March 2007


Passover Readings You Can Add to Your Hagaddah*
By Rabbi Geela Rayzel Raphael

Here are two additions to the Passover Seder that interfaith and other families may want to include in their service.

Adding an Artichoke to the Seder Plate

The Seder plate holds the main symbols of a traditional Passover Seder – the shank bone, egg, karpas (green vegetable), charoset, and maror (bitter herbs). The Kabbalists of the Middle Ages added hazeret, another kind of bitter lettuce. And in recent years feminists have added an orange on the Seder plate to symbolize women's leadership roles and full empowerment in Jewish life.

The artichoke, however, is a new development. What is an artichoke? Surely a work of God's imagination! Many petals, with thistle and a heart. To me this has come to represent the Jewish people.
We are first of all, very diverse in our petals. We call people Jews who are everything from very traditional Orthodox Hassidim, to very liberal secular. We are Reform, Reconstructionist, Orthodox, traditional, Modern Orthodox, Conservative, Renewal, and, of course, post-denominational. We are social justice activists and soldiers; we are Israelis and Jews of the Diaspora. We are young, old, single, married. Many are vegetarian, while others swear by Hebrew National. Our skin can be white as Scandinavian, dark black as Ethiopian, and we now welcome many Chinese and Latin American adoptees. Lately we add another category, that of interfaith.

Like the artichoke, which has thistles protecting its heart, the Jewish people have been thorny about this question of interfaith marriage. Let this artichoke on the seder plate stand for the wisdom of God's creation in making the Jewish people a population able to absorb many elements and cultures throughout the centuries – yet still remain Jewish. Let the thistles protecting our hearts soften so that we may notice the petals around us.

A Reading for the Karpas Kavannah

Karpas – parsley that is dipped in salt water during the Seder kavannah (spiritual focus) – represents time for spring awakening, new directions and the renewal and bursting forth of new ideas.  Here is a reading that you can add.

We take this time to honor others who travel with us from other faiths and cultural traditions. We acknowledge the fact that they bring a new perspective to our lives and a legacy of their own that enriches ours. We are grateful for the growth that we have experienced because they are in our lives.

As a plant bursts forth with new energy to bloom, so, too, we recognize that at this time of Jewish history we are blossoming in different ways. As the garden needs tending, so, too, do our relationships with spouses, in-laws and families of other traditions. Weeding out all that is not necessary and loving, we make room for fresh insight and respect. Welcome those who sit around this table for the first time or the twentieth, bringing new understanding to our discussion.

* This article is excerpted from a story on www.InterfaithFamily.com. 

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