Seder translates to order: a highly structured service outlined in a book called the Haggadah, only used at Passover, which tells the Exodus story in text, song and prayer. The service brackets an elaborate meal, which in the contemporary United States usually features gefilte fish and matzo ball soup.
There are many versions of the Haggadah which, while adhering to the traditional Seder’s structure, include a variety of commentaries and interpretations aimed at particular branches of Judaism, children, feminists and other groups.
The Seder plate, holding ritually significant foods: spring greens, for rebirth; a roasted shank bone representing the “pascal lamb,’’ the blood of which the enslaved Jews sprinkled on their doorposts so that the Angel of Death would “pass over’’ their homes during the 10th Plague (killing of the Egyptian firstborn); bitter herbs, symbolizing the bitterness of slavery; a roasted egg, representing an ancient sacrifice; an apple/nut/wine mixture called charoset, symbolizing both the bricks and mortar that the slaves used as building materials, and the sweetness of freedom.
At the foundation of all Passover meals is matzo, a crispy, cracker-like flatbread said to replicate the hastily fleeing Israelites’ unrisen bread. It’s widely called the “bread of affliction.’’
A cup of wine for the prophet Elijah, one of two pivotal figures in the Passover story — the other being Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt. Late in the service, a child opens the front door so that Elijah, harbinger of the Messiah, might enter.
A recent addition to many Seder tables: Miriam’s cup, honoring Moses’ older sister, the prophetess who saved her brother’s life.
In the weeks before Passover, religious Jews banish from their homes every trace of leavened or otherwise prohibited foods, such as bread, and in the Ashkenazi, or Eastern European tradition, anything made from corn or beans (not so the Sephardic, or Spanish/North African tradition).
For eight days, they’ll eat only certified “kosher for Passover’’ foods.
The Four Questions, part of the Seder. The youngest person at the table who is able to do so asks why certain rituals are performed only on this night (in general, to acknowledge the bitterness of slavery and the joys of freedom).
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