What's on our seder plate?

As Natalie explained, we have the egg (spring), the shankbone (spring), and the leafy greens (also spring). We've also got bitter herbs (lettuce), bitter herbs (horseradish), sweet treats (charoset), and the aforementioned matzah.

For a vegan seder plate, substitute a beet for the bone and a flower for the egg.

We may also include an orange (for the LGBTQ community), an olive (for Palestinian rights), an artichoke (for interfaith families), and a tomato (for farmworkers' rights). Those last two I had never heard of, but they were on a graphic made by Whole Foods, so.

Digging even further, I found a banana (Syrian refugees), cashews (troops in Iraq), a crust of bread (the proto-orange - "there’s as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the seder plate"), potato ("Operation Solomon"), and fair trade chocolate (forced child labor). You can even make a "Food Desert Seder Plate," swapping all these out for rotting or processed foods to symbolize the lack of access to fresh healthy food in low-income communities.

All this may seem silly to some. But the point is: there is room on the plate, and there is room in Judaism to fight for a better world.


haggadah Section: Karpas
Source: Serena Berman