Big Meal Tonight

Time to set up for the big meal tonight -- can't believe it's been more than 3000 years since my husband Moses led us all out of slavery in Egypt. Seems like just yesterday we were making real mortar -- it's a lot easier to mix up apples & nuts.

This is my first year to blog the seder, so don't spare your comments and criticisms. Believe me, I heard what people were saying last year about the tired Haiku Haggadah.

Before I reveal what's on the menu, I think it's time for a little prayer and some candle lighting. By the way, blogging in Hebrew is a nightmare, so imagine my relief to find I could cut and paste the prayers from www.opensourcehaggadah.com. So for those of you who can still read Hebrew -- Jack?--, here we go:

בּרוּךְ אַתּה ײֳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדֹּשָׁנוּ בּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל בּֽעוּר חָמֵץ.כָּל חֲמִירָא וַחֲמִירָא דְּאִכָּא בִרְשׁוּתִי דְּלָא חֲמִתֵּה וּדְלָא בִעַרְתֵּהּ וּדְלָא יְדַעְנָא בֵּיה לִבָּטֵל וְלֶהֱוִי הֶפְקִר כְּעַפְרָא דְּאַרְעָא.

Here's the traditional English:

Praised art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast sanctified us with Thy commandments and commanded us to kindle the festival lights.

We should probably come up with a more modern version, but I love the idea of "kindling the lights. Maybe we could keep the kindling and lose the king.

Now check out this spread:

The Z'roa is a roasted shank bone. It reminds us of the special lamb brought to the Temple in Jerusalem on Passover as an offering to God.

The Baytzo, a boiled egg, symbolizes the new life that comes with springtime.

(By the way, Marc and Lauren, we could use some new life at our Seder.)

Maror is a bitter herb that reminds us of the bitternessof slavery.

Charoset, a mixture of apples, nuts, and bad wine is symbolic of the mortar that slaves used to make bricks in Egypt.

Karpas, a green vegetable, reminds us that Passover occurs during springtime when new life brings a feeling of hope. (Like most people we know, we use parsley, and, oddly, it is Diego's favorite food item at the Seder.)

Now we are ready to start. On to the קַדֵשׁ

One more thing -- did someone forget to tell the NCAA about Passover?