The format of the evening was an overview and explanation of the Passover Seder given by Rabbi Dr. Andrew Goldstein (Rabbi of NPLS), followed by some reflections on the Passover and Easter celebrations by the Rev. Stephen Roberts (Anglican Chaplain at Brunel University).

Part 1: Overview and Explanation of the Passover Seder

The Setting: Experiencing the Haggadah
Tables were set out in the main hall and each table was covered with a white tablecloth. Over 70 people sat down to participate in the mock Seder meal and at intervals along each table were bottles of wine, jugs of grape juice (for those who wanted to avoid alcohol), Seder plates containing symbolic foods (explained later), bowls of salt water and plates of chopped hard boiled eggs. At each table place there was a booklet on the front of which it says My Own Haggadah.

Rabbi Dr. Andrew Goldstein is a collector of Haggadahs and he showed us some dating from the 17th Century onwards. Often Haggadahs have wine stains resulting from their use at the Seder table where, as will be explained later, wine is a prominent feature of the Seder meal. There is restriction on depiction of art and the human form generally in Judaism because of the Ten Commandments, but the Haggadah is the one book where it is considered to be a family book and not a Synagogue book, and therefore legitimate to include illustrations. There are richly illuminated Haggadahs from the Middle Ages onwards. New Haggadahs are produced every year with the traditional text but also with topical bits added, and that has always been the custom.

The word Haggadah means the “telling” or the “story” and the story has been told year in and year out. The basis of the story comes from Biblical verses and is that we should all experience the going out from Egypt on this night. It is not just the telling of the story, it is a series of experiences. In the book of Exodus it says that you should tell the story of the Exodus to your children, and the whole emphasis is on telling the story to children.

Components of the Seder
There was a special cloth cover on the table with 3 compartments, and Andrew put a sheet of unleavened bread into each of the 3 compartments. On the Seder dishes there are a number of symbols:
• Green herbs
• Bitter herbs (horseradish usually favoured by Ashkenazi Jews and lettuce by Sephardi Jews)
• Roasted egg
• A lamb bone.
Also on the table there is wine and a special cup, candles and often flowers which remind us of Spring.

The Hebrew word Seder means “Order” and there are 15 stages to be gone through – all in the right order. The woman of the house will have lit the candles early on before it got dark and say a special blessing which translated is:

We pray to you O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who sanctified by your Commandments, and command us to light the candles at this special day.

Andrew then lit two candles and remarked that the actual word for the Festival is YOM TOB and it is indeed a good day when Jews, Christians and Muslims can sit down together to learn, to ponder perhaps on the meaning of freedom, and the meaning of Spring.

The first stage is KIDDUSH when the cups are filled. We were all invited to raise our cups while Andrew said the blessing. This was immediately followed by another blessing praising God for sustaining us in life and bringing us to the festive season. After the two blessings we drank the wine. Andrew emphasised that none of these blessings have any sacramental significance, they are just praising God.

The next symbol is the symbol of Spring. At this time of the year, it is traditional to read in the Synagogue that book of the Bible which mentions the Springtime, the Song of Songs or the Song of Solomon.

Some of the green herbs are then taken and dipped in the salt water before being eaten. The children ask “Why salt water”? and it is because it reminds us of the tears of the slaves in Egypt, and it is also a reminder that to escape from Egypt the Red sea had to part. We were all then invited to take some greenery from the plate, dip it in the salt water and eat it. This was done to the accompanying blessing “Praised are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the earth”.

Andrew then took the middle of the three matzah (the unleavened bread referred to earlier) and broke it in half. When a Seder is celebrated in the home one half is hidden away in the room, and the children have to find it. The Seder can't be completed without the missing half. At this point in the proceedings the following declaration is made and, although it resembles Hebrew, it is in Aramaic because at the time the Seder ceremony originated the leader of the Seder would open the door to the street and declare,

This is the bread of affliction, the poor bread, which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat. Let all who are in want share the hope of Passover. As we celebrate here, we join with our people everywhere. This year we celebrate here. Next year in the land of Israel. Now we are all still bondmen. Next year may all be free.

