Seder – An Order of Service and Explanation to the Passover Meal
A. Welcome and Blessing Read EXODUS 12:12-20 and LUKE 22:14-16
B. Recline at the table
C. The 15 Steps to the Sedar then begin:
1. Kadesh – Sanctify (Reading and Foot Washing)
2. Urchatz – Cleanse
3. Karpas – Appetizer (Reading)
4. Yachatz – Break
5. Maggid – Tell (Reading)
6. Rachtzah – Wash
7. Motzei – Bread
8. Matzah (Reading and Bread Communion)
9. Maror – Bitter
10. Korech – Wrap
11. Shulchan Orech – Set the Table
12. Tzafun – Hidden
13. Beirach – Bless
14. Hallel – Praise (Reading and Wine Communion)
15. Nirtzah – Accepted (Reading)
STEP 1: Kadesh – Sanctify
Event Message/Prayer Notes
1. The cups are filled with wine and The Kiddush is said The Kiddush:
Blessed are You, God, our God, King of the universe, who has chosen us from among all people, and raised us above all tongues, and made us holy through His commandments. And You, God, our God, have given us in love festivals for happiness, feasts and festive seasons for rejoicing the day of this Feast of Matzot and this Festival of holy convocation, the Season of our Freedom, a holy convocation, commemorating the departure from Egypt. For You have chosen us and sanctified us from all the nations, and You have given us as a heritage Your holy Festivals, in happiness and joy. Blessed are You, God, who sanctifies Israel and the festive seasons. Blessed are You, God, our God, King of the universe, who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion.
Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.
The wine is not drunk at this time.
2. A Message is Then Shared The beginning of all journeys is separation. You’ve got to leave somewhere to go somewhere else. It is also the first step towards freedom: You ignore the voice of Pharaoh inside that mocks you, saying, “Who are you to begin such a journey?” You just get up and walk out.
This is the first meaning of the word, “Kadesh” -- to transcend the mundane world. Then comes the second meaning: Once you’ve set yourself free from your material worries, you can return and sanctify them. That is when true spiritual freedom begins, when you introduce a higher purpose into all those things you do.
The wine is not drunk at this time.
3. Just as Jesus did a cup was shared. READ LUKE 22:17,18 The wine is not drunk at this time.
4. Share the first cup and recline.
The wine is drunk and conversation enjoyed.
5. During the conversation the host begins foot washing. READ JOHN 13:2-9 Each member washes another’s feet.
2. Urchatz – Cleanse
Event Message/Prayer Notes
1. Fill a basin with water. Each guest now pours 3 times first over the right then over the left arm and hand the clean water. Allow each guest to dry hands.
2. The Urchatz Message is shared Our hands are the primary tools to interact with our environment. They generally obey our emotions: Love, fear, compassion, the urge to win, to be appreciated, to express ourselves, to dominate. Our emotions, in turn, reflect our mental state.
But, too often, each faculty of our psyche sits in its cell, exiled from one another. The mind sees one way, the heart feels another. Water represents the healing power of wisdom. Water flows downward, carrying its essential simplicity to each thing. It brings them together as a single living, growing whole. We pour water over our hands as an expression of wisdom pouring downward passing through our heart and from there to our interaction with the world around us.
3. Blessing is said You, Lord our God, King of the World, Who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us concerning the washing of the hands
3. Karpas – Appetizer
Event Message/Prayer Notes
1. Each Guest to take a small piece of some edible vegetable (potato, onion, etc.) Dip it into saltwater.
The Fruit of the Ground Prayer is then said. Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the World, who creates the fruit of the ground.
Do not eat until prayer is said
2. The leader then shares the meaning. The karpas or “greens” showed the hardship and tears (salt water) that the slaves endured in Egypt.
3 The Karpas Message is Shared We need to re-taste the breaking labor of Egypt to liberate ourselves from it once again. It was this labor that prepared us for freedom. It was this labor that gave us a humble spirit to accept wisdom.
Today, as well, you can choose to achieve this humble spirit by enduring the battle to survive the rat race. There will be plenty of futile, hamster-wheel tasks to bring you to your knees.
Or you could choose another path: achieving true humility with the realization of just how small we earthly creatures are. That will free you from the need to experience materialistic futility.
