Why is karpas on the seder plate

In the course of the seder, we dip the karpas in salt water Ashkenazi custom or vinegar Sephardi custom in order to taste both the hope of new birth and the tears that the Israelite slaves shed over their condition. Karpas also symbolizes the new spring. Some Ashkenazi Jews use a potato for karpas , as green vegetables were not readily available in Eastern Europe.

This mix of fruits, wine or honey, and nuts symbolizes the mortar that the Israelite slaves used to construct buildings for Pharaoh. The name itself comes from the Hebrew word cheres or clay. Ashkenazi Jews generally include apples in haroset, a nod to the midrashic tradition that the Israelite women would go into the fields and seduce their husbands under the apple trees, in defiance of the Egyptian attempts to prevent reproduction by separating men and women.

Sephardic recipes for haroset allude to this fertility symbolism by including fruits, such as dates and figs, mentioned in Song of Songs , the biblical book that is most infused with images of love and sexuality. This bitter herb allows us to taste the bitterness of slavery.

Today, most Jews use horseradish as maror. Originally, though, maror was probably a bitter lettuce, such as romaine, or a root, such as chicory. Like life in Egypt, these lettuces and roots taste sweet when one first bites into them, but then become bitter as one eats more. We dip maror into haroset in order to associate the bitterness of slavery with the work that caused so much of this bitterness.

A second bitter herb, used in korech or the Hillel sandwich, which consists of matzah and bitter herbs some add haroset as well.

Many Jews use horseradish for maror and Romaine lettuce or another bitter green for hazeret. Others use the same vegetable for both parts of the seder, and do not include hazeret on the seder plate at all.

A roasted lamb shank bone that symbolizes the lamb that Jews sacrificed as the special Passover offering when the Temple stood in Jerusalem.

Vegetarians often substitute beets or potatoes for zeroa. Next comes the beitzah , a lightly roasted egg, symbolizing life and referring to the rituals of the Temple in Jerusalem. The chazeret is commonly parsley dipped in salt water. This is to symbolize the harshness that the Israelites endured in Egypt. A Seder plate favorite is always the haroset or charoset.

Made of apples, nuts, and spices, haroset has diverse local particulate; the Jewish world prepares haroset in a multitude of ways and it symbolizes the mortar used by the Jewish slaves laboring in Egypt. Traditional Ashkenazi haroset is made with finely chopped apples, walnuts, and a sweet wine or grape juice; many add lemon juice to preserve the color of the apples. Egyptian haroset includes dates and yellow raisins, while Italian haroset introduces pine nuts, ground almonds, prunes, and yellow raisins to the mix.

Moroccan haroset also includes dates, plus ground almonds, prunes, and yellow raisins. Piedmont haroset has chestnuts, almonds, and orange juice, and Israeli Sephardic style haroset brings in dates, figs, cinnamon, and cardamom. Many contemporary additions are made to seder plates to represent new struggles or causes.

Other modern additions include a banana for refugees around the world, a pinecone for prison reform, fair trade coffee or chocolate for issues of labor and slavery, and artichokes to represent interfaith relationships. When it comes to crafting your Seder, the world is your oyster. 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.

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.

Shoshana Kordova Mar. Get email notification for articles from Shoshana Kordova Follow. Haredi leaders learn harsh corona lesson as Israel sends in the troops. Play audio. Click the alert icon to follow topics: Passover Jewish food Jewish holidays. Men Are Causing the Climate Crisis. Women Have the Solutions. Qatar to Act as U.

Diplomatic Representative in Afghanistan, Official Says. Tel Aviv Is Over.