How to Prepare a Passover Seder

The Jewish holiday Passover, or Pesach, commemorates the Hebrews' exodus from Egypt. It begins with a traditional dinner called a seder on the first night, when the Exodus tale is retold.

Step 1: Invite guests
Invite guests to the seder. Passover is a time for community, and a seder may include family, friends, coworkers, and/or neighbors, both Jewish and non-Jewish.

Step 2: Clean and remove chametz
Clean your house from top to bottom. Remove all chametz, or bread and other leavened foods. This is done in remembrance of the Jews who did not have time for dough to rise before escaping captivity. Use utensils that are designated strictly for Passover, to eliminate the possibility of coming into contact with chametz.

Step 3: Select the Haggadah
Select the Haggadah – the book with the Exodus story and instructions for the seder. Haggadahs vary by their adherence to tradition, overall length, and the amount of Hebrew used. Have several of the edition you’ve chosen on hand, ideally one per person.

Step 4: Prepare dinner
Plan and prepare a kosher dinner, which is eaten after the Exodus story is recounted. Finish cooking the meal before people arrive, since once the seder has begun you shouldn’t do any cooking.

Tip
The meal may not include any bread or other leavened foods. Typical dishes include braised brisket, matzo ball soup, chopped liver, potato kugel, and almond cake.

Step 5: Set aside matzo
Place three matzos folded into a white cloth so that none of the matzos touches each other.

Step 6: Have wine on hand
Set aside kosher wine and cups that will be used at certain points during the seder. Make sure to have at least four glasses of wine per adult.

Step 7: Roast a bone
Roast a shankbone, called zeroa, as a symbol of the paschal lamb Jews during biblical times would have offered as the Pesach sacrifice. Any meat or poultry bone is okay, though lamb is traditional.

Tip
In a vegetarian household, substitute a roasted beet for the bone.

Step 8: Boil an egg
Hard-boil an egg; then roast it in the oven until the shell browns slightly. The roasted egg, or beitzah, represents the loss of the Temple and the hope that it will be rebuilt some day. Its shape also symbolizes the circle of life.

Step 9: Make the charoset
Make the charoset, the fruit and nut mixture. The mixture symbolizes the slave labor Egyptians forced Jews to perform with bricks and mortar.

Tip
Common ingredients for Jews of Eastern European descent include apples, walnuts, red wine, and cinnamon, while Sephardic Jews often use dates, dried figs, and cardamom.

Step 10: Prepare the first bitter herb
Prepare the maror, which represents the bitterness of slavery. If using romaine lettuce, make sure to inspect for bugs, since they’re not kosher. Many people use grated horseradish.

Step 11: Prepare the second bitter herb
Prepare the second bitter herb, like lettuce or radishes. This is called chazeret, and is combined with the charoset and matzo in a sandwich called the korech.

Tip
You may also use another helping of maror in the korech sandwich and omit the chazeret on the seder plate.

Step 12: Wash vegetables and dissolve salt
Wash vegetables such as celery or parsley for the karpas. The greens symbolize rebirth from slavery and the season of spring. Dissolve salt into a bowl of water, which represents the tears of the slaves. During the seder, the karpas will be dipped into the salt water.

Step 13: Arrange the plate
Place the six items on the seder plate. Depending on the number of guests you’re having, you may need more than one seder plate. Generally the egg goes next to the bone, and the maror next to the charoset.

Step 14: Get ready for your guests
The seder is ready – now get yourself ready!

Did You Know?
In Israel, Passover lasts seven days, while outside Israel it’s an eight-day holiday.

[wimm]

Thanks for educating me, it's much appreciated.

[yaacovfrancoishavenga]

