|
|
PassoverGuide.com is your source for all things Passover. At PassoverGuide.com we specialize in Passover Haggadahs, Passover Matzah Covers, Passover Kiddush Cups, Passover Matzah Plates, Passover Elijah's Cups, Miriam's Cups, Passover Horse Radish Dishes and Passover Salt Water Jars.
|
| The Passover Seder |
| From MyJewishLearning.com |
The Passover seder (meaning order) is probably the most celebrated and beloved of Jewish home rituals. Most Jews have cherished memories of past family times spent at a seder. It is believed that the obligation to tell the story of the Exodus was observed by Jews' ancestors ever since the actual Exodus itself. The scriptural command (Exodus 13:8) to tell the story of the exodus to our children is interpreted as a positive commandment (mitzvah).
One of the four names for Passover--and sometimes the aspect most emphasized--is Hag ha-Herut (The Feast of Freedom). Freedom is the primary theme of the seder, with numerous other recurring themes and motifs. The seder permits Jews to worship God through prayer, study, and learning by taking part in what is essentially a lesson of Jewish history, literature, and religion. Participation in the seder lets one symbolically and vicariously relive the Exodus, where past and present merge.
There are some essential elements to the seder that underlie the retelling of the Exodus. The three fundamental patterns of the seder are the family, the individual, and the nation. As a home event involving the full family as well as guests, the seder draws together all age groups. It requires the participation of the old and the young. On the individual level, the seder requires every participant to feel as though he or she personally left Egypt. The national pattern of the seder symbolizes the first step toward the final redemption from the slavery and the formation of the Jewish nation that did not exist as a nation before Exodus from Egypt.
Continue... |
The Seder | Kashrut List | Time & Dates | Shop Online | Recipes
What is Passover?
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/...
Some seder plates have spaces for five items and others for six. The additional item is hazeret, horseradish, which serves as a second bitter herb. With seder plates that have six holders, many people will use pieces of horseradish root for the maror (bitter herb) and ground horseradish for the hazeret. This article, written from a traditional perspective, also makes mention of a particular type of seder plate that sits atop a holder for the three matzot used at the seder. Most seder plates do not come with the matzah plate attached, and the matzah therefore sits on its own, separate plate. Excerpted from Celebrate! The Complete Jewish Holiday Handbook (Jason Aronson Inc).
As with just about every other aspect of the seder, there are different opinions as to how the k'arah [seder plate]should be organized, based on each authority's concept of not slighting the matzah, or any other item, by reaching over it before it has been used. Most people follow a modified version of the pattern established by the Ari (Rabbi Isaac Luria, leading kabbalist of 16th-century Safed).
|
|
|