Basically it was an invitation to anyone in the street who didn't have a Passover Seder to attend, to come in and join because we cannot celebrate if there are other people there who have no way of celebrating. The broken matzah is not eaten but put back in the cover, perhaps symbolising the hidden Messiah.

Four Questions
Next the youngest child that is able to do so asks the famous four questions which go right back to the 1st Century. The child gets up and sings:

How is this night different from other nights?
On other nights we eat leavened or unleavened bread; why tonight only unleavened?
On other nights we eat all kinds of herbs; why tonight bitter herbs?
On other nights we do not dip herbs even once: why tonight twice?

The following narrative then answers the questions, starting with a passage which encapsulates the whole story:

We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord our God led us out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. If the Holy One, blessed be he, had not led our ancestors out of Egypt, we and our children and children’s children would have remained slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. Therefore even if we were all wise and discerning, all scholars and experts in Torah, it would still be our duty to re-tell the story of the Exodus: and those who linger over the telling are worthy of praise.

A passage from the book of Deuteronomy follows: “A wandering Aramean……” (Deuteronomy 26:4-9) and the meaning of the text is teased out by discussing each of the phrases in the narrative. So they talk about oppression, slavery, freedom and a whole range of issues.

Ten Plagues
A key part of the Seder is telling the story of the ten plagues in the book of Exodus which were afflicted upon the Egyptians before Pharaoh said “Let the people go”. This part is a mixture of seriousness and fun:

We have a bit of fun because we take our cup of wine and each time we mention a plague we take out a drop of wine with our little finger. So you end up with drops of wine on your best white tablecloth or Haggadah. But what is the meaning behind it? The meaning is that even as we mention the plagues which were the agents by which we got our freedom, we should bear in mind that for our freedom certain innocent Egyptians had to die. Therefore out of our cup of joy we take and sacrifice a little of our wine to symbolise that our joy is a little bit reduced as we think of the suffering of others which was a consequence of our liberation.

Aspects of the story are then retold as a series of sung “one-liners”, each followed by a chorus consisting of repeating the word Dayeinu (meaning "enough" in the sense of sufficient).

We then raise our cups of wine but we don't drink. It is a toast to God and it is a reminder that God is with us on this evening so on a number of occasions during the telling we actually, as if it were a banquet, raise our cups to toast God but we don't yet drink.

The leader says, “We praise the God who kept His faith with His people Israel. God’s promise of Redemption in ancient days sustains us now”, and all reply, “For more than one enemy has risen against us to destroy us. In every generation, in every age, some rise up to plot our annihilation. But a Divine power sustains and delivers us.”

Passover, Pogroms and Crusades
Throughout the ages Passover has been a time of the most fearsome pogroms and attacks against the Jews, and so when that was said in many a home during the Crusades and at many other times, it is very poignant because many families remember times –– during their own lifetimes –– when people have been attacked. So there is the reminder that in every generation there has been a persecutor in some place or another. Some Psalms follow and there is the reminder that at this time the Jews have been made free and therefore tonight they must praise God. The Psalms are chosen from numbers 113 – 118 and are referred to by the name HALLEL because they all have within them the word Hallelujah, "Praise God".

The Cup of Redemption
The second cup, the Cup of Redemption, follows. There is a short reading on the struggle for freedom and redemption which is followed by a blessing and then all drink the second cup of wine. And so the story about the going out of Egypt has been repeated a few times already and God has been praised for this deliverance. It has been done through biblical narrative, the singing of psalms and a “catchy” song. But now there is this reminder in the Mishnah, which is the first post-biblical book of any importance to the Jewish religion, written down in the year 200. According to the Mishnah, Rabbi Gamaliel said: “Whoever does not consider well the meaning of these three, pesah, matzah, maror, has not fulfilled the purpose of the Seder”.

