Meaning matters in foods for holiday

By Lisa Losasso

This week marks the beginning of Passover (Pesach in Hebrew), one of the most important holidays for the Jewish community, which is always celebrated during late March or early April.

The eight-day celebration, which begins Saturday at sundown, is a commemoration of freedom and the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, possibly during the reign of Ramses II.

According to Rabbi Joel Berman, of the Ohev Tzedek Congregation in Boardman, all food eaten during the celebration has symbolic meaning.

The tradition of unleavened bread comes from the need for the Jewish slaves to flee so quickly that they didn’t have time to bake breads.

The raw dough was [packed, taken with them and] baked in the hot sun on rocks. The resulting bread was thin and hard. Called Matzo, it is the most important Passover symbol.

The Seder, which is the Hebrew word for order, is the ritual meal eaten on the first two nights of Passover.

It is called the Seder because the meal is conducted in a particular order, recreating the spiritual journey from slavery to redemption.

An important part of the meal is the telling of the story of the Exodus. The ritual foods are eaten in a certain order, and the Seder plate, from which the food is served, is the centerpiece of the Passover table.

There are five foods on this Seder Plate which symbolize the Exodus.

Maror is a bitter herb which symbolizes the bitterness of the slavery the Jews endured in Egypt.

Karpas is a vegetable which is dipped into salt water at the beginning of the Seder.

Z’roa is a roasted lamb or goat shankbone, chicken wing, or chicken neck, which symbolizes the korban Pesach (the Paschal sacrifice) which was a lamb that was sacrificed in the Temple in Jerusalem—the first such sacrifice provided the blood the Hebrews marked their doorposts with so that the Angel of Death would “pass over” their homes. The z’roa is not eaten at the Seder, but remains a symbol on the plate.

Beitzah, a roasted egg, symbolizes the korban chagigah (festival sacrifice) that was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem, roasted and eaten on Seder night. It’s also a symbol of spring.

Also on the Seder table is a plate of three whole matzot. The matzot are stacked and separated by cloths or napkins. The top and bottom matzot are used for the blessing over the bread, called hamotzi. The matzo in the middle is broken, and half of it is set aside for the afikoman (a Greek word meaning “dessert,” or the last thing on the agenda”), which is used as a game to keep the children awake throughout the evening. The children “steal” the afikoman, and hold it ransom for a reward so that the meal can officially end.

According to Rabbi Berman, many things that are considered kosher all year are not kosher during Passover, because they contain Hametz. Cupboards are cleaned in order to get the last of the crumbs from the leavened bread used throughout the year.

“This is to remind you of what you are doing and what your place is in all of this,” he said. During that time, the every day dishes are switched so that they are not in contact with anything that is prohibited during Passover.

He explained that leavened and unleavened bread represent the premise that every person has good and bad inclinations. A simple way of saying this is that the good is concern for others and the bad is concern for only themselves.

“We have to be taught to think of others,” said Berman. Therefore, leavened bread represents bad inclination or selfishness (puffed up and self-absorbed) and matzoh represents good inclination and concern for others.

Popular traditional foods that have little to do with the story of Passover include matzo ball soup, brisket, and other family favorites.