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Orange and Olive
Contributed by Lee Lipfziger

  • TOP HAGGADAHS FOR 2023

The Orange

Reader: Many years ago, Susannah Heschel attended a feminist seder where bread was placed on the seder plate, a reaction to a rebbetzin who had claimed lesbians had no more place in Judaism than bread crusts have at a seder.

“Bread on the seder plate… renders everything chametz, and its symbolism suggests that being lesbian is transgressive, violating Judaism.”

So at her next seder, she chose an orange as a symbol of inclusion of gays and lesbians and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. She offered the orange as a symbol of the fruitfulness for all Jews when LGBTQ members are contributing and active participants in Jewish life.

In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out--a gesture of spitting out, repudiating the homophobia of Judaism.

“I felt that an orange was suggestive of something else: the fruitfulness for all Jews when lesbians and gay men are contributing and active members of Jewish life.”

"Somehow, though, the typical patriarchal maneuver occurred: My idea of an orange and my intention of affirming lesbians and gay men were transformed. Now the story circulates that a man said to me that a woman belongs on the bimah as an orange on the seder plate. A woman's words are attributed to a man, and the affirmation of lesbians and gay men is erased. Isn't that precisely what's happened over the centuries to women's ideas?"

-- Susannah Heschel

We peel the orange and everyone gets a slice.

Together, we recite: 

Barukh ata Adonai eloheinu melech ha’olam borei p’ri ha-eitz

Blessed are you, Lord our god, Ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the is a universal tree.

[we eat the orange slice]

The Olive

Reader: The olive tree is a universal and ancient symbol of hope and peace.  And the destruction of Palestinian olive trees by Israeli settlers and the Israeli army is just one example of the way that Israeli policies systematically deny Palestinians their land, their resources, and their most basic rights.

Catepillar bulldozers rip ancient olive groves from the soil of Canaan.  Stolen trees grow inside the high fences of illegal Israeli settlements.

We place the olive our seder plate to force ourselves to ask how will we, as Jews, will bear witness to the unjust actions committed in our name. To remind us that we must continue to search to find ways to be bearers of peace and hope for Palestinians - and for all who are oppressed.

-adapted, Rebecca Vilkomerson

Everyone takes an olive.

Together, we recite: 

Barukh ata Adonai eloheinu melech ha’olam borei p’ri ha-eitz

Blessed are you, Lord our god, Ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the tree.

[we eat the olive]
haggadah Section: Koreich

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