Passover Seder '09

Posted by Gabrielle

This past Friday evening we attended the Passover Seder hosted by our church. This was the first Seder we've been to, which made it all the more interesting.

The Seder was opened with an introduction of why we, as Christians, might celebrate a Jewish holiday. For us it is a reminder of God's grace to us in rescuing us from our spiritual Egypt and bringing us to the promised land.

Throughout the Seder, several men read relevant verses; this is Daddy reading.

Benaiah was kept happy until dinner eating matzoh crackers.

Mommy lighting the candles. The lighting of the candles is done by the wives in honor of the Hebrew midwives, who were the first to begin the deliverance from Israel by obeying God and not killing the baby boys.

Ur'chatz-The washing of hands. We really did this! Featuring: Jedidiah's clean hand!

We drank the four cups:

The first cup-Kiddush-the cup of sacrifice and blessing
The second cup-plagues
The third cup-redemption
The fourth cup-praise

One of our elders who knows Hebrew(from whom I'm learning Hebrew) read the blessing in Hebrew before we drank each cup.

We talked about the four sons:

The obedient son-"What does this mean to us."
The rebellious son-"What does this mean to you."
The disinterested son-"What does this mean."
The shy son-doesn't ask at all!

It was also emphasized that it is the father's responsibility to tell all of these sons, whether they ask or not.

This was one of my favorite parts: the Seder plate. The parsley dipped in salt water represents the hyssop with which they painted the lintels, the horseradish represents the bitterness of the Israelites under their forced labor, the 'mortar' for the bricks they made and the bone for the Passover lamb. The egg was more of a modern addition to the Seder plate.

And dinner-Shulcan-the festival meal! We had Gefilte fish, chicken soup with matzo balls, chicken, carrots, salad and Haroset.

Nirtzah-the conclusion of the Seder, when we all greeted each other with "Next year in Jerusalem!"