The Items on the Seder Plate
One of the great things about the Jewish holiday of Passover (or Pesach, in Hebrew) is the many images, items, and symbols associated with it. There is, of course, the matzah, the unleavened bread made of white flour and water. There is also the image of the Red Sea being split, as the Jewish people walk through to safety and freedom. And of course, there are the ten plagues (Blood, frogs, gnats, wild beasts, pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and death of the first born), which have been referenced in a plethora of different aspects of Judaica art.
However, there is only one item in or connected to Pesach that combines a series of these images all together, making it the most memorable image when associated with Passover: the Seder plate.
For those who might not be aware (though anyone who has taken part in a Passover Seder surely will be), the Seder plate is specific to the holiday of Pesach, and it contains foods and items used or consumed during the Seder itself.
The children's favorite item on the Seder plate, at least at the Seders I've been to, is the charoset. This is a delicious mix of chopped nuts, sliced apples, and cinnamon, and anyone who has tasted it would agree that simply labeling it as "delicious" is doing the charoset a disservice. The brown color this mixture becomes is representative of the mortar and clay used by the Jewish slaves of Egypt in building the pyramids.
On the other end of the taste-spectrum is the maror, or bitter herbs. Typically horseradish or romaine lettuce is used, and the bitterness tasted is supposed to symbolize the pain and suffering felt by the slaves during their time in Egypt.
There is another vegetable present on the Seder plate as well; karpas, a vegetable (typically parsley or celery) that is dipped into salt water. Symbolic of tears, the karpas is yet another reminder of the pain and suffering that the Jewish slaves experienced.
A roasted lamb or shankbone, z'roa, is also present on the Seder plate. When the Angel of Death came during the plaque of death of the first born, the Jewish people protected their houses by smearing sheep's blood on their door posts. Since the Diaspora, the z'roa has not been eaten or handled during the Seder, as it was in the times of the Temple.
The final item included on the Seder plate is the beitzah, a hard-boiled egg symbolic of the Passover sacrifice previously offered at the Temple in Jerusalem before the Diaspora. The egg is a symbol of mourning in the Jewish culture (typically served to mourners after funerals), and the egg is present on the Seder plate for a similar reason.
Three whole pieces of matzot are also items for the Seder table, however they are stacked and separated from the plate itself. A great deal of magnificent, artistic Seder plates can be had, and can become cherished symbols of your own families Seder, many of which will have pre-determined spots for each item on the plate.
Chag Sameach!
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