Netivyah wishes you a happy and meaningful Pesach! The Passover Seder opens the biblical new year and includes reading from the Hagada, wine (or grapejuice), eating special foods, singing, and other Passover traditions.

The Seder is held after nightfall on the first night of Passover (and the second night if you live outside of Israel), and marks the anniversary of Israel’s miraculous exodus from Egyptian slavery over 3000 years ago.

We’ve put together a list of things necessary for the Passover Seder, along with some highlights (“Seder” means order, as in the order of things at the Passover table).

For Passover, your table should include:

• Seder plate (6 little bowls will do, as an alternative) which has a spot for each of the 6 traditional ingredients that are necessary for the Passover meal:
  • Maror: bitter herbs. Most people use lettuce.
  • Chazeret: another type of “bitter herbs”. We use fresh and thinly sliced horseradish. It is optional to grind the horseradish in ground beets. Bitter herbs remind of the tears of hard labor.
  • Karpas: parsley or celery (will be dipped in salt water to remind us of the bitter tears due to slavery).
  • Zeroah: in Temple times the Passover lamb was roasted, and eaten at the Seder meal. We eat lamb to commemorate this offering, and 1 roasted lamb bone on the Seder plate. However, it is common to eat chicken and use a chicken bone, instead.
  • Charoset: a sweet salad to remind us of the mortar used in the bricks made by the Israelites in Egypt.

• • Beitza: hard-boiled egg (to commemorate the mourning for the destruction of the Temple).

Besides the Seder plate, you will need:

• Wine or grape juice: 4 cups per participant.
• Matzah cover with 3 matzot (optional: extra matzah for the meal).
• Haggadah: the Jewish traditional text according to which Israel has celebrated the Passover Seder for generations. It literally means “telling”, and reminds us of the commandment to “tell thy son in that day, saying: It is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt.” (Exodus 13:8).
• Wine cup for Elijah, and a seat for Elijah.
• Salt water in a bowl, to dip the Karpas (parsley or celery) in.
• Afikomen prize: a prize for the child that finds the afikomen (a half-piece of matzah that is set aside as a dessert) that we hide during Passover Seder. Some people give all kids a small gift.

May we all clean our heart and homes from leaven and be joyous.

Have a happy and kosher Passover!

With love from the Netivyah staff.