Around the Passover Table Read Online Free PDF

hard-boiled egg. To prepare it, hard-boil an egg then wrap it, still in its shell, in heavy-duty foil, and place it in a hot oven until lightly charred. Or use tongs to hold the hard-boiled egg (again, unshelled) over an open burner flame, or place under the broiler just until lightly burnt. Whichever method you choose, be sure to hard-boil the egg first—otherwise, you’ll end up with an egg explosion.
    Vegans who do not use eggs can substitute spring flowers like potted crocuses and daffodils or violets.
    Arrangement of the ritual foods on the seder plate varies not only according to tradition, but also from place to place; in fact, Jews in Holland may use three different plates for the ceremonial foods, while Greek Jews set the foods in a basket and Yemenites place them directly on the table. But most commonly, the seder plate is assembled as follows:
    Picture the plate as a clock. The zeroa (shankbone) is placed at 2 o’clock; haroset (fruit and nut paste) is at 4; if the second bitter herb (hazeret) is used, it is set at 6 o’clock; karpas (spring vegetable) is at 8 o’clock; and beitzah (the egg) is put at 10. Maror (the bitter herb) may be placed at either 12 o’clock or set in the middle of the plate.
    â€œEveryone who adds their interpretation to the story is worthy of praise,” the Haggadah tells us, and many Jewish families include new, nontraditional items on the seder plate. Here are two of the most popular.
    POTATO PEELS Survivors of the Holocaust and their children, recalling what a blessing it was to have a potato peel—it could mean the difference between life and death in the concentration camps—began including the peels as a symbol of the Holocaust and today’s hunger and famines. For many Jews fleeing the famines of Ethiopia, potatoes—in amounts small enough for their shrunken bodies to accept—were the first food tasted when they immigrated to Israel.
    ORANGE Some new seder plates are designed with a special place for an orange. Theologian Susannah Heschel, in “Orange on the Seder Plate,” explains that in the original ritual she created based on a story she had read in a feminist Haggadah, she asked everyone to take a segment of a tangerine, “say the blessing over it, and eat it to symbolize our solidarity with Jewish lesbians and gay men as well as with others who are marginalized within the Jewish community [including widows, like her mother]. Since each tangerine segment has a few seeds, we added the gesture of spitting them out . . . repudiating the sin of homophobia.”
    Dr. Heschel’s new ritual, however, was widely misrepresented in the press. I read about it in the Village Voice more than ten years ago, where it was incorrectly reported as an affirmation of the role of Jewish women, rooted in an exchange the theologian purportedly had with a male heckler.
    Today the orange has taken on a life of its own. For some, it calls to mind Dr. Heschel’s original intent. For others, it is a more general metaphor for the sweetness and fruitfulness that welcoming all people brings to the community; by spitting out the seeds, we symbolically repudiate cruelty to anyone.

Passover Recipes
    Classic Ashkenazi Haroset
    Grandma Dorothy’s Haroset
    Date Haroset
    Tangy Haroset Bites
    Huevos Haminados
    Chopped Eggs and Onions
    Chicken Soup with Asparagus and Shiitakes, Served with Roasted Fennel Matzoh Balls
    Savory Herbed Matzoh Kleis (Matzoh Balls Made from Whole Matzoh)
    Celery Avgolemono (Greek Egg Lemon Soup) with Chicken Matzoh Balls
    Artichoke Soup with Light Herbed Matzoh Balls
    Smoked Whitefish Gefilte Fish with Lemon-Horseradish Sauce
    Salmon Gefilte Fish Poached in Fennel-Wine Broth with Ginger-Beet Horseradish
    Slow-Roasted Salmon with Green Herb Oil and Beet-Horseradish Relish
    Fish in Tomato, Rhubarb, and Blood-Orange Sauce
    Snapper Fillets in Pistachio-Matzoh Crust
    Veronese Rolled Turkey Loaf ( Polpettone )
    Chicken