Choose your battle. It’s up to you.
4. READ JOHN 14:15-21
4. Yachatz – Break
Event Message/Prayer/Activity Notes
1 The breaking of the Sedar Matzah Take hold of the middle of the three matzahs on your Seder Plate. (We need the top matzah to remain whole. We’ll be making a blessing on it later on. Blessings are said on whole things.)
Break it in two. Leave the smaller half between the two complete matzos. The piece that remains on the Seder Plate is the “poor man’s bread” over which the tale of our slavery is said. Poor people only eat a small part of their bread -- they need to save the rest in case tomorrow there is none.
Break the remaining (larger) piece into five pieces and wrap them in a cloth. According to Kabbalah, the world is created through five contractions of light. Hide the package until the end of the Seder when it will be eaten as the Afikoman, or dessert.
2. The Yachatz Message is Shared Why is there so much broken in this world? Why did the Cosmic Designer make a world where hearts break, lives shatter, beauty crumbles?
A whole vessel can contain its measure, but a broken one can hold the Infinite.
Matzah is called the poor man’s bread. He is low and broken. And it is this brokenness that allows him to open his soul and escape his Egypt.
As long as we feel whole, there is no room left for us to grow. It is when we realize we are but a fragment, that we need the others around us, that so much of us is missing -- that is when miracles begin.
5. Maggid – Tell
Event Message/Prayer Notes
1. Fill the second cup of wine The wine is not drunk at this point.
2. Question 1 is asked from the guests. On all other nights we eat all kinds of breads and crackers, Why do we eat only Matzoh on Pesach ?
3. Question 1 is answered. Matzoh reminds us that when the Jews left the slavery of Egypt they had no time to bake their bread. They took the raw dough on their journey and baked it in the hot desert sun into hard crackers called matzoh.
4. Question 2 is asked from the guests. On all other nights we eat many kinds of vegetables and herbs, Why do we eat bitter herbs, maror, at our Seder?
5. Question 2 is answered. Maror reminds us of the bitter and cruel way the Pharaoh treated the Jewish people when they were slaves in Egypt
6. Question 3 is asked from the guests. On all other nights we don’t usually dip one food into another At our Seder we dip the parsley in salt water and the bitter herbs in Charoset, Why do we dip our foods twice tonight?
7. Question 3 is answered. We dip bitter herbs into Charoset to remind us how hard the Jewish slaves worked in Egypt. The chopped apples and nuts look like the clay used to make the bricks used in building the Pharaoh’s buildings
We dip parsley into salt water. The parsley reminds us that spring is here and new life will grow. The salt water reminds us of the tears of the Jewish slaves
8. Question 4 is asked from the guests. On all other nights we eat sitting up straight, Why do we lean on a pillow tonight?
9. Question 4 is answered. We lean on a pillow to be comfortable and to remind us that once we were slaves, but now we are free.
10. READ EX 12:24-30
11. The Maggid Message is Shared The exodus was not simply an event that happened to us. It is an event that we became. It is who we are. It is the life of each one of us, occurring again and again, in our wrestling match with the world, in our struggle with our own selves. We embody freedom in a constant mode of escape. Perhaps that is why Jews have always been the rebels of society, the ones who think out of the box. The experience of leaving Egypt left such an indelible mark on our souls, we never stopped doing it. A Jew who has stopped exiting Egypt has ceased to allow his soul to breathe.
To tell the story is to bring that essential self into the open, to come face to face with who we really are and resuscitate it back to life.
12. The second cup is now consumed.
6. Rachtzah – Wash
Event Message/Prayer Notes
1. Fill a basin with water
Pour water to cover your right hand. Repeat. Repeat again. Ditto for your left hand.
Say the blessing. "Blessed be You, Lord our God, King of the World, Who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us concerning the washing of the hands."
2. Dry your hands.
3. The Rachtzah Message is shared As long as we live in this world, freedom remains elusive: While moving forward, we are free. Stop, and we are bound and fettered again.
That is why freedom is something you cannot buy nor steal. Never can you put freedom in your purse and say, “Freedom is mine forever!”
For freedom is a marriage: Freedom is the bond our finite selves with the Infinite, the power to transcend the world while working inside it. It is a marriage of heaven and earth, spirit and matter, soul and body. And like any marriage, it is kept alive only by constant renewal. Like the miracle of the splitting of the Red Sea, suspended in its state of paradox by a continuous, other-worldy force.
