Food, Self, and Society

This past Monday I went to my girlfriends Passover dinner, or Pesach for short. Basically this holiday is commemorating the biblical events of Hebrews’ escape from enslavement in Egypt. Turing this holiday into a dinner is in my opinion fascinating. We went around the table and each person got a chance to read from the Haggadah. The Hagaddah basically gives us intructions to the whole dinner, what to eat, when to eat it, etc… There is lots of Matzah ball soup, gefilte fish, brisket, chocolate covered matzah, and delicious jelly treats. Not only that, but there is also wine throughout the whole dinner. My favorite part of this holiday is how they use food to symbolize the different parts of the holiday. The roasted shank bone represents the lamb that was in the early days sacrificed in the temple on Passover. The roasted egg symbolizes an additional offering. The karpas which is a green herb represents spring and new life. The bitterness of Maror represents the bitterness of slavery that the Jews endured. Of course, the matzah serves as a reminder of how quickly the Jews had to flea Egypt that they had no time to wait for the bread to rise. My favorite part of the dinner came when we started singing. We sang many songs from “Let my people go” to “had gadya”. I think that is it fascinating how the food connects everything together in this very important holiday.