Facebook Post by Rabbi Perlin in the Time of Coronavirus (4/7/2020)

Tuesday Post 4/7/20: Seder Plate Substitutions

The commitment to post every day means that I have to sort through all the ideas on my my desk blotter. They can wait right now, because we have an urgent need for rabbinic wisdom across the world. The fifth question we are asking now is “What do I do for my seder plate, if I can’t go shopping?” I have the that problem, and maybe it is facing you, too.

Gary was all set to go out this morning to shop, so that we would have what we need, and I just couldn’t let him go. I keep hearing the words in the modern Haggadah coming from the Holocaust, “And you shall live by them, not die by them.” Is horseradish worth risking over? NO!! So, today’s post is purely practical advice and PERMISSION to make changes as we live through this modern plague.

This will be the first time in my 63 years that we won’t have any gefilte fish for Passover. And so many of the things we make the effort to have and buy are just not a reality. My son, Jonah, posted an adorable quote on his Facebook page yesterday: “Given our lack of grocery shopping (#socialdistancing), I feel like Pesach is going to be a large, 7-day, bread-free episode of Chopped. (You know, that show that gives you weird ingredients in a basket and has the contestants come up with something wonderful and delicious to please the judges?!) Well, I think God will understand if I offer you substitutions, some directly from the tradition and others just practical in the situation we are in. This Passover, we are making the seder plate with the ingredients in our basket. (FYI: This is not about allergies or dietary needs.) This is about substitutions for a traditional seder plate, based on the fact that we are home-bound, and grocery challenged. So here goes:

Maror/Bitter herbs- If you weren’t able to secure whole or bottled horseradish this year, like us, then you can go to my family’s “poor person” alternative of my childhood- use raw onion. And if you can’t eat whole raw onion for your stomach, grate it and make a little pile of grated onion. You only need a “smidge” for seder. Or feel free to use some other bitter herb, as long as it is not harmful.

Baytzah/Roasted Egg- Eggs are precious right now. I can’t, in good conscience, destroy a perfectly good egg for symbolism. We will put a hard-boiled egg on the plate and use it when the seders are done. “Waste not, want not.”

Z’roah/Shankbone- We shipped one in with our frozen kosher meat order from NY a few weeks ago. Many people are recommending beets. I actually grew up with the turkey or chicken neck on the plate representing the sacrifice of the shankbone. In our family, where people ate chicken feet and everything else that came inside a chicken or a turkey, and made soup from the rest, sacrificing the chicken or turkey neck was something. You can also use any bone (not a ham bone, of course!!) for the symbolism, and if all else fails, a picture of a shankbone is ok, too.

Charoset- If you have apples, great. But what if you don’t. You can grind your nuts and wine with a little apple sauce. You can make Sephardic charoset with raisins and nuts and anything else you have around or read about on the internet. The key here is chopping up something, adding a little cinnamon (don’t worry if it is old, cinnamon is one of those things that lasts for “decades”), a ‘bissel’ wine, and have some small pile of something mushy to commemorate bricks. Don’t stress out. And just make a very small amount. Often we make too much. No waste this year.

Karpas- We have no parsley (not that I can eat it anyway). We will probably put celery on the plate. Maybe even those leafy tops that we usually cut and throw away. But, our ancestors often had no green vegetables, and said the “borei p’ri ha’adamah” (the vegetable) blessing over boiled potatoes. This is also great if you have a stomach ailment that prevents you from eating green vegetables. This year, almost any vegetable (broccoli, asparagus etc.) will do. (Even if you eat kitniyot, I wouldn’t use corn or peas, that seems to be going just too far.)

And for some: Chazeret/Lettuce- Not even required, if you have no lettuce, just leave this symbol off your plate. I remember that I first saw lettuce on a seder plate at my first seder in Israel when I was 16, at the home of my Moroccan roommate. They had a big platter of romaine lettuce and they made blessings over people’s heads. I was mortified when my blessing was “May she get married and have many children.” I was only sixteen!! Maybe that is why I have so many beautiful grandchildren. Thank you, Beit She’an!

Are we “making do?” I don’t think so. I think this year is a chance to re-evaluate Passover in our lives. For too many years, we (Gary and I) have focused on observing the letter of the law –spending lots of money, and time, in getting it all “right.” And since we have been going out to LA, where making Passover is as easy as being in Israel, we have taken for granted that visits to a few kosher supermarkets will yield all we need to be “authentically” kosher for Passover. To our credit, we also make sure the seder experience is memorable for all ages and the Haggadah is meaningful for our time. I have pyramids and costumes, plagues and a recipe for homemade blood that is quite impressive at the seder table as I turn water into “blood” right before everyone’s eyes. [Well, not as impressive since our grandson, who was almost 7 last year, took me aside in the middle of Passover and said, “Savta, I didn’t want to embarrass you during the seder, but you know that you weren’t doing magic with the blood. It was a science experiment. I know how you did that.”] Suffice it to say, that “making Passover” has been a big part of our lives from the day after Purim until we break Passover with pizza at sundown on the seventh night.

This year, “making it through this plague” with a sense that Passover still comes and we still gather, albeit via Zoom, is enough when it comes to making Passover. So don’t stress. You have my permission to make substitutions on your seder plate and in your Passover observance. You know what is important to you. And you have my permission to make substitutions to get through this year.

The Torah teaches in Ex 13:8, “V’higadita l’veencha” – “And you shall recount for your child…” the Passover story. Years from now, today’s children will recount for their children, God-willing, that during the Pandemic of 2020, we had Passover in spite of the plague, by something called Zoom (which will be like Erols and cassettes by then), and people did whatever they could to stay safe, survive, and stay Jewish. They will say, “We lived by our traditions, and prayed that we did not die, by not social distancing.” This Passover will become part of the storytelling… and that… is for another post.