’t eat any leavened products or anything made with flour or grain; we call that hametz. Instead of bread, we eat matzo, a hard dry cracker. It reminds us about how hastily the Israelites fled Egypt—so quickly, they didn’t have time to make leavened bread for the journey—and also about the hardship of slavery: Matzo bread is definitely not as tasty as a huge, hot roll right out of the oven.
Q: Other than the Seder plate, are there other special Seder foods?
A: Brisket, meatballs, chicken soup with matzo balls instead of noodles…but really, every meal on Passover is special. You’re confronted with history every time you look at your special Passover dishes, or look in the cupboard and see no bread or cereal. When you see that, you think, “Wait a minute, it’s Passover.” Something special and spiritual is happening, even though you just woke up and all you want is breakfast.
Q: What’s your favourite part of Seder?
A: Standing in my kitchen at 3am the night before Passover, when I’m finally finished all my cleaning, and everything is hametz-free and ready for Passover, is so satisfying.
This article appears in Apr 13-19, 2006.