Yet, in our exodus, we were granted eternal freedom. Not because we were released from slavery. But because we were given the power to perpetually transcend.
That’s the order of the Seder tonight: Kadesh/Urchatz, Transcend and Purify. Over and over. Rise higher, then draw that into deeds. Rise higher again, then draw that down even more. Never stop rising higher. Never stop applying.
7. Motzei – Bread
Event Message/Prayer Notes
1. Matzah is the most important item in the Seder, and eating it is fulfills the central mitzvah of Passover. But matzah is also bread -- albeit of the decidedly unleavened sort. Tonight it fulfills the role of the two whole loaves that are the mainstay of every Shabbat and festival meal. That’s why we have three matzahs on our Seder plate -- so that in addition to the "piece" of matzah over which we tell the story of the Exodus, we’ll have two whole matzahs over which to pronounce the "Hamotzi" blessing, praising and thanking G-d "Who brings bread from the earth."
2. Grab all three matzahs—the top one, the broken middle one. Say the blessing and the bottom one—and pick them up a little Blessed be You, Lord our God, King of the World, Who brings bread out of the earth.
3. The Motzei Message is shared We feel an affinity with the food we eat: We too are a miracle out of the earth.
We and the bread share a common journey. The bread begins as a seed buried beneath the ground. And then, a miracle occurs: As it decomposes and loses its original form, it comes alive, begins to grow sprout and grow. As spring arrives, it pushes its way above the earth to find the sun, and then bears its fruits for the world.
We too began buried in Egypt, all but losing our identity. But that furnace of oppression became for us a firing kiln, a baker’s oven, the womb from whence we were born in the month of spring. In our liberation from there, we brought our fruits of freedom to the world.
8. Matzah
Event Message/Prayer Notes
1. Carefully release the bottom matzah. Recite the blessing on the remaining whole matzah and the broken matzah. Blessed be You, Lord our God, King of the World, Who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us concerning eating matzah.
2. Break off a piece from each of the two matzos for yourself and for each of those sitting at your table. Pass them around.
What we’re doing is covering both our bases, ensuring that we experience both the poverty and humility that matzah represents (the broken matzah) and the freedom and healing it brings (the whole matzah).
Supplement the two pieces of matzah from the Seder Plate with more matzah, so that everybody gets at least 2 oz. of matzah altogether (about two thirds of a large shemura matzah.)
3. READ LUKE 22:19
Share in Bread Communion. “On the night on which Jesus died, this night, he took the bread and broke it. It means his body that, in a few hours will be broken and sacrificed just because of our need, our sin and or desire to be one with him.”
4. Don’t forget to recline during The Matzah Message
Since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, matzah is the only opportunity we have to actually eat a mitzvah. That’s right, the matzah you are eating is pure G-dliness. In fact, it has enough Godly energy to blast your soul out of the deepest ditch into the highest heights.
The Zohar calls matzah “Bread of Faith” and “Bread of Healing”. Did I say “faith?” Well, actually, that’s a rather feeble translation. “Emunah” is the word in Hebrew, and it means a lot more than “I believe, brother!” Faith can often be something people rely upon when they don’t care to think too much. Emunah is when you go beyond thinking and you get somewhere your mind could have never brought you to.
Emunah is when you touch that place where your soul and the essence of the Infinite Light are one. It’s a point that nothing can describe. Where there are no words, no doubts, no uncertainty, no confusion—nothing else but a magnificent oneness before which all the challenges of life vanish like a puff of vapor.
Eating matzah is a means of plugging your entire self into that reservoir. Your physical body digests the Emunah of your soul, everything is integrated back into one, your body and spirit are whole and harmonious.
9. Maror – Bitter
Event Message/Prayer Notes
1. Take some of that bitter herb, enough to make the size of a small egg if you would crunch it into a ball. Some have the custom of using both horseradish and romaine lettuce (though either/or is also ok).
Dip the bitter herb in the charoset. Shake off any excess.
It’s a careful balance: You want bitter herbs, but you want to sweeten the bitterness a little. But it’s still got to be bitter herbs.
