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The Seder Plate
Contributed by Kara Rosenberg

  • TOP HAGGADAHS FOR 2023

MATZAH
This is matzah, the bread of liberation, of rebellion, that our foremothers baked and ate in a time when they had to be organizing more and cooking less. It is traditional to open our door at this time and say: “May all who are hungry come and share our matzah; may all who struggle for freedom come and share our spirit!”

EGGS
The eggs are a symbol of springtime, fertility, and the giving of life. We are reminded of Pharaoh's threat to kill newborn
Jewish babies, and of the courageous midwives who refused to carry out his orders. The egg also tells us, “The longer
things are in hot water, the tougher they become.”

PASCHAL "YAM"
Tradition directs us to hold up a roasted lamb bone (z’roa), which is symbolic of the animals sacrificed by early Jews. We are using a "yam" shank so that no animals are in fact sacrificed for our Seder plates, but the ancient symbol of that first Passover
is retained. In this way we affirm our ancient traditions, the importance of caring for all species of animals, and the ethical and ecological concerns about the eating of meat.

MAROR
The bitter herbs symbolize the bitterness of slavery.

SALT WATER
This represents the tears of our ancestors in slavery.

CHAROTSES
Charoses is a mixture of apples, nuts, wine, and spices, or in some other Jewish cultures, dates, figs, apricots, prunes, or oranges, peanuts, and bananas, that are made into a paste. It symbolizes the mortar that our ancestors used to build pyramids. The sweet taste of the Charoyses also reminds us that in the bitterest times of slavery, our people have always remembered the sweet taste of freedom.

KARPAS
The parsley and the salt water remind us that both the tender greens of the earth and the salt of the sea are joined together to sustain life.

ORANGE
One of the gifts of our tradition is that we are able to interpret and expand the customs that have been handed down to us. One new custom is the addition of an orange on the seder plate. Rabbi Susannah Heschel put an orange at her own Seder plate as a gesture of solidarity with Jewish lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transpeople, and all others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. And there are those who add: We left Mitzrayim as slaves and were reborn as a free
people. So we bring to the Seder plate a fruit that carries, within itself, the seeds of its own rebirth.

OLIVE
We add the olive to our Seder plate to bring to mind the olive branch, which has long been a symbol of peace, and to remember the olive tree which evokes an ancient past, shared by generations, tied to the ritual of harvest and to the traditions of preparing and sharing food with family and friends. As we think of the tensions in the Middle East and the massive uprooting of Palestinian olive trees, we also celebrate the olive branch as a sign of hope and an enduring future
dating back to the time of Noah, the receding flood waters, and the beginning of a new life.
haggadah Section: -- Cup #2 & Dayenu

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