Passover Vocabulary
Seder- a special meal prepared for Passover. It consists of:
- Maror - bitter herbs symbolizing the harshness of slavery
- Chazeret - usually romaine lettuce, but can endive, green onions, dandelion greens, etc.
- Charoset - a sweet paste consisting of fruits and nuts, symbolizing the mortar that the Jewish slaves used in constructing buildings.
- Karpas - another vegetable that’s not bitter, usually parsley, celery, or cooked potato
- Zeroa - roasted lamb or goat bone, symbolizing the lamb that was offered in the Temple of Jerusalem
- Beitzah - hard-boiled or roasted egg symbolizing the festival sacrifice offered in the Temple of Jerusalem.
Matzah- unleavened flat bread eaten during passover
Plague- a phenomenon that causes distress or sickness; in this situation, they were supernatural occurrences that caused pandemonium across Egypt like a river of blood, Swarms of locusts, boils appearing on people’s bodies, etc. The last plague, the one remembered in Passover, pertained the death of first-born children throughout Egypt.