Seder preparation list and explanations
The Haggadah is
the booklet in which the whole order is laid out to tell the story. These steps
of the Seder are always the same (with little variations from group to group)
and will always be conducted in the same order. The difference between Orthodox
Jews and Messianic believers (Jew or non-Jew) though is in the fact that they
believe the Messiah must still come and we believe Messiah has already come as
the Lamb of Elohim (the pesach of Elohim) and that when He comes back it will
be for the second time and this time to rule and reign from Yerushalayim. So,
that truth is worked into the traditional Haggadahs and we call it a Messianic
Haggadah (with all the traditional elements as well as Messianic input). For us
as Messianic believers or Natzarites or “people of the Way” (whatever we should
be called) the Memorial Seder is
twofold: we remember the first lambs slaughtered in Egypt which brought deliverance
for the first born (blood on the doorposts) and deliverance from the bondage of
Mitsrayim/Egypt, PLUS we also remember THE Lamb that died for us,
Yahshua/Yeshua the Messiah, Lamb of Elohim; the One who was resurrected as the
first fruits of the resurrection. There are different Messianic Pesach Seder Haggadahs available to be
used by Messianic believers – all basically the same but with different
“flavours”
Shemot/Ex 12:8‘And they shall eat the flesh
on that night, roasted in fire – with unleavened bread and with
bitter herbs they shall eat it.
The plate used for the “Seder Plate” can be a nice 10" or larger
plate or a traditional “Seder Plate” as seen on the photos. These Seder plates
were bought at a Judaica Store).
Let us discuss each element that must go on the Seder Plate separately:
(You can buy the fresh pieces of horse
radish at PnP this time of year – (the 2 pieces on the right hand photo) and
ground or grate it yourself (homemade horseradish recipe at end of document) ~
or you can buy the bottle of Horseradish
from P&P or other Supermarkets (photo on the left) ~ to be put in a
small bowl – it is to be eaten. One also gets the bottles of horseradish in a
red colour. If I make use of the
bought horseradish that I put in a small bowl on the Seder plate then I
sometimes just put a raw piece with it so people can see what horseradish looks
like. Horseradish can be substituted with one white onion, or bitter
lettuce if you can’t get horseradish anywhere.
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What does the word "Seder" means?
The Modern Hebrew
expression b’Seder, often translated
as “very well,” literally means “in order”. A Pesach/Passover “Seder” is
the proper “order” of the Pesach/Passover meal with all that happens around it.
The Haggadah is
the booklet in which the whole order is laid out to tell the story. These steps
of the Seder are always the same (with little variations from group to group)
and will always be conducted in the same order. The difference between Orthodox
Jews and Messianic believers (Jew or non-Jew) though is in the fact that they
believe the Messiah must still come and we believe Messiah has already come as
the Lamb of Elohim (the pesach of Elohim) and that when He comes back it will
be for the second time and this time to rule and reign from Yerushalayim. So,
that truth is worked into the traditional Haggadahs and we call it a Messianic
Haggadah (with all the traditional elements as well as Messianic input). For us
as Messianic believers or Natzarites or “people of the Way” (whatever we should
be called) the Memorial Seder is
twofold: we remember the first lambs slaughtered in Egypt which brought deliverance
for the first born (blood on the doorposts) and deliverance from the bondage of
Mitsrayim/Egypt, PLUS we also remember THE Lamb that died for us,
Yahshua/Yeshua the Messiah, Lamb of Elohim; the One who was resurrected as the
first fruits of the resurrection. There are different Messianic Pesach Seder Haggadahs available to be
used by Messianic believers – all basically the same but with different
“flavours”
During the Messianic Seder (as in all other Pesach
Seders), 4 cups of wine (or red grape juice) will be drunk. The Mishnah teaches that, according
to two authorities, Rabbi Yohanon and Rabbi Benayah, these four cups correspond
to the four verbs in Shemot/Exodus 6:6-7, describing YHVH's salvation plan: I
will bring you out (to set you apart from the world);
I will deliver you (by the strong arm of YHVH the Redeemer,
from the world, flesh and Satan); I will redeem you (the
believer’s salvation ); I will take you to be my people
(the Millennial Reign and then Eternity.)
During His last, “early Passover Meal” which He ate
with His disciples, Yahshua explained the meaning of the meal
in a renewed way.
Early Jewish disciples
of Yahshua and later on the Jewish and non-Jewish believers continued
to celebrate Pesach for centuries. For them the Festival of Redemption
had deeper meaning in light of the death and
resurrection of Yahshua and that is how it is for us too. Shaul/Paul of
Tarsus alludes to terms and concepts from the Pesach Feast in his first letter
to believers in Corinth, Greece (e.g. 1 Corinthians 5:7; 10:16; 11:26).
