Passover Seder

Passover season brings special ritual, tradition, and diet. Due to the stipulations on food, matzah ball soup is a stable at the Seder table. Matzah in general is used a lot over Passover.  It goes along with the rules for eating unleavened bread. To explain why the unleavened bread is necessary, it is key to understand the story of Passover. Firstly, no leavened bread is allowed to even be in the house of a practicing Jew during Passover. Before Passover, all bread and other yeast filled items must be removed from the home. Even the bread crumbs must all be cleaned and removed to do the holiday properly. This is in remembrance of the unleavened bread the Jews ate, in their hurry to flee from their bondage in Egypt. Now, every Passover there is not leavened items allowed in order to remember they did not even have the time to let their bread rise, because they had to leave so abruptly.   

The story behind Passover begins with the plagues in Egypt, and how God used them to free the Israelites enslaved by the Egyptians. The marking of blood was the sign for the plague to Passover the home. This process is now celebrated over the course of eight days, with ritual Seders. During the Seder, there is ritual wine, eating of herbs, eating of Matzah, and recitation of various kinds of Haggadah.  During class, we performed a Seder, in which we read from a Haggadah, and partook in the ritual Seder plate. It was a really unique experience to read through the highlighted passages, and the reasons behind what is at the Seder plate. It also was interesting to experience something to different and unlike anything I have done before. It all has such specific meaning as well. For instance, the bitter herbs are a reminder of the bitterness of slavery, and they are dipped in salt water to represent the sweat. There is a part where everyone puts a drop of wine, with their finger, onto the plate, to represent each plague that came, and God spared the Jews from. Each passage, action, and food or drink is symbolic and meaningful. There are many different ways to do a Seder, and lots of versions of Haggadahs, but they all have the same general meaning and purpose: remembering the freedom from slavery and bondage.  

Along with the many different kinds of food, comes some really clever ways to get around eating leavened products. These are unleavened brownies, which are not even noticeably different from other brownies. They still tasted as good as regular brownies, and I would not have thought there was any unusual about them, had Doctor Mehta not told me she made them without the flour. There are lots of alternatives to the usual yeast risen products, that do not taste different.