Passover Seder

As a Seder (Hebrew סדר, "order" ) are referred to the six main divisions of the Talmud and the Mishnah as. In general, however, the word is used as an abbreviation for the Seder of the Jewish Passover.

Description

The Seder is the eve of Passover and upbeat. To him in the family circle (or the community) is thought the exodus from Egypt. This is done by an outer and inner ( spiritual ) order - hence the name " Seder ". There are texts read and sung about the captivity of the Israelites in Egypt and the Exodus, both biblical as well as those from the rabbinic tradition. Each participant has a right to Haggadah, a book in which those texts and the rest of the instructions for the end of the Seder. There are songs sung together with Aramaic text. Participants eat during the evening of the matzo, the bitter herbs ( horseradish, lettuce, or both) and the other dishes. At four fixed time points is drunk with wine, according to the four steps of salvation from the second book of Moses. A group dinner is part of the process; funny for younger children is to hide a piece of matzo, the Afikomans, on Seder night. The youngest participant traditionally asks the leader of the Seder according to the importance of different aspects of the ritual, which are then explained. At the end of each Seder Chad Gadja is sung.

The symbolic foods

At the Seder table with dishes of symbolic significance is met.

• Unleavened bread ( matzo ), so that they could not acidify the dough as a symbol of a hurry, in the fled from Egypt, the Jews and that this could not be so.
• Salt water as a symbol of weeping over the destruction of the Temple, where the Passover lamb was sacrificed ( the Sephardim instead use vinegar, the Yemenite Jews let it all out ).
• A Seder plate ( Ka'ara ) on which there are the following dishes. In the arrangement of food, there are variations, here's a common arrangement: Maror - a bitter herbs, usually horseradish, and romaine lettuce, as a sign of the bitterness of slavery in Egypt.
• Seroa - a seared lamb with little meat, reminiscent of the biblical rule of the sacrifice of the Passover lamb in the Jerusalem temple. Since the temple is no longer, no more roast lamb is eaten at Passover nowadays; the Seroa remains lying on the plate during the Seder. So says the tradition of the Ashkenazim. Some Sephardim, however, continue to maintain the tradition of the Passover Lamb, by preparing a leg of lamb.
• Charoset - a mixture of apple and also Feigenstückchen and dates, nuts or almonds, kneaded together with a little red wine, sprinkled with cinnamon or ginger, as a symbol of the clay from which bricks had to make the Israelites in the days of slavery.
• Chaseret - a second bitter herb that may be from the same or from another such as Vegetable Maror, it is eaten together with the charoset.
• Karpas - Celery ( Eppich ), radishes, parsley potatoes or as a fruit of the earth, symbolizing the " backbreaking work " in Egypt. This fruit of the earth is bathed and eaten during the meal in the salt water.
• Beitzah - a boiled egg, a sign of the frailty of human affairs, but also in human fertility and finally as a sign of mourning for the destroyed Temple in Jerusalem.

Expiration of a Seder

The course of the Seder is not standardized and is varied in detail. Here is a possible sequence of 14 steps: