The Passover seder: Memories, family, foods, warmth

By Nancy McLaughlin for the news-record.com

Two things that happened during Passover in 1962 are embodied in a piece of green, ornate china that Mitchel Sommers pulls out this time of year.

His grandfather had returned from a trip by ship to Europe after finding two of his brothers who’d been separated after the Holocaust.

Sommers raced home from religion class with the enamel plate he won for his drawing of the family’s Passover meal, called a seder.

The seder plate is a centerpiece of the eight-day Passover celebration, which begins at sundown today.

The plate had particular relevance for Sommers’ family that year.

“From that day on — from when I was 10 — that was the seder plate we used,” said Sommers, who is the executive director of Community Theatre of Greensboro.

Tonight, “I will be sitting with my children and using that seder plate.”

Such memories abound in the Triad. The ritual meal is one of the most celebrated observances on the Jewish calendar, focusing on the story of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt and of the plagues resulting from Pharaoh’s initial refusal to free the slaves. It is a night of song and games, storytelling and interaction, good foods and symbolic bitter foods.

Jewish families share a sense of connection to the seder meals of generations of Jews before them, and those of generations after them, said Rabbi Eli Havivi of Beth David Synagogue.

The seder plate, for example, is made up of six symbolic foods representing thousands of years of history — including salt water, a reminder of the tears slaves shed in Egypt.

A door is also left open for Elijah the prophet, who is to precede the Messiah’s return.

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