For Yahshua’s
disciples in any age, Pesach memorializes his death and resurrection. His death
and descent into the “Egypt” of Sheol was not his final destiny. Elohim raised
him on the third day, as the First Fruit from the dead.
When we as his
followers participate in a memorial Pesach, we join with Yahshua and accept in
Him freedom from death and slavery (to sin), in order to become new people and
begin a new life-journey. The end purpose of Pesach/Passover and the exodus was
to lead captives to a new life in a Promised new Land.
The elements that
MUST be part of the Pesach Seder (according to the command of the Torah) is a
shank bone (there is no Temple now, so the shank bone is symbolic of
the lambs that were slaughtered and roasted), unleavened bread
and bitter herbs.
Shemot/Ex 12:8‘And they shall eat the flesh
on that night, roasted in fire – with unleavened bread and with
bitter herbs they shall eat it.
Look at verse
14: ‘And this day shall become to you a remembrance. And
you shall observe it as a festival to יהוה throughout
your generations – observe it as a festival, an everlasting law.
Verse
18-20:
‘In the first month,
on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall
eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the
month in the evening. ‘For seven days no leaven is to be found in
your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, that same being shall be cut
off from the congregation of Yisra’ĕl, whether sojourner or native of the land.
‘Do not eat that which is leavened – in all your dwellings you are to eat
unleavened bread.’ "
We are to eat
unleavened bread and have no leaven in our houses until the evening of the 21st
of Aviv.
Based on the next
verses (Shemot/Ex 12: 25-27) and other, some traditions evolved in the Pesach
Seder in order to tell the story. The things that were added are the things
like the parsley, the salt water, the egg and the mixture of: honey, walnuts and apple pieces called the 'charoset' - each of them will be
described. The reason it came to be part of the traditional Seder is seen
in its symbolic meaning and it
is seen as an excellent tool to remember (both as grownups and as children). It
is also based on these verses that the "4 questions" became part of
the Seder. The telling of the story of what happened in Mitsrayim/Egypt and how
the Yisraelites were delivered are all based on the fact that YHVH instructed it
to be so as we will read in these verses. The reading of the 10 plagues is
also an important part.
Shemot/Ex 12: 25-27
"And it shall be, when you come to the
land which יהוה gives you, as He promised, that you shall guard this
service. "And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What
does this service mean to you?’ then you shall say, ‘It is the Pesach (Passover slaughtering) of יהוה, who
passed over the houses of the children of Yisra’ĕl in Mitsrayim when He smote
the Mitsrites and delivered our households.’ " And the people bowed their
heads and did obeisance”.
For each table:
- Nice tablecloth (many choose white, but we prefer one
that can take wine/grape juice spills better – or an overlay over white).
- Two Shabbat candles, candle holders, matches and perhaps an oval
paper lace under the candle sticks to protect the tablecloth from wax
dripping
- Place settings for each person – plate (big and side plate or only big
plate), Napkin, Eating utensils and wine glass per person
Seder plate with the elements (Photo on the bottom left)- The bitter herbs (the small bowl has bought grated horse radish in it which is the bitter herbs. The two funny looking ‘sticks’ on the left behind the glass is fresh horseradish) and the shank bone will always be on the Seder plate with the added symbolic elements like the salt water (in the smaller glass), parsley, charoset (the big glass has the charoset mixture) and egg (photo above) (egg is optional).
The plate used for the “Seder Plate” can be a nice 10" or larger
plate or a traditional “Seder Plate” as seen on the photos. These Seder plates
were bought at a Judaica Store).Let us discuss each element that must go on the Seder Plate separately:
- Horseradish (Bitter herbs) is put on the Seder
plate to remind us of the BITTER days of slavery in Mitsrayim/Egypt .
(You can buy the fresh pieces of horse
radish at PnP this time of year – (the 2 pieces on the right hand photo) and
ground or grate it yourself (homemade horseradish recipe at end of document) ~
or you can buy the bottle of Horseradish
from P&P or other Supermarkets (photo on the left) ~ to be put in a
small bowl – it is to be eaten. One also gets the bottles of horseradish in a
red colour. If I make use of the
bought horseradish that I put in a small bowl on the Seder plate then I
sometimes just put a raw piece with it so people can see what horseradish looks
like. Horseradish can be substituted with one white onion, or bitter
lettuce if you can’t get horseradish anywhere.
- The Charoset (as seen in the photo
below in the glass – put on the Seder plate), the sweet apple,
honey and walnuts mixture (recipe at end of document), has the same colour
as the bricks the Yisraelites made for Pharaoh. It reminds us that because
of the hope we have in Elohim, the bitterest suffering can be turned into
something sweet. Therefore at one point in the Seder we combine the
charoset with the bitter herbs (the horseradish). The mixture of
bitterness and sweetness found in the dip also compares with Yahshua. We
put it on a piece of matza and put another piece on top and eat it like a ‘sandwich’.