Pesah
The symbol of Pesah signifies the Paschal lamb which in Temple days was sacrificed by every household on this night. Since the Temple was destroyed in the year 70 there has been no more sacrifice, animal or otherwise, within Judaism, and so

Since that day we don't kill a lamb, in fact we deliberately don't eat lamb as part of our meal on this evening, but as a reminder of what happened 2000 years ago we take a lamb bone and we put it in a flame to remind us that in Temple days part of the lamb was actually burnt on the altar.

Matzah
The matzah is unleavened bread because at the Exodus the Jews did not have time to wait for the bread to rise and so it was unleavened. Two blessings are said to thank God who brings forth bread from the earth, and then some matzah is eaten.

Maror
Rabbi Gamaliel said the third symbol was Maror, represented by the horseradish (the bitter herb).

The idea is that you eat enough of it to let the tears come to your eyes, so that we actually remember the tears and the suffering of our ancestors in Egypt. And again there is a blessing for even the bitter herbs. One other symbol which we have on the plate is a roasted egg. In Temple days there were two Passover offerings made, one of the lamb and another of a grain offering because Passover marks the barley harvest. Nowadays there is a hardboiled egg which is roasted on the outside to remind us that in Temple days another sacrifice was made.

Although that egg is not eaten it has become a tradition to start the Passover meal with an egg, and Andrew invited us to take a couple of bits of the unleavened bread, the matzah, put some hard boiled egg in between and make a sandwich. However he suggested that we should first dip the egg in the salt water as the taste is delicious.

At this juncture we come to the SHULHAN OREIH - the meal proper is commenced and the time for the 3rd Cup of wine is approaching. The TZAFUN, the search by the children for the hidden matzah, has to have been successfully concluded before the Seder continues.

Then there is the BAREIH which is the grace when the Jews give thanks for the meal. It is sung and goes on for about 5 pages and again it is the telling of the story. It is now the time for the third cup of wine. The leader says “We raise our cups in remembrance of the third promise of redemption, as it is said: I will redeem you with outstretched arm and with great acts of judgement. Blessed are You, O LORD our GOD, Ruler of the world, creator of the fruit of the vine”. All lean to the left and drink the third cup (another reason why there are wine stains on everything).

Hallel Part 2
HALLEL - Second Part follows which is the singing of more psalms of praise. Then it is time for the fourth cup when again all lean to the left and raise their cups. The leader says “We raise our cups in remembrance of the fourth promise of redemption as it is said: I will take you as my people, and I will be your God”. Then comes the blessing “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, Ruler of the world, Creator of the fruit of the vine”.

There is a fifth cup of wine, but it is not for us, it is for Elijah. We take a cup of wine, usually the most valuable cup we have, and fill it to the very brim. The youngest child is then asked to go and open the front door to let Elijah in, because in Jewish tradition when Elijah came he would herald the coming of the Messiah. It’s a bit scary when you are very young and it’s late at night, but also it is a scary moment because at the time of the Crusades and at other times there might be a mob outside after your blood. So to open the door was a sign of faith in God.

Summary: Past Remembrance, Future Hope
So the first half of the Seder is all about what happened in the past, and then after the meal the second half is about our hopes for the future. Elijah will come and redeem the world and there will be no more suffering, not just for the Jewish people, but for all people – this thing which begins with remembrance of our past redemption looks forward to the future. It is nearly the end of the Seder meal, and at the back of the Haggadah there are a number of songs. One of the songs is sung to the tune of “Green grow the rushes O” and the words are almost certainly based on local nursery rhymes, but there is a theological content. The latest thing in Haggadahs is Internet based because although we have these age-old stories we also now have all sorts of people inventing new ones to keep everybody awake and to spice it up. To end Andrew led us all in singing “The Ballad of the Four Sons” which, to a well-known catchy tune, is yet another way of telling the Passover story.

