Passover Seder Plate

The Passover Seder Plate is a unique plate incorporating symbolical foods used by Jews during the Passover Seder. Each of the six articles organized on the plate has a unique importance to the retelling of the narrative of the exodus from Egypt, which is the focal point of this traditional meal. The 7th symbolic item used in the course of the meal — a stack of three matzos — is laid on its own plate on the Seder table.

The six customary items on the Seder Plate are:

• Maror and chazeret — Are bitter herbs, representing the bitterness and abrasiveness of the servitude which the Jews coped with in Egypt. For maror, many people mix freshly ground horseradish with prepared beets and sugar to make a condiment named chrein. Whole horseradish root can also be consumed. For Maror, other Jews (Sepharadic traditions) use curly parsley and dunk it in vinegar or salted water to represent the bitterness of slavery. Chazeret is typically romaine lettuce, whose roots are tase bitter. Either the horseradish or romaine lettuce may be consumed in satisfaction of the mitzvah of consuming bitter herbs during the Seder.
  
  
• Charoset — Is a sweet, brownish, pebbly mixture, symbolizing the mortar used by the Jewish slaves to construct the storehouses of Egypt. In Ashkenazi Jewish homes, charoset is customarily prepared from chopped nuts, grated apples, cinnamon, and sweet red wine. In Sephardi Jewish homes charoset is customarily prepared from dates and honey in addition to chopped nuts, cinnamon, and wine. The selection of ingredients mirrors the various foods to which Israel is favorably likened in King Solomon's Song of Songs.
  
  
• Karpas — Is a vegetable other than bitter herbs, which is immersed into salt water at the commencement of the Seder. celery, Parsley or boiled potato are usually used. The dunking of a plain vegetable into salt water which represent tears reflects the grief felt by the Jewish slaves in Egypt, who may possibly only eat plain foods. The consumption of the karpas a the beginning of the Seder is denoted to spark queries from the children at the table. Normally in a Shabbat or holiday meal, the first food item to be consumed after the kiddush over wine is bread. At the Seder table, though, the first thing to be consumed after the kiddush is a vegetable. This guides right away to the reading of the well known question, Ma Nishtana — "Why is this night different from all other nights?"
  
  
• Z'roa — Is a roasted lamb or goat shank bone, a fowl wing, or fowl neck; representing the Pesach sacrifice (korban), which was a lamb that was sacrificed in the Temple in Jerusalem, then grilled and consumed as part of the meal on Seder night. Since the devastation of the Temple, the z'roa functions as as a visual reminder of the Pesach sacrifice; it is not consumed or touched during the Seder in Ashkenazi and many Sephardi practices. Vegetarians often replace a beet, quoting Pesachim 114b as vindication.
  
  
• Beitzah — Is a hard-boiled egg, representing the festival sacrifice (korban chagigah) that was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem and grilled and consumed as part of the meal on Seder night. In spite of the fact that both the Pesach sacrifice and the chagigah were meat offerings, the chagigah is remembered by an egg, a sign of mourning, summoning up the concept of mourning over the devastation of the Temple and our powerlessness to offer any kind of sacrifices in honor of the Pesach holiday. Since the devastation of the Temple, the beitzah functions as as a visual memorandum of the chagigah; it is not used in any way throughout the formal part of the seder, but some individuals eat it with saltwater as the first course of the meal.