Seder Preparation

Seder is the name of the Passover festival meal which starts at sunset. Seder means ‘Order’ it is a meal done in a particular order. Jewish greeting, “How is your peace?”; Answer, “In order.”

ôThis book is in reverse—a Hebrew Haggadah would start in the back of this book and move toward the front of the book. In Jewish homes additional prayers are added if the Seder occurs on the Sabbath. Often much of the Seder is done in Hebrew.

Background: God commanded the Seder memorial meal to be celebrated. He also commanded All adult male Israelites three times per year to come to Jerusalem for a weeklong festival. Passover starts the most important of these weeklong celebrations. The father responsible for the spiritual training of his children leads the Seder. Much of the Seder is a type or shadow of the Eucharist. Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ (Colossians 2:16-17). As a shadow is to reality so these are a shadow of reality. These events also take place in heaven.

Light Candles:

Leader: As we light these candles tonight, we pray God will light our hearts with his Holy Spirit. We want to understand how God has redeemed his people.

Woman of the house lights candles and prays: Blessed are You O Lord our God, King of the universe. Who hallows our lives with commandments and bids us to lights these holy festival lights.

ôLighting the candles separates the mundane from the sacred.

All: Feel free to ask additional questions throughout the Seder.

There is a glossary on the back cover.

ô Marks Jewish understanding of Seder events.

ÿMarks Christian/Catholic understanding of Seder events.

1. Kiddush—First Cup—Cup of Sanctification

Leader:å Add a small amount of water to pitcher of wine then pour each person a glass of wine.

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheynu Melek ha-olam

Boray p’ree ha-gofen

All: Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.

Leader: Let us also thank God for our lives:

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheynu Melek ha-olam,

Shehaheyanu vekeyamanu vehigeyanu lazman hazeh

All: Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, Who has given us life, sustained us and brought us to this season of rejoicing. You, selected us from among all peoples and exalted us among nations, and did sanctify us with the commandments. And You O Lord our God, have given us festival days for joy this feast of unleavened bread, the time of our deliverance from Egypt. For you have selected us, and sanctified us from among all nations, in that You caused us to inherit Your holy festival days. Blessed are you O Lord our God, who has made holy Israel and the festival days.

All: åSip from the first cup.

The Four Cups (Explanation)

Leader: During the Seder Celebration, we drink four cups of wine for the four promises God made to Moses (Exodus 6:6-7). Each cup has its own name and meaning.

Cup of Sanctification, from when God says, “I will free you from the yoke of the Egyptians.”
Cup of Judgment, from God saying, “I will free you from being slaves.”
Cup of Redemption, from God’s promise, “I will redeem you with my outstretched arm.”
Cup of Praise, where we praise God for saying, “I will make you as my own people, and I will be your God.”

ÿ“I will free you from being slaves in Egypt.” The Church Fathers noted Egypt in the Old Testament was a figure of sin, and the Jews’ slavery there, a picture of one’s slavery to sin.

Leader: Let us drink this first cup in remembrance of God’s promise to deliver us from our slavery in Egypt, our slavery to sin.

All: åLeaning on your left side, drink the first cup.

2. Urchatz—Wash hands

All: NWash hands but don’t say the blessing

ÿLeader: Jesus washed the disciples feet symbolize cleansing from sin: it is very likely there were far more disciples than just the twelve apostles at the Last Supper Seder. Foot washing was a sign of hospitality. John 13:4-8,12-18 Jesus rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. He came to Simon Peter; and Peter said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part in me.” When he had washed their feet, taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

¯If doing foot washing sing “They’ll Know We Are Christians”

ôÿIf time permits review events of preceding week page 26.

ôEmpty table to focus the attention on the Seder and Unity plates.

3. Karpas—Parsley

Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheynu Melek ha-olam,

Boray p’ree ha-adamah.

All: Blessed are You O Lord our God, King of the universe, Creator of the fruits of the earth.

Distribute the karpas, each should dip it in salt water then eat it.

ôKarpas dipped in salt water symbolizes life immersed in tears. So, it is fitting that the parsley representing life be dipped in salt water representing tears. Tears for the sadness of the bondage in Egypt, tears of repentance for our sin, and ÿtears for the suffering Jesus went through to free us from our sin.

ôKarpas also stands for the branches of hyssop that were used to place the lamb’s blood on the doorposts and lintels that first Passover night. David in the Psalms used hyssop as a symbol of purification: Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow (Ps 51). Now clean inside and out.

