Families hold a seder on the first and sometimes second night of Passover. It is fundamentally a religious service set around a dinner table, where the order in which participants eat, pray, drink wine, sing, discuss current social justice issues and tell stories is prescribed by a central book called the Haggadah. On Passover seder tables, you may see a partitioned plate containing small amounts of specific food.
This is the seder plate, and each food is symbolic for an aspect of Passover: A roasted shank bone represents the Pescah sacrifice, an egg represents spring and the circle of life, bitter herbs represent the bitterness of slavery, haroset an applesauce-like mixture with wine, nuts, apples, etc. Also placed on the table are three pieces of matzah — a cracker-like unleavened bread — that represent the bread the Israelites took with them when they fled Egypt, and salt water to represent the tears of the slaves.
At your seat, you may see a specific wine glass or kiddish cup. The Torah commands that at least four symbolic cups of wine be consumed during the Passover seder. There may also be one or two extra kiddish cups at your table: One is a cup of wine for the prophet Elijah whose spirit visits on passover. On the chairs, you may see pillows. This is because on Passover you are supposed to recline at the table as a symbol of being free.
There is even a specific section of the seder called the four questions, where the youngest person at the table asks about the different Passover symbols and the elders explain. In addition to eating the foods represented on the seder plate with the exception of lamb, which is not eaten a Passover meal — that breaks up the two halves of the seder — is served. Traditional dishes include matzo ball soup , gefilte fish, beef brisket, chicken and potatoes.
More traditional Jews will completely clean out any foods containing chametz from their home. This has to do with the story of Passover: After the killing of the first born, the Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites go.
But in their haste to leave Egypt, the Israelites could not let their bread rise and so they brought unleavened bread. If you don't eat chametz during the holiday, it can indeed make sense not to use your usual dishes and silverware during Passover.
Some Jews Reform Jews! Some choose to use different silverware in order to indicate that what we eat on Passover is meant to be different from the rest of the year. Does it matter? Does "God really care" if we eat matza on the same plate used for a bagel the rest of the year? My bet is God doesn't much worry about our plates and silverware. Nevertheless, the idea of making our homes visually different for one week a year does speak strongly to me.
At some level, "changing some dishes" can be an aesthetically pleasing and memory creating Passover option. Not Eating Bread This Year? I vividly remember my experience as a young Air Force Chaplain, going to the senior Chaplain who I recall was a Protestant fundamentalist, and saying "Next month is Passover, and I need to have certain foods stocked in the PX for Jewish families.
Jews have always understood this relationship. Even in Reform Judaism, where questions of kosher foods are left to the individual's choice, it is still clear that what we eat reflects what we believe. This is especially obvious on Passover, when - at the very least - we abstain from eating bread for the duration of the holiday.
It links us to other Jews in the world, and "vertically" to our people's experience on this planet. Although we talk about the great central ideal of Passover, the concept of freedom, nothing illustrates a concept better than some concrete action as a reminder. In fact, we realize more and more that you cannot have a religion based only on ideas. That is called a philosophy. We do not practice the philosophy of Judaism, but the religion of the Jewish people, which requires action as well as faith.
We eat matzah during Passover to remind ourselves that we are part of the community of Israel, as well as the heirs of the hasty departure from Egypt. It is also a question of taste.
And no bread ever tasted better than the first bite after the week of Passover. Another unexpected feature of quinoa is that it is kosher for Passover! Chametz typically includes leavened bread or any food that contains wheat, rye, barley, oats, or spelt, unless production has been supervised to ensure that it has not leavened.
Many of us also avoid eating kitniyot. Read on to learn what it is, what it means, and how we approach all of it during this holiday. Technically, it takes 18 minutes for flour to ferment and rise, so matzah must be prepared and baked in fewer than 18 minutes. Kitniyot "small things" includes legumes, beans, peas, rice, millet, corn, and seeds.
Many Ashkenazi Jews Jews of central and eastern European descent choose not to eat kitniyot on Passover. There have been many reasons that Ashkenazic communities have refrained from eating kitniyot on Passover.
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