Concluding Prayer

Our Seder is now completed: we have followed the order, told the story, performed the rites, prayed the prayers, sung the songs. Let us thank God that we have done so in freedom and safety, and let us pray for the Passover of the Future, when all mankind will live in brotherhood and peace.
Next year in Jerusalem!
Next year in a world redeemed!

Andrew commented that “Next year in Jerusalem” doesn't mean we should actually go there - it is the perfect Jerusalem – the Messiah has come – next year in a world redeemed. The aim of the evening had been to give a run-through of the Seder and to explain its objectives, i.e. the telling of the story of the Exodus from Egypt and to pray for the redemption of all the world in the future. Andrew clearly met the objectives with a most interesting overview of the rites and with much humour.

Reflections on the Passover and Easter

The Rev. Stephen Roberts commenced by thanking Andrew for the telling of that wonderful story, and for giving an insight for those of us for whom this is not part of our yearly cycle - an insight into the riches of the Passover Seder.

Andrew had pointed out some very poignant elements of the Passover, and Stephen said he is conscious of the many times in history, in the season of Passover, when Jews had faced much persecution and, of course, that persecution had often been inspired by the story that he was about to tell, the Easter story. We have seen something of those fears in the way that story is told/rekindled with the showing of the controversial film The Passion of the Christ.

The Problem of "Fulfilment Theology"
A difficulty in telling the story of how Christians interpret Passover is that it raises the problem of what is called "fulfilment theology", which is that everything that is in the Hebrew Scriptures is fulfilled in Jesus and the Church to the extent that they have no continued validity outside the Christian interpretation. This has been the situation through the centuries and it is only in fairly recent years, in the light of another miracle, that an evening like this is taking place. Given the history of the last 2000 years it is an amazing and quite miraculous thing that Christians and Jews and Moslems are coming together and learning from one another, with the hostility of past generations put behind us.

In offering a Christian approach to Passover Stephen said that he rejects completely the sort of fulfilment theology he referred to earlier. His current thinking on the relationship between Christianity and Judaism is that they are two distinct but very closely related religious traditions. They emerged together from the common soil of the Hebrew Scriptures in the context of the upheavals of the first century of our Common Era. Both Rabbinical Judaism and Christianity continue to be rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures but each has interpreted them anew. In the Christian case the interpretation is in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and in the Jewish case the destruction of the 2nd Temple in the year 70CE. Stephen said that the following statement summed up what he was going to say this evening:

The celebration of Easter is the Christian Passover and every Eucharist, the Mass or Lord's Supper, whatever we call it, is a celebration of Easter.

To “unpack” this statement Stephen said that in the Gospel of Luke there is the story of the Transfiguration where Jesus takes his three closest disciples, Peter, James and John, up a mountain and he is transfigured before them. He appears bright and shining talking with Moses and Elijah. Quite a powerful trio – a powerful conversation and we might wonder “What did they talk about?”

Matthew and Mark just tell us they were talking and tell us nothing of the substance of their conversation, whereas Luke actually tells us that they were talking about Jesus’s departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now that sounds a little strange until we realise that the Greek word translated into English as “departure” is in fact Exodus. And so the death and resurrection of Jesus are described in terms of Exodus –– from liberation and bondage to a movement into freedom. And that really is at the heart of what Christians celebrate in the death and resurrection of Jesus at Easter.

Easter Vigil: Christian Haggadah
Stephen said that when he looked through the copy of the Haggadah which Andrew sent him prior to this evening, what came to his mind was a Christian liturgy: it could be said that the Easter Vigil equates to a Christian Haggadah.

All Roman Catholic churches will have an Easter Vigil and quite a lot of Anglican churches also, but certainly not all. It has come into the Anglican Church via the Roman Catholic Church and so some Anglicans celebrate it and some don't. It is either celebrated on the eve of Easter (the evening of Holy Saturday) or early on Easter morning. This Easter liturgy is rich in Passover imagery and since we had a description of a Jewish liturgy from Andrew, Stephen thought that to focus on a Christian one would complement that quite well.

