Karpas represents spring and new growth, rebirth and the beginning of new life. We taste in this fresh vegetable all the potential in nature an 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 (or vinegar), 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.

Dip a vegetable in salt water (or vinegar) and recite:

Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha'olam borei p'ri ha'adamah.

Blessed are you, Eternal One our God, sovereign of all worlds who creates fruit of the earth.

Eat the vegetable.


haggadah Section: Karpas
Source: A Night of Questions: A Passover Haggadah (plus personal addition of vinegar)