Karpas represents spring and new growth, rebirth and the beginning of new life. We taste in this fresh vegetable all the potential in nature and in ourselves. Tonight we celebrate our growth, the flowering of our spirit and of our voices.

We do not taste the vegetable alone. We dip it into salt water, recalling the tears our ancestors shed during their long years in slavery. We mix bitterness with sweetness, slavery with freedom, past with future. We live with the contrasts because we know that no moment exists without a multitude of combinations--sorrow and joy, pain and comfort, despair and hope.

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בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha’olam, borei p’ri ha’adamah.

Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Sovereign of the universe, who creates the fruit of the earth.


haggadah Section: Karpas
Source: A Night of Questions