Say the blessing: "Blessed be You… who commanded us concerning eating bitter herbs
2. Eat it. All of it while the Maror message is shared The Maror Message
What’s so great about the bitterness? Why do we want to remermber that?
Actually, our bitterness in Egypt was/is the key to our redemption. We never got used to Egypt. We never felt we belonged there. We never said, “They are the masters and we are the slaves and that’s the way it is.” It always remained something we felt bitter about, something that was unjust and needed to change.
If it hadn’t been that way, we probably would never have left. In fact, tradition tells us that 80% of the Jews said, “This is our land. How can we leave it?” And they stayed and died there.
But as for the rest of us, when Moses came and told us we were going to leave, we believed him. It was our bitterness that had preserved our faith.
Everyone has his Egypt. You’ve got to know who you are and what are your limitations. But heaven forbid to make peace with them. The soul within you knows no limits.
This is the sweetness we apply to the bitter herb: Bitterness alone, without any direction, is self-destructive. Inject some life and optimism into it, and it becomes the springboard to freedom.
10. Korech – Wrap
Event Message/Prayer Notes
1. Break off two pieces from the bottom matzah
2. Take an olive-size volume of the bitter herb and place it in between those two pieces.
Dip the bitter herb in the charoset. Shake off any excess.
This is what Hillel did, at the time that the Temple stood. He wrapped up some Pesach lamb, some matzah and some bitter herbs and ate them together
3. Lean to the left while you eat
4. The Korech Message is Shared
In the view from within Egypt, this world is a mess of fragments. It’s called “The Passoverly Challenged Perspective.” Plain materialism. Where mitzvahs are a mishmash of dos and don’ts, Jews are a collection of irreconcilable riffraff, daily life is a cacophony of hassles and, well, just stuff.
Once we blast off far enough to escape materialism’s gravitational pull, we look back down and see a whole new perspective: It’s all a single landscape.
From up there looking down, mitzvahs are multiple expressions of a single spiritual path, Jews are multiple faces to a single soul, all the artifacts of today’s journey harmonize together as a symphony with a single conductor playing a single melody.
When we make ourselves into a temple for the Divine, the bitter, the sweet and the tasteless responsibilities of life wrap together in a single sandwich.
11. Shulchan Orech - Set the Table
Event Message/Prayer Notes
1. The festive holiday meal is now eaten It’s been a long haul; on a regular Shabbat and Yom Tov, we’d have eaten hours ago. But well worth the wait. So far everything we’ve eaten had a ritual significance; now we eat to fulfill the mitzvah of enjoying the festival.
It’s customary to begin the meal with the hard-boild egg that was on your Seder Plate (commemorating the festival offering), dipped in salt water.
A boiled egg is a sign of mourning. On every festive occasion, we remember to mourn for the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem.
2. The Orech Message is Shared
This step, along with Korech before it, marks the re-entry we mentioned at the beginning. We’ve escaped Egypt and reached a higher vision. And then we start the process again -- on a higher level.
Because freedom consists of more than escape. Complete freedom is when you can turn around and liberate all the elements of your world from their pure material state, and make them transcendent as well.
That’s what we do when we eat every day—we take foods which grow from the earth, say a blessing over them and bring them into our journey as human beings. And when it’s Shabbos or another Jewish holiday, we elevate them further, into the realm of pure spirituality. As for tonight, this meal is going to be truly Divine.
12. Tzafun – Hidden
Event Message/Prayer Notes
Retrieve that hidden matzah. Eat, reclining on your left side.
The Tzafun Message is Shared
In the Kabbalah, it is explained that there is something deeper than the soul. There is the body, the spirit, and then there is the essence. If the soul is light, then that essence is the source of light. If it is energy, then the essence is the dynamo. It is called "tzafun," meaning hidden, buried, locked away and out of reach.
Whatever we do, we dance around that essence-core, like a spacecraft in orbit, unable to land. We can meditate, we can be inspired, but to touch the inner core, the place where all this comes from, that takes a power from beyond.
On Passover night, we have that power. But only after all the steps before: Destroying our personal chametz, preparing our homes for liberation, the eleven steps of the Seder until now. Then, when we are satiated with all we can handle, connecting every facet of ourselves to the Divine, that’s when that power comes to us. Whether we sense it or not, tasteless as it may seem, the matzah we eat now reaches deep into our core and transforms our very being.
