Hopefully when the 14th comes you’ll find yourself turning to thoughts on preparing for the feast while the memories of the bonfire and the scent of the laundry basket linger on. However, before you begin to prepare this feast you must have some breakfast to give you the energy to carry on. Well, there’s the Passover cereals, pancake mixes or eggs, but another choice is Sephardic eggs with toasted Matzos. These recipes are simple but you must do the eggs overnight if you want them for breakfast. You will need 1 hard-boiled egg per person and water. Place the eggs in a single layer in a large pot and cover with at least 3 times their volume in water. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer at the lowest possible heat for 8 hours. You can also place these in a 200-degree oven overnight, which is what we do. In the morning (or when they are done, cool and peel them and arrange on a platter to serve. We serve this with flavored toasted Matzos (we butter one side and then shake on salt and seeds, then toast them lightly in a 350 oven).We make these only during Pesach and in fact, there is a whole list of foods that we eat solely during Pesach to help keep the holiday very special- home-made granola cereals and a rich easy torte are a couple of examples. So if you enjoy keeping the holidays like we do, then hopefully you have already completed all that we have mentioned. But if not, Kosher enough of the kitchen to start making the feast and go back to finishing the house as it cooks. Don’t worry if all is not complete (L-rd knows how long it took us to get it close to being right), just do your best and remember when we fall short we can learn something about ourselves, our faith and our humanity.
Traditionally, we take a break in making the feast in the afternoon of Pesach (the 14th day) after Mincha (afternoon prayer) where we ask G-d to bless our lips and put our devotion in the place of the Pesach sacrifice. Then we begin by telling of the Temple sacrifice as it was given through Moshe. Then, because we are Catholics and recognize that the True sacrifice was made on Calvary, we draw connections to the sacrifice and the “scapegoat” at this time as well. Rereading John 6 to help our children see more clearly the correlation to the Last Supper usually follows this. In fact it seems that this particular Passover was one year from the events in John 6.
Then we kosher the turkey, pull any loose feathers, stuff and truss it before placing it in the oven. As it cooks, the Torte (please click here for Recipes) is made and put in the refrigerator to get firm. Then with the children’s help (or hindrance) we make the festival kharozet out of nuts, fruits and wine and do the final check for the feast if we have no substitute for the lamb like lamb, dark turkey meat, deer meat or Tofu.
If you are not familiar with our Easter Seder, then some of the terms we are using here maybe foreign so we’ll explain them in context with this day. Please note much of the information will overlap because we do explain Easter in light of Pesach within the Easter Haggadah.
Seder: This word seder means 'order' and at the seder, order is everything. For everything on the table has a place and a purpose; nothing is left to chance. A strict order does not necessarily preclude flexibility. This particular Haggadah (“to tell”) is more Orthodox and it is very long, so those with children may wish to remove some of the material or prayers, start earlier, have a prepared snack to help them through or even send them to bed after they have eaten the feast.
Ha-or: Ha means ‘the’; and or means ‘light’. Traditionally, two candles are lit, symbolic of the dualities in our faith: life and death; husband and wife; creation and redemption and remember and observe. The woman lights them because the first woman, Eve, through her willful act of disobedience, brought darkness into the world. Later, another woman, Mary, brought the Light back into the world by accepting God's plan for her life. This gives us another duality, that woman is both folly and wisdom.
Ha-k’arah: This is the Passover plate on which the following items are found: Z’roah, beitzah, manor, khareret/kharozet and salt water. It is a festive plate with separate places for each of these symbolic foods. Some plates have Hebrew names for each of the items while fancier ones may have small dishes to keep them segregated. If you do not have one, then use any nice plate you have or have your children make them.
To begin with, we see that the Paschal Lamb is represented in two different ways, by Z’roah (lamb shank) and Khazeret (repentance and mercy):Some other details before we discuss the parts of the Haggadah:Z’roah: The word Z’roah means arm. In Passover, we use a lamb shank bone to represents the lamb that was slain and whose blood covered the door posts and lentils of the homes of the Jews, so that the sentence of death would pass over their firstborn. Yet Yeshua Himself was the right arm of HaShem, Is.53.1, so for us, this also represents the Lamb who was slain and Whose blood saves us. After all, after the Egyptians saw the death of the firstborn they had no will to keep the Jews in slavery. In turn, once we saw Hashem’s only Son die for our sins, we no longer could remain with our sins.Beitzah: In the Passover seder, the egg (or beitzah) represents the hagigah, the ancient holiday sacrifice for all three pilgrim festivals- Pesach (Passover- but actually it was HaOmer/Easter), Shavout (Pentecost), and Succoth. It also represents the Temple sacrifices that were made daily before the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE. The egg is boiled and then roasted under the broiler. It also still represents the Temple sacrifice that covered our sins (the sin offering), which Yeshua crushed on the cross by overcoming them through grace. So should we remove the egg?Khazeret The term Khazeret relates to repentance and mercy (Khas), and it was by Yeshua’s sacrifice that we found mercy, but only if we taste His cross in our own lives and accept our responsibility in His death. In the Jewish Seder this would be represented by another bitter herb (see maror) yet for us we feel that a lamb substitute can be used. This lamb substitute is not Yeshua or the Paschal lamb that was sacrificed in the Temple. It is not the Eucharist either, but only a piece of meat (or substitute) that symbolizes the Passover meat that Yeshua and His disciples ate that night.
A story, as we are told, is from the Midrash that notes that the egg is a lot like Jews. As things get hotter the egg gets harder as did the Jews. Christians should learn from their example and harden their faith in persecution as well. Thus for us this egg represents the persecution our fathers suffered after they accepted Yeshua into their lives. However another possibility to removing this egg is to hollow it out to show that these sacrifices have no depth without Yeshua and then use this for the Easter seder later on.
