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Stepping up to the Seder Plate
Rabbis Consider Unconventional Passover Foods
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
O ver the past few decades,
new seder plate foods have
joined some Passover tables.

Next to the maror, charoset, karpas
and other symbolic snacks sit oranges,
artichokes, olives, chocolate and others.

Beginning with the practice of Oberlin
College Professor Susannah Heschel,
who, in the 1980s, put an orange on
her seder plate to represent LGBT
people and women’s fight for equality,
some Jews have started the practice
of adding objects to the seder table to
represent their Jewish values or strug-
gles: Artichokes represent an interfaith
family; olives show a desire for peace
6 MARCH 30, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
between Israelis and Palestinians;
chocolate or cocoa beans are for the
free trade labor movement. In theory,
any food could make its way onto the
seder plate, representing whatever the
seder’s guests willed it to.

Just as with any Jewish tradition, old
and new, the additions to the seder
plate have garnered supporters and
skeptics, seder plate pessimists and
purists. Philadelphia-area rabbis have
thoughts on the issue.

“The whole idea of the seder
plate is to provoke questioning, to
make us ask, ‘Why are those things
there?’” Germantown Jewish Centre
Rabbi Adam Zeff said. “When we’re
confronted with things that are new,
then we have to think about that.”
The mitzvah of the seder is to evoke
lively discussion and curiosity, and
novelty, such as an orange on a seder
plate, helps to do this, Zeff argued. He
recalled a Chasidic story about a rabbi
preparing for the Passover seder, who
told his servants to remove everything
from the dinner table. When the rabbi’s
son comes down for dinner, he asks,
befuddled, why nothing is on the table.

“Aha!” the rabbis says, per Zeff’s
retelling. “Now we can start the seder.”
Seder plate traditionalists who opt
out of additions argue that the seder’s
novelty is already built into Passover
tradition. Philadelphia Chabad Rabbi
Menachem Schmidt thought about the
role of maror, horseradish, on the seder
plate. Usually a condiment used sensi-
bly, on Passover, maror is eaten by the
spoonful, prompting the watering of
eyes and the sticking out of tongues
— unpleasant feelings that force seder
attendees to address their discomfort.

“Bitterness is something which is
used very sparingly and strategically
and creates a spiritual or emotional
movement,” he said.

Judaism has also long used
symbols that have many meanings,
and the seder plate is no exception,
Congregation Beth Hamedrosh Rabbi
Yonah Gross said.

Gross used the example of the
holidays of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust
Remembrance Day and Tisha B’Av,
commemorating the destruction of the



photovs / iStock / Getty Images Plus
local two temples in Jerusalem. Many Orthodox
Jews don’t observe Yom HaShoah, not
because they don’t believe in commemo-
rating the Holocaust, but rather because
they believe that Tisha B’Av is a holiday
already designed to encompass dates
of Jewish tragedy. Similarly, additional
foods don’t need to be added to the
seder plate because the items already
there represent broad enough themes
to accommodate the struggles of both
today and biblical times.

“There is a middle ground,” Gross
said. However, traditions and holidays
evolve, Mishkan Shalom Rabbi Shawn
Zevit said. Seder plates and Haggadot
were not always around for the holiday,
and new Passover foods and traditions
are as inherent to the holiday as the
seder plate itself.

“Even the seder plate itself didn’t just
pop into being one night. ... Even the
four questions which we sort of treat as
though they came down with the Big
Bang, they have evolved, too,” Zevit said.

Some Philadelphia-area rabbis argue that additions to the seder plate, such as
oranges or chocolate, can enhance the meaning of the seder to some attendees.

Newness helps keep younger Jews
engaged and, in the case of new seder
plate foods, helps Jews who may not
have felt included in Jewish tradition
— such as Jews by choice or Jews of
color — have a place at the table.

For Har Zion Temple Rabbi Seth
Haaz, whether to add new foods to
the seder plate comes down to the
balance between new and old.

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Haaz, like Zevit and Zeff, has had his
seder plate and table change over the
years. He believes that “a traditional
seder is one that evolves.” However,
he still thinks there’s something import-
ant about having those core foods
on the plate. It’s special to imagine
every other Jewish family around the
world having those items on their table,
taking part in the same tradition.

“Our Jewish culture binds us together
as a people on that night,” he said.

Though Rabbi Nathan Weiner of
Marlton, New Jersey’s Congregation
Beth Tikvah doesn’t add anything
new to his seder plate, he takes no
offense from those who do, believing
that any seder plate with meaning to
those around the seder table is good
enough. “I’m all for whatever it takes to make
the seder deeply relevant and personal
to the people who are experiencing it,”
he said. ■
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