There are different ways of celebrating the Easter Vigil. It is pretty much standard in the Roman Catholic Church but in the Anglican Church there are various options, and what follows describes Stephen's preferred liturgy.

The Paschal Candle
The clergy and the congregation gather outside the church. The church itself should be in complete darkness and all gather around a fire which has been prepared earlier. The fire is lit and then blessed, and then there are ceremonies around the Paschal candle which has five grains of incense inserted into it symbolising the five wounds of Jesus.

It has the words “Alpha” and “Omega” – the beginning and the end – inscribed on it and the date of the year. The candle is then blessed and a deacon or priest processes with it into the church and sings “The light of Christ” and the people respond “Thanks be to God”. The candle is carried through the church and twice more the procession halts and the deacon or priest sings “The light of Christ” a half-tone higher than the previous time, and the people begin to light their own small candles from the Paschal candle and the whole church fills with light.

The Exultet The Paschal candle is put into a stand at the front of the church, and if it is a church where they use incense they waft a bit of incense around it. Then comes the most wonderful moment of Easter with the singing of the Exultet. Stephen distributed copies of the text of the Anglican and Roman Catholic versions of the Exultet and, after drawing attention to some slight variations in the two versions (the RC version is slightly longer), he sang the first few strophes of the Anglican introduction. He then read rapidly through parts of the text which retell the story of the Passover based on Exodus 12, and pointed out the emphasis on the Exodus events taking place at night, and the “tie-up” which can be seen with the four questions regarding “this night” which are set out in the Haggadah.

After the Exultet there are readings from the Hebrew Scriptures, Psalms and prayers. The RC liturgy has seven set readings and the Anglican ten, of which any number may be chosen. These include the Creation story of Genesis 1, the story of the Fall in Genesis 3, the story of Noah and Abraham, Moses leading the Israelites across the Red Sea, and various readings from the prophets. All are read by candlelight.

For Stephen the Exultet and the telling of God’s saving deeds in history through the Hebrew Scriptures are really what form the Christian Passover Haggadah, if you like to interpret it like that. After those readings the Gloria is sung and then the bells, which should have remained silent after Maundy Thursday, are rung with the Gloria, and all the lights in the church go on. It is a very vivid and dramatic moment.

Readings from the New Testament follow and the blessing of the font. Then the Paschal candle is taken and plunged 3 times into the font representing the Trinity. If there is a Baptism all the better: Easter is the time of Baptism par excellence within the Church, and if not there is the renewal of baptismal vows around the font. And then after that there is the first Eucharist of Easter. It is the most exciting celebration of the Church’s year, and it is also a very elemental celebration with its use of fire, light and water.

The description of the eucharistic bread as “the fruit of the earth” is a clearly similar description to that of the bread in the Haggadah. The Easter vigil is where Christians come closest to Passover and, as mentioned earlier, every Eucharist is a celebration of Easter. Stephen then raised the problem of a discrepancy between John and the other Gospels as to whether the Last Supper was in fact a Passover meal, concluding that the important thing in the current context was that, whatever the history, the Eucharist that we celebrate as Christians is undoubtedly seen, interpreted and understood in the context of the Passover.

Conclusion: Parallels between Passover and Easter
Stephen concluded his talk by highlighting a number of parallels between Passover and Easter and stressed the importance for Christians to understand the Jewish roots of the Eucharist. Stephen reiterated what he said at the start of his talk, namely that the sense of community among Jews and Christians today is something which is nothing less than miraculous given the history of our two communities, and this can be a positive contribution to the struggle for liberation and reconciliation which is so much needed in our world today.

The evening was enjoyable, interesting and thought-provoking. We were indeed fortunate to have had two such talented speakers

- Bernard Tiley