PS - here's a paper on the Seder I went to.

It's pretty long. This is mainly for mama. Maybe for me, cause I'm planning to print out my blog when I get home.



On the 29th of March, Semester at Sea held a Passover Seder in the 5th floor dining room.  I had never gone to a Seder before, so I had no idea what to expect.  There were roughly 150 Jews and non-Jews crammed into the dining hall.  On each table there was a pitcher of grape juice (acting as wine), as well as a pitcher of water.  Unfortunately, there were too many people to allow for Seder plates on every table, but luckily my table was fortunate enough to get one.  On the Seder plate was a hardboiled egg (beytso), greens (karpas), a lamb bone (z’roa), bitter herbs (maror), charoset, saltwater, and an orange.  Each item represents a different element of Jewish tradition: the hardboiled egg symbolizes new growth or new life, the charoset represents the mortar or glue that held the Egyptian bricks together, the bitter herbs symbolize the bitter struggle of the Jewish slaves, the lamb bone is a sacrificial offering, the orange represents the modern struggle of lesbians and gays (this was a reform service), and the greens and saltwater I will explain later.

We began the evening with kadesh, where electric candles were turned on (a fire-safe replacement for the lighting of candles), a song was sung, and we drank our first glass of “wine” (many Jewish students chose to split their two glasses of wine into four cups, as one is supposed to drink four glasses of wine over the course of the meal).  We then performed urchatz, or the traditional hand washing, followed by karpas, or the dipping of a green vegetable into salt water.  Before dipping the greens, a quick prayer is sung, and then we eat the embittered greens. The process of karpas gets the worshippers ready for the Seder by invoking the story of how the Jews left Egypt; some believe that the salty water represents the tears of the Jews, whereas others taste the Red Sea, and the greens are symbolic of the coming of spring.

After the karpas comes yachatz, where the middle piece of matzah is broken in two.  Half is kept on the plate, while the other half is hidden while everyone closes their eyes (this is referred to as the afikomen).  Matzah is an essential part of Passover as it reminds the Jews that their ancestors had to leave Egypt so suddenly that they could not wait for their dough to rise, so it cooked on their backs in the sun.  A prayer is then sung, ending with the lines “This year we celebrate here / Next year in Jerusalem.”  Next comes the mah nistanah, or the Four Questions.  In this section of the service, the youngest children in the room (in this case the Finn’s) are asked to recite the Four Questions in order to give the parents the opportunity to tell their children about their flight from Egyptian slavery to freedom.  Immediately thereafter, the Four Children of the Haggadah are described according to the ways they ask questions.  This allows for the story of Exodus to be told in various ways, so each type of person will fully grasp the importance of Passover.

After the Four Children of the Haggadah portion is complete, the maggid, or the telling of the story of Exodus, commences.  A shortened version was used so that the service would only last an hour instead of three.  We then read the names of the plagues aloud, dipped our fingers into the grape juice and shook off a drop of “wine” for every plague.  According to Rob Abowitz, the reason for this was to remind us that “our cup of happiness cannot be full to overflowing if our freedom means the tragedy of others, even our sworn enemies.”  We then spoke about contemporary plagues – discrimination, environmental destruction, war, economic disparity, world hunger, unemployment, and many others.  Then we refilled our glasses for our second glass of grape juice and sang a prayer.

Within a short amount of time, we performed rachtzah, or the washing of hands for the meal, as well as the motzi matza and maror.  Motzi matza is the process of blessing the matzo and eating it, and maror is the blessing of the bitter herbs and the eating of them combined with the charoset.  The significance of matzah I have already explained, but the maror is also a very symbolic process.  The maror is a bitter herb (often horse radish) meant to symbolize the slavery suffered by the Jews, and it is dipped in charoset, which symbolizes the mortar used to hold Egyptian bricks together, as well as an expression of optimism (through its sweetness) that kept hope alive during enslavement.  The meal, or shulhan orekh, was then served.  We all enjoyed baked potatoes, green beans, chicken (instead of lamb, which was considered strange by many of the students at the service), matzo ball soup, and salad.  Over the course of the meal, everyone drank another glass of “wine” and enjoyed the company of their friends.

After the meal, there was a mass scramble to find the afikomen.  It took the entire dining room about a half hour to find it underneath a student’s chair.  That student received $6 in South African Rand, which was a funny and non-traditional prize.  Rob then explained the significance of the Cup of Elijah and the Cup of Miriam.  We welcomed Elijah, the weary traveler, through a door leading to the deck as a symbolic gesture of compassion and hospitality, and showed him to his Cup.  Miriam’s Cup is the Cup of living waters, which the Jews drink to balance male and female counterparts in the ceremony.  The Seder then concluded with birkat hamazon, or the blessing in thanks for the meal, as well as the recitation of psalms and singing of songs.  With our final glass of wine, the Seder was complete.

This paper is a great deal longer than I had initially thought it would be, but I do not feel as though I could have cut much out.  The Passover Seder is an incredibly complex and symbolic ritual, and to cut it down would have done it a great disservice.  I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the symbolism and history within the Passover holiday; before this experience I had never gone to a Seder although I have been invited many times.  I look forward to seeing what the complete three-hour, more orthodox service will be like.