- Two
small spoons must be put next to Seder plate (for horseradish &
charoset)
- Lamb shank bone (Put on the Seder plate) - (clean, unbroken and roasted dry -
available raw from the butcher ~ just ask for a shank bone with meat taken
off`~ normally it has a little bit of meat left like you can see in the
photo bottom left)
- Parsley (Put on the Seder plate), washed and cut into sprigs for each
person. The parsley speaks of new life. It gets dipped in the salt water,
reminding us of new life that came out of the suffering in Mistrayim/Egypt.
- Glass of salt water (Put on the Seder plate) - to remind of the tears in Egypt and
our tears, Just mix a lot of salt with the water.
- The Roasted Egg is optional (Put on the Seder
plate if you make use of it) -The
egg is a later addition to the Seder plate. Some say the Beitzah, a
roasted egg, is a reminder of the additional lamb (the peace offering that
was an additional free will offering that was slaughtered the day after
the Pesach). The Pesach (the Passover lamb) was required,
but the Haggigah was not because it was a freewill
offering. This second burnt offering is known as the Haggigah.
-- Others say the egg represents the Jewish people, who despite severe
persecution in exile, have survived as a people for 4,000 years. The egg
is the only food that gets harder the more you cook it, just like the
Jewish people around the world who have survived as a people, even under
great pressures. So the egg on the Seder plate is just a reminder of this
and not part of the commanded prescribed elements for the Pesach memorial.
One roasted egg. Put boiled egg into warm oven for 8 minutes until brown.
(Be careful as they sometimes explode!)
The rest of these must be on the table:
- Matzah – the Unleavened Bread (1 or 2 pieces per
person). There is also a spiritual lesson to be learnt by eating NO leaven
on this night and for the rest of the 7 days: LEAVEN, or Yeast is a symbol
of sin and its corruptive influence like false doctrines and pride. -
Put the matza on plate- on table.
- Matzah Cover bag. A traditional Matza Tash – can be bought at a Judaica Store or you can make one out of four white napkins (first one napkin then matza, a napkin then a matza in the middle and a napkin, another matza and a final napkin on a plate.) This is something extra that is part of the Seder demonstration. The middle piece gets taken out and broken in half, and then wrapped in the "afikomen cover".
- The
“Afikomen cover” can
be a regular white napkin (preferably linen if you have) or you can make a
special cloth from white cloth. The broken piece that gets wrapped at a
certain point of the Seder in this separate napkin is called the
"afikomen". The father takes the napkin with the broken piece
and hides it away for the children to seek for it later. The child who
finds it gets a money reward. This custom so beautifully portrays the
death and resurrection of Yahshua haMaschiach. There is reason to
believe that this step was brought into the Seder by the early Messianic
Jewish believers.
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- Passover red wine or red grape juice (1 bottle of wine per table or 2 red
grape juice per table if not too many people. Otherwise one will have to
work out how much you need for each table if you keep in mind that each
will drink 4 cups – but not full cups especially with the wine). If wine,
then it gets diluted with water because of the 4 cups that will be
drunk.
- Pitcher of water with ice for the people who
gets thirsty in between.
- Haggadah (booklet with Seder
service) for
each person. Each participant needs a Haggadah copy to be able to follow
and be part of the service. Put it ahead of time on each chair.
- If there is not a father, then appoint a
leader to lead the evening and to read the part of the father or the
leader.
- Select and prepare a child (or children) to ask the four
questions.
- Assign readers for the sections of the Seder where different readers apart from the father or leader will read (if your Haggadah has different phrases for different readers). Some sections will be read by all together in unison.
General:
1. Tub or bowl and
towels for foot washing (2 stations set up for men, 2 for women in separate
areas (if you want to do the foot washing. We normally do it right in the
beginning before we start with the Seder. If people don’t stay too far to drive
to a place 2 evenings in a row, then the
foot washing ceremony can be done the previous evening with the start of the 14th
f Aviv, whereas the Pesach Seder takes place at the end of the 14th
of Aviv when the 15th of Aviv starts with sunset.
2. Settings and
special cup for Eliyahu/Elijah if you include this tradition.
3. Pitcher, bowl and
towels for the hand - washing parts of the Seder to quickly service your group.
4. 10 Plague bag with
an item that represents each plague for each child (over 3 years) if there are
children in your group.