In general, it is this way: Those things you find inspiring and nice may take you a step forward. But if you want to effect real change, you need to do something totally beyond your personal bounds.
13. Beirach – Bless
Event Message/Prayer Notes
1. Pour the third cup of wine. All the way to the tip, just like the other ones.
And you shall eat, and be sated, and bless the L-rd your God" (Deuteronomy 8:10). Thus we express our gratitude to the One who "nourishes the entire world with His goodness, with grace, with benevolence and with compassion".
"Blessed be You, Lord our G-d, King of the World, Who creates the fruit of the vine
2. We drink the third cup. The Blessing is Shared
The theme of grace after meals is confidence. Confidence in a Higher Force that is with us in our daily lives. With that confidence you don’t just see food before you. You see a river of life travelling from Above onto your plate.
When we say this out loud, with joy and sincerity, we initiate a reciprocal current. The energy we receive is bounced back with even greater force, replenishing all the higher worlds and ethereal beings through which it passed on its way here. The channels of life are widened and their currents grow strong.
Miracles happen when Divine energy from beyond the cosmos enters within. Why did miracles happen in Egypt? Because we believed they would. Those who didn’t believe in miracles saw only plagues. To see a miracle, you need an open heart and mind, open enough to receive the Infinite. That is the opening we make when we thank G-d for the miracle of our food.
14. Hallel – Praise
Event Message/Prayer Notes
1. Pour another cup of wine (#4).
2. Now pour another cup and set it in the middle of the table. You won’t drink this wine—it’s for Elijah the Prophet. Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your Name give glory, for the sake of Your kindness and Your truth. Why should the nations say, "Where, now, is their God?" Our God is in heaven, whatever He desires, He does. Their idols are of silver and gold, the product of human hands: they have a mouth, but cannot speak; they have eyes, but cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear; they have a nose, but cannot smell; their hands cannot feel; their feet cannot walk; they can make no sound with their throat. Like them should be their makers, everyone that trusts in them. Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield. House of Aaron, trust in the L-rd! He is their help and their shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield
The Lord, mindful of us, will bless. He will bless the House of Israel; He will bless the House of Aaron; He will bless those who fear the Lord, the small with the great. May the Lord increase [blessing] upon you, upon you and upon your children. You are blessed unto the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth He gave to the children of man. The dead do not praise God, nor do those that go down into the silence [of the grave]. But we will bless God, from now to eternity. Halleluyah Praise God.Elijah the prophet comes to announce the imminent arrival of the final Exodus.
3. Send someone to open the door. Tonight is a night of protection—"Leyl Shimurim" we call it. Tonight, we are not afraid of anything, for we are carried securely in His holy, gentle hand. We open the door in the middle of the night and we show that confidence, that deep trust that no harm will befall us.On that very first night of Passover in Egypt, we were redeemed on the merit of our trust that He would redeem us. Tonight, we will be liberated from this Egypt of the soul. Again, we must show our trust.
4. The Message is Shared The ancient rabbis clued us in on a key principle in cosmic functions: Whatever He tells us to do, He does Himself. Of course, there’s a difference: We do it in our little human world. He does it on a cosmic plane.
He told us to open our door on the night of Passover. So, tonight, He opens every door and every gateway of the spiritual cosmos to every member of the Jewish People. To each one of us, regardless of what we have been doing all the rest of the year. Tonight is the chance to reach to the highest of spiritual levels. Prophecy, divine spirit, wisdom and insight—take your choice and jump a quantum leap. There’s nothing stopping us. All we need to be is believers in Christ and his blood.
5. READ LUKE 22:20-22 Wine Communion
15. Nirtzah - Accepted
Event Message/Prayer Notes
Do nothing. This is His job now.
Look up from your wine.
And now, let Him do what He has promised to do: A re-run. A modern exodus of liberation. Starring us. With lots of miracles. But this time, forever.
Message
Some people think we are meant to make a perfect world. But if that is what our Creator wanted, why did He make us such imperfect beings?
Rather, what He wants of us is our very humanness. Sometimes we do good. Sometimes we fall. But we keep on struggling, and eventually we make some real change.
