On all other nights we don’t even dip vegetables once. Tonight, twice?

Why do we dip twice during the seder? We commemorate two biblical dipping that bookend the Exodus narrative. First, we dip the karpas into salt water to remember Yosef’s brothers dipping their coat of many colors in blood after their transphobic attack that led to the first Israelite being sold into slavery in Mitzrayim. The second dipping commemorates the Israelites dipping bunches of hyssop into the blood of the first Pesach offering, then painting their doorposts with the blood so Hashem would pass over their houses that night. The first dipping set into motion the Israelites’ descent into slavery, but the second dipping on the first Pesach, the first night of B’ney Yisra’el’s liberation, set into motion their redemption. 

But why did Hashem have them dip bunches of hyssop into the blood? First of all, Hashem wanted to make sure they didn’t use their hands to smear the blood onto their doorposts, as touching blood and dead things is generally a no-no in Judaism. The deeper reason is that hyssop would go on to be one of the tools the cohanim used for cleansing. Though it was a simple herb, a common weed that “grows out of walls” (1 Kings 4:33) hyssop was seen as something that could purify souls. After King David realized how much harm he had done by scheming to get the beautiful Bathsheba for himself, he wrote, “cleanse me with hyssop until I am pure.” (Psalm 51:9) 
In this same psalm, David laid the groundwork for Judaism after the fall of the Temple: “You do not want me to bring sacrifices. You do not desire burnt offerings. My sacrifice is a broken spirit—God will not reject a crushed and broken heart.” (Psalm 51:18-19) As Maimonides said, “[Now that there’s] no altar to atone for us, there is nothing else left but repentance. Repentance atones for all sins.”


haggadah Section: Maror
Source: Min Ha-Meitzar: An Abolitionist Haggadah from the Narrow Place by Noraa Kaplan