Word of the Day

: April 9, 2020

seder

noun SAY-der

What It Means

: a Jewish home or community service including a ceremonial dinner held on the first or first and second evenings of the Passover in commemoration of the exodus from Egypt

seder in Context

Ari enjoys the stories, songs, and rituals that accompany dinner on the night of the seder.

"In the private classes, the group will get to choose among three menus for their lesson. The first includes seder dishes such as tri-colored matzo ball soup, tomato leek California beef roast, … date-honey roasted vegetables and chocolate souffles." — Rebecca King, NorthJersey.com, 17 Feb. 2020

Did You Know?

Order and ritual are very important in the seder—so important that they are even reflected in its name: the English word seder is a transliteration of a Hebrew word (sēdher) that means "order." The courses in the meal, as well as blessings, prayers, stories, and songs, are recorded in the Haggadah, a book that lays out the order of the Passover feast and recounts the story of the Exodus. Each food consumed as part of the seder recalls an aspect of the Exodus. For instance, matzo (unleavened bread) represents the haste with which the Israelites fled ancient Egypt; maror (a mix of bitter herbs) recalls the bitterness of life as a slave; and a mixture of fruits and nuts called haroseth (or haroset/haroses or charoseth/charoset/charoses) symbolizes the clay or mortar the Israelites worked with as slaves.