Seder Dinner: 4 '21

 One of the most important activities of the Jewish Passover is the Seder Dinner.

The Seder is integral to Jewish faith and identity: for if not for divine intervention and the Exodus, the Jewish people would still be slaves in Egypt. Therefore, the Seder is an occasion for praise and thanksgiving and for re-dedication to the idea of liberation.

The Seder is integral to Jewish faith and identity: as explained in the Haggadah, if not for divine intervention and the Exodus, the Jewish people would still be slaves in Egypt. Therefore, the Seder is an occasion for praise and thanksgiving and for re-dedication to the idea of liberation. Furthermore, the words and rituals of the Seder are a primary vehicle for the transmission of the Jewish Faith.

Attending a Seder and eating matza on Passover is a widespread custom in the Jewish community, even among those who are not religiously observant.  Jews generally observe one or two seders: in Israel, one seder is observed on the first night of Passover;  but in other countries, Jewish communities may schedule their Seder(s)  throughout the week, and (some Jews living outside of Israel), also hold a Seder also on the second night.  We decided to celebrate our main Seder on the last evening of Passover in our  Promise Land Tent.

The Seder table is traditionally set with the finest place settings and silverware, and family members come to the table dressed in their holiday clothes. Bruce came up with the idea of our dressing as though we were living in Biblical times.  That clever proved easier to say than to pull off at the last minute, so he wound up wearing a bathrobe ( and refused to allow a photo to be taken)... (Next year,  I'll make him a 'kittel' AKA a white tunic to wear). 

 At the head of the table is a Seder plate containing various symbolic foods that will be eaten or pointed out during the course of the Seder. Placed nearby is a plate with three matzot and dishes of saltwater for dipping.

Each participant receives a copy of the Haggadah, which is often a traditional version: an ancient text that contains the complete Seder service. ( Bruce and I each had our own copy of the Haggadah).  Men and women are equally obliged and eligible to participate in the Seder.   The collective body of Jewish religious laws requires that certain parts be said in a language the participants can understand, and the critical parts are often said in both Hebrew and the native language.  We both took turns reciting the critical parts of the Haggadah.  Bruce practiced the entire prior week so he correctly pronounces the blessing prayers in the original Hebrew, while I  read aloud the meaning of each step in the Seder celebration in English.

Without going into much detail, our Passover Seder celebration  involved:

• Lighting the Yom Tov ( holiday)  candles and reciting a prayer
• Sanctifying the Day with the first cup of wine and blessings
• Ritual handwashing 
• Dipping Parsley in salt water  followed by a  blessing before eating it
• Breaking Middle Matzah and setting it aside for later use  when crossing the dessert
• Explaining the meaning of the Passover Holiday and Seder
• Asking the Four questions
• Telling the Story of the Passover and Exodus
• Blessing then drinking a second cup of wine
• a 2nd Ritual handwashing  this time with a blessing to prepare for eating the matzah
• Blessing over the Seder Plate meal 
• Blessing over the Matzah
• Eating the Bitter Herbs from the Seder Plate
• Blessing over the maror AKA bitter herbs  ( On our plate it was white horseradish)  following by eating the maror  (We  made a small sandwich of small pieces of matzah - smeared with horseradish and sweetened with charoset)
• Eating the Passover Dinner.   

• Our dinner consisted of Grilled Lamb, with sides servings of steamed Quinoa,  roasted artichokes, and mushrooms.
• The Akifomen ( The Piece of matzah we put aside  earlier was eaten with a sprinkling of  cinnamon sugar as a dessert Matzah), and we stuck our Akifomen in a bowl of  Charoset Icecream to end the meal.

• Grace after  the  meal  with a blessed third cup of wine
• Welcoming Elijah and drinking the fourth cup of wine  with Elijah
• Reading Praises and Blessings  from the book of Psalms
• Blessing and drinking the fourth cup of wine  (Yes, we did drink all four glasses of wine... we just kept the portions really small).
• The official part of the Passover ends with a final prayer to God asking that all Jews can gather in Jerusalem and that next year all mankind can dwell in peace

We wrapped up the evening by watching the 1956 version of the ten Commandments with Yul Brenner and Charleston Heston.