ÿ Cleaned house of leaven, washed our bodies and cleansed in the interior—all symbols of cleansing from sin, much as in the Mass we start with the penitential rite.

4. Matzah—Unleavened Bread

ÿIn ancient Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke:

Ha lachma anya dee akaolu avahasana

b’ara d’mitzrayim.

Leader: Blessed Are you Lord God, King of the Universe, Who bring forth bread from the earth.

Leader: behold the bread of affliction: break the middle matzah in half; leave the smaller half between the two whole pieces. Wrap the larger half in a linen cloth and bury (hide) it. ôThe buried middle piece is the Afikomen (originally meaning ‘he is coming’ now meaning desert). Children cover your eyes while the Afikomen is buried.

ôThe three matzahs on the Seder table traditionally represent: Kohen, Levi and Israel - three types of Jews. The three matzahs represent the division of the Jewish nation into Kohen (priests), Levi (priestly assistants) and Israel (the remaining tribes). By representing all Jews at the Seder, one is reminded of the importance of Jewish unity. Technically, the three matzoth are placed on the Seder table in order to properly fulfill two separate commandments. Two whole, unbroken matzoth are necessary in order to make the Festival blessing over bread. The command of eating matzah, however, is fulfilled with a piece from a broken matzah, symbolizing "the bread of affliction."

ÿTo Christians this piece of matzah represents Jesus’ body wrapped in the shroud and buried. The three pieces of matzah called the Unity together represent God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Leader: Uncover and raise plate with 2½ matzah

All: Take hold of the plate

All: This is the bread of our affliction which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt; let all those who are hungry enter and eat thereof; and all who are in distress come and celebrate the Passover. At present, we celebrate it here but next year we hope to celebrate it in the land of Israel. This year we are servants here but next year we hope to be freemen in the land of Israel.

Leader: Put the plate down and cover the matzah.

All: åLeaning on you left side, finish the first cup or wine.

Leader: The meaning of reclining around the table is we rest in the light of finished redemption.

Remove the Seder plate from the table.

All:åFill the second cup of wine, but do not drink yet.

5. Maggid—Tell the Exodus story

The Four Questions:

Children or youngest: asks the following Four Questions:

Child: Why is this night different from all other nights? On all other nights, we eat leavened or unleavened bread; why on this night do we eat only Matzah, unleavened bread?

Leader: This night is different from all other nights because on this night we celebrate our going forth from slavery into freedom. We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord saved us with a mighty hand. If God had not taken our fathers out of Egypt, then we, our children, and our grandchildren, too, would still be Pharaoh’s slaves. We eat only matzah, unleavened bread, because when Pharaoh finally let the people go they had to flee Egypt quickly. There was no time to let the yeast rise in the dough before they baked it.

Child: On all other nights we eat vegetables and herbs of all kinds; why on this night do we eat only bitter herbs?

Leader: We eat bitter herbs to remind us how bitter it was to live as slaves in Egypt.

Child: On all other nights, we don’t dip herbs even once; why on this night do we dip twice?

Leader: We dip the parsley in salt water to remind us of our tears, for our slavery. We dip the bitter herbs, the horseradish, in the sweet apples (haroseth), to remind us our ancestors were able to withstand bitter slavery because they never lost the sweet hope of freedom. ÿAs Christians we remember our bondage to sin, and for the price Jesus paid for our redemption.

Child: On all other nights we eat either sitting up; why on this night do we all recline?

Leader: Why do we eat reclining? Because freemen not slaves recline at table. And since our people became free this night, we recline.

After the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 this question replaced:

Child: Why on this night do we eat only lamb that is roasted?

Leader: The Pascal Lamb can only be eaten roasted, as dictated in Exodus 12:8-9: “And they will eat that night meat roasted on the fire and unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled in water, but roasted in fire...” ôSome say the reason for roasting the meat is to maintain a connection between the people and the sacrifice, as something roasting on a fire needs constant watching and turning to prevent it from burning.

ôThe Jews would only say the name of God in the Temple.

All: ¯Recite Psalms 113 and 114.

Psalms 113:1-9 Praise Yahweh. Praise, O servants of Yahweh, praise the name of Yahweh. Let the name of Yahweh be praised, both now and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of Yahweh is to be praised. Yahweh is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like Yahweh our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, Who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; He seats them with princes, with the princes of their people. He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise Yahweh.

Psalms 114:1-8 When Israel came out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue, Judah became God's sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea looked and fled, the Jordan turned back; the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. Why was it, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you turned back, you mountains, that you skipped like rams, you hills, like lambs? Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water.

