I’ve had a request to share more about what it’s like to attend a Passover Seder meal.
The time: last Wednesday night, at sunset. The place: the dining room of a friend’s home. Imagine a dinner party, with a twist. Two long tables set for about fifteen guests, and at each place a little booklet –the Seder Haggadah (“order of telling”) — that contains the evening’s liturgy.
Many drink wine during this meal; we have a whole ice chest full of bottles of sparkling grape juice, because each person is supposed to drink four cups throughout the course of the night.
We settle in for a long, leisurely meal: two hours is normal, and some people go even longer.
As we eat, laugh, learn, and sing, I time travel to two stories of God’s redemption: Exodus and Calvary. Knowing that Jesus’ Last Supper was a Passover meal like this one, I scan our modern celebration for echoes of that evening: the footwashing, the dipping in a shared dish, the broken bread given to all, the blessing and the cup, the time of teaching, and the closing hymn.
In order to help us keep our place as the proceedings unfold, the Seder liturgy has a sort of table of contents that has been set to music. Here it is, along with the steps each Hebrew word is referring to:
Kadesh: sanctification. Saying a blessing on the first cup of wine sets the dividing line between ordinary time and the holiday of Passover.
Urchatz: hand washing for the leader.
Karpas: dipping a vegetable in salt water to commemorate the tears of the slaves in Egypt.
Yachatz: the middle of three matzahs (squares of unleavened bread) is broken, wrapped in a linen cloth, and hidden somewhere in the house.
Magid: telling the Exodus story. After the host pronounces an invitation to the hungry to come and eat, the youngest child asks four questions about the unusual proceedings: “Why is this night different from all other nights?”
Then we sing “Dayenu,” my very favorite Passover song. It lists God’s successive acts of redemption –grace upon grace — saying with each one that “it would have been enough for us.” Each person spills ten drops from the second cup to remember the suffering of the Egyptians under the ten plagues.
Rotzcha: hand washing for everyone.
Korech: After the blessing over the matza, the unleavened bread prescribed for this holiday, we dip it in charoset (an apple and nut paste symbolizing the morter made by the Israelite slaves) and add maror (horseradish, symbolizing the bitterness of their bondage).
Shulchan orech: We enjoy the huge feast that’s been prepared! Matzo dumpling soup, tender beef brisket, kugel (a potato casserole), tzimmes (sweet potato casserole), green beans, and all sorts of desserts.
Tsafun: The children find the broken, hidden middle mazta. Everyone breaks off a piece and eats it. This is called the afikomen, and because it is so special, nothing may be eaten after it.
Barech: After blessing God for the meal, we drink the third cup, called the cup of blessing. Then we open the door for Elijah, who is expected to usher in the Messiah’s coming. Cool air rushes in from the chilly Jerusalem night, and we hurry through the reading that says, “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.”
Hallel: We read or sing parts of Psalms 113-118, which include the prayer, “Hosanna — oh, save!” Then we drink the fourth and last cup, called the cup of redemption.
Nirtzah: After the concluding prayer, we acknowledge the two-thousand year longing of the exiled Jewish people, “Next year in Jerusalem!”
Finally, we sing. This time it’s rollicking song in Hebrew that works a lot like “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
Who knows one? I know one. One is our God in the heavens and the earth.
Who knows two? I know two. Two are the tablets of the law. One is our God in the heavens and the earth…
I arrive home at nearly midnight: full, happy, and with that song stuck in my head!
Elisabeth Adams 