Jewish passover seder

Passover Seder and Seder Night

After learning about the preparations for Passover, we will now examine extensively the customs of the Seder and the symbols of the Seder.
On Passover night, the 15th of Nisan, family members gather for Seder night and celebrate the miracle of the exodus.
On Seder night members of the family are considered royals as they sit comfortably and eat from fancy dishes, they drink four glasses of wine, and eat hand-made matzah shmura.

Preparations for Seder night

On Seder night, particular foods are symbols arranged in the Seder plate.
Before Passover, remember to get organized with the following Passover Seder symbols in addition to the holiday meal that is served at the feast:

Symbols of the Seder meal

• Maror – lettuce or horseradish
• Karpas – A leafy vegetable dipped in salt water. In Chabad it is customary to use potato or onion
• Zeroa – Shankbone (not eaten but only placed in the Seder plate)
• Harosat – mixture of apple, pear, nuts, and some wine.
• Betza – Hard-boiled egg, to symbolize the sacrifice during the festivities.
• Salt water – for the dipping of the karpas.

List of other products

• A hand-made shmura matzah for the Seder night, (at least 3 matzas).
• Wine / grape juice for 4 cups per participant.
• the Haggadah of Passover
• A cushion for the Mesubin.
• A small glass containing 86 cc for drinking the 4 cups.

The commandments of the Haggadah

It is a great commandment to tell the stories of the exodus from Egypt at the Seder night and it is written in the holy books, “The more to tell of exodus from Egypt, the better.”
The “Exodus from Egypt” occupies a central place among the Jewish people as the Torah commands:
“Remember the day of your coming out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.”

The Role of Children

It is important and mitzvah to tell the children the stories of the exodus from Egypt as it is written in the Torah, “And you told your son that day, saying, this is why God did it for me when I came out of Egypt.”

The order of the Jewish passover seder

The Seder night has a certain order built on symbols that is customary in all the Diaspora of Israel to follow and now we will explain the order according to the symbols.

Kadesh – blessing the Seder.

The Kiddush starts the Passover Seder as every holiday and every Shabbat by marking its`arrival with Kiddush over wine.
The Kiddush contains three blessings, The first blessing is “borei pri hagefen.”
Then a blessing on Passover ending with the words “Mekadesh Yisrael V’Hazmanim” (blesses Israel and the holidays)
In the end, the blessing “Shehecheyanu”.

U’Rchatz – Washing hands for eating Karpas.

This time, washing your hands is without a blessing, and later we will wash our hands again with a blessing before eating the matza.

The reason:

1. Because you eat a vegetable dipped in salt water after the handwashing, there is a rule that anything dipped in a drink has a blessing.
2. You want to make the infants and children wonder and ask “Ma Nishtana – What has changed this night of all nights” and so do unusual actions-washing hands without the blessing.

Karpas

The karpas is a kind of vegetable. Today it is Chabad custom to take a potato or onion and dip it in salt water, bless “borei pri ha’adama” and eat in a small quantity. (If we translate to a size of a potato, we are talking about 17 grams)
The name Karpas, which refers to eating a vegetable, is from the word ס׳ פרך (which reads the word karpas in reverse) and it symbolizes the massive number of Jews being slaves in Egypt (פרך=rough work(. The letter Samech in Hebrew in Gematria stands for 60 – 60 ribo (ribo=10,000 = 60,000 )
At the time of the blessing on the karpas, you should also aim for the Maror which is eaten later in the evening.

Yachatz

You take the middle matza out of the three matzas and break it to two, the small part is designated for mitzvah matza, and the large part is reserved as Afikoman for the end of the meal.

Magid – telling the Haggadah of Passover (Blessings of Passover Seder)

While reading the Haggadah you should focus on the children who have a central role in the night.
First, the children ask “Ma Nishtana? “what has changed?”, four questions about why Passover is different from the rest of the holidays and then the father answers the questions through the story of the Haggadah.
As mentioned above, the mitzvah to tell the stories of the exodus from Egypt at the Seder and to read from the Haggadah of Passover is a mitzvah from the Torah.

Rachatza – Hand washing for Seder dinner.

hand washing for the Seder meal while blessing over the “hand-washing”

Motzi Matzah

To fulfill the mitzvah of the night by eating matzah, it is necessary to make sure that there are 2 whole matzahs in the so-called “lechem mishnah” as in every Shabbat and holiday.
There are two blessings in the Passover Seder before eating Matzah, the blessing of “hamotzi” and the blessing of “Achilat Matzah.”
It is customary for each member of the household to receive both blessings.
In order to observe the Mitzvah, one must eat at least a quantity of kazait matzah (about 1/3 matzah depending on the thickness). It is Chabad custom to eat twice as much, as kazait from the upper matzah and kazait from the middle matzah because it is doubtful which of the two matzahs the Matzah blessing is directed at.
Food is eaten as Mesubin.

Maror

We eat maror as a reminder of the bondage and bitterness that the people of Israel had in Egypt.
The custom of taking lettuce leaves in the amount of around 19 grams, some glorify and take spicy horseradish called “hrain” in Yiddish.
We dip the aror in the charosat and hold it in the right hand, bless the consumption of maror and eat without Siva, because the maror expresses the difficulty of exile, not the “sons of angels.”
The maror should be eaten continuously for about 4 minutes. (Karpas eating lesson in Halachic definition)

Korech

We bind maror in two pieces of matzah like a sandwich, like the old Hallel who would have wrapped Pesach Matzah and maror while the Temple existed.
We eat the Korech while Mesubin and bless, ” as Hallel did while the Temple existed, and so on.”

Shulchan orech

We feast in honor of the Passover holiday, and it is a mitzvah to have plenty of honorable foods, as on every holiday, we serve meat and fish.
The feast begins with the egg from the decorated bowl symbolizing the remembrance of the feast that was held at the time the Temple existed.
You don’t eat roast meat on Seder so it doesn’t look like the Passover sacrifice that would have been eaten as a roast while the Temple existed.
In Chabad, great care is taken not to wet the matzahs, for more information read avoiding wetted matzah

Tzafun

Eating the Afikoman that we have hidden at the beginning of the Seder ceremony, eating the Afikoman is the dessert of the meal after which you finish eating.
If the Afikoman Matzah is lost, another matzah can be used.

Barech – birchat hamazon blessing of the Seder Meal

After the meal comes the stage of the birchat hamazon and before that comes the custom of pouring a glass of wine in honor of the prophet Eliyahu, the cup remains on the table of the Passover Seder until the end of the meal.
Immediately after pouring Eliyahu’s cup, a third cup is poured upon which Birchat hamazon is given.

Hallel Nirtzah

At the end of the evening, we say Mizmorei Hallel to praise God and we are confident that our prayers will be accepted.

A reminder to sell Chametz.

Through Chabad’s Passover website, chametz sales can be conducted online, as well as donating to families in need – “Kimcha D’pischa“.