And then, once we have done all we can, like a kind parent helping with the homework, He makes sure to touch up the job and make it shine.
For 3300 years we have been leaving Egypt. For 3300 years we have been doing our human job of transforming the darkness of His world into light. And now it is His turn to lift us up, to banish the darkness forever, to make our work shine.
Grace After Meals
"And you shall eat, and be sated, and bless the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 8:10). Thus we express our gratitude to the One who "nourishes the entire world with His goodness, with grace, with benevolence and with compassion
MT 26:30 – When they had prayed and rejoiced over the meal, the went out and into the Garden.
Preparing for the Passover Seder:
An Information Booklet
Introduction
This booklet is intended to help you better prepare for the Seder by providing you with information about the celebration and its history.
A Call to a Holy Passover
So begins every Passover Seder. Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew is the annual celebration of the Passover, God’s mighty deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in the land of Egypt. It is celebrated in obedience to God’s commandment or mitzvot in Exodus 13:3: “Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, because the LORD brought you out from there by strength of hand.” It is more than a simple remembrance, it is a re-living of the story, a liturgical transcendence of time and space. Those who celebrate the Passover, place themselves back into the Exodus story and bring that story into the present. It is also a way of sending the story into the future, by teaching it to the children. It is the same thing we do at Communion, putting ourselves to death with Jesus, so that we can put on his resurrection life. Seder means order. The Passover Seder is then the order of service for Passover. Everything about the meal symbolizes the Passover.
Each year the story lives again. God brought Abraham out of the land beyond the Euphrates, out of idolatry, led him to the land of Canaan, and gave him descendant in Isaac and Jacob. When Jacob and his children went down into Egypt, his youngest son Joseph was already in Egypt. He had been sold into slavery by his brothers but had emerged with power over the land of Egypt. But then a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he oppressed and enslaved the Israelites until the cried out from their bondage. God heard our moaning and God remembered His Covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by sign and portents; not through a messenger, not through any intermediary or any supernatural being, but through the Holy One alone. It is not only a celebration of freedom, but a celebration of the faithfulness of God. It is not only a celebration of liberation, but an expression of solidarity with oppressed people everywhere.
Pesach and the Seder meal have strong ties to our Christian tradition. In the oldest traditions Easter was celebrated on the same day as the Jewish Passover. It was not until the fifth century that the Christian Church broke entirely away from this practice. In non-English traditions, the relationship between Pesach and Easter is more obvious, since in those traditions it is called Pascha, which is a Greek derivative of the Hebrew Pesach. Three of the four Gospels say that Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Passover and that the Lord’s supper was a Passover meal. St. John places Jesus on the Cross on Passover, the Pesach lamb sacrificed for all people to liberate them from the bondage of sin. But all agree: Jesus Christ is our Passover.
As we join in the Passover Seder meal, we will be invited to put ourselves into the Passover story and put the story in our own lives. We can begin to ask ourselves what is our Pharaoh? What in our lives holds us in bondage? What in us cries out to God for deliverance? What in us must die in order that we might be free? Where in our lives has Christ liberated us?
The Four Cups of Wine & The Cup of Elijah
The Passover Seder is a ceremonial meal in which every item and every action has a symbolic meaning. During the Passover Seder each participant is expected to partake of four cups of wine (or grape juice). This requirement is based on the biblical account of the Exodus which outlines the four stages by which Israel was delivered from slavery in Egypt:
Say therefore to the Israelites, ‘I am the LORD, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. (Exodus 6:6-7)
The wine is usually red, recalling the color of the blood which the Hebrews sprinkled on the doorposts of their homes so that their first-born sons would be “passed over.” In this act, we symbolically re-live the Exodus liberation along side the people of Israel and make it our own. Each of us are invited to recall the ways God has freed us, delivered us, redeemed us, and made us his people. And we may recall after his last Passover Supper with the disciples Jesus took the third cup, the cup of redemption, and when he had given thanks, gave it to them saying,
“Drink this all of you; This is my blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins” (BCP, p. 363).
In the Passover Seder a special cup is placed in the middle of the table, filled to overflowing, but not drunk. This is called Elijah’s Cup. It relates to a fifth expression of deliverance:
I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’” (Exodus 6:8)
Elijah’s cup is a symbol of hope, of prophetic and messianic hope, in the coming Kingdom of God on this earth.
