Please pass the charoset

 

Passover Table
(Photo by datafox)

The “life is short, eat dessert first” crowd might favor the charoset on the Passover platter.  Although this sticky mixture of fruit, nuts, spices and wine is there to symbolize “the mortar used by Hebrew slaves to build Egyptian structures,” it is the sweetest-tasting item there.

Other components, such as the salty-tears karpas (parsley), the bitter-ordeal maror (horseradish), and the sacrificial shankbone (or bloody-looking beets) can seem far more daunting. 

Nevertheless, the seder night is different from all others because it commemorates the giant shoulders that so many have been standing upon.  Life itself is bittersweet, yet filled with miraculous treasures.

Resources

https://reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays/passover/learn-about-passover-seder-plate