The Four Sons

Leader: The Torah speaks of four sons: One is wise, one is wicked, one is simple and one does not even know how to ask.

1. The wise one asks: “What are the testimonies, the statutes and the laws which the Lord, our God, has commanded you?” You, in turn, shall instruct him in all the laws of Passover, up to `one is not to eat any dessert after the Pesach lamb.’

2. The wicked one, what does he say? “What is this service to you?!” He says `to you,’ but not to him! By thus separating himself he has excluded himself from participation in the remembrance of the Passover, and hence from its saving act of redemption. You, therefore, are to say to him: “It is because of this that the Lord did for me when I left Egypt”; `for me’ but not for him! If he had been there, he would not have been redeemed!

3. The simpleton says: “What is this?” Thus, you shall say to him: “With a strong hand the Lord took us out of Egypt, from the house of slaves.”

4. As for the one who does not know how to ask, you must begin for him, as it is said: “You shall tell your child on that day, `It is because of what the Lord did for me when I left Egypt.’”

Leader: During a famine in the land of Canaan, the sons of Israel moved to Egypt. They prospered there, and became a great nation. Pharaoh feared they might, in time of war, side with the enemy, so to subdue them he made them slaves and afflicted them with cruel labor. But they continued to thrive, as God had promised. This caused Pharaoh even greater alarm, and he ordered the slaughter of Israel's infant sons. By his command, every male child born to the Hebrews was to be cast into the Nile and drowned. But God raised up a deliverer, a redeemer, the man Moses. And He sent Moses to Pharaoh's court to declare the commandment of the Lord. But Pharaoh would not listen to the Lord of Hosts. And so, Moses pronounced God's judgment on Pharaoh's house and on Pharaoh's land. Through Moses plagues were poured out upon the Egyptians, upon their crops, and upon their flocks.

The Ten Plagues

Leader: Spill drop of wine in plate for each plague saying:

ôThese plagues judged the gods of the Egyptians—Nile, sun, frogs, cattle, etc.

Exodus 12:1-13 Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire--head, legs and inner parts. 10 Do not leave any of it until morning; if some is left until morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is Yahweh's Passover. 12 "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn--both men and animals--and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am Yahweh. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

You shall keep this day as a feast for all your children’s children. You will celebrate Passover forever.”

By the blood of a lamb, Israel was spared. By the blood of the lamb was death made to pass over.

Passover is the night when death passed over the houses of Israel because of the blood of the Passover lamb. A mighty act of redemption, and a beautiful picture of redemption destined to come.

After God led Israel out of Egypt He led them to the shore of the Red (Reed) Sea where the pursuing Egyptian chariots caught up with them. God told Moses to hold his staff over the sea. While God hindered the advancing Egyptian army, He opened a way on dry land for Israel to escape from the Egyptians. While Israel was escaping the Egyptians pursued them right into the passage through the sea. When the entire Egyptian army was within the sea, God caused their chariots to have difficulty moving to slow the pursuit. When every Israelite had exited the sea, God commanded Moses to stretch his staff over the sea. As he did so the sea returned to its normal place and Pharaoh and all his army drowned. Israel then continued on in peace.

Dayenu—Meaning it would have been enough

¯All join in singing of DAYENU

· If He had merely rescued us from Egypt, but had not punished the Egyptians, ¯DAYENU.

· If He had merely punished the Egyptians, but had not destroyed their gods, ¯DAYENU.

· If He had merely destroyed their gods, but had not slain their first born, ¯DAYENU.

· If He had merely slain their first-born, but had not given us their property, ¯DAYENU.

· If He had merely given us their property, but had not split the sea for us, ¯DAYENU.

· If He had merely split the sea for us, but had not brought us through on dry ground, ¯DAYENU.

· If He had merely brought us through on dry ground, but had not drowned our oppressors, ¯DAYENU.

· If He had merely drowned our oppressors, but had not supplied us in the desert for forty years, ¯DAYENU.

· If He had merely supplied us in the desert for forty years, but had not fed us with manna, ¯DAYENU.

· If He had merely fed us with manna, but had not given us the Shabbat, ¯DAYENU.

· If He had merely given us the Shabbat, but had not brought us to Mount Sinai, ¯DAYENU.

· If He had merely brought us to Mount Sinai, but had not given us the Torah, ¯DAYENU.

· If He had merely given us the Torah, but had not brought us to the land of Israel, ¯