Explaining the Seder Plate

Leader:

Rabban Gamliel would say: Anyone who does not mention these three things on Passover does not fulfill their obligation, and these are they: the Passover offering, the matzah, and the bitter herbs.

We read the questions together, and individual community members read the asnwers:

What does the Passover offering represent? 

The lamb shank, which is represented today by a beet, represents the strong hand and outstretched arm, through which we move together towards freedom.  It also represents the sacrifice originally associated with the celebration of pesach at the holy temple in Jerusalem.

What does the matzah represent?

The nourishment we can make happen, even when it seems like nothing is there, when we are moving from the narrowest of places into openness, hope, and freedom.  It is the bread of freedom and the bread of affliction - it is the bread the slaves ate as they left Mitzrayim.  It is unleavened because it did not have time to rise.

What do the bitter herbs represent?

The lettuce and horseradish represent the bitterness of oppression in Mitzrayim, for us, and for all others who made Exodus with our ancestors.

The Charoset, the sweet paste in front of you, is a symbol of slavery, representing the mortar that the enslaved used when they were forced to build buildings and monuments in Mitzrayim.[ This was re-phrased based on the JFREJ Mixed-Multitudes Haggadah.]

The salt water represents the tears of the enslaved.

The Karpas (Parsley), and Beitzah (Egg) represent spring and renewal, the season of this holiday.

We also have two items on our seder plate which are not traditional.  The first is an olive, evocative of the olive trees of Palestine, and representing the global plagues of imperialism and land theft.  The second, an orange, has been around for about a few decades already and has a complicated history.[ The text surrounding the olive and orange were adapted from the Velveteen Rabbi, the Love and Justice in Times of War Haggadah, and the JFREJ Mixed Multitudes Haggadah]

We have already blessed the herbs at the beginning of the seder.

We now bless the charoset, the olive, and the orange [The hebrew text below comes from the Chabad website.]

:

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Baruch atah adonai, eloheinu melech ha-olam borei p’ri ha etz. 

 Blessed are you Adonai our g-d, ruler of the universe, who created the fruit of the tree

We now bless the egg and the meat: 

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Baruch atah adonai, eloheinu melech ha-olam shehakol ni’hiyeh b’dvaro.  

Blessed are you Adonai our g-d, ruler of the universe, by whose word all things came to be.

We will say the blessing over the matzah soon.


haggadah Section: -- Cup #2 & Dayenu