Maror: We eat bitter herbs (maror comes from marah which means bitter) because it reminds us of our slavery to Pharaoh (and sin). You can use any bitter herb, but here are some ideas: grated horseradish, which is very bitter and makes the point of these sacrifices very clear. There is also lettuces such as romaine lettuce, endive, chicory, and escarole, which are at first sweet but become increasingly bitter as you eat them. The Rabbis prefer the lettuce because it was like the Jewish settlement in Egypt, first sweet under Joseph, but later became very bitter under Ram’ses II and Merneptah his son. We stick to prepared horseradish because this can be “dipped” and we know this is what Yeshua used, Matt.26.23, Mk.14.20, Jn.13.26.
Kharoset: In the Passover seder, kharozet represents the mortar the Jews used to build the pyramids. Actually, as it will be explained later, the kharozet replaces the sacrifice, but it makes a weak replacement at that so we replaced the kharozet with the Khazeret instead and use kharozet in our Easter Seder. When kharozet is made using the symbolic items, it can have a rich meaning representing God's revelation to his people from Genesis to the New Covenant. Therefore this meaning can be fitted into our feast even under the Brith HaDoshah (New Covenant).
The ingredients for the recipe include apples, honey, dates, figs, pomegranates, wine and nuts. Each ingredient has a deep symbolic meaning. Our recipe concentrates upon the apple, honey, figs and red wine (or grape juice). The apple represents the fruit in the Garden of Eden (why this sweet fruit gained the dubious role as the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil is unknown). Honey is often alluded to in the context of the sweetness of G-d’s commandments; "How sweet are thy words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"(Ps.119.103), and of God's providence: "I would feed you with the finest of wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you"(Ps.81.16). Dates, pomegranates, and figs are all found in the Song of Solomon and also represent Israel. Any one of these three can be used, but we prefer only figs because Christ mentioned the fig tree several times. Oh, and about the wine, it symbolizes joy.
We do not use kharozet in our Pesach Seder ourselves but we’ve written this Seder in such a way that you can use either khazeret or kharozet, depending on your preference.
Karpas:This word comes from the Greek word kortos which means grass and can be any green plant - parsley, watercress, lettuce, scallion, etc. It represents the renewal of life after the winter fall and our renewal of life after being freed from slavery/sin. Another reason given for using Karpas is that if we write the word backwards we get (s)parak which is a word used in Exodus for our toil under Pharaoh. The letter “S”, or samach, has a numerical value of sixty and it represents the six hundred thousand slaves freed during the Exodus.
Salt water: In Pesach this represents the waters of the Red Sea and the tears of the Israelite slaves. The Karpas is dipped in salt water because our freedom is mixed with the tears of those enslaved. We who see and recognize the Last Supper remember that it was for those tears that He died.
Kittel: the leader of the feast often wears a white robe, sometimes embellished at the sleeves with gold or silver embroidered designs. It is tied at the waist and worn over the clothes. This is to represent the place of the high Priest of the Temple, or rather Yeshua HaMoshiach and this is why he is adorned. The woman takes the place of Miriam and usually wears a white dress.Matzo: The three matzoth represent many things both to Jews and Christians. The rabbis call these three "unity". For example: the unity of the patriarchs; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and the unity of worship; the priests, the Levites, and the people of Israel.Other items:Pillows usually are at each seat so we can “recline”. Many people also have snacks and Kosher candies to help the children make it through (not to mention to help quiet them, too). Also some give the youngest a special Haggadah that they can color during the Seder for the same purpose- sanity! We also have candles, but not the regular Shabbos candles because they burn too quickly. Two to three hour candles work best. Pitcher and basin with towel for the washing ceremonies are also needed. And last, but not least - Kippot (skullcaps) for all the men and boys.
Believers in HaMoshiach see the Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We also see the unity of the Body, with Christ as high priest, the Jews and the Christian community.
Matzo is unleavened because leaven represents the spirit of the heart. "Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Paschal Lamb has been sacrificed"(1Cor.5.6). Christ had a humble heart and we are asked to humble ourselves before G-d. Also note that the matzo is pierced and striped as Christ was pierced by the spear and striped by the whip.
Kiddush: At Pesach we celebrate with four cups of wine (or grape juice) during the Seder feast, which we say a special prayer called the Kiddush (Blessed are You O’L-rd Our G-d . . .). This prayer was the one Yeshua said at the Last Supper, although in the Gospel narratives they simply call it the blessing. These specific four cups represent to us: release, deliverance, redemption, and restoration. Their origin is from the following passage in Exodus where the Lord said, "I will bring you out from under the burdens of Egypt, I will deliver you from their bondage, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and I will be your G-d and you shall know that I am the L-rd your G-d" (Ex.6.6-7). This is why the Passover feast has four cups. In the Passover, the wine also is the symbol of joy, "wine to gladden the heart of man"(Ps.104.15), which is why we dip our fingers into the wine to remove a portion from our joy as we recount the plagues brought upon Egypt.
These four cups also prefigure the Moshiach's mission to us for He released us from the penalty of our sin by laying this upon Himself. He delivered us from Hell, the place we rightfully should go. He redeemed us through His blood and grace and He will restore all Israel when He returns; He shall be our King and we shall be His people.
This ends the special items. The next section we explain the order of this feast and what changes we feel we in HaMoshiach and as Catholics should include in our Seder. Please keep in mind that our words are not Gospel, so please modify to your needs and we do welcome your feedback.
Shalom v’Yom Tov
