At the heart of many family traditions are meaningful experiences. And for many Jewish families in Louisville, at the heart of Passover traditions is food.
During Passover, which this year begins on April 15 and ends on April 23, Jews will discard all leavened bread, any type of bread that contains yeast, from their household while preparing for the Seder meal, a ritual feast that marks the beginning of one of the holiest of Jewish holidays.
According to the Torah, God gave Moses instructions to avoid yeast during the first Passover in Egypt and remove all yeast when celebrating Passover in the future. The Jewish holiday celebrates the retelling of the biblical account of when the Jewish people were freed from slavery in Egypt.
Every family has its own Passover traditions and rituals, with most being centered around a huge meal. Meals often consist of shank bone (zeroa), egg (beitzah), bitter herbs (maror), vegetable (karpas), and a sweet paste called haroset make up most Seder dishes. It is also common for a sixth item, hazeret, another form of a bitter herb, to make an appearance on the plate. And each helps tell the story of Passover.
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Outside of unleavened bread and gefilte fish —a dish made from a poached mixture of ground deboned fish, such as carp or whitefish — other foods traditionally eaten during a Passover Seder include beef brisket or roasted lamb, matzo and vegetables. Matzo represents the bread Jews ate while escaping out of Egypt and bitter herbs, like horseradish, are supposed to be reminiscent of slavery.
Cantor David Lipp of the Adath Jeshurun synagogue, 2401 Woodbourne Ave., said “the specific nature of those foods has changed over the years — we don’t know exactly the biblical bitter herbs and the matzo probably looked more like pita (just unleavened) than the factory type most people eat these days that are perfect rectangles.”
Lipp said there are many variations of the traditional meal, which is served by Jews all over the world.
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“For those families that are carnivores, beef brisket is often preferred. Also, chicken soup with matzo balls. There are some common dessert items that are often bought like macaroons and fruit-gelled chocolates,” he said.
For Jonathan Cohen, a member of the Adath Jeshurun synagogue, his family does a “pretty classic Seder. Gefilte fish and matzo ball soup make their once-a-year appearance. We always are trying to find new desserts that can be made and enjoyed that don’t have flour, which is a bit challenging,” he said. “We created a flourless chocolate torte that’s good enough to eat all year long. The old-fashioned Passover desserts are notorious for being dry and minimally edible.”
For many, the basic structure of the Seder meal has remained the same and is steeped in tradition, but Rabbi Gaylia R. Rooks of Congregation Adath Israel Brith Sholom, 5101 US Highway 42, said: “new symbolic foods and traditions have continued to evolve.”
“The word Seder itself means ‘order’ and the meal follows a set order of special ritual foods,” Rooks told the Courier Journal. “Many people, especially vegetarians, use a roasted beet instead of a roasted lamb shank (or a roasted chicken bone) on their Seder plate. This idea is recorded in the Talmud where it states that the red beet fulfills the same purpose — to remember the lamb’s blood smeared on the doorposts of the Israelite homes to let the Angel of Death know to ‘Pass Over.'”
One significant change to a traditional Seder meal has been the acknowledgment of LGBTQ+ Jews during the holiday.
“It has become more common over the past few decades to place an orange on the Seder plate as a symbol of inclusion for LGBTQ+ Jews,” Rooks said. “Also, some people have olives on the plate as a symbol of prayer for peace.”
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For many American Jews, the newest dish this year is borscht soup. Commonly eaten in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia, many American Jews whose families immigrated to the United States from Ukraine are now adding this to their Seder meal to show unity with Ukrainians facing persecution in their homeland.
“Every year there’s something going on in the world that affects how we celebrate Passover,” Lipp said. “For others, it means finding a meaningful way in which one has either freed oneself or intends to liberate oneself from some undesirable personal trait or situation… I’m sure at many Seder tables this year the freedom and safety of Ukrainians will be prayed for.”
The idea of prayer is one timeless tradition that remains unchanged.
“The ritual of lighting a ‘yahrtzeit candle‘ in memory of loved ones who have died,” Rooks said. “This is especially meaningful as we remember the place they once held at our Seder tables. Also, the tradition of donating to charity, especially to feed the hungry, is still very strong. One line at the Seder is, ‘Let all who are hungry come and eat.'”
Another unchanged tradition is the expectation that the youngest child in each family is expected to sing the four questions, which serve as a springboard for the story of the Jewish plight to be retold in detail as the traditional foods are served.
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Gathering and tradition are a huge part of Passover and as the holiday approaches, many religious services will be open for community members to attend.
Adath Israel Brith will hold a morning service on the first day of Passover and a special memorial service on the last day. Every year, the temple writes its own Haggadah, essentially a “guidebook” to the Seder, and Rooks says the theme this year is refugees with a focus on Ukraine.
At Adath Jeshurun synagogue, Lipp said Passover services will replicate Sabbath services with an appropriate variation of the liturgy. But one ritual that isn’t returning is the large community Seder at Adath Jeshurun, where congregants were invited to share a meal together.
Instead, the Seder will be held virtually on the second night this year, and congregants of Adath Jeshurun will be offered the option to order Passover catered food at a discounted price.
“Before COVID, we always went to the community Seder at Adath Jeshurun,” Cohen said. “They have a big search for the Afikomen, a piece of broken matzo they hide. My kids claim to have found it four years in a row, but I think their memory may be a little exaggerated. This year the community Seder is online, but hopefully next year it can return back to in person again. We miss it.”
Culture and diversity reporter Jason Gonzalez can be reached at [email protected]