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Dietary Rules

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Description and comparative analysis of the dietary rules of different religions and confessions

Dietary Rules

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2.1. Foods eaten at Pesach


Passover or Pesach is the Jewish holiday of freedom, commemorating the Israelites' exodus from slavery in Egypt. Each spring, Jewish people from around the world recount Passover's watershed story of redemption at a festive meal called the Seder. The centerpiece of this richly symbolic meal is the Seder plate. On the Seder plate there are five or six different Passover foods, each symbolizing a unique element of the Exodus story. At various points in the Seder (which means 'order' in Hebrew), participants partake in these different foods to tangibly and gastronomically reenact the events of the Exodus.

Also spelled matzoh and matza, matzah is the unleavened bread eaten (instead of bagels, sandwich bread and pita) during Passover. No matter how you spell it, matzah is the quintessential Passover food. When the Israelites learned that the pharaoh had agreed to let them leave Egypt, they did not have time to bake bread for their journey. Lest Pharaoh change his mind (which he did), they quickly made unleavened dough and baked it on their backs in the sun. Also called the Bread of Affliction, (Lechem Oni in Hebrew), matzah symbolizes the hardship of slavery and the Jewish people's hasty transition to freedom. During the Seder meal, a plate of at least three covered matzahs is set next to the Seder plate. The matzah is partaken from ritually three separate times during the Seder. The first time, the matzah is eaten by itself; next it’s eaten together with maror (bitter herbs – see below); and finally with maror and haroset (also see below) in a "korech" sandwich. Karpas is one of the six Passover foods on the Seder plate. It is a green leafy vegetable, usually parsley, used to symbolize the initial flourishing of the Israelites in Egypt. According to the Book of Genesis, Joseph and his family moved from the biblical land of Ca'anan down to Egypt during a drought.

Once in Egypt, Joseph quickly rose to power as the Egyptian pharaoh's second-in-command -- a revered position that extended special protection to the Israelite people for several generations. Maror, or bitter herbs, is another one of the Passover foods on the Seder plate and it symbolizes the bitterness of slavery. Different families use different foods to represent the maror, but it is most typically horseradish or romaine lettuce. Like the Israelites' sojourn in Egypt, romaine lettuce is sweet at first, but becomes more and more bitter as time goes on. A paste-like mixture of fruits, nuts and sweet wine or honey, charoset (also spelled haroset) is symbolic of the mortar used by the Israelite slaves when they laid bricks for Pharaoh’s monuments. The word charoset is derived from the Hebrew word for clay, cheres. The shank bone, or z'roa in Hebrew, represents the Paschal sacrifice offered by the Israelites on the eve of their exodus from Egypt. While a roasted lamb bone is traditionally used to represent the z'roa, any piece of roasted meat may be used. Like the z'roa, the egg (beitzah, in Hebrew) stands in for a holiday sacrifice once offered at the Holy Temple. The egg is also a universal symbol of springtime, new beginnings and rebirth -- all themes that are echoed in the story of the Exodus. Similar to maror, chazeret is another bitter food and is usually lettuce or a root vegetable. The sixth symbolic Passover food on the Seder plate, chazeret is not used by all families. Some prefer to combine use horseradish for both the chazeret and the maror. Chazeret is more commonly included on Seder plates in Israel, where romaine lettuce typically stands for the chazeret and horseradish for the maror.
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Matzah
Also spelled matzoh and matza, matzah is the unleavened bread eaten (instead of bagels, sandwich bread and pita) during Passover. When the Israelites learned that the pharaoh had agreed to let them leave Egypt, they did not have time to bake bread for their journey. Lest Pharaoh change his mind (which he did), they quickly made unleavened dough and baked it on their backs in the sun. Also called the Bread of Affliction, (Lechem Oni in Hebrew), matzah symbolizes the hardship of slavery and the Jewish people's hasty transition to freedom.

Karpas (a green vegetable, most often parsley)
Karpas represents the initial flourishing of the Israelites during the first years in Egypt. Karpas also symbolizes the new spring. One of the names for Passover is Hag Ha-Aviv or the “holiday of spring.”

Haroset (sweet fruit paste symbolizing mortar)
This mix of fruits, wine or honey, and nuts symbolizes the mortar that the Israelite slaves used to construct buildings for Pharaoh. The name itself comes from the Hebrew word cheres or clay. Ashkenazi Jews generally include apples in haroset, a nod to the midrashic tradition that the Israelite women would go into the fields and seduce their husbands under the apple trees, in defiance of the Egyptian attempts to prevent reproduction by separating men and women.

Egg
Like the z'roa, the egg (beitzah, in Hebrew) stands in for a holiday sacrifice once offered at the Holy Temple. The egg is also a universal symbol of springtime, new beginnings and rebirth -- all themes that are echoed in the story of the Exodus.

Chazeret
Similar to maror, chazeret is another bitter food and is usually lettuce or a root vegetable. The sixth symbolic Passover food on the Seder plate, chazeret is not used by all families. Some prefer to combine use horseradish for both the chazeret and the maror. Chazeret is more commonly included on Seder plates in Israel, where romaine lettuce typically stands for the chazeret and horseradish for the maror.

Shank Bone
The shank bone, or z'roa in Hebrew, represents the Paschal sacrifice offered by the Israelites on the eve of their exodus from Egypt. During the time of the Holy Temple in ancient Israel, this Paschal sacrifice was reenacted on the afternoon before Passover. Today there is no Holy Temple, so the shank bone on the Seder plate has taken its symbolic place.

Videos

The Passover Seder: What to Expect. The video shows practicalities on how to prepare the dishes, the table…

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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.