Passover's Symbolic Foods

Video Transcript

"Hello, I'm Russ Handler, and I've got a couple tips, or, actually I'm going to explain the significance of the Passover Seder Plate and the food in which we put on it. Very, very significant. If you take a look here at our Seder plate, let's have a look at this Seder plate. Here you notice that we have a couple things that we need to talk about, the significance of which is rather important. Here we place the shank bone. It's placed on the plate, and it reminds us each and every Seder, it represents the lamb that in former times was sacrificed in the temple on Passover. Number two, of course, we've also got a roasted egg that we placed there. That's also placed on our Seder plate, and symbolizes an additional offering made at the holidays in Biblical times. We've also got our green herbs that we're going to place over in this portion, or a vegetable, sometimes lettuce, sometimes parsley, representing spring and a new life. And of course the bitter herbs we're going to have somewhere in our Seder plate as well, that usually represented with horse radish, but sometimes with romaine lettuce, and that of course reminds us of the bitterness of slavery with our ancestors, and what they went through, etcetera. Paste like mixture of fruits, nuts, and wine, is also placed on our Seder plate, and that's pretty significant. It stands for the mortar Jewish slaves used to construct buildings. And keep in mind, of course, the flat matzo, the unleavened cracker like bread, serves a reminder of the haste in which the Jews left Egypt. They had not time to wait for their unleavened bread to rise. And that my friends is the significance of the Seder plate and the foods in which we put on it. I'm Russ Handler, and I look forward to seeing you in temple."