THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 16, 1995 TAG: 9504150082
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
FOR THOUSANDS of years, the question has remained the same:
As Jewish families have gathered to celebrate Passover with a ceremonial feast called the Seder, they have contemplated, ``Why is this night different from all other nights?''
It is part of a formal ritual steeped in faith, history and tradition.
Seder means order, and the Seder feast is a structured religious ceremony that retells, with prayers, readings from the Haggadah, songs, and symbolic foods, the story of the Israelites' flight from Egyptian slavery.
Passover begins in March or April, on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, and generally lasts for eight days. Last night, Suffolk residents Iris and Larry Ruden celebrated the second night of Passover by sharing a Seder with 18 other family members.
Passover is one of the holidays that brings together extended families that are normally separated by jobs and residences. ``When it comes on a weekend like this, it is so exciting because everyone can make it,'' Iris Ruden said.
``Jewish law tells us that parents must teach their children the story of their ancestors, and the Seder is a lesson teaching them what they must know so they will do all they can to make all men free.''
Ruden is a kindergarten teacher at Booker T. Washington Elementary School in Suffolk.
As the youngest child at the Seder asks four key questions, all in Hebrew, the leader of the Seder, often the family patriarch, replies with stories of the Israelite exodus from Egypt that probably took place around 1200 B.C.
A special Seder plate is filled with symbolic foods including parsley or a green vegetable symbolizing spring. The greens are dipped in saltwater as a reminder of the tears of bitterness shed by the Jews in slavery in Egypt. Bitter herbs, usually diced or grated horseradish, also symbolize the suffering of the enslaved Jews.
One of the favorite items on the Seder plate is cheroset, a fruit, nut, and sweet wine mixture that resembles the mortar used by the Is ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Iris Ruden's Seder plate would be filled with foods symbolic of the
Israelite's exodus from Egypt, including bitter herbs to recall
their suffering while in slavery.
by CNB