Shalom, this is not what YHVH said to our forefathers, the whole house of Israel. The Passover
Exo 12:1  And יהוה spoke to Mosheh and to Aharon in the land of Mitsrayim, saying,  
Exo 12:2  “This new moon is the beginning of new moons for you, it is the first new moon of the year for you. 
Exo 12:3  “Speak to all the congregation of Yisra’ěl, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this new moon each one of them is to take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 
Exo 12:4  ‘And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next to his house take it according to the number of the beings, according to each man’s need you make your count for the lamb. 
Exo 12:5  ‘Let the lamb be a perfect one, a year old male. Take it from the sheep or from the goats. 
Exo 12:6  ‘And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same new moon. Then all the assembly of the congregation of Yisra’ěl shall slay it between the evenings. 
Exo 12:7  ‘And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. 
Exo 12:8  ‘And they shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire – with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 
Exo 12:9  ‘Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire, its head with its legs and its inward parts. 
Exo 12:10  ‘And do not leave of it until morning, and what remains of it until morning you are to burn with fire. 
Exo 12:11  ‘And this is how you eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Pěsaḥa of יהוה. Footnote: aPěsaḥ - See Explanatory Notes - Passover. 
Exo 12:12  ‘And I shall pass through the land of Mitsrayim on that night, and shall strike all the first-born in the land of Mitsrayim, both man and beast. And on all the mighty ones of Mitsrayim I shall execute judgment. I am יהוה. 
Exo 12:13  ‘And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I shall pass over you, and let the plague not come on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Mitsrayim. 
Exo 12:14  ‘And this day shall become to you a remembrance. And you shall celebrate it as a festival to יהוה throughout your generations – celebrate it as a festival, an everlasting law. 
Exo 12:15  ‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. Indeed on the first day you cause leaven to cease from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that being shall be cut off from Yisra’ěl. 
Exo 12:16  ‘And on the first day is a set-apart gathering, and on the seventh day you have a set-apart gathering. No work at all is done on them, only that which is eaten by every being, that alone is prepared by you. 
Exo 12:17  ‘And you shall guard the Festival of Matzot, b for on this same day I brought your divisions out of the land of Mitsrayim. And you shall guard this day throughout your generations, an everlasting law. Footnote: bUnleavened Bread. 
Exo 12:18  ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the new moon, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the new moon in the evening. 
Exo 12:19  ‘For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, that same being shall be cut off from the congregation of Yisra’ěl, whether sojourner or native of the land. 
Exo 12:20  ‘Do not eat that which is leavened – in all your dwellings you are to eat unleavened bread.’ ” 
Exo 12:21  And Mosheh called for all the elders of Yisra’ěl and said to them, “Go out and take lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and slay the Pěsaḥ. 
Exo 12:22  “And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin, and you, none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. 
Exo 12:23  “And יהוה shall pass on to smite the Mitsrites, and shall see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, and יהוה shall pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you. 
Exo 12:24  “And you shall guard this word as a law for you and your sons, forever. 
Exo 12:25  “And it shall be, when you come to the land which יהוה gives you, as He promised, that you shall guard this service. 
Exo 12:26  “And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’ 
Exo 12:27  then you shall say, ‘It is the Pěsaḥ slaughtering of יהוה, who passed over the houses of the children of Yisra’ěl in Mitsrayim when He smote the Mitsrites and delivered our households.’ ” And the people bowed their heads and did obeisance. 
Exo 12:28  And the children of Yisra’ěl went away and did so – as יהוה had commanded Mosheh and Aharon, so they did. 
The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn
Exo 12:29  And it came to be at midnight that יהוה struck all the first-born in the land of Mitsrayim, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of livestock. 
Exo 12:30  And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Mitsrites. And there was a great cry in Mitsrayim, for there was not a house where there was not a dead one. 
Exo 12:31  Then he called for Mosheh and Aharon by night, and said, “Arise, go out from the midst of my people, both you and the children of Yisra’ěl. And go, serve יהוה as you have said. 
Exo 12:32  “Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go. Then you shall bless me too.” 
The Exodus
Exo 12:33  And the Mitsrites were strong on the people, to hasten to send them away out of the land. For they said, “We are all dying!” 
Exo 12:34  And the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their garments on their shoulders. 
Exo 12:35  And the children of Yisra’ěl had done according to the word of Mosheh, and they had asked from the Mitsrites objects of silver, and objects of gold, and garments. 
Exo 12:36  And יהוה gave the people favour in the eyes of the Mitsrites, so that they gave them what they asked, and they plundered the Mitsrites. 
Exo 12:37  And the children of Yisra’ěl set out from Ra‛meses to Sukkoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides the little ones. 
Exo 12:38  And a mixed multitude went up with them too, also flocks and herds, very much livestock. 
Exo 12:39  And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Mitsrayim, for it was not leavened, since they were driven out of Mitsrayim, and had not been able to delay, nor had they prepared food for themselves. 
Exo 12:40  And the sojourn of the children of Yisra’ěl who lived in Mitsrayim was four hundred and thirty years. 
Exo 12:41  And it came to be at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, on that same day it came to be that all the divisions of יהוה went out from the land of Mitsrayim. 
Exo 12:42  It is a night of watches unto יהוה for bringing them out of the land of Mitsrayim. This is that night of watches unto יהוה, for all the children of Yisra’ěl throughout their generations. 
Institution of the Passover
Exo 12:43  And יהוה said to Mosheh and Aharon, “This is the law of the Pěsaḥ: No son of a stranger is to eat of it,  
Exo 12:44  but any servant a man has bought for silver, when you have circumcised him, then let him eat of it. 
Exo 12:45  “A sojourner and a hired servant does not eat of it. 
Exo 12:46  “It is eaten in one house, you are not to take any of the flesh outside the house, nor are you to break any bone of it. 
Exo 12:47  “All the congregation of Yisra’ěl are to perform it. 
Exo 12:48  “And when a stranger sojourns with you and shall perform the Pěsaḥ to יהוה, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and perform it, and he shall be as a native of the land. But let no uncircumcised eat of it. 
Exo 12:49  “There is one Torah for the native-born and for the stranger who sojourns among you.” 
Exo 12:50  And all the children of Yisra’ěl did as יהוה commanded Mosheh and Aharon, so they did. 
Exo 12:51  And it came to be on that same day that יהוה brought the children of Yisra’ěl out of the land of Mitsrayim according to their divisions.

[PixelPaperDesigns]

so glad i came across this. evrythng i read n learned frm difrnt websites wuz becoming overwhelming. i stil dont no if i shud repeat the same steps throughout the 7 day period or if its just that 1 day😞. i do no 2 take off wrk the 1st n last 2days. im currently getn my new utensils n cookware 4 the upcoming passover feast. i wonder if i can cook each day after the sabbath r do i need 2 prepare all meals up to 7days...

[chantzgunnell]

Yah didn't demand us to eat beets.

[elishebaisrael]

The true Jews are black moses his black the Egyptians is black, this is so sad