5. Prize for child
who finds the afikomen (money reward or candies)
6. Food for the
festival meal that comes more or less in the middle of the Seder - ONLY
unleavened foods (no yeast or sour dough in it). In some Pesach desert recipes
there are baking soda or baking powder. See the notes on the leaven cleaning
list for Pesach week). For those who are new: of course like normally our food
will also only be the food according to the Dietary laws - (no pork, shellfish
or non kosher gelatine) but this time with no leaven in anything. A popular
soup that is served for Pesach is Chicken
soup with matza balls. NB: The person making the matza balls must just
remember that as soon as the matza meal came in contact with the water to be
made into a mixture, then it must be boiled within 18 minutes otherwise after
18 minutes if left uncooked, leavening can take place.
Remember:
7. Serving spoons.
8. Coffee, milk
and sugar (if you are going to serve).
9. toothpicks if you
want to.
10. Salt and pepper,
butter or butter substitutes.
11.Hot trays,
hot pads for table or counter.
12. Sound system if
you want to play music to sing with or to listen to.
13. Room
decorations if you want to decorate.
- By morning of 14th of Aviv all
items containing leaven (ie, yeast, sour dough etc) should also now be
finally removed. When evening draws nearer, the preparations for the
Pesach Seder must be finished by sunset because then the 15th of
the month of Aviv starts and that is when the Pesach Seder, the Memorial
service, is going to take place. No work is to be done on the First
day of Unleavened Bread's Feast-Shabbat except making of food. Shemot/Exo
12:16 ‘And on
the first day is a set-apart gathering, and
on the seventh day you have a set-apart gathering. No
work at all is done on them, only that which is eaten by
every being, that alone is prepared by you. This Rist day of
Unleavened bread will now be from the time of your Seder (sunset 15th
Aviv) until the next sunset when 16th of Aviv starts.
Vayikra/Lev 23:5 ‘In
the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between the evenings, is
the Passover (the pesach, which is the offering lamb) to יהוה. Lev 23:6 ‘And on the fifteenth day of this month is
the Festival of Unleavened Bread to יהוה –
seven days you eat unleavened bread. Lev 23:7 ‘On the first day you
have a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work. Lev
23:8 ‘And you shall bring an offering made by fire to יהוה for seven days. On the seventh day is
a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work.’ ”
For the younger
adults and people with young children:
We do know that during the time of Yahshua they ate
around a U-shaped table, called a triclinium. It is placed low on the
floor to allow for the people around it to recline/lying on their left side
while eating with their right hand. On the opposite side of the u shape,
everyone is lying on their right hand arm eating with their left hands.
On each side everyone is facing the same direction
around the table, often making it hard to speak to those behind you. That is to
recline around the table, enjoying one's freedom in the Land. It is also
possible that ALL were lying on their left hand sides, eating with their right
hands.
It would be impossible to recline around a table
such as we eat at today. It will be very nice for you with young children if
you could try and get this setting of a flat table (be creative and make a
plan) and sit and recline around it. For us older people it is difficult. You
can also with young children be creative and let all of you dress up like
“Yisralites of the first Pesach”. You can let the children gather play toys to
represent the 10 plagues which they can throw down or in the air when you come
to the 10 plagues. You can let them decorate the room. If they are at age where
they can read, let them also partake in the reading etc etc (see
the document on activities for the children with the Pesach Seder.)
Recipes:
Charoset (For the
Seder plate)
4 medium to large
tart, flavourful apples (such as Granny Smith)
½ teaspoon cinnamon 1
cup walnuts
2 tablespoons sweet
Passover wine 2¼ teaspoons honey
Core unpeeled apples.
Chop apples and walnuts together in a food processor or by hand until finely
chopped (the size of small peas). With a soft spoon, such as pliable spatula or
wooden spoon, stir in the cinnamon, honey and wine until well blended - will
serve 20 people, approximately 1 tablespoon each. You may want to make extra to
serve with the festival meal.
Horseradish (for the
Seder plate)
A blender
or food processor may be used, but the end product of the food
processor is preferred. Use organic horseradish root from your garden
or purchased from a grocery store that carries organic produce. To
grow your own horseradish, chunk off a piece of the root and plant it in
your garden. The plant is a perennial and can be a good 18-24” tall, so
give it some room and a permanent spot in a sunny or mostly sunny place.
Wash and peel the
horseradish root(s) and cut into chunks.
Put chunked
horseradish root(s) into a food processor and chop until
paste-like, adding a little water initially to get some consistency
so it doesn't just stick to the sides of the bowl.
Let it sit about 5
minutes (makes it “hotter”) then add a little organic apple cider
vinegar and a little salt. Keep drizzling in vinegar until it’s the
consistency you want.
The vinegar taste
usually does not come through. Use care as the fumes will make you shed tears!
[Alternatively you can just simply grate the horseradish and put it in the bowl
or buy a ready-made bottle of Horseradish at P&Pay.]
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