The Maggid: The Four Questions and the Passover Story
The leader holds up the plate of matzah and pronounces it Ha Lakhma Anya, “The Bread of Poverty,” a reminder of the slavery of the Israelites and a symbol of solidarity with the poor. At this point, the youngest child present “interrupts” to ask “Why is this night different from all other nights?” followed by four questions. The leader then explains the four ways the Passover meal is different then any other family meal and begins to retell the Passover Story.
Question: On all other nights, we eat either leavened bread or matzah. Why on this night only matzah?
Answer: To remind us that our ancestors were forced to flee from Egypt in great haste, with no time to bake their bread or even wait for yeast to rise. The beating sun baked the flattened dough as they hurried along.
Question: On all other nights, we eat all kinds of herbs. Why on this night only bitter herbs?
Answer: To remind us that oppressors enslaved our ancestors in Egypt and made their lives bitter.
Question: On all other nights, we do not dip the herbs even once. Why on this night twice?
Answer: The parsley in salt water reminds us of the new life of spring and the new life God gave our ancestors, and the bitter herbs in sweet haroset that the sweet hope of freedom enabled our ancestors to endure the bitterness of slavery.
Question: On all other nights, we eat sitting or reclining. Why on this night do we recline?
Answer: To remind us that in ancient times only a free person could eat reclining and that our ancestors were freed on this night.
What parts of our lives has God freed from slavery and bitterness, what parts remain to be freed, and what is the source of our hope?
The Passover Symbols
The great Jewish teacher Rabbi Gamaliel – who taught at the time of Jesus and under whom studied Saul of Tarsus, who became our Apostle Paul – once said:
Everyone must consider the meaning of these three symbols: Pesach, the Passover lamb; Matzah, the unleavened bread; Maror, the bitter herbs; otherwise the duty of recounting the Passover story has not been fulfilled.
Pesach, the Passover lamb, represented by the unbroken shank bone of a lamb, was sacrificed so that the Lord would pass over the houses of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, as it is written:
When your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this observance?’ you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to the LORD, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” (Exodus 12:26-27)
Matzah, the unleavened bread, represents the haste with which the Hebrews left Egypt, as it is written:
They baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt; it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves. (Exodus 12:39)
Maror, the bitter herbs, are eaten as a reminder of the life of Israel in Egypt that was made bitter by their captors, as it is written:
The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. (Exodus 1:13)
The earliest Christians, who were Jews themselves, not only kept the Passover but felt its fullest expression in Y’shua ha-Mashiach, Jesus the Christ.
Christ, who saves us from bitter alienation from ourselves, each other, and God.
Christ, whose body we receive as the bread of heaven.
Christ, the Passover lamb who is sacrificed for us.
Therefore let us keep the feast!
The eight-day springtime festival of Passover, or Pessah in Hebrew, celebrates the ancient Hebrews’ liberation from slavery in Egypt about 3,000 years ago. Passover food customs commemorate this milestone event.
On the Passover table, matzo is served instead of bread, as a reminder of the slaves’ hurried escape. The Torah relates that the fleeing Hebrews did not have time to let their bread rise. To identify with their ancestors’ flight and deliverance, the Jews eat matzo, flat, unleavened crackerlike bread.
Creating the Passover paradox
Passover meals are intentionally different from those of the rest of the year. Besides bread, several other foods are shunned. In spite of these constraints, most people look forward to Passover as a food holiday. Inventive cooks throughout the ages contributed to the holiday flavors and have produced a popular Passover repertoire. They developed tasty, out-of-the-ordinary dishes. The result is that Passover meals are not only the most festive of the year but the most interesting as well.
Meals without grains and beans
Grains are eliminated from most traditional Jewish tables during Passover. True, matzo is made of wheat, but it is a special exception. In some Sephardic communities, rice is allowed, too. Ashkenazic Jews and many Sephardic Jews avoid beans as well.
Foods prohibited during Passover are called hametz in Hebrew, meaning leavened. In addition to bread, certain other foods are not allowed because they can leaven, or ferment naturally, upon contact with liquid. These foods include wheat flour, other grains, and legumes. This principle is the same one that’s behind sourdough baking: When a mixture of flour and water is left to sit, it catches wild yeast from the air.
Matzo itself is made from wheat flour. To prevent its fermentation, it is inspected during its preparation to ensure that the dough is mixed quickly and baked immediately.
Menus highlighting matzo
Matzo does not simply play the role of bread substitute. Cooks turn it into an amazing variety of delicacies, from lasagna to chicken stuffing to cookies.
At one time, only white flour matzo and egg matzo were available. Now, you can get matzo in a variety of flavors, such as whole wheat, white grape, and chocolate.
Certain flavored matzo varieties are not considered kosher for Passover. Check the labels on the packages.
Although most matzo is square, there are special shmura matzos, meaning watched-over matzos, which are usually round. Even more than other types of matzo, rabbis or special inspectors carefully scrutinize them at every stage of their preparation. Orthodox Jews prefer them for the Seder.
A glance at the supermarket Passover displays reveals many foods made from matzo. Cooks find matzo meal, cake meal, and matzo farfel the most useful. (See Table 1 for descriptions and uses of basic Passover ingredients.) Passover pasta began recently appearing in the stores so that noodle lovers need no longer miss their favorite food during the holiday. You can also find numerous cake mixes and prepared cakes and cookies.
Table 1: Basic Passover Products
Food Description Main Uses
Matzo meal Flour made from ground matzos Dumplings, breading, baked goods
Cake meal or matzo cake meal Fine flour made from ground matzos Cakes, other baked goods
Matzo farfel Small matzo squares Breakfast cereal, casseroles, stuffing
Potato starch Flour made from potatoes Cakes
Prominence of potatoes
Because many of the usual carbohydrate foods are not permitted during the holiday, potatoes play a major part on Passover menus. Potato starch replaces flour in some recipes.
A favorite way to prepare potatoes, especially for the Seder and for other festive meals, is to bake them around a main course of chicken, turkey, or meat or to roast them separately in a pan. Some prepare potato latkes, similar to those for Hanukkah, but with no baking powder and with matzo meal used instead of the flour.
Preparing for Passover
In observant households, people start preparing for Passover at least several days ahead. Many do a thorough spring-cleaning to be certain that no bread or cake crumbs are in the house.
Kitchen implements
To keep the food completely kosher for Passover, many people switch their eating and cooking utensils, including dishes, flatware, pots, and mixing spoons. This means two sets of Passover equipment, one for meat meals and one for dairy dining.
Using different dishes helps give this week’s meals a special presentation and contributes to the festive feeling. So does the custom of buying new clothes for the whole family.
Special Seder foods
Passover begins with a ritual-rich dinner called a Seder. It involves ceremonial foods presented on a special Seder plate, which is divided into sections labeled in Hebrew indicating where to place each food (see Table 2). Their purpose is to symbolize the Hebrews’ bondage in Egypt, deliverance, and gaining their own land of Israel.
Table 2: Seder Plate Foods and Labels
Food Hebrew Label Ingredients Used Symbolizes
Bitter herbs Maror Grated fresh horseradish or leaves of bitter greens Misery of servitude
Haroset Haroset Fruit and nuts made into spread Mortar and bricks made by Hebrew slaves
Roasted bone Zeroah Roasted lamb shank or chicken neck Sacred sacrifices at Holy Temple in Jerusalem
Egg Beitzah Hard-boiled egg Temple offerings
Celery Karpas Stick of celery or sprig of parsley Spring
A matzo plate is an essential Seder table element. On it are three matzos, often covered with or enclosed in a matzo cloth reserved for the occasion.
Wine is an important element of the Seder. During the ceremony, people drink four glasses of wine. Many families serve it in special small glasses.
Although the time-honored taste of Seder wine is sweet, any kosher for Passover wine is appropriate. American, Israeli, French, and Italian winemakers prepare dry and semi-dry Passover wines, as well as sweet ones.
Seder ceremony
For the Seder, there is a book of prayers and songs called the Haggadah. Either the leader reads from it or those at the table take turns. Most of the reading takes place before the actual dinner begins. The recitation is punctuated with pauses to taste or point out each of the special Seder foods.
Around the world, Jews prepare two Seders, one on the first and one on the second night of the holiday. Israeli custom calls for only one Seder, on the first night.
