The Seder Meal
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How to do the Seder Meal (Video)
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Christ in the Passover (Video)
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Christ in the Passover (Longer Video)
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Seder Meal Guide Handout
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Seder customs include telling the story, discussing the story, drinking four cups of wine, eating matzah, partaking of symbolic foods, and reclining in celebration of freedom. The Seder is among the most commonly celebrated Jewish rituals, performed by Jews all over the world.
The Seder plate is the most important part of any Passover Seder. It’s rich with symbolism, meaning, and history. And it’s what the holiday ritual is centered around.
While there are plenty of new, modern twists or additions, there are traditionally six main items that go on the Seder plate. (Fun fact: Many Seder plate designs configure the six items into the six points of the Jewish star.) How the Seder plate is arranged differs by families and their interpretations; this setup is one common option.
1. Maror
This is the bitter herb, which reminds the Jews of the bitterness of the slavery their forefathers endured in Egypt. It’s usually represented on Seder plates with horseradish. You can use part of a full root or spoon out some of the jarred stuff.
How it’s used: The maror may be used a few times during the Seder. First, it gets dipped or mixed into some charoset. It’s sometimes also made into a small sandwich with charoset and matzo.
Bitter herbs (maror and hazeret): Mar means "bitter," and the maror is meant to remind us of the bitterness of slavery. The two main foods customarily used for maror are lettuce –especially Romaine lettuce (which eventually turns bitter and is commonly used as maror in Israel) – and grated horseradish, which is commonly used in many Jewish communities outside of Israel. Some seder plates have a spot for each of those items, and you can put horseradish in one of them and lettuce in the other.
Horseradish appears to have become a popular choice for maror because it was easier to obtain than lettuce in Germany and Eastern Europe, but hazeret, a plant that scholars identify as lettuce (yet, confusingly, is the modern Hebrew term for horseradish), is the first of five plants listed in the Mishna as a food that can be used for maror.
2. Z’roa
Usually a roasted lamb shank bone, the z’roa is just for show to represent the lamb that was sacrificed the night the Jews left Egypt. (Some communities use a roasted chicken neck instead.) The word z’roa means arm, and people often say this item also symbolizes the outstretched arm of God. The shank bone is not eaten (it’s a bone, after all!), but is used symbolically.
Shank bone (zeroa): This is a roasted bone with some meat on it. Although zeroa is often described as the shank bone of a lamb, other bones work too – such as a roasted chicken wing, chicken leg or part of the neck. The emphasis is less on the exact body part and more on the commemoration of the Paschal sacrifice, which was the most important part of celebrating Passover in the time of the Temple.
The zeroa is also seen as an allusion to the "outstretched arm" (zeroa netuyah) with which the Bible says God took the Jews out of Egypt. Unlike most of the symbols of seder night, this one is for looking at, not eating.
3. Charoset
The charoset is meant to resemble the mortar and brick made by the Jews when they were slaves in Egypt under Pharaoh. Some communities of Ashkenazi Jews make it with apples, walnuts, and wine. Sephardic Jews often use figs and dates, which are more common than apples.
How it’s used: Charoset is eaten with horseradish and, during some Seders, it’s turned into what’s called Hillel’s sandwich, put between two pieces of matzo with the maror.
Haroset: The word is thought to come from heres, meaning "clay," and the sweet reddish or brownish paste (the color depends, of course, on what you put in it) is meant to symbolize the clay the Israelite slaves used to make the bricks and mortar for their Egyptian overlords. The sweetness also offsets the taste of the bitter herbs, much as our freedom offsets the taste of remembered slavery. There are many different recipes for haroset, but the classic Ashkenazi version involves apples, walnuts and red wine, while many Sephardi recipes call for dates or other dried fruit.
4. Chazeret
A second bitter item, which is sometimes left off the Seder plate entirely, romaine lettuce symbolizes the fact that the Jewish stay in Egypt began soft and ended hard and bitter (look at the two ends of a piece of lettuce).
How it’s used: Some families do use the chazeret and the maror interchangeably or together. And sometimes the chazeret is used in the sandwich mentioned above.
5. Karpas
Typically represented with parsley (although some families use boiled potatoes), the karpas is a symbol of spring and new beginnings. It can also symbolize the initial flourishing of the Israelites during the first years in Egypt.
How it’s used: To start the Seder, participants take a small piece of parsley and dip it in salt water to remember the tears the Jews shed when they were slaves in Egypt.
Vegetable (karpas): Just about any vegetable may be used for karpas, as long as it's not one that can be used for bitter herbs. It should be served either cooked or raw, whichever is the normal method of eating it. Vegetables that are commonly used for karpas include parsley, celery and potatoes. During the seder, the karpas is dipped into salt water, reminiscent of the tears of the Israelite slaves, before eating.
6. Beitzah
There are many different explanations for why a roasted hard-boiled egg sits on the Seder plate. Some families say it represents the pre-holiday offering. It’s also said the roundness of the egg represents the cycle of life. And other people say it represents new beginnings and hope.
How it’s used: Although it’s traditional to begin the actual Seder meal with each person eating a hardboiled egg that’s dipped in the bowl of salt water, the egg on the Seder plate is typically not eaten.
Egg (beitzah): The egg commemorates the Hagigah sacrifice that was eaten with the Paschal sacrifice on seder night during Temple times, though it was animals, not eggs, that were brought to the Temple. One reason commonly suggested for using an egg to represent the sacrifice is that eggs – whose circularity is seen as representing the cycle of life – are a typical mourner's food, and thus remind us that we are mourning the destruction of the Temple, as a result of which we cannot bring the Passover sacrifices.
The egg is traditionally boiled and then roasted, for that charred, sacrifice-y look. (Note that the seder plate egg is different from the hard-boiled eggs that many have a custom to